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Neer

Neer - part one

"And then you drape it over your left shoulder" Meera spoke as she pinned the saree to my shoulder.

"Thank you." I said as I turned this way and that in front of the mirror. Marriages weren't something that I appreciated very much and definitely something that I didn't like to be a part of. But this was different. This was the marriage of my land lord's sister. She demanded I be there to help her out.....mostly because no one really entertained her in social gatherings and events like these. She had tarnished her image by marrying out of our religion and bearing a child before marriage.

If you ask me, it was all stupid. Why invite her altogether when you didn't like her around? Oh, who would give up on an opportunity like this to throw a few taunts her way. That's like the unpaid job of Indian aunties who are very dedicated to their work.

" Meera, I'm not wearing that shit." I say as I point out to the earrings she's holding out to me. One of my ear already had a lot of hoops in it, and I didn't want to wear these.

"You're wearing a saree, not wearing something like this would kill the vibe." She stated with a hand on her hip as she gave me her 'are you serious' look.

" You know I don't like to wear all that shiny and big stuff. Keep it to yourself. You can wear it if you like but I'm not wearing it." I say this as I put my hair in a loose French braid. I tie a black hair tie at the end and let my braid dangle on my back. My blouse was a complete backless and the skirting of the saree was pretty low, four fingers below my navel. My back had no tattoos on it, the creamy skin looked better off without a something painted on it.

When I turned around and took in my back, my braid looked very simple.

"Give me the earrings" I say and she hands those heavy danglers to me.

She watches me with all the hate she could muster as I entangle the danglers in my braid instead of my ears.

"This is a sin. I repeat, you are going to hell" she says as she starts wearing a saree of her own. We both twins were going together.

"It's alright, I'm anyways going to hell for a half murder." I spoke while taking out my makeup from the drawer.

Meera remained silent. Although she never spoke about it or never gave me the 'this is wrong' talk, I knew she disagreed with my behaviour. I knew she hurt within to see me this way, living alone and fending for myself when I had a big family of fatties.

I rimmed my brown eyes with a thick layer of kohl and liner which made their colour stand out. My eyeshadow was a natural shade that matched my tone. The only thing too bold was my dark red lipstick.

There wasn't any other jewelry that I wore apart from hoops on my ear.

When I turned around my sister was ready, her brown hair, similar to mine was flowing on her back openly. She had big jhumkis on her ears and a light pink lipstick colouring her lips. She had a bindi between her eyebrows and her eyelids coloured in brown eyeshadow. No liner but heavy kohl and two, maybe three coatings of mascara.

As we stood before each other, the contrast between us was something we could never put behind us.

This difference between us was the reason I was thrown out of my house and disowned by my family while she was loved and cherished.