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I was born an ordinary child. There was no celebration at all. After all who would want to celebrate, as I was just another addition to the family. That would bring the total to seven now, but my dad didn’t even know that I had arrived in the world. The cruel world, to be specific, where girls were treated as burden on their families. This is India, the place everyone talks about. My country is known for the movies and the stars that are born in here but does anyone look inside a poor man’s house. Hundreds of girls are killed here every year because their parents cannot afford to educate them or marry them off when they are old enough because the demand from the boy’s side is just too much in form of dowry.

My mum on the other hand was different. No matter what the circumstances were we never slept hungry and we were given the chance to go to school. Once she fed us the same curry for a week and gave us only half the bread saving the rest for afternoon. My dad was hardly around as he was too busy drinking and partying with his friends. And whenever he did show up at home he would beat the crap out of my mum for allowing us to go to school and for teaching us to be independent. Blood used to flow out of her nose and her mouth. We would all stand in the corner and cry on top of our voices. 

Today seemed different, as it was my 19^th birthday and I did not feel ordinary. There was lots of commotion and excitement around the house; not because they were preparing a party for my birthday but because I was getting married. Everyone was there, my sisters and brothers with their families. Everyone seemed so happy for me. Due to my mums hard work and sacrifices each one of my brothers and sisters were educated and married into good families. But I was not getting married in an ordinary house. I was getting married to the son of the renowned Justice Shriven. 

Shriven family was known in most parts of India, not only for the post he was holding but also for the good deeds they had been doing for poor families around India. His wife was a social worker and a typical modern woman, which we would only read about. Their son, Sandeep was a close friend of one of my brother-in-law and that is how he came to know me. When he told my brother in law about me things were discussed with my parents and a marriage date was set. Millions of other girls around India would agree with me that they were married off without even being asked or without seeing whom they were marrying. For my mum, she saw my dad on her honeymoon night.

I was lucky as he came with his family and spent few days in the village before the engagement. Sandeep was very nice and humble. Whenever he asked me anything I ignored it and kept quite, which was very unlike of me. When he did come last time, how can I forget that, everyone sent us to talk alone for a while and I took him on the rooftop and it started raining and as I started to run he grabbed and kissed me for the very first time, I pushed him away and told him never to do that again and burst into tears. My first kiss, months have passed but it still gave my heart shivers and excitement. Sandeep too was he was a very well known lawyer and everyone had high hopes for him to be just like his father unlike his younger brother, Aarav who was partying all the time. I would say I am bit lucky as I had seen Sandeep.

He is such a heartthrob; he should have been in the movies and not in my small village getting ready for the wedding. He was tall, fair and muscular whereas on the other hand I was fair too, slim, had a radiant skin and I was full of foolishness and cheekiness. The wedding was from the only temple our village had and the Shriven family were staying in the temple. Their house was in Delhi and I had only heard about Delhi and never even dreamt about going there so everyone was so happy for me but deep down I was very depressed as I had never left my mums side. 

As my family and friends were bathing me they all teased me about the honeymoon night and how I would change the very next day. It scared the hell out of me but I knew that everything that they were saying was not correct. I kept telling them that they should have gone to school like me and they would have a different version about marriage and life. But I was told to shut up and not to talk back to my elders. Soon I was ready and my brothers took me to the temple where the wedding was taking place. Sandeep’s mum came down the stairs to get me. She adjusted my veil so that my face could be seen and she commented as how beautiful I looked. The wedding ritual was taking a hell lot of time. “Bloody Indians and their ritual, I thought to myself”.  

After the wedding I was taken to a small room next to the temple and I changed into a comfortable outfit; after all I would be travelling for the next 6 hours to reach the nearest airport from where we would be taking a flight to Delhi, which would take another 3 hours. Soon everyone was ready and I started my good-bye ritual. It was painful saying good-bye to my friends and families. I fell on my mums foot crying. Sandeep’s mum took me away and seated me in the car. Our car left first while Sandeep’s parents and other guest followed us.

It was painful departure and I cried and sobbed in the vehicle for hours. Sandeep was doing his best to cheer me but it wasn’t helping at all.

 “I want to show you something”, and he told his driver to pass him the bag he had on the front seat. 

“It’s just an album, I said sobbing and wiping my tears and nose away.” 

