Shades Of Thirteen

A Try VIII ~ Vidaai ~

Naina POV:

16th July 2003 ~ "Vidaai"

I was still in dilemma that I have got married just 24 hours back and my life changes 360 degree in one fucking night, from a younger daughter of my parents, Chicoo of my D and cute fun loving Naina, became a slave or in a good language an unpaid employee who will take commands from her husband (boss) and obey them without questioning and Bobby make me so clear about this, on the very first night ...

~ "Vidaai" ~

A word that every mother gets scared when she gives birth to a girl, a word that every girl gets scared of since childhood, a word that every father gets scared of from the first day he holds his daughter in his lap, a word that entire family gets scared of when a girl child is born...

Finally, after a long fight with time, I have lost the game and time won it all. The time finally came when my heart actually had stopped pumping blood and my brain stopped taking control of my body.

Maa: Naina, get ready, time for your Vidaai (she was sobbing & wiping tears with her saree cum pallu)

I was silently gulping my own tears and listening to Maa.

Maa: Naina, are you listening? Get ready beta, car has come from your in-laws to pick you up.

Me: (Nodded) ok.

D: Naina, Lamba is coming with your food. Get ready Chicoo.

Meanwhile Lamba came with a bowl.

Lamba: Shona (one of my nicknames) you need to get ready but before that have this dahi-chawal (curd rice) last time at your Lamba bari.

I was sobbing and nodding head. Something very heavy with tight grips like octopus chocked my voice and I was all silent. Something inside me was hurting so hard that a doctor is doing an operation without injecting anaesthesia to the patient. Something was hammering me in to pieces & I was broken from everywhere.

Lamba: Open your mouth Shona, eat (wiping her tears with her pallu and mine too) Naina, this is the ritual, before 'Vidaai,' daughter must eat this curd rice in her own house for last time. Open your mouth beta.

I opened my mouth, had one spoon of curd rice inside but was not able to chew or swallow that. I was completely out of breaths.

Lamba: Eat Shona, please eat. (Holding me in her arms and crying)

I hardly had two spoon of rice and vomited.

D: Lamba, leave, she can't eat as she's crying since long, too much of crying chocking her breathing. Leave let me get her ready.

Lamba: Ok (left the room crying)

Maa: Preet you get her ready as 'Vidaai' muhurat has already started.

D: Come Chicoo, wash your face, wipe your tears as you have to wear the saree and let me tie your hairs and do basic minimum makeups.

I nodded silently. I cleaned my face, wiped with a towel, and sat on the chair.

D: You know I can't do good makeup like you; I am only applying cream and foundation powder (there were no BB or CC cream available those days, neither any blusher nor any contour). She made my eyebrows little darker with a Lakmé eyebrow pencil and coloured my lips with again a Lakmé cherry red lipstick.

She wore me earrings and jewelleries that I was not wearing and then she called Maa. Maa and D both had started wearing me the saree.

I was standing again like a mannequin, like school days, but today the mannequin had no adrenaline rush of getting late for school or for anything. Standing silently.