Manjha A String of Complicated Relations

The Wedding Functions

The next morning, the Bajaj family reached Kumbhalgarh and directly went to the Vyas Haveli. Soon, the house was buzzing with energy while exchanging pleasantries. After all, the two families were soon going to be related. 

Everyone was ecstatic. After lunch, they were joined by the Rathore family and Aniket. Hence, another round of introductions followed. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to know about Aniket's family background. Furthermore, they decided to have dinner at The Vyas Haveli. 

The bride and groom were teased continuously by Nitya and Anant who had teamed up in the task of causing light-hearted trouble. It truly felt like a house where a wedding was about to happen. The next day's itinerary was decided. Everyone would go shopping and the day after that was the Kul Devi pooja. 

The shopping went by rather fast as almost everything was already bought. It was just an excuse for the girls to have fun and later for the youngsters to roam about the city. 

The night before the Kul Devi pooja was the last time Mrityunjay would be seeing Adhya and they were talking till later in the evening. Of course, they would be meeting at the Pooja itself but that would be another ordeal.

The next day all the girls were dressed in pink saree or dresses. They all looked pretty and went to the Temple that was near the fortifications of the Kumbhalgarh Fort. It was the first function of the wedding and the couple to be married was blessed by the Gods and everyone else as well. 

The youngsters were all sitting on the terrace of the Vyas Haweli when everyone was teasing Adhya, and Mrityunjay, in a valiant effort, tried to tease them back. 

"Well, see, now Nitya just has to find herself a Naval officer and the Vyas Family will have a complete family in the Indian Defense," Mrityunjay said, wanting to tease Nitya.

But Nitya was way wittier than any of them. "Here I was thinking that you will invite your handsome Officer friends to the wedding and I might just grab one of them, but you just had to shatter my dreams by getting me a naval officer in your mind," Nitya said with dramatic flair falling on Mrityunjay's shoulder. "Now, how exactly I am supposed to find a naval officer at a medical college," Nitya continued and everyone laughed.

That was followed by more jokes and laughs. 

When Mrityunjay was leaving, Adhya, Shambhavi, Nitya and Anisha were standing on the balcony, and Shambhavi shouted "Squadron leader Mrityunjau Bajaj, please to come on a horse or in a car, and not one of you fighter jets. We don't have the space to park it." 

Everyone who heard that, laughed. Mrityunjay also looked up and shouted, "You just wait, Cadet Vyas. I'll see what happens at your wedding, you just wait."

The next morning, everybody was wearing varying shades of yellow. The Vyas Haveli was covered with yellow decorations. The Haldi pooja commenced followed by everyone putting Haldi on Adhya. Anant and Nitya were having fun putting Haldi on everyone and Advith had even sneakily put some on Anisha, leaving all younger ones to wolf whistle as Anisha turned into a tomato, blushing heavily. 

Shambhavi was taking some sweets from the kitchen to take it for some of the guests while Aniket was walking in the other direction, taking some decorative pieces with him. He noticed her and stopped her on her tracks. She swerved right, assuming that it was a mistake on his part. But he went right too. So, she went left and so did he. Realizing that he was doing it intentionally, she looked at him pointedly. He just laughed, winked and continued walking his way.

The day went by smoothly and the following day, every girl was out of commission as all of them were going to have Mehendi adorning their hands, so the men of the house were busy in getting the backyard with the well-decorated Mandap. The seating area was also set up in the backyard itself.

Shambhavi was not busy tending to the guests and not getting a henna designed on her hands. So, Anant literally picked her up and took her to the girl's room. Apologizing for his behavior and telling her that he had been ordered by the bride, he went away.

She was also made to sit, and she got her hands covered in mehndi. By then, all the girls were done with their henna designs and their Mehndi was starting to dry up. Shambhavi was the last one to get her Mehendi done.

Anisha had instructed the person responsible for Shambhavi's Mehndi to put an 'A' on her hand. When she saw it, she was mortified, and the girls laughed at her expression.

It was time for dinner and Shambhavi was the only one who could not eat with her own hands, but she couldn't care less as she was too busy telling the workers to work properly. She didn't even notice that it was time for dinner. 

Aniket came and made her sit down to have some dinner. She showed him her hands causing him to take a morsel of food and fed it to her. He kept feeding her and she kept eating with her hands in the air.

Meanwhile, Anisha and Anant were taking their photographs on their phones, But the couple was blissfully ignorant of the ongoings.

Later that night, everyone else was already asleep and Shambhavi was removing her Mehendi which had finally dried up. Aniket was sitting and watching her. She noticed him gazing at her. So, she asked, "Kya?" 

Aniket shook his head in a silent 'nothing'. She smiled and continued with her work. 

"What do you think about marriage?" he asked all of a sudden. She looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "I am serious. What are your thoughts on marriage?" he asked again. 

She smiled and said, "Well, I have seen the good and the ugly of marriage and I think you should do it only if you are certain that the person you are marrying will be your 'forever'. I don't like it when people get divorced and if I ever do get married, I would never get one. I think the person you marry should accept you as you are, without ever wanting to change you. I think it is the one relation which is solely yours and no one else's. I think everyone should get married on their own terms, when they want to and with everyone's approval in both the families," she put forth her thoughts. "There is so much that I want to say about marriage but one night is not enough to convey my thoughts, for each thought I have on the topic is an observation or from experience," she continued with a faraway look as if she was remembering something.

"What are your thoughts on marriage?" she said to Aniket who had been sitting silently, listening in her answer. 

He looked at her and said, "I think I found my 'forever' and I think that I should get married."

Shambhavi registered his words and was dumbfounded. She had a mixed expression of surprise, anxiety and happiness on her face.

Before Aniket could continue talking, Anant peeked towards the balcony and informed him that they were leaving, causing Aniket to have to go out. As he was leaving, he stopped in front of Shambhavi and looked down into her eyes, "This conversation is not over yet. We'll continue it some other time," he said and left.

Shambhavi kept standing still in the same position, pondering about what he said. 

He always did that to her, said words with so much meaning behind them, with such ease, and left her alone with those words, a thousand different thoughts and a million different emotions flitting through her mind.