“No it’s not. Whenever I see this album it gives me a new reason to smile about and it gives me something to laugh about, he said.” 

With these words he moved close to me, placing one hand around me while with the other he held onto the album. As i turned the pages I saw that it was full of my pictures and I was shocked. 

“Where did you get them?” 

“I took them an year ago. I was at your village with your brother in law. I was getting bored and I took a walk across the mountain and to the river. That is when I saw you, you were running after goats and than you were being chased away by the farmers because you were jumping in their garden. I was taking pictures of you all the time, he said.” 

“Remember this, he pointed out to a picture of me about to fall. Do you remember this, he said, you fell and rolled down the hills. You had cut on your knee and you were limping but it didn’t stop you from pushing one of the ladies standing at the riverbank into the river.” 

We both started to laugh as the pictures were very funny and it reminded me of the silly things I used to do around the village. The day he took my pictures, it was my birthday and we had some function at home for my niece. To avoid doing the housework I ran away from the house and spent all day running in the field with kids and doing silly things. 

“I didn’t know who you were or what your name was. When I took the pictures back home I developed and enlarged them and I fell in love with the silly girl in the picture, he said smiling. Actually Aarav teased me day and night about it; at first he thought I had pulled and enlarged these from a magazine but when I told him you were real he couldn’t believe it and he decided to come down and see you here. That day, when I was in the village, I followed you for hours, you were just so full of life and I could not stop taking your pictures or falling in love with you that day. I took the pictures home and showed to my best friend, your brother in law of course, and he laughed and laughed and called your sister without saying anything to me.” 

“They teased me for months but when my mum saw how desperate I was for you, she approached your sister and your family. We were meant to be together, he said smiling.” 

I took the album and moved a bit and he knew I was uncomfortable as he was holding me so he moved to his side. I went through each and every photo carefully, thinking about them and smiling at myself. And there were some other photos too, which he took on our engagement and they looked so pretty. Actually we looked really good with each other. Suddenly I burst into tears and couldn’t believe that I had left that all behind now, miles and miles away; three hours behind.

The driver pulled up at a gas station and we got out to stretch our legs. We basically had been sitting whole day and were really tired. Soon his parents joined us and after bit of relaxation we carried on with our journey.  In the plane I was scared and I held onto Sandeep’s hands very tightly. It was just after mid night when we arrived in Delhi. Huge buildings loomed over the streets and they all looked very scary. The streets were pretty busy and it took us about an hour to cross the busy roads. 

“People never seem to sleep here, Sandeep said as he noticed how widely awake I was looking at everything in amusement.” I smiled and started looking at the henna design on my hands. At this Sandeep moved closer and took my hands and started looking for his name. 

“It’s not there, I told him.” 

“That cannot be right. You should have my name written somewhere on your hands”, he said, concentrating very hard to look deep into the design and locate his name. 

It took us an hour and half to get to his mansion from the main Delhi airport. There was security at the gate as we entered they all stood and saluted our car and the car behind us. The house was huge, something like a palace that I had read about in fairy tale books. As I entered I was lost for words, every side I looked I kept starring. The whole house, inside and outside, was covered with lights and flowers. It was amazing, just amazing. I could not believe that I would be living in this house from now onwards. How I wished my friends and my mum could see the huge house. After some rituals his sister took us upstairs to Sandeep’s room. I was very tired and I wanted to just lie down for a while as we had been sitting for nearly 12 hours. 

“Do I have to come down after refreshing?” 

“No, she said smiling. We don’t want to see you both till tomorrow afternoon or we will only see you when my silly brother allows you to get out of the room. And for your information the party is tomorrow afternoon at the city hall and you will have some people in your room at 2 to help you dress up.” With these words she closed the door and went out.

I opened my suitcase pulled out a nightgown and dashed for the bathroom. And to my amusement the bathroom was bigger than my room in the village. I smiled at myself and thought, “Wonder what I did in my last life that I have deserved such a wonder life now”. As I turned around to grab a towel I found Sandeep in the bathroom with me. He adjusted the water and went out and I took a deep breathe of sigh. I took a hell lot of time in the shower, as I was scared to go out, because I didn’t want to face Sandeep in my nightgown.

