"Then what are you going to do?" asked Jai. Arjun looked at Jai and said "Well'" and paused. Jai walked towards Arjun and kept his hand on Arjun's shoulder "See Arjun, if you are not ready for the marriage then you should not get married. Seriously tell me Arjun, did you agree for the marriage because of Rudra Uncle?" asked Jai, concern visible on his face. "Do you really think that I'll take such a big decision because of some kind of pressure? If you think so then you don't know me." Arjun said shaking his head. "Dad had just said me that he wants this but the decision is mine." He added and then told everything to Jai and Archana; how he had met Arohi and why he agreed to marriage.
"Arjun you are saying that she said yes on the very day she met you and you have seen pain in her eyes. I mean why will a girl say yes without even knowing the guy and you even said that she was not looking happy yesterday." Said Jai "These questions came to my mind too. The day I met her I was just trying to figure out that why did she say yes, but there was something about her eyes which was telling me to say yes. It's weird but there was something that was telling me that I'm the one who can remove that pain. I cannot see pain in her eyes. I know I'm speaking senseless stuff but this is what it is." Jai smiled and asked "Are you sure about this marriage?" "Yes, very much sure." Answered Arjun. "Are you sure that she's happy with this marriage?" asked Jai. "Umm' I don't know; I was not sure about this. I asked her brother if she's happy so he said she is. I was still not sure but then I thought about it and then why would her brother lie?" Said Arjun and shrugged his shoulder. "Hmmm' do you like her." Asked Jai. Arjun frowned 'Do I like her? Yes'. No' Yes' I guess I'm' I mean just attracted to her. I think it's because I cannot see her in pain.' Arjun came out of his thoughts when Jai shook him. "Umm' Come I'll show you both your rooms you'll must be tired after such a long journey." Arjun stammered. "Yeah, very long journey of 3 hrs." said Jai and then said "Okay one last question." Arjun sighed and said "Shoot." "If you are so sure about the marriage then why were you having problems in getting married early?" Asked Jai. "I'm sure about the marriage but I'm still not ready to get married this early, I wanted to know her more and I wanted her to know me more before the marriage but'" Arjun paused and then continued "I'm not sure if I'll be able to play the role of the husband." "We trust you Arjun and if Dhruv would have been here if would have only said one thing" Said Jai and Arjun continued "That, it's written in your destiny and you can't change it so just go with it." "Exactly." Said Jai and hugged Arjun.
"So you are getting married after four days?" asked Archana. "Yeah" said Arjun. "Oh God Arjun tum kitana natak karte ho." Archana said shaking her head. "Arey I was just angry yaar, I can't even get angry or what?" asked Arjun. "Yeah Yeah, you can do whatever you want." Archana was saying but Jai cut her off in between and said "Okay, we'll fight afterwards lets go meet Uncle and we have to meet our Bhabhi also." Jai said nudging Arjun to which Arjun smiled shyly and then they went to meet Rudra.
~*~
WEDDING DAY
The rest four days before the wedding went in just a wink with all the preparations for the wedding and with other functions before the wedding like Haldi and Mehndi. Today was the Wedding Day. Everyone was happy with the wedding except Arohi. Well she was neither happy nor sad. She was not feeling anything. She was just an emotionless soul.
She was standing near the window of her room looking at the sky remembering all the happy and sad moments or rather say the sad moments as there were hardly any happy moments in her life. She looked at the photo frame in her hand which held two photographs, one was of Preeti's and other was of her parents, the only photograph she had of them. She caressed her hand on the photograph and her eyes became teary. "Today is my last day in the house, I'm starting a new life today and I need your blessings, I need your help, I need strength." Said Arohi looking at the photographs and then hugged the frame close to her heart, trying to feel the presence of her parents. Just a matter of few hours and her life will change completely. She'll no more be Arohi Ahluwalia; she'll become Mrs. Arohi Arjun Singhania. She'll leave the house where she had grown up and will live her life with the guy she doesn't know at all. Just the thought made her shiver. She had agreed for the marriage for her father but never had she thought what will happen after the marriage. This was the first time she was feeling that how her life will change after the marriage. There will be so many expectations; will she be able to fulfill the expectations? What if she fails? She will disappoint her father again and she doesn't want that at any cost. She again looked at the photo and prayed silently and few tears made their way down from her eyes.
