The Enchantress

Chapter thirty four

"Why is he so grumpy today?" a maid asked another fellow maid.

"Don't you know? It is saakharpuda (engagement ceremony) of chhote malik (young owner) after two days. Sir seems very nervous and he is personally overlooking everything," the second maid replied.

"Oh, yes I just now remembered his marriage was fixed. I wonder what type of people agreed to give their daughter to this house. I am here only because of the pay or else I won't even breath the air around them," the first maid would continue.

The words fell on the ears of Ayush as he clenched his jaw and asked angrily, "Are you two here to chit chat? Don't forget that you are hired to work, not to waste time Go on and do your work."

"Y-Yes, Saab Ji (Sir)," both the maids stuttered out and scurried off to their work. They had decided to conduct this ceremony and all the rituals on a farm house because the home where they lived was near Kamathipura, the red light district and they figured that organizing these rituals there when Mahamaya would be inviting her relatives and family, it would be insulting, unsafe and would be overall a bad experience for them.

So, that's why they had decided to arrange everything on their farmhouse because if you had a huge place of your own, why would you hire wedding hall? Apparently, this was why, because you would have to buy and rent out things for yourself which would cost much more than hiring a wedding hall and was a lot more tiring.

Ayush and his men were looking after the venue settings while the women of the gang were looking after the shopping, cleaning and cooking because according to the men, women only knew how to spend well and other household chores.

Abha, Yuvraj and Viraj were not disturbed at all. Viraj was going to be the future King and that's why his only job was to command. Besides that, he was also the groom. He really wanted to help but he was not allowed to. He was just kept limited to shopping and trying out clothes for all the events, along with his mother and his brother.

Yuvraj had never felt so happy before. This was the first marriage and the first gathering he had ever attended because for the world, he didn't exist, didn't have any identify proof, no treatment ever nor any other records because his father was ashamed to take him outside. However, Viraj fought with Ayush till Syush had to relent and that's how Yuvraj could attend his brother's second marriage.

Finally, the day of the engagement was here. The entire farmhouse was decorated. There was an entire floor allocated to Mahamaya and her family for future ceremonies.

Normally, there would be a gondhal ceremony too. Gondhal, Veera or Kanbai's marriage are rituals specific to communities and families. It was done whenever the first marriage (of a son) of the family was being done . However, since this was his second marriage, it was not done again.

"Namaskar, Namaskar (Greetings, greetings)," Aabha joined her hands and welcomed Indrayani, Mahesh and Mahamaya along with their entire family.

Mahesh's family which were his father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, nephew (Vivek) and daughter-in-law (Pooja) had come with them while Indrayani's family, which was her mother, her two brothers, their wives, her sister, her brother-in-law and her three nephews and two nieces had come as close relatives.

After making sure that they were settled, Aabha and the servants went to get ready for themselves. The guests had arrived and with the relatives they had, it was a ceremony of 'close friends and family', with only five hundred people in the backyard where the event was going to take place.

The relatives got ready in their respective rooms in the morning itself. The engagement was supposed to happen before 3pm and it was only one pm. The lunch was ready and everyone was hungry but nobody, especially the children didn't want to leave and eat the food because they wanted to look their best in their favourite Mahamaya Didi's (sister's) marriage ceremonies.

Finally, they came downstairs around 1:30pm. The bride and the groom were guided downstairs to the lawn around 2pm when their photos were clicked with the relatives or their couple photos were clicked.

Mahamaya was very nervous during the couple photos because it was the first time she was being this close to a man in that sense and the poses were quite romantic but Viraj guided her all along and made sure she was comfortable enough.

"I didn't know you had a brother," Mahamaya whispered while smiling beautifully in front of the camera. She was surprised to know this important information on the day of her engagement.

"Yeah, he's special and Aaba (Dad) kept him caged most of the times. Ayush had not allowed him to come when we came to visit you but thankfully, he was allowed and will be allowed from now on. He's very excited for his younger brother's marriage," Viraj replied, sounding genuinely happy, not looking at her but at the camera as the two talked while clicking photos so that they both could be eased into looking natural and relaxed.

Finally, it was 2:45 and like the ritual needed, Aabha put dots of halad kumki (vermilion and turmeric) over Mahamaya's crescent moon tikli between her eyes and gifted her some sarees, gold jewellery and cone shaped boxes of sweets (saakhar=sugar, puda=box, that's where the name saakharpuda comes from).

Viraj slipped Mahamaya's ring on her left ring finger and Mahamaya slid his on his left finger. Everyone clapped and cheered, before everyone came forward to click more photos with the bride and the groom.

There were so many people and so many families. Many people got double and even triple chances because they were part of that many families. There were times when it seemed like the stage would seem small or would fall because of now many people are standing there at once but everything was done successfully.

Between these photo sessions, those who had their photos clicked already moved on to eat their lunch because most were starving since morning. Mahamaya, Viraj and their close family members themselves had to have their meal as dinners instead and thankfully, the maids heated up the food for them before serving them.

Before eating, as they were used to, Mahamaya, Indrayani and Mahesh did their prayers and all the others joined their hands in respect. Mahamaya was sitting besides Viraj as he also heard some of the whisperings. Ayush was shocked, before smiling. Mahamaya, as a woman didn't seem restricted, yet she was not like the mannerless women of her age who didn't know how to act in front of elders, stranger men or didn't wear revealing clothes but Mahamaya didn't do any of those things so he was secretly admiring her and was slowly getting convinced that he was wrong and that women didn't need to be treated badly for them to act nicely. Maybe it was upbringing of Mahamaya which did this and he was curious to see how she would raise her own children so that he could learn about good parenting, even at his last days on Earth.

In this way, the Saakharpuda (engagement) ended on a good note with no hurdles...