Finally I opened the door and found him asleep on bed in his towel. He must have fallen asleep waiting for me to get out of the shower, as he too was tired and wanted to refresh. I walked up to the bed and wanted to wake him but I didn’t know how. As I forwarded my hands towards him the rattle of the bangles woke him up. 

“Finally, he said. Hope there is water left for me.” 

As he walked in the bathroom I quickly turned off the lights and jumped into the bed. The air condition had made the room nice and cool so I pulled the blanket and turned around to sleep on my tummy. I heard the bathroom door open and knew Sandeep was pulling through the drawers looking for something. 

“Hey, get up. I know you just scared of me and you are not sleeping.” 

“Who said I was scared of you, I quickly said. I was just trying to relax my back. And tell me why should I be scared of you. I have been sitting in the car and in the plane with you did I look scared.” 

He laughed and told me to sleep and he went to the end of the room, opened another door and disappeared in the darkness. I was feeling very uncomfortable in the new bed and I kept turning and tossing around in the bed. He had been gone for hours now and I was thinking where he had disappeared too. I got out of the bed and walked to the door. I opened the door and found him with glasses on going through the books. He was amazed to see me. 

“I thought you were sleeping.” “I couldn’t sleep, I told him. I don’t like the bed, I miss my bed and the blanket, I continued with tears rolling down my eyes.” 

To hide my tears I turned around, as I didn’t want him to see them. As I did I noticed that he had huge picture frames of me around the room. They were bigger version of the pictures that he had shown me in the car but these ones looked beautiful.

 “How did you make them so big and beautiful”. 

He laughed and we went back to the room. He was still talking but I feel asleep.

The next morning I got up had my shower and went downstairs to check where others were. Sandeep was not in the room when I got up and when I went down stairs I was told by the servants that Sandeep was busy with his media relations manager and the rest were somewhere around the house getting massages as they were getting ready for the afternoon. I felt lost and rejected and wanted to just burst into tears. They asked if I wanted to eat but I felt sick inside and I went back to the room, I could feel my heart crying. The house was so big that it could fill with 500 people but in the house there lived people who had no time for me even Sandeep. In the village when a new bride comes we used to hang around her all the time so that she didn’t feel neglected or lonely. But on the other hand I was just lost in the new big house. The least Sandeep could have done, I thought to myself, could have checked on me whether I had eaten or not.

It was not till 11 that Sandeep finally entered the room and I ran into his arms and burst into tears. He felt really bad and kept apologizing for not checking on me earlier. He thought his mum and sister were taking care of me and he went out for a meeting for the interview we had with the media before the reception. 

“Don’t be a stupid and cry over these types of silly things. Everyone in the house have their own routine so don’t expect others will be there for you, he said.” 

“Not even you.” “Listen don’t make a commotion out of this, please. Just relax and if you need anything ask the housemaids. Ajay is the manager for all the servants you see around. You can call him anytime and get whatever you want. And before I forget we will have a photo shoot before the reception with the media. You will have people to dress you up and mum will get your outfit.” 

“Are you going somewhere?” “I might, actually I think I should just go and check on papa. He has been busy all morning getting things ready at the hall. He wants the best for you.” 

“You mean for us.” 

He stopped and looked at me. He could see that I had been crying and I looked extremely sad. He walked to the bedside drawer picked up the phone and called his dad. He checked with him how things were and said he was not coming down to him and that he will send Aarav, instead. As he placed the phone down I told him I was hungry and he called Ajay to get some food for me. 

“Why cannot we just go and eat downstairs?” 

“I would prefer if you stay in the room and not mingle too much with the people around. Plus we won’t be here all the time as I travel a lot because of the work I do. And another thing, please make sure you don’t answer any questions this afternoon. I have had a meeting with my media advisor and he suggested that you should not say anything.” 

“Why are you so stressed about it? After all if someone wants to know about me they should be asking me and not you.” 

“There are things in the house that you don’t know about and I would really appreciate if you could let me handle the media things. You are a Shriven now and your each and every step is very crucial for us. Once you get used to living under lime light all the time you can handle your own matters.” 

