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Hey Shubhaarambh, Ho Shubhaarambh,
Mangal Bela Aayi,
Sapnon Ki Dehri Pe,
Dil Ki Baaji Re Shehnai
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Target: 10 votes and 15 meaningful comments.
Happy Reading!
The Rajput mansion was filled with hustle bustle. They had booked a hotel for the wedding. The bride and groom's family were supposed to directly meet their and from then onwards the wedding rituals would begin.
The first ritual in both the houses was Tilak. The wedding was to be a Gujrati wedding following its traditions since the groom's family was a Gujrati family.
(Tilak : the father of the bride applies the tilak on the groom's forehead to officially welcome him into the family and confirm the wedding. There is exchange of mithai and shagun between the families)
All the men of the family from Isha's side were to go to Kabir's house and do the tilak ceremony.
Kabir and his family were sitting in their living room waiting for Isha's family.
"Nishtha aayi?(came)" Kabir whispered in his cousin, Pooja's ear. The cousin showed him her phone that she had dialed her, but she wasn't picking it up.
"This isn't done, she has to be here" Kabir was panicking with every passing second without his sister.
"She'll come bro, relax. They are just coming for tilak today, Gol Dhana (Sagai) is tomorrow. Chillax" Pooja tapped Kabir's shoulder in assurance.
"I know, but still. She has never met anyone from the Rajputs. They just know I have a sister called Nishtha but they've not seen her anytime we all are together. It creates a wrong impression" Kabir tried calling Nishtha from his phone.
This time she picked it up.
"Am on my way home bhai. Stop calling me like a despo because a policeman will catch me. Additionally, you are calling the wrong person so desperately" Nishtha replied from the other end of the call.
"Come soon. Till you aren't here, the rituals won't start, so your ass must be here before they come or else I'll beat you to pulp" Kabir almost practically shouted through the phone.
"You will beat? I'll go complain to Isha bhabhi, watch me do" Nishtha warned him.
"She doesn't even know you" Kabir smirked, knowing that Nishtha has never seen or met any of the Rajputs.
"There is something called like Technology and phones. We can face-time each other. And getting number from that phone of yours which has a very poor password, 1234, it isn't hard at all to get her number. So shut up and pump up for bringing bhabhi home" Saying that Nishtha cut the call and continued driving.
"Told you" Pooja shrugged her shoulders and pushed Kabir back into his position. Nishtha soon came running into the house. Her hair were all ruffled up and tied in knots. Her kurti had become crumpled. She quickly ran to Kabir and took him in a hug.
"I told you to take leave and here you are, going again" Kabir complained like a small child.
"I did take a leave but an emergency came up so I had to go, please understand" Nishtha moved towards Pooja and hugged her.
"Where are the others?" She asked Pooja who was given the responsibility to be by the groom.
"All are in Soham's room, chilling while I am made to sit beside the monkey" Pooja sat down huffing in tiredness. Nishtha giggled and agreed to Pooja calling Kabir a monkey.
"I'll just go change, be back in 15 minutes" Nishtha ran to her room and immediately entered her bathroom and took a quick shower.
She picked up a simple blue anarkali which had a heavy duppata. She braided her hair in a fishtail, letting a few tendrils frame her face. She wore a simple gold chain of her name and wore a bracelet on her right wrist and a watch on her left wrist. She rushed down to check if the guest had arrived or not, but to her luck they still weren't there yet.
She walked towards Pooja who was scrolling her phone.
"Di" Nishtha called Pooja, grabbing her attention.
"How do I look?"Nishtha twirled around showing Pooja the dress.
"Chipkali (Lizard)" Soham and Kabir said from behind, laughing loudly, making Nishtha glare at them in annoyance.
"Same to you" She gave them a fake smile and turned towards Pooja, who smiled at her. Pooja was wearing a tangerine colour anarkali with a heavy dark green duppata. She pinned her hair on one side and wore heavy looking earrings to match up with the dress. Her hands were filled with simple bangles.
They all ganged up against Kabir and teased him till he was darker than tomato. Soon the Rajputs came and the welcoming session started. Nishtha and Pooja stood behind Kabir as Soham greeted all the Rajputs. The girls gave them a smile and held their hands in 'namaste'.
