The Week Before

Chapter 1

It is particularly cold tonight or maybe it is just my nerves as my brother had suggested. I am sitting in front of the mirror at my dressing table. The commotion outside my bedroom, was coming from the entire two stored building. The sounds of people packing, and chattering and children running around made the house seem more alive somehow.
My parents, brother, 5 aunts, 6 uncles , 9 cousins, 5 grandparents,4 nephews, two pets, few helpers and the last minute guests who showed up made the situation more pleasant.
Tomorrow we are leaving for Taamnaar, a village about 5 hours away for a week long wedding celebrations, more specifically my wedding celebrations.
I am Hema and I am 25 years old. I was and still is very opposed to the idea of an arranged marriage. It goes against everything human rights activists have been fighting for. And then why I did I agree to this?
One could say that I am interested in my job if not career obsessed. I love designing and since it is a profession that involves so much dedication and time I never thought about making a relationship work. A relationship requires time, effort and forgiveness none of which I had at the time. Now that my passion is more established and I have made a name for myself to work up on, it made sense to have company and I decided to talk about it to my brother.
He being who he is ratted out to my entire family which in turn led to Varun. He is a family friend. Our grandparents used to live next to each other and our mother's used to go to school together.
Irrespective of who it was I wouldn't have agreed if I didn't know him. That was not going to be a problem here because I knew him well enough to have a full blown crush in middle school. I agree that it's been a long time since we actually saw each other, maybe about 7 years but we have texted quite a bit over the last three months.
A knock on the door,brought me back to reality and I was facing the reflection of a cheekily grinning girl in the mirror. I hurried towards the door not wanting to keep whoever it was, waiting.
"All packed?"It was my father, a man in his early fifties with a head of thick grey hair.
"Almost...?" I was slow to respond as I moved away from the door leaving him enough space to enter and then closing it behind him. I expected him to throw a fit after seeing all the boxes of jewellery and clothes layed open on my bed and table considering how strict he was regarding time and punctuality. It was unusual of him to stay silent and so I moved to sit on the bed after he sat on the chair with his head bent down. I waited for like an entire minute before he raised his head and his eyes very evidently glazed.

"Come on, Pops it's not like I am leaving or anything." I desperately tried to make the situation less solemn.
He wiped his hands and said" No ...its not, I am just proud of you and all the things you have done and all the things you will keep on doing. I will be there for you just like I have been all these years. The only difference will be that you will have one more person, one more family to hold you and lift you back up when you stumble. Do you understand ?"
My teary were too blurry to see straight. I just nodded.
"

I love you, and you will always be papa's girls"he said standing up.
I followed him and hugged him tightly.
"I love you too .."my voice was so small .After a few seconds he removed his hands and headed for the door and right before leaving he poked his head into the room and said "and finish packing ..ok?" I stiffled a laugh and went back to arranging my things for the next week, possibly the best week of my life .
I remember lying down on the bed once my feet started hurting from bustling around. I looked at the room quickly passing through thousands of memories and ended up at one sad thought- this was going to be my last night at my room. I don't remember when sleepiness pulled me under but it must have been between the indecisiveness and the excitement.