Wedding Vibes

Chapter 1

Age 17

I pull at the itchy yellow fabric of my embroidered kurta; God, it's like wearing a woolen blanket directly under the 12 o'clock Mumbai sun. My feet are aching from standing on the entrance steps of the resort's reception area for nearly forty five minutes straight, waiting for Jia di *, my soon- to-be mami**, and the rest of the bride's family to arrive like they should have- an hour ago. I'm sure the look on my face is mirroring my sister, Sheetal di's, as she shuffles beside me, itching to get back to the thesis she's supposed to submit in a month's time; even though she's 22, Amma still has a strong hold over her. She was 'only' allowed her to get her laptop to the wedding because "Sheetal, it's your mama's^ wedding. The least you can do is be there.". How does Amma not realise that whatever Sheetal di needs for her thesis is on her laptop? Plus, they have an awesome Internet connection here; Sheetal di is set. I shake my head. Sometimes Amma can be so clueless.

*(term for older sister (can be used to refer to any slightly older female))

**(aunt, or maternal uncle's wife)

^(maternal uncle) 

Her strictness, though, more than makes up for it. Which is why I'm standing under the glaring hot sun, wearing a canary yellow kurta*, leggings and a matching dupatta*, and about five kilograms of makeup on my face. Amma insisted on the heavy makeup; according to her, first impressions matter. A lot. I mean, I'm not even the one who has to make an impression; that responsibility falls solely on Karan mama! But apparently Jia di will start rethinking her love for Karan mama if his niece looks like a troll.

*Indian traditional wear

And there you have it: Indian families.

 The least I can hope for is that there's someone my age around here, because otherwise, my only options are hanging out with the aunties and grandmothers while they gossip (ugh), hanging out with my mom (double ugh), or hanging out with Sheetal di  while she's holed up in the room or on her phone, completing her coursework (triple ugh). Wandering around by myself is the last option, but that doesn't sound fun either.

See, this is the last wedding in my family, at least until Sheetal di gets married (and anyone who looked at her dating history would realise that that isn't much of an option). So I want to have fun at this wedding. Go out with a bang, you know? I want this to be the most memorable wedding in the history of weddings; and with such a cool bride and groom, what can go wrong?

I remember meeting Jia di for the first time. I was visiting Karan mama, who'd just come back from the US for a week-long visit. He'd been holed up in his rented 1BHK for the past 3 days with work, and I'd thought it would've been a nice surprise if I dropped in to say hi before the rest of the family swooped in. So imagine the shock I got when I entered his apartment and saw a woman about his age with her feet kicked up on the coffee table, beer in hand and a smile on her face. Karan mama had introduced her as his friend, but it's pointless to hide something from me, because I'm willing to dig as far as I need to; so that was how I was introduced to Jia di, Karan mama's girlfriend for the past year. I hung out with the two of them a lot in that week, partly because they seriously needed a chaperone and my mom would kill me if she found out that they'd been alone like this for a week (God, the amount of PDA), and partly because I actually wanted to. After Karan mama had left, I'd figured that I'd never hear from Jia di again; so when she'd showed up at my house a few weeks later to go book shopping because "I heard from Karan that you love books and I couldn't not do anything about that.", I'd been half flattered and half happy. So we'd gone book shopping and had lunch at the mall, and by the end of the day, I'd made a new friend. We kept in touch, and soon, Jia di knew all about me, from my love life to the type of Lays I preferred (American Cream and Onion, by the way). I was confident that she was the one for my uncle. The long-distance thing went on for about half a year more; a couple of months later, the family found out, and exactly three month later, he proposed. Believe me when I tell you Karan mama, the most collected guy I know, was a mess when he'd come up with the idea to propose. When he did, she said yes before he could even finish; and a year later, here we are.