The Rajput men and the Mehta's settled on the sofa. Pooja and Nishtha served water to the guests.
"Who are these two?" Yashvardhan asked politely.
"Ahh, this is Nishtha, my sister" Kabir walked to Nishtha and hugged her from side. "And this is my cousin, Pooja didi" He pulled Pooja on his other side. Both the girls smiled gracefully to them.
"Ohh, what do you Pooja and Nishtha?" Hriday asked generally.
"I am running papa's business, Swaroop Textiles, you might have heard of it" She said gently, as she picked the glasses from them.
"So you are the mastermind behind the Swaroop business, I've heard so much about you. You gave a complete new direction to Swaroop" Omkar praised her, making her blush in shyness.
"She is the reason my loss-incurring business is making uncountable number of profits right now" Pooja's father, Manish said feeling proud of his daughter. He held his head high as the Rajputs wouldn't stop praising about Pooja. The youngsters of Rajputs were highly impressed with Pooja, because they had expected her to be snobbish but she was completely opposite. Vikrant looked at Pooja and tried to remember where he had seen her before.
"Are you Mr. Jaidev Verma's wife?" Vikrant asked, unable to contain his thoughts. The whole room went silent hearing his question. Pooja froze in her actions and the smile the was plastered on her face, disappeared almost instantaneously.
She managed to look at Vikrant and answer him.
"We have separated" She said trying to disguise her hurt. Nishtha looked at Vikrant with anger. She didn't understand why, someone would bring that up suddenly without a reason, especially in a situation like this.
"Am so sorry, I didn't know about it. I was out of country for a time. I don't know if you remember me or not, but we have I think met earlier" Vikrant profusely apologized to Pooja for asking an irrelevant question and hurting her sentiments. Pooja shrugged it off with a smile and eased the situation.
"The guy just missed out on a gem like you. It is our pleasure to meet you, child" Viaansh said standing up and caressing Pooja's head lovingly.
"What about you Nishtha, what do you do?" Harshvardhan asked, diverting the awkwardness.
"I am a second year resident"
"Doctor?!" The youngsters questioned together, making Nishtha feel conscious about herself. She unsurely nodded her head, anticipating their next reaction.
"Hai devi, aapke charan kaha hai? (Ohh goddess where are your feet)" Veer stood up dramatically and walked to Nishtha. She took a step behind, not understanding Veer's actions.
"What did I do?" She asked her brother and her family members.
"You didn't do anything. Its my grandchildren's habit to frighten any doctor they meet" Harshvardhan said laughing.
"After seeing Vikrant study, day and night to get through the medical school, they feel it is their duty to praise them for studying so much" Omkar continued the sentence. Nishtha looked at them with a 'ooh' face and then laughed at Veer's happy face.
"What do you want to do ahead?" She asked Veer smiling.
"Definitely not study like you and Vikrant bhai. I think my twin, Shraddha would do it better. She is actually good at these stuff... but don't tell her that I told you this" Veer said interlocking his arm with Nishtha and Pooja's who laughed loudly at his antics.
Soon the tilak ceremony began but before that, Pooja and Nishtha, removed the evil away from Kabir. They took a step away from him and stood with their other siblings.Soham, Ishan, Manan, Nikhil and Yash.
Pooja and Nishtha were the only girls in the whole Mehta family. Even on the maternal sides, there were no girls... only boys. They were having a great discussion among themselves when the Rajputs decided to interfere. Soon all of them were in the backyard garden. They adjusted themselves around the large table, leaving Kabir alone to handle the elder people. Kabir eyed them in jealousy as they were having all the fun without him.
Soham persuaded all of them to play with them.
"Join us, the oldies will take time to finish this stuff. Let's play UNO" Soham said and asked Yash the youngest cousin to get the UNO cards.
"Here we go" Everyone settled down on the large round patio area. There was a shelter created in the garden area where outdoor patios were held during family times.
They were arranged in a manner that Pooja was between Vikrant and Soham and Nishtha was between Kiaan and Krishiv. Nikhil, Yash, Veer, Ishan and Manan sat opposite to Kiaan and Vikrant.
Soham gave out the cards and asked Veer to start the game. Nishtha on the other hand, tried to see her adjacent players cards.
