Chapter 115: Shivarathri
She came out of the shower early that morning wrapped in a simple cotton sari and unraveled the towel around her hair to run her fingers through the long wet mass. She looked out of her window and saw the sun slowly rising in the horizon and made haste to leave her house. So involved was she in the chore of untangling her hair that she did not realize that he had snuck into her room until he caught her around the waist and dropped a kiss against her neck. Before she could turn around, however, he had pulled out a piece of cloth and blindfolded her.
"Shaan…" she called out just as he swung her into his arms.
"Shaan…" she called again when she felt him walking, taking her through the open door of her bedroom and down the stairs.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked as she snuggled in closer to him to maintain her balance in his arms even though he did not appear to be suffering from the effort of carrying her at all.
He still did not answer her and she heard the front door open and close as he carried her outside.
"Are you taking me out? I haven't even brushed my hair. I just finished my bath, Shaan. I look a fright like this."
"You are most beautiful like this." He finally spoke and she turned her head and her unseeing eyes towards his voice, an unconscious smile breaking through her lips.
"You are biased." She answered him.
"I am not. I am your harshest critic, haven't you always said that?"
"Yes, but you are in love with me now." She reminded him.
"I have always been in love with you. The only difference is that you know it now." He said simply and she wished that she could see his face right then. She wanted to see his eyes. Those eyes that always calmed her and made her feel as if there would always be ground beneath her feet… and that if there wasn't, it would only be because he was carrying her like this…
She kissed his shoulders lightly before laying her head down against it.
"Is it far?" She asked after he walked on for a few more minutes.
"Not that much longer. Patience, girl." She smiled when she heard him admonish her.
"I am too heavy for you to carry me for so long." She thought to tell him, in case he hadn't noticed.
"No you are not." He answered unequivocally… and that was that.
A few more minutes passed before she felt him slow down and walk up a step. She could hear the birds chirping and the light breeze against her skin and knew that they were still within the large grounds surrounding her home.
He set her down slowly on the step and she turned to him, feeling her hands up his chest to know his position.
"Hold on, love, I am right here." He whispered right before she heard the rustle of something being opened.
She stood still for a just a few moments and then felt his hands at her right ear. She startled in surprise as she felt him insert the hook of an earring into her earlobe.
"Shaan…" she said his name quietly as he finished the one side and moved to put the matching pair on the other ear. They were those dangly types of earrings and she could feel them against her skin as they moved when she tilted her head to give him access to her other ear.
There was a pause afterwards while she heard a rustle again. This time he lifted her right hand in his and she could hear the clang of bangles as he eased them one by one over her wrist.
She felt her eyes become wet and squeezed them shut before the wetness leaked out and ruined her blindfold.
She wanted to ask him again what this was about, but couldn't trust herself to speak as her throat clogged up.
Once all the bangles were on both of her hands, there was a brief pause when she heard nothing from him. She tilted her face up, hoping to catch his attention, even though she knew that his attention could only be on her now.
She felt him lean close to her then before he whispered, "Thalia, do you know what day it is today?"
She hesistated as she thought about it and wondered if she was forgetting something important. She could not think of anything else aside from the most obvious significance and uncertainly gave her answer, "It's… March 3rd, 2011… Shivarathri."
She had woken up so early because of it and she had been planning on fasting all day… for him. For a moment, her mind wandered to her plan to make it to the temple early on before the rush started and in that brief moment of distraction, she heard him whisper, "Will you marry me today?"
Her head shot up in astonishment and she pulled off her blindfold in the next instant. And there it was… she was at the small mandap that some devout woman had built long ago on the property that no one aside from her and Raju kakka visited. She saw that the mandap was already set up for the ceremony and right in the center was a small rectangular structure to hold the wedding pyre.
She opened her mouth with the intention of asking something, she was sure, but her lips merely parted in awe as she took in the sight around her.
"How? When?... How?...." she asked when she finally found her voice, gesturing at everything in front of her in a haze, and when her voice broke at the last how, she turned away from him.
He caught her around the waist and turned her back to face him, lifting her chin in his hand. She kept her eyes lowered, although now he could see that they were brimming over.
"Don't cry… please… Was it all too presumptuous? I shouldn't have done it this way. I should have checked with you before. Every woman wants a big wedding, doesn't she? I don't know what I was thinking… I am sorry…"
She covered his mouth before he could say anymore and her tears flowed freely.
There was so much love in his eyes when he looked at her that it made her afraid. She threw her arms around him suddenly and held him tightly to her as she wished fervently to Lord Shiva to keep him safe forever… to let any harm that came his way to go through her first… to allow her to start her fast today and to have the same day return to her forever more… over all the years in the next seven lifetimes…
She did not realize that she was sobbing until she heard him whisper again, "Does this mean that you will?"
She clutched him tighter as her sobs intensified. He asked her no more and held her until she quieted and then pulled back gently from him.
"You put earrings and bangles on me today, but what I really want is…"
She did not finish before he opened his palm and showed her. The mangalsutr hung on a long chain of black and gold beads.
She looked up at him, her eyes welling with moisture yet again.
"Who is to say the puja?" she asked finally when she thought her tears better under control.
"I was hoping that you would ask me just that." He smiled now as he walked to the back of the mandap briefly and came back with a priest. Raju kakka was there too, she saw now, as she ran to hug the man who had been more like a father to her in all these years since her brother's death than her own had been.
The puja was a simple one and when it was time, Shaan moved her hair aside to tie the long chain of the mangalsutr around her neck. She looked into his eyes as he did and knew that her Shivarathri's would never be the same again…
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Edited by sridevi27 - 14 years ago
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