SS: Matrimony (Complete)!!!

Hey guys...

I was reading Kunal Basu's 'The Japanese Wife', the first line of the book just struck me, don't ask me why...I felt there was so much in the four words put together...'She sent him kites.' It inspired me to write something about marriage, which I view in a cynical way. But let's keep it positive for the time being... So I just kept the book away and started typing this... (NOTE: I am not adapting the book, this is my story)

Hope you ENJOY!!!
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...Matrimony...

... ...The beginning of a beautiful story

She sent him something. Carefully wrapped in a soft cloth, packed inside a card-box...not flashy, the usual gifts people gave on birthdays, anniversaries or other occasions... It was barely simple, simpler, something which found no appreciation from him...because simplicity was normal, nothing extraordinary... just.... plain... simple... Nonetheless, he thought about it for a second...to open it or not to open it...his mind fluctuating like a fickle pendulum between 'to do' and 'to not do'...he told himself that it was of no use, he was far away from all this, similarly she too was far away from all this... they were running parallel like tracks of trains... the ends never met... more importantly he had no inclination to make them meet either...

But after toiling with the idea for a long half an hour he finally opened it, not able to handle the leaping curiosity inside him, what could be the mere possibility to be inside the box...what could a simple girl like her would sent him...He had everything...at least he could claim to buy everything he wished for...then what could possibly the girl must have sent him... that too something simple...

He removed the lid of the card-box...it was given to him by her mother who had smiled at him indulgently, gushing that he was so lucky to have Her...ironically to have someone you never met he had felt like laughing at his mother's presumable naiveness, maybe that was the reason her mother's and father matrimony lasted so long and was still intact...Matrimony...Marriage...Wedding... he didn't believe in any of the words... they were all a social obligation just made up for the sake of it... it was sham... a useless waste of time and energy... he certainly view it cynically...

His eyes widened and a surprised delight lay trapped...right in the middle of his throat... as he removed the soft netted cloth to reveal a royal blue woven sweater, designed with light cream triangle like shapes, with pale red borders...he blinked his eyes...pulling the sweater out of the box...he held it up, looking at it with shocking astonishment, it was...it was beautiful...for a moment he forgot everything and admired it... only when the cold, autumn breeze of Delhi hit him...entering through the open window did he realize what he was doing...admiring the simplicity of it all... it was bought...no, it had no label...it was hand-woven...seduced by it he got, removing his designer leather jacket...putting on the full-sleeved sweater...it was a perfect fit...something which astounded him...how did she know his size, not an inch different, it was simply perfect...the warmth of the wool made him feel better...it was a different warmth like the feel of the fire in a cold night, it smelled different like the soil when the first rain shower wetted it...it felt different like playing in the mud in the sugarcane fields with cousins... surged by all these tangling emotions he stood against the window, staring outside into the mist... a thick fog had enveloped everything in its embrace... ... she amazed him...her pureness titillated him...her simplicity pricked him...it literally did... and more so with the fact that she was his Wife... a wife he had married, which he positively didn't remember, a wife he had never seen, a wife he didn't want... alarmed by the last statement, he quickly removed the sweater, throwing it away...which fell on the floor silently, without a complaint...he trembled a bit, he snatched his jacket, putting it on, its un-feel-ness startled him, he felt cold all of a sudden, very cold as if he was stripped away from his expensive clothes...

"Jai..." somebody was calling him... he turned around, his eyes straight falling on the discarded sweater, with heavy heart he picked it up, keeping on the table he walked away...

***

"She knows that those sweetest words, 'I take thee to be my wedded husband,' really mean, 'I promise thee to cook three meals a day for 60 years thee will I clean up after thee will I talk to even when thou art not listening thee will I worry about, cry over and take all manner of hurts from..."
Alan Marshall Beck

She woke up with a small smile playing on her lips...the next week would be different, she would be with her husband, the husband whom she married thinking that it was marriage of dolls she usually played with her sisters, the husband whom her father shoes for her, the husband whom she never laid her eyes on yet he invaded her dreams every night relentlessly, the husband thinking of being his wife she grew up, the husband she didn't like, hated him despite loved him somewhere deep inside, she still couldn't; understand why she accepted things as they were, she had every right to oppose it but she silently took everything thinking it to be fate, she couldn't find any reason to either reject or accept it...all her childhood, teenage till now when she grew up to be a lady she was his wife, it was sentenced...a matrimony whose mere memory also eluded her... ...she thought of the sweater she had made and sent it to him, she had only a faint recollection of his childhood, with her own calculated approximations she had woven it, she thought hard whether it would fit him, though a bit confident that it would...there was still no reply from him...she muttered something under her breath...somewhere she had wanted him to reject her, to free her form this unknown bondage but nothing of the sort happened...he neither pursued her nor refused her...he was still like a distant dream...not staying yet not leaving... she heaved a deep sigh...

There so many 'What ifs..."

What if he didn't like her???
What if she didn't like him???
What if they both didn't like each other???
What if they liked each other???
What if he smoked which she was allergic to???
What if he snored in sleep???
What if...
What if...
What if...
They went on irritating her... ...giving her no answers... ...

