Raven

2

The banquet hall was beautifully decorated, strings of lights which after twilight would be switched on adorned the two storied building. Smoke from the burning wood, the smell of different foods being prepared by the vaazas*  hit my senses and made me excited for the prospect of eating good food. I mean leaving everything aside the only thing that gets me excited is good food. I noticed that my parents were waiting for me and I hurriedly moved to grab my phone and left the car. It was still raining so we ran towards the entrance of the main building.

Opposite of the main building was a big ground; there a huge tent was standing in the middle of it, several men were shouting, instructing each other to roll up the carpets as the water had started dripping from the roof of the tent. I guess the tent would not be used for the ceremony anymore. As we entered a large group of people entered my vision, talking and laughing, festivities seemed on the high. The atmosphere was truly contagious.

A man saw my father and started moving towards us, it was Bhat uncle my 2nd aunts brother-in-law. He stopped in front of my father and greeted him happily-

" Asalamualaikum, waraichuhaiz Siddique saaib? Bhabhi theuwi chehevhaz warai?" (Asalamualaikum, How are you Siddique sahib? How are you my sister-in-law?)

"Walikuasalam, ahanaz theek shukur khudayas kun. Thew waniv theek chihaz, gari cha saairi theek"(Walikumasalam, Yes I am fine by the grace of God. How are you and your family?), my father replied with a similar enthusiasm which he obviously seemed to lack while coming here and my mother smiled politely while asking about the well being of him and his family.

"Yee chehaz lakit hish nicch? (Is this your youngest daughter?)

"Ohh Beta how are you. You have grown so big I saw you when you were half the length of my leg." He said while patting my head.

"Bhabhi theuwi achiv anandar sari zanan che tathi behith(sister-in-law you have to do go inside. All the ladies are sitting there). Beta go with your mum to the room on the left. It's the room where singing voices are coming from."

" Acha shukriya bhai jaan(ok thank you brother), let's go Liza."

Tumbaknari*  sounds along with voices of women singing traditional kashmiri songs could be heard outside the room. A couple of young boys of 6- 7 years of age came running out the room laughing and screaming while a boy no older than 10 chased after them. They whizzed pass me when I recognized the elder boy as Ahmed the son of my elder cousin who lived in the states I guess they also decided to attend the wedding. We entered the room and everyone started to greet us and my social awkwardness kicked in (face-palm). We settled down only after greeting (awkwardly on my part) the whole of the women population in that room. I finally found a nice place to sit where I can enjoy the music. I was alone since my mum already found a perfect spot; she is the "queen bee", a perfect extrovert while I would be easily defined as an unnoticed house plant. I looked around for a familiar face not seeing anyone I decided to quietly enjoy the music for some time and go to the bride's room later.

It was after an hour and a half that my youngest aunt told me to go to the bride's room where everyone was. I climbed the stairs reached the room, knocked and my cousin Tara opened it.

"Hi Liz!! Where have you been? We were waiting for you to come."

"I was downstairs just arrived some time ago. Anyway how are you? OMG! noor di u look so beautiful." Looking away from tara I focused on the bride who definitely looked amazing.

"Thanks love I was hoping you would come early but I guess with the recent on goings you must be tired. How is deeba di and the baby. Where's Masrat khala*. Please sit down make yourself comfortable."