Veer placed a red 3, followed by Ishan placing a yellow 3. Manan continued the yellow trend until Vikrant turned it to blue. Nishtha mentally glared at him for changing the colour. Nishtha didn't stop trying to look at the other's cards. Soham caught her.
"Ayee cheater Nishu. Stop looking at Kiaan and Krishiv's cards"
"I am not looking" She said with a pout.
"I saw you looking at their cards. Pooja tell me, wasn't she looking at their cards"
"Haww, this is unfair to me. Namak halaal, bedardi insaan, apni hi behen pe shak. Hey bhagwan, yeh din dikhane se pehle, yeh dharti phat kyun nai gayi, amber toot kyun nai gaya
(Betrayer, heartless man, suspecting your own sister. Oh god, before seeing this day, why didn't the earth crack open of the sky fall down)" Nishtha looked at Soham dramatically. Everyone on the table covered their mouths to prevent laughing at Nishtha's over acting. Soham tried proving his point but everytime, Nishtha came up with a new drama.
"You 2, better hide your cards from her. You don't know the level she can go upto, just to win UNO" Soham warned the two about Nishtha's behaviour. Nishtha stuck out her tongue and teased Soham.
"This isn't just UNO for di, it is a life and death game for her. One day, I guess she will kill someone for this game" Ishaan said whispering into the Rajput brothers' ears.
"If that is so, then it would be fun to defeat her" Vikrant said adding fuel to fire. Both of them looked at each other challengingly.
"Game's on" Nikhil whistled loudly. Everyone on the table, looked extremely excited for the game, because it wasn't just a game now, it was a battle between two masterminds.
The game continued with Vikrant and Nishtha playing aggressively, punishing those that were in between them. Both the competing parties had 2 cards in hand. None of them broke the eye contact and continued for their turn to come. In the mean time Kabir came, finishing all the traditions. He stood behind Nishtha and looked at her cards. He didn't notice the brewing competition between Vikrant and Nishtha.
He looked around and saw everyone's hands filled with cards while on the 2 were having the minimal cards.
"Don't keep 2 yellow, she'll finish the game" Kabir said pulling a chair for himself. Nishtha snapped her head towards him, and gave him a death stare.
"No yellows and no 2s coming your way at all" Kiaan said playfully while Vikrant smirked knowing that her cards are revealed.
She banged her cards on the table and ran behind Kabir to beat him.
"I was winning and now because of you I won't" Nishtha threw a ball towards him, as he ran around the garden trying to save his life.
"Because of you now Vikrant will win and I will lose" She threw her one shoe at him.
"Am sorry baba, I didn't know" Kabir ran ducking the shoe thrown on his way. The rest who were at the table, laughed alot at Kabir's mistake. They were sad that Nishtha who was playing so well, her cards were revealed but as they were given many cards by her, they weren't going to miss the opportunity to torture her the same.
"You didn't know, You blind man. I hate you" She threw her another shoe at him. Vikrant screamed from the table for Nishtha to finish her game, to ensure that his sister doesn't end up marrying a handicapped groom.
Nishtha walked to the table fuming in anger. She banged her hands on the table and looked straight at Vikrant.
"The game is over. My cards were revealed" She said angrily.
"Everything is fair in love and war, and this game for sure was a war" Vikrant said adding ghee into Nishtha's anger.
"Fuck you. This game is over" She snatched the cards from everyone and messed them up. Stomping she left from the garden area. On her way to her room, she met the Rajputs and the Mehtas who were smiling and laughing. Giving them a fake smile, she ran towards her room.
Vikrant, Kabir and Soham laughed loudly at her retreating figure. The elders walked to them, hearing the laughter sounds. Pooja explained what happened at the table, causing all of them to laugh even more loudly. Nishtha from her room, could see them laughing at her. Her hatred for Vikrant increased because of the game.
"The game's not over yet Vikrant, I'll give you a taste of your own medicine" She thought to herself.
The Rajputs soon left while Kabir on the other hand, was now busy thinking how to handle his sister.
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Hey, here is the second chapter.
How is it?
What and who is your favourite?
Imagine if the first ceremony was so happening, imagine the rest of the functions till the wedding.
Any particular banter you want to see between any characters??
Don't forget to DM me your views and comments.