"Bani...chal beta...taiyaar hoke neeche aajaya...kul devi ke mandir jaana hai..." it was her mother, Hardeep Kaur calling out to her in her usual loud voice...

***

"I don't want this..." he pleaded not able to look into his father's stormy eyes...

"Shut up!! Jai..." his father hissed...

"But papa...I don't know her...I mean we know nothing about each other...aise kaise shaadi kar len..."

"Tumhari shaadi ho chuki hain..."

"Jis umar main humme shaadi ka natlab bhi nahin pata tha..." jai retorted back...

"Jai...hum kal Chandigarh jaa rahen hain bas...samjha do isse Krishna..." uday got up and stormed out... his mother, Krishna looked at her son affectionately...

"Jai..." she called out...

"Maa please...aise kaise shaadi hoti hain...main nahin manta...it's illegal..." jai screamed...

"Jai...shaadi koi kaagaz ka tukda nahin hain...jo legal, illegal ho...bas ek pavitra rishta hain jo do dilon ko janmon tak jodta hain..."

"Par...ma..." he said dismissively...

"Acah, hum jaate hain, tu bani se mil to le, nahin achi lagi toh aage dekhenge...par milne main toh harz nahin hain na..." Krishna said...jai remained silent not able to answer his mother back, she was being fair to some extent...

"Agar mujhe ladki pasand nahin aayi toh aap papa se baat karengi..."

"Haan theek hain..." Krishna replied somewhere knowing that this relationship was much more... and that it was destined to be...

Jai and bani were kids...when Uday Walia and Jaspal Singh got them married, they were best of friends, if not for jaspal then uday would never have come to the city and started his business, jaspal had sold some of his land to give him money...it was in the sacred confines of the Gurudwara... that they got their children married, an age-old tradition but it was a promise from uday to jaspal that his daughter will be his son's bride...

***

Jai sat bemused by the hullabaloo...with everyone merry-making, dancing and eating like they had been on a hunger-strike...

"Beta lo na..." one of the chachis offered him another laddoo...jai smiled stiffly, declining politely, his stomach would burst if he ate anything else after the sumptuous, heavy meal...

His desperation to meet Bani was making go mad...she was nowhere in sight...he tried to thing all possible negatives about her, uneducated, no-class, clumsy village belle and certainly no match to him, but somewhere he didn't like himself for thinking all those things, his heart wanted to believed that she would be the most beautiful girl he would ever see, an adorning piece of simplicity and dignity unlike the usual females he countered...suddenly he heard someone call 'Bani' , stealthily slipping away he climbed the cramped stairs...

'Bani...' he heard again, he loved her name...bani...which meant honey-like sweet voice...

He peeped to see a pretty, slim girl laughing... he was mesmerized by her beauty... and walked towards her... feeling a bit nervous...

"Aap...aap bani hain..." he asked overcoming his hesitance...the girl giggled more...he frowned...no she was not bani, ha voice inside him told him...

"Kyun jijaji...bani jiji se milna hain..." she sang, jai looked embarrassed, turning red in the face, so she was her sister...

"Nahin...woh...um..." he flustered, fumbling like a fool...the girl ran away calling for her friends...wanting to share this new gossip...he heard a soft tinkling laughter from behind...he turned around to see a pink duppata flying in the air which vanished in a second... clustered with confused thoughts he ran his fingers through his bundle of thick hair...

***

Jai stood somberly...

"Cahlo beta...bani ko sindoor lagao..." Krishna urged him, jai glared at her...but smiled...bani's mother promptly removed the golden bordered red veil covering her face...jai took a pinch of vermilion and turned to see the most gorgeous sight in front of him, the vision of his wife...he found himself drowning in those lotus shaped eyes which shone brilliantly...the rest of the ceremony was a blur to him...

It was not soon that he found himself fishing out quite a lot of money to his naughty sister-in-laws as custom before they let him enter the room...yes; it was his wedding night...

Closing the door, he took a deep breath wondering what to tell her... this was all absurd and weird... ... instead of sitting on the bed jai found his wife standing by the window looking out...

He clear his throat to indicate his presence, bani jumped in her place, she was too lost to notice his coming...she turned around gazing at his handsome face... ...there was so much to tell but she failed to find words...

"Ji...main...woh..." bani's throat dried up...

"Aap...I know this is all very strange...you might not like me...it's okay...you have studied in America, you might have different thoughts, I respect them, I not extra-ordinarily beautiful...just very simple... I..." she kept talking in English with unmatched fluency...

"I just want you to be honest with me... if you like somebody else...or if you don't; want this marriage...please tell me...I...I will talk to bauji..." she uttered her eyes flooded with pools of salty tears...

"I want to fall in love with you... "he whispered stunning her...jai slowly walked towards her with a radiant smile...he leaned closer to her, wiping away the small tear drop which was about to fall like an autumn leaf...bani smiled...looking up at him...

"Matrimony; the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented"
Heinrich Heine

***

God bless
Dhani

P.S.: This is my treat. I will be back soon from my unintended trip...!!! I don't want to goo...Sob!!!! 😭😭😭

lol....