Parinay (by Basanti)

Prologue

Prologue

She looked at the elegantly, almost perfectly spread out lehenga around her. She tried to move her feet a little so that she could rest them in a more comfortable way, the tiredness of her wedding day, the stress, finally catching-up with her. But the lehenga was unbearably heavy. She eventually gave up and started looking at the intricate designs that adorned the lehenga, to kill time and also to calm her erratically beating heart. The blood red of the body of the lehenga contrasted beautifully with the the gold work of the zari. Her elder cousin had mentioned that 'the man who was now her husband' loved the colour red, which is why his sister had chosen this lehenga for her. The motifs that ran along the borders were sown with crystals and golden coloured beads that reflected the light off the dress giving a vision of an halo. She touched the motifs tenderly, scared that they might fall off she touched them for long.

She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel or behave tonight or for that matter in the coming days. At the age of twenty one, she had absolutely no plans of getting married. Being an academics achiever and with an invitation to join one of the most renowned business schools in the country, she was overjoyed that her life could finally begin. But life had seldom given her choices and it was no different this time.

She decided to not let her mind wander to the past once again, decisions had been made for her and she would keep her word.

Her sister in law had mentioned that 'he' her husband, would join her in a few minutes, but when she looked at clock she realised it was more than forty minutes since she had left the room.

With a sense of trepidation Kushi Gupta Raizada waited patiently for her husband of few hours to arrive.

—–xxx—–