There was a knock on the door and the maid came with food. I had lost my appetite by then especially after Sandeep’s lectures. Just a day earlier I was so happy and thought I was a princess and felt as if I was the luckiest person but today I felt as if I was locked away in a tower and hoped someone could recuse me from there quickly. After lunch he showed me around the house. He took me on the roof for me to see the scenery around their house. At the gate there were lots of photographers sitting around trying a get the first pictures or the new addition of the Shriven family. Our wedding was a private affair and media were not invited to the village. Sandeep’s phone rang and he took me down stairs to his mum and with her there were about 6 other people who were being hired to dress me up. 

It was a long wait before I could walk out with Sandeep to face the media. My nails, hair, make up and dresses were all perfect. When his mum saw me she thought I look like a doll in a display window. The bright orange body-fitting outfit was beautiful and the design on them was breathe taking. Before I could go outside to meet Sandeep his mum checked me over and over again as she didn’t want the media to pick on anything that would be a topic of laughter for them all. As I walked down the stairs I saw Sandeep in his cream and orange outfit. He looked very nice but I was grumpy and I didn’t smile at him. 

“You look amazing. And I feel so stupid. Wonder what the media will say about you. Ops I mean us, he said trying to get something out of me. You now look like Mrs Sandeep Shriven.” 

“But I would prefer to be Simran Sharma and live my village life, I said angrily but in low tone so that his mum didn’t hear me who was following us.” 

“Common Simi, it’s not that bad being a Shriven. Once you get to know stuff you will be fine and you will enjoy life.” 

“Don’t call me Simi, I muttered. Have I called you Deep or San yet?” 

He smiled and held my hands tightly and we got into a huge vehicle and drove off. His mum joined in and when I asked her about papa she told they hardly travelled together due to safety reasons. So I won’t be travelling with Sandeep much I thought to myself. What a terrible life they were all leading and they all were pretending that they are a very happy family. At the media conference Sandeep and his mum handled things so smoothly.

The media were only allowed half an hour to hassle us. They requested to see few wedding pictures and as soon as he mum whispered something to her secretary and went back stage and got two huge pictures of us and they looked lovely. We had a photo session with the media, which was for 5 minutes only at the end of the interview. I pinched Sandeep as he placed his hands around my waist and pulled me closer for a romantic photo. The party was great and I had heaps of people to meet and smile at. There were lot of speeches and it seemed so boring. Everyone came to congratulate us and had photos taken but Sandeep’s mum kept all that to a minimum. Around 11.00 we left the hall, his parents and rest of the family followed after wards in different vehicles to avoid media.

At home Sandeep helped me get pins out of the hair as they were getting very painful. I told him I didn’t want to see the ladies who dressed me ever again and he laughed while I pinched him. 

“Don’t do that as I will have bruises all over my thighs, he squeaked. 

“That’s not my problem.” 

“I won’t be home from tomorrow as I have an important case to attend in Pune. The trail is for three days and the hearing on Thursday. Soon after the hearing I will get back home and same afternoon we can leave for our honeymoon.” 

“So you will be away for away for such a long period. What will I do here alone? Why cannot you just take me with you?” 

“I can’t because I will be busy plus mum said it will be good if you stayed back and mingled with the families who have come from overseas for the wedding. Plus my sister will be going back to her house in two days and you have not met Aarav at all. He is just dying to talk to you and gossip about me.”

 With these words he changed and went back to his study room to prepare for the case and I feel asleep. Next day at breakfast table his parents wished him well and he hugged and kissed everyone and left. As soon as he left, I felt a strange emptiness in me and I was missing him already. The day passed slowly and at night I cried my eyes out. I was sitting on the bed and crying on the pillow. I didn’t want anyone else to hear my cries. Around mid night I went to his study room and sat there. With tumbling hands I picked the phone and called him. 

“Hey wife, what you doing? You should be sleeping now.” 

“But you too are awake.” 

“I am getting everything ready for tomorrow. The case is just terrible and I cannot concentrate at all.” 

“Ok I will leave you to it.” 

“Hey Simi listen. I know I have left you like that and didn’t talk or spend much time with you but I had this case on and I couldn’t sleep with you because my head is somewhere else. Hope you can understand and forgive me.” 

“I know you are busy but I just want you to be around me. I am feeling very lonely here.” 

“Listen don’t cry about it. I will talk to Aarav and he can take you shopping tomorrow. He will keep you entertained till I come home and you can meet all his silly girlfriends.” 

Keyword: My Fate - Part I

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