Samsāra

Chapter Three

Juliana had them both change into a new set of lehenga and choli. She chose a green and blue affair for Ajiona. The choli was blue sleeveless and bared her midriff with green floral patterns, the lehenga was green with blue patterns and accents and a sheer dupatta. She helped Ajiona comb her hair back and twisted it into a low loose knot at the back of her neck and utilized some of the trinkets. She originally wanted to go overboard with the jewellery insisting on the payal and oddiyanam and kada. But Ajiona beat her down to just the maang tikka and jhumkas, with her septum ring and locket, it was enough jewellery but the girl wouldn't let her go until she had painted some colours on her eyelids, brushed her eyelashes with mascara and painted her lips a deep red.

'There,' she said with satisfaction. 'Now you will look irresistible to your true love.'

Ajiona groaned and rolled her eyes. While Juliana made herself up, Ajiona made a call back on and spend a substantial amount of time arguing with her Diane and begging Jason to look after her.

'I'll be back in a few days. So just hold the fort till then and keep her out of mischief.' She begged.

'Of course Jo, anything for my favourite niece.'

'I'm your only niece,' Ajiona pointed out.

'Yeah yeah. Don't worry too much Jo, enjoy yourself. I'll look after her. I promise.'

'Thank you.'

She dialled her father after, but as usual she got his voicemail so with a disappointed sigh, she hung up.

'How do I look?' Juliana asked her when she put away her phone.

For a few moments, Ajiona was speechless; she gaped rather unattractively at her friend before saying slowly: 'Take them off. You look like a bloody bride.'

Juliana indeed went overboard for herself. Her choice of choli and lehenga was orange and gold, the colour of flames. The choli was short sleeved, and sequined so they flashed gold in the light. The dupatta was gold tipped with orange. The colours were showy but they weren't the problem. It was the amount of jewellery she got on! There was the maang tikka, vanki, oddiyanam, payal, the karnphool, chunky kadas, naath and haathphool.

'I think I look hot!' She blew a kiss at herself in the mirror.

'It is too much Jules, take some off. You are not Indian and they could find this offensive.'

At the end Juliana took everything off except the haathphool and maang tikka and wore small hoop earrings. They met Lalita and Maya in the lobby. Both were dressed in colourful outfits, Lalita in a salwar kameez with dupatta and Maya in a pink lehenga and choli. They grinned when they saw Ajiona and Juliana of them.

'You look pretty,' Lalita said grinning and hooked her arm with Juliana.

'So do you,' Ajiona said graciously.

'We head for the shrine first for our lamps then we go dancing and we receive blessings from the elders before going back for the lamps.'

'Whose shrine? Shiva’s? Ganesha’s?' Juliana queried.

'A local god of luck. He is not known except for here.' Maya said and stopped Lalita when she attempted to hail a taxi. 'We'll walk,' she declared then smiled at Ajiona and Juliana reassuringly. 'It's not far from here.'

It was a balmy evening, a perfect night for a walk. Maya and Lalita regaled them with stories of Mahishmathi, the folklores and other things Ganesha did not touch. Maya promised to show them the museum where the great sword of Bahubali was showcased and also the helmet crown of the Maharaja. Juliana hit it off with Maya and Lalita talking about her life in America and her plans for college. Ajiona remained reserved worrying about her mother and the voices in her head. They were somewhat quiet now, a background noise but she was concerned.