Niiice...!! 😊
Like someone said, writing runs in the family then, eh? 😉
Well, more than anything else, what I loved about this piece was how real and identifiable it is...anyone who's been to a plush Indian wedding in recent times can easily relate most of this to what they've seen...I attended a wedding just last week, for instance, and the caked and glossed up bride was my cousin's friend, which gave us something of a bird's-eye view into her side of the story...she was quite different from your bride here though...quite happy with the vanity and the glitz that comes with it at a wedding, supposedly the most beautiful day of a woman's life...
This bride over here, on the other hand, sounds more like me when and if I ever get married...lol...no, seriously...having been spectator to quite a few weddings in my own family, I've always sat and pondered over what a drudgery such heavy, elaborate and seemingly artificial proceeding can be...in itself, the jaymala ceremony is quite a simple one, and if carried out simply, is quite sweet...but yeah, I've seen what can be done to it, and your story hits the nail on the head, Aprajita...it isn't the rituals that are the problem...it is what is made out of them that virtually drains them of meaning...which is the first aspect of this piece that strikes one, as one gets down to reading...
The second is what someone very rightly pointed out already...the virtual straitjacket that society imposes...like when she's walking down slowly, eyes lowered (loved that line : 'people don't like brides who don't lower their eyes' Crisp, to the point, and very effective), looking beautiful but feeling uncomfortable and frightened...keeping up the act of a 'good bride', while knowing that she'd have made a good enough bride minus the absolute perfection this glammed up performance demands...but the show is put up for those who arrive to watch, after all...and that includes the photographer who makes random attempts to capture memories that mean nothing at all apart from a mechanical replay of a mechanical action...and the bride and groom seem reduced to objects to admire...the bride's as good as a snazzed up Barbie doll, really...
As for marriage bringing frightening prospects...well, that can be a subjective viewpoint...but it's definitely a slice of reality as it is for alot of women even today...if not in urban, modernised, liberal metropolitans, then in semi-urban or worse still, rural social setups...complete surrender, as they say...what I like most, however, is that it is left at a question mark in her case...that while it is the reality her mother lived with, there is no absolute certainty that it is the reality that awaits her as well...or at least that is the way I'd like to see it...trying to be optimistic, I am...hehe...😎
And lastly, yes, I have to say it...I really like the title...!! Another common string between the two of you so far...it's very apt, and covers exactly what the story seeks to convey...well done! 👍🏼
Thanks for sharing it with us Neeta! And welcome to I-F Aprajita...!! Oh, and sorry for such a long-winded reply...jeez...😛
Cheers!
Nandini 😊
Edited by nandinidev - 15 years ago
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