The Chaturvedi house is lit up with the fairy lights and diyas adorning it. With the occasion of the Haldi and Ganesh Pooja as part of the wedding functions, it is one of the rare times this mansion, that has only seen grief, distance and fractured relationships, is decorated in such a manner. The Tripathis arrive in their car while Rupali and Imlie arrive on her scooter. Dressed in various shades of yellow and light green and with bright smiles on their faces, they are welcomed by Janki and Anu at the doorstep. As awe lights up her eyes at the house that looks nothing short of a majestic mansion, she is pulled inside by Rupali, who shakes her head at the wonder in her eyes.
The house is even more beautiful from the inside and her eyes explore the immaculate interiors and furnishing of the house, trying to drown in this awe and curiosity than give any heed to the agony cascading in her tattered heart. She still does not understand why it hurts to this extent, why it does when there's been no love. But it does and she can do nothing but push it to the side, donning the role of a younger sister and not his wife because that's the only way she'll survive this. It is how she survived the mehendi. Lost in these thoughts, she fails to register yet again, the lewd gaze running up and down her form.
She is dressed in a lime green salwaar that hugs her figure and he traces every inch of her with his wandering gaze, lust coiling within him. He has seen so many girls, been with many but she has a charm that draws him in. It's like everything she does is an invitation. He can't wait to set his hands on her. To rip her clothes, run his hands over her perfect chest and curvy waist and take her, either with her will or against it. A smirk forms on his face. Yes, he will have her. In due time. At the right time. He can wait till then. After all, the fruit of patience is said to be sweet and he does happen to have a sweet tooth.
_
The idol of Lord Ganesha placed in the puja room is serene and decorated beautifully. All around are diyas and fruit, flower baskets apart from the other materials needed for the pooja. With the divine chants of Vakratunda Mahakaya and many other mantras and bhajans, the two families participate in the ritual of Ganesh Pooja. The chants and hymns are followed by the aarti. All the married couples go first after which the thaal is passed on to the others.
After the auspicious Ganesh Pooja, the two families gather in the living room where the preparations for haldi have been made. Two stools are placed with a curtain separating them. Two round tables are placed on the other sides of the stools respectively, decorated with flowers and leaves. Attired in a short yellow kurta and white dhoti pants, he is made to sit on the right stool, awaiting his to be bride who had gone to change into a yellow lehenga. He looks around, sighing at how much patience this ritual requires, the only ritual in the list of the wedding functions that he did not like. Yet the smiles on the faces of his family, especially Rupi Didi makes it something he will go through any number of times for. He is broken out of his thoughts when he hears the familiar clink of her bangles. Subconsciously, his eyes move towards his left and stop at her, who is making her way towards him with a silver bowl full of haldi in her hands. She is elegant tonight, the lime green salwar, those dangling silver earrings and her hair cascading down her back in luscious shades of charcoal black, all of it adding to her allure. He lingers for a moment and when she looks up, he looks away. There is a heaviness in his chest, something that is battling the haze of his anger and indifference, something that is arising from the morals that run in his blood but he brushes them all away. The marriage that binds him to her is invalid in every sense and he will not break the hearts of Malini and his family just to uphold something that is a lie. A surge of anger begins to cloud him at having to keep battling the same thoughts but he controls himself. He will not let her ruin anymore of his thoughts that should now only be about Malini.
_
There is a lump in her throat as she walks towards him, a bowl of haldi in her hand. The pang in her heart is a familiar one and she wishes Malini Didi was already here just so that her bright face and the radiant happiness on it would stop her from frequenting these known alleys of anguish within her. But she isn't and the anguish burgeoning is a little more intense than the previous day. She blinks away the tears, knowing now was neither the time nor the occasion and looks up. She sees him look away, like he was looking towards her all this while but decides to think nothing about it. He detested her so why would it matter either ways. She sighs when the thought just breaks another minute piece of her already broken heart. Lost in these thoughts, she does not notice Sunny running behind Twinkle, right in her direction!
_
The crash would have hurled the bowl from her hands had it not been for her quick save. But that meant her own stumble to the ground remained unhindered. Her eyes close on reflex as her body braces for impact against the floor but it does not come as a pair of hands wrap against her waist, holding her firmly and breaking her fall. She opens her eyes to look into the grey eyes staring at her and though she is grateful for breaking her fall, his grip on her waist and his proximity to her body causes a surge of discomfort in her own body.
Everybody rush towards them and that is when he leaves her though the feel of her soft body just increases his desire. When he had seen the kids run in her direction and her lost in her own thoughts, he had found the perfect opportunity to enter her good books. A man who saves her from falling and who is from Malini Di's side of the family, yup a plus point for him in her good books. He could just whisk her away between these functions and have his way with her but where would be the fun then? Where would be the challenge because Shashank loved challenges. He would win her over and if he doesn't, it shall be seen later. There are always other ways, he thinks to himself even as he enacts a concerned persona.
_
Something in him thunders as he watches her gripped in the arms of his to-be wife's cousin. He is up and about in the same instant, an irrational rage clouding him and it is only the discomfort alongside the gratitude on her face that douses the fire. Everybody gather around her, asking if she is okay and she assures everybody she is. He shakes his head at his reaction of a moment back and immediately makes his way back to his seat.
It is right then that Malini enters. She is made to sit on the other stool. The ceremony begins then as they divide the haldi in the bowl into two silver bowls. The two families simultaneously begin applying the haldi, the Chaturvedis starting with Malini and the Tripathis with Aditya.
Standing a little away, she watches the ceremony with a melancholic smile, having brushed away all the discomfort of the previous moment as just a reaction to a stranger's touch because she did not really know Shashank.
"You did not really know Babusaheb too did you?"
a voice whispers and she immediately shuts that line of thought. It was just a natural reaction to foreign touch and did not need that much thought!
Her fidgeting fingers feel the haldi splattered on her hands and alarmed, she wipes it away immediately. That haldi can only touch her fingers when she has to apply it to Malini Didi. Not before, not in any other context!
PS: please check the note published in the next chapter
PS: long update to make up for the two years I've been absconding
Love,
Pratyusha
YOU ARE READING
Lakeerein - Ties That Bind Us
Fanfiction------ Can Be Read As General Fiction ------ One night. One event. Lives of two people altered completely. When Aditya Kumar Tripathi, Chief Executive Reporter at Bhaskar times stepped into Pagdandiya and met Imlie, he did not know how his life woul...
