FF:Forces of Love: Ch 5 Updated (02/05/2010) - Page 2

The bride and the bridegroom were going away. Bani Dixit stood on tiptoe and tried to see over the broadcloth-covered shoulder of the man who stood in front of her and who was effectually blocking the front doorway of the Ring o' Bells the old coaching inn where the wedding reception was taking place.

It was useless. He was too tall and too wide. He took up all the space. He was deaf too. She'd asked him twice to move and let her pass him so that she could join the laughing, joking group of relatives and friends who were saying goodbye to the happy couple, but he hadn't heard her.

She should be there out in front to wave to Raashi, her lively good-natured cousin who had married Sahil Bali that afternoon in the thirteenth-century inn on the other side of the Mount Abu. Coming from the highlands of Lovenagar (Fictional Location), quietly-spoken and a little shy, Sahil had come to work for Raashi's father over a year ago. Perhaps it was his native reserve and his obstinate refusal to be stampeded by his boss's carefree daughter which had appealed to Raashi, mused Bani romantically, for she knew that her cousin had fallen head over heels in love with the young, highly-qualified engineer.

Now they were going away together for a honeymoon in Europe and Bani was determined to wish good luck to the cousin who had remembered her and had invited her to attend the wedding.

'Excuse me, please.' She spoke as loudly as she could. 'Main unko jaathe hue dekhna or alvida kehna pasand karoongi.' (I'd like to see them go)

This time the man in front of her heard. He turned. She was strangely and tinglingly aware of the cold glitter of light eyes, deep-set under dark eyebrows, of a broad chest only just confined by a severe tailoring of an impeccable morning suit, and then she slid past him, graceful and cool in her sea-green and blue sari.

She was only just in time. Sahil had started the engine of the car and Raashi was giving her parents a last kiss and hug before getting into her seat beside her husband. Bani had to push a little before she was able to get anywhere near the car, and then at last she was standing beside her other two cousins, Raashi's twin sisters Ria and Sia.

Before the car moved away Raashi opened the window on her side and threw a bouquet of red and white roses towards the group of young women. Her sweet, infectious smile lit up her face.

'Yeh lo,'she cried, 'jo bhi ise pakhdega uski shaadi bohoth jald hoja!' Bani wasn't conscious of striving to catch that bouquet. Like her cousins she held out her arms, but having always been a butterfingers she didn't think she would catch it, so that no one was more surprised than she when her hands closed around the sweet-smelling bunch of flowers with its long trailing ribbons. She gazed down at them in a bemused fashion, only half aware of her cousin's envious comments. (Here_____whoever catches it will be the the next to marry)

The car was going to the accompaniment of waves and cheers. Reeva Aunty, Raashi's mother, superbly elegant as always in a navy blue and white sari, was dabbing at her eyes with a lace-edged handkerchief. Chetan Uncle, short and vigorous, his expansive smile a more studied masculine counterpart of his daughter's, was informing the guests that the party wasn't over yet and that there was plenty of champagne left.

And then suddenly everyone had gone, back into the inn, and Bani was alone in the afternoon sunshine which filtered through the leaves of the sycamore trees edging the garden of the inn, and she was looking down through a mist of tears at the bouquet of roses.

Still blinded by the tears, she turned and walked reluctantly into the dim interior of the inn. Now that Raashi and Sahil had gone her interest in the wedding waned. She would have liked to have escaped from the reception, but she knew that if she didn't join the party, comments would be made about her by Reeva Aunty, and she wasn't having that.

It had been a lovely wedding, she thought, Raashi had looked almost majestic in the minimal but intricately embroidered bridal lehenga choli. Sunlight had mellowed the grey stonework of the inn which was famed for the brasses set into the floor of its aisles. From the carved oak choir stall the voices of the boys had soared heavenwards in perfect harmony, backed by the throbbing sound of one of the finest organs in the country. The reception after the service, held in the elegant, paneled dining room of the eighteenth century inn, widely known for its excellent cuisine and cellar, had gone off without a hitch.

Infact it had been everything a wedding should be, as Reeva Aunty had intended it should be; a wedding which the region would not forget in a hurry, as Reeva Aunty had intended it should not; a wedding which had been as much a demonstration of Reeva Aunty's severely- conservative outlook and brilliant powers of organization as it had been the crowning ceremony of Raashi's and Sahil's love.

Crash! Bani's thoughts splintered in all directions. She had walked into something rock-like and resistant. The tinkle of glass warned her that something had broken, and a faint feeling of dampness in the vicinity of her knees made her realize that whatever had broken had contained liquid which had spilt on her sari; her beautiful sari on which she had spent all her savings.

Shock drove the last glimmer of tears from her eyes and alerted her. Her glance travelled up, over a pale grey waist-coat fastened with pearl buttons, past a pale grey scarf to the edge of a square chin. Above the chin a conflicting mouth was curved into a faintly sneering smile. The mouth was conflicting because its long thin upper lip hinted a sternness and possibly cruelty, whereas the full lower lip hinted at generosity and a love of life.

Bani didn't allow her glance to go any higher than the conflicting mouth.

"I'm sorry,' she muttered to the crushed bouquet in her hand, which looked distinctly forlorn after its contact with that formidable physique. 'I wasn't looking where I was going.'

'You can say that again!'

I have attempted to write in hindi but the outcome sounded hilarious so i quit it after two attemts and quoted the dialogues written by Flora Kidd in the novel...

Originally posted by: suwas

Nice start.

Just confused why both bride & groom with hindu parents are having their wedding in church ....that too with bride in ghagra choli?