Facing the World

Chapter 37

“ARE YOU CRAZY?!” Sharon was outraged when she saw me walk out the bathroom dressed in my plain kameez.

I looked down at my outfit, checking if I had worn my pants. “Why what’s wrong with this?”

“Hmm, first take that off and put this on”, she handed me a pretty blue and beige saree with diamond workings all around the boarder. The saree looked too pretty and I felt overdressed once I put it on.

Sharon and Disha also joined me dressed in pretty sarees. Sharon looked very hot in a saree, she reminded me of Deepika Padukone, wearing light red and bright pink saree. Disha was wearing a beautiful blue saree with a blank blouse. Both my sisters pulled off the perfect bollywood stars look.

We all walked down the stairs and to our surprise my parents were waiting for us.

“Mummy Ji! Papa Ji! You are here!”, I quickly went and gave them hugs and kisses and then joined them on the couch.

Rey’s parents had decided to throw a mini-party tonight to make the night more festive. I wasn’t sure on what terms was Rey’s mother able to agree to this party, that lady disliked me and I’m sure she didn’t want this marriage to happen.

After having chai and some samosas, my parents went and got dressed as well. This gave us girls a few more extra time to go through our plans again. While we talked about little tasks and argued on anything we disagreed on, Jigar had joined us as well.

“Simi, are you sure about this? You don’t have to always listen to Sharon”, Jigar was also another person that didn’t like scheming.

“I’m sure Jigar! Plus what have I got to lose? If this works out, I get Rey and Disha gets Sammi!”, I was a bit excited when I pictured how the success side of our plan looked like.

“O Since when did the love story between Disha and Sammi start?”, Jigar looked at Disha who blushed and nudged his shoulders.

No one exactly knew when this love story happened or if it was a actual love story. Disha hardly speaks about her feelings, she likes to keep things to herself. All I know is that Sammi and Disha have been friends since our Delhi trip but I hardly saw them talk or hang out.

After half an hour, all my family had gathered outside the house getting inside the car. Us girls got in Jigar’s car and was told a million times by my mother to behave like decent girls when we got to the party.

Everyone was dressed as if they were going to some wedding but maybe parties in Mumbai are like this. I have never been to one, so who knew.

When we arrived at Rey’s place, the whole garden leading to the main entrance was decorated with beautiful white and blue lights. The palms trees in front on the house had blue lights running down and around the branch. I was star struck by just the exterior of the house. Suddenly I started having second thoughts again about whether I should just talk to my parents and call this off. Looking at how the decorations looked, I knew it wasnt just a mini-party, the Dhawan’s had invited the whole of Mumbai. To confirm on that, I saw twenty cars arriving before us with everyone dressed fancy getting out. As our car came to the entrance way, I got a little glimpse of the inside of the house. Someone was standing near the door greeting everyone that walked in. This did not look like a party.

“Guys why are there so many people?” I asked as we got out the car.

Sharon straightened her saree and Jigar pulled down his black tux coat. None of them said anything and just walked in.

“Namaste, welcome. How are we doing today?” Jai was standing at the doors with Rey’s cousins, Ricki and  Sonam.

I smiled when I saw Jai greeting all the guests saying Namaste. “Since when did Jai become so respectful?” I joked and nudged Jai’s shoulders.