She opened her eyes and quickly wiped the tears when she heard the door click open. She looked at the door and saw few of her cousins coming in. "Aww Di, Jeeju is looking sooo handsome" said one of her cousins. "Seriously Arohi what a catch" Said another. Her cousins were continuously complementing about Arjun and Arohi was just listening to them quietly. They stopped talking about Arjun when Purvi came "Are you ready?" Purvi asked Arohi and she adjusted Arohi duppata and her mang tika. Arohi nodded slightly. "Let's go then everyone is waiting for you down" said Purvi and Arohi hugged Purvi let out the tears which she was holding and few tears also made their way from Purvi's eyes. Purvi calmed Arohi down and then they made their way towards the mandup.
Whilst, Arjun was sitting at the mandup, he had worn a maroon colored sherwani which had all golden work on the kurta with golden colored pajama and red and maroon colored safa(pagdi) with a broach on the middle of safa. He was looking really very handsome and all the girls around were very jealous of Arohi. Few of them were just staring at Arjun and when Arjun had caught them staring at him he was feeling very embarrassed.
Panditjee was chanting some shloka's, but Arjun was not at all listening to the Panditjee, his mind was just captured with thoughts as to what will he do after they'll get married. He was still not ready for the marriage but he could not even postpone it. In the last four days Arjun was just thinking what he'll do after they'll get married, he could not figure out anything yet and now he was nervous. Just an hour or two and he'll not be single anymore; there will be his wife with him, whom he doesn't know at all rather than the pain she's suffering from and the innocence which he had seen in her eyes. 'What am I going to do? Help me god.' Arjun prayed.
Arjun came out of his thoughts when he felt someone nudging him. He looked at his side and saw it was Neev. Neev then pointed towards the stairs, asking Arjun to look there. Arjun turned his face towards the stairs and saw his bride coming down and he just couldn't take his eyes off from her. She was looking breathtaking in her bridal dress which was of red color with little green color. It had heavy work all over it. She had worn heavy kundan jewelry and her hands were filled with chudda and the Mehndi in her hand was adding to the beauty. Arjun had never in his life seen such a beautiful girl who was looking breathtaking. He had attended few wedding previously but had never seen a bride looking so beautiful. And here he was looking at an angel who was walking towards him, who was his bride. Arjun not even for a second blinked his eyes and took off his eyes from his bride.
Arohi reached the mandup and Arjun stood up as he was asked to. Arjun kept on looking at her face as she stood in front of him and just like the engagement day, she was looking down. But Arjun could see the nervousness on her face. Soon the garlands were exchanged and then the Panditjee started chanting the shloka's after they were seated. Arjun kept on looking at Arohi from the corner of his eyes whilst Arohi was all nervous. Arjun noticed that in all the rasam's during the marriage her father was just standing in the corner and smiling widely and Salil was doing all the rasam's instead of him. It was the time for kanya daan which was done by Salil. When Arohi kept her hand on his, her hand started shaking, she was very nervous. Arjun sensed the nervousness and gave a light squeeze to her hand to assure her and the next second Arohi was calm, there was something about his touch which calmed her a bit but still she was nervous. Arjun felt relieved that she was calmed.
Panditjee then asked them to get up for the pheras, Arjun stood up and saw that Arohi was still sitting, he frowned and saw Purvi asking her to get up. 'May be she was lost somewhere' he thought. And then the pheras began. Arjun concentrated when Panditjee was asking them to take vows and listened carefully to what he was saying. He took all the vows from his heart. Arohi on the other hand was so lost in her thoughts; she had not listened to what Panditjee was saying. After the pheras Kumud handed the Mangalsutra to Arjun. Arjun looked at Kumud and shook his head slightly. He then tied the Mangalsutra around her neck. Arohi shivered when his hands touched her neck. Arjun then took the sindoor from the small box which again Kumud was holding and took it near Arohi's head. Purvi shifted the mang tika from Arohi's forehead so that Arjun can fill it with sindoor. Arjun looked at her face and hoped that she looks up before he puts the sindoor but she didn't, so without waiting anymore he put the sindoor in her mang. Arohi could not hold her tears anymore when she felt her mang being filled. She was no more Arohi Ahluwalia, she now Mrs. Arohi Arjun Singhania. Her name was joined with the name of that persons whom she doesn't know at all. Arjun had see the tear coming out of her eyes and he didn't like it, he wanted to look in her eyes to see what she was feeling but she was not ready to look up.
They stood up and took everyone's blessings. They first took blessings of Arjun's Tayajee and Taijee, then Arohi's father and buajee's, then rest of the family and in the last Rudra's. When Arohi was bending down to take his blessings, he held her shoulders and didn't let her bend down and said "Daughters don't touch feet beta and you are not my daughter-in-law but my daughter from now so you are not going to touch my feet." And then hugged her. For the first time she had heard the word daughter for her and was feeling the warmth of father's embrace when Rudra hugged her. She hugged Rudra back and sobbed. Rudra broke the hug and wiped her tears. Arjun was looking at his father and his wife sharing a moment. This was the first time in the whole evening Arjun had noticed Arohi had responded to someone and he was happy that it was his Dad.
Soon it was the time for bidaai. Arohi hugged Salil and Purvi and cried. They were the only person who had cared for her and given her how much ever love and happiness they could. She tried to control her emotions when she came in front of her father. "Happy Married Life and God Bless you." Was all Arvind said to her; she wanted to hug Arvind and cry. She wanted him to tell her the soothing words which every father tells to their daughters during their bidaai. She tried hard to control her tears as she knew Arvind will not like it, but she could not stop.
Arjun was standing near the car and was looking at Arohi and Arvind. He felt something strange about Arvind and his relationship with Arohi. 'Will he not hug her? Just Happy Married Life and God Bless You? That's it?' thought Arjun. He'd heard and seen that bidaai was the most emotional part. He had seen that the bride hugs her father and cries the most but here he was not seeing anything like this. His daughter was leaving him and going with some stranger doesn't he care about it? Thought Arjun. He had seen the play of emotions on Arohi's face; he had noticed that she was trying to control her emotion's but why? Looking at her face he could say that she wants to hug her father and cry but it looked like her father doesn't care. Suddenly Arjun was getting angry at her father; he just wanted to punch on her father's face.
Salil went towards Arohi and hugged her from side. Arohi leaned her head on Salil's shoulder and the tears which she was holding fell from her eyes. Salil walked towards Arjun with Arohi sobbing in his arms and Purvi on the other side of Arohi. They hugged Arohi and made her sit in the car. Salil then hugged Arjun, he wanted to tell Arjun to take care of his sister but the words didn't come out of his mouth. He just hugged him and few tears made their way from his eyes. Salil broke the hug and looked at Arjun. Arjun could see the tears in his eyes; he kept his hand on Salil shoulder and said "I promise to take care of her, on every step of our life. I promise I'll never leave her side no matter what." Arjun's words assured Salil. Salil nodded his head and smiled. Arjun then looked towards Arvind, he just felt that he should talk to Arvind but Arvind was busy talking to relatives. Arjun dropped the idea and sat in the car and the car soon zoomed off. Salil and Purvi looked at the car till it was out of the sight and just prayed for Arohi.
In the car Arjun looked at Arohi and saw that she was crying, he could not understand that what he should do. Should he say something to her? But what? Thought Arjun and then looked at Archana who was sitting on the passenger seat and Jai was Driving. Archana signaled him through her eyes that let her cry. But Arjun did not like it; he didn't like to see her cry. He wanted to hold her hand but he controlled himself as he didn't know how she'll react. She'll like it or not. So the last option left with him was to let her cry. He just handed her his handkerchief, first she didn't take it but Arjun didn't remove his hand until she took the handkerchief. After sometime when Arohi felt that Arjun is not going to take his hand back, she got irritated and took the handkerchief from his hand. Arjun looked at her irritated face and smiled 'some reaction' he thought.
By the time they reached Singhania House, Arohi had stopped crying. Archana helped her come out of the car and they headed towards the door where everyone was waiting for the grah pravesh of the new bride. Kumud performed the aarti and then Arohi was asked to drop the kalash with rice with her right leg and step in. She did as she was said and then rest of the rituals was performed with some teasing by everyone but Arohi seemed lost. Arjun kept on stealing glances at Arohi and noticed that her face was completely blank. 'Was she okay?' thought Arjun but before he could ask her they came and took Arohi to his room, no now it is their room, for the wedding night.
Arjun got nervous 'Wedding Night, what am I going to do now? What will I tell her? How will I explain her that I'm not ready? What will she think? What if she asks that if I was not ready that why did I marry her? How am I going to explain her? Damn!! Help me God' thought Arjun and kept his hand on his face he was very nervous and very confused. He came out of his thoughts when he was asked to go to his room. He walked towards his room praying silently that all goes well'
On the other hand Arohi was sitting in the middle of the bed with rose petals all around and was highly nervous. She didn't know what is going to happen, what her husband is going to do? What if he forces her? She will not be able to tell him no because he has full right on her. But what about her? She is not ready for this. But why will he care, no one has ever cared for her, no one has ever asked her what she wants. She thought and few tears made their way from her eyes. 'Will I ever get a chance to live my life how I want, is there anyone in the world who will care for me, will ask me what I want and what I don't? Is there anyone in the world who will love me?' were the questions that came in Arohi's mind. She was thinking about it and crying...
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
