𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘩, 2017
𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘬𝘢

The pavilion was attractively decorated, the boisterous blaring Band was trumpeting in the chorus and the bantering Baraat had been already ushered inside the enormous open-sky venue.

I breathed enthusiastically looking at the arrangements done so far by the skilful artists and got inside the room where my best friend was bedecked up in her aesthetically appealing bridal attire. After embosoming her and giving her the much-needed pep talk, I eventually left the room and was just proceeding towards the sitting area when Anchal stopped me, the beautiful bride's biological sister who was accompanied with many of her friends and cousins.

"Preet Di, so, on whom are you going to play a prank today?".

I had to do a retake to register her words. New prank? The last one was already proffering me sleepless nights and now this, I looked at her in despair and hysteria. Tantalising amour flashed back in front of my eyes like a movie of what had happened that twilight in the games of escapades and playful vengeance.

I couldn't forget the looks that guy had given to me and then his cynically contemplated words thrown at me on the traffic signal. He was retaliating against me for the boo in the name of berating me for not fastening the seat-belt. After a two-days assessment and reasoning process, I had come to a cankerous conclusion. That person was still miffed at me for shrieking a 'boo' in his tender ears.

I could just pray for my well-bing to Waheguru that he won't be filing a case against me for harassing his ears and his heart too, my mind chimed in jokingly. Having sweats already hazing my hands and forehead, I clamoured childishly, "No Anchal, not today, please. Let the marriage happen on a good and pleasant note. No pranks today".

Disgruntlement engraved her features and Anchal articulated, "Preet Di, if not you then who? Tell me? A marriage without pranks and fun is too blatant and boring, please. Okay initiate from me, give me some dare, I will inaugurate it, then only we'll get some fun". How could I refuse such a great offer, doing pranks on people was my favourite time-pass after all, I giggled haughtily and pondered for a troublesome dare that I'd be giving to Anchal, she was still not compensated for that stunt that she had pulled against me. Her friends too were meditating for a courageous dare that our sweet, sweet Anchal would be delivering today.

"You see that guy? Yes, the one in Purple Kurta, go and tell him he's like a brother to you and you'd like to tie Rakhi to him. Here, take this Rakhi too," the idea had been already thought of, just the execution was left but Anchal was busy in conferring me those How-could-you-do-this-to-me looks, what was running in her mind, we couldn't apprehend. The Rakhi was given by one of her friends only and yes, the magnificent idea was the plant of my cognisance's soil only.

"Di, but I have a huge crush on him since the early days, how could I do..." she paused in the middle only when she discerned what was she saying. We started howling in utter hysteria and delight, the truth was finally out. Playing crush, crush, are we? "Okay, okay, dare change, go and tell him that you love him," trying to help her in her love-life, I gave her the most high-grade idea that I could think of, snickering in between. "Di..." she countered back but couldn't say no and sequentially had to go near that boy who was relishing some coke in his solitude, sitting on one of the plush chairs.

The dare turned pretty well as even the guy looked more sparkling than a kid who had gotten his favourite candy. Indian marriages meant playing cupid many of the times, I mused playfully and waited for Anchal to return from the invisible grasp of that candy-crush guy.

And we played a lot of such silly daring dares with many, laughing hysterically whenever someone's mood turned sour. The ceremony had still not begun, dance performances and starters were just running in the background.

"Di, now, you've to do some dare as well as we did ours. You'll be flirting with that person who'd be emerging from the entrance, so, ready?" I had given wickeder dares to the girls other than this but mine was the evilest of all. Was today my blowout day, it appeared like that only. If Veer Ji would get even a gist of the idea of what was I doing in my friend's marriage, he'd kill me with his enraged eyes only.

Haayo Rabba!

Other than to plead for another dare, I couldn't do much, "Anchal, please not this, please, I don't know how to flirt, I have not done this, ch..." I was abruptly stopped as Anchal's eagle-like eyes already found the prey of my would-be failed flirting session. I too looked towards the entrance and observed a man too familiar to me, emanating from the entrance, he still hadn't crossed the threshold when Anchal rigorously pushed me towards the devil, throwing a lengthened 'All the best' at me.

Could this day get any more sinister?

"You came? I was waiting for you only," trying to sound like his best friend, I sugarcoated and honey-dabbed my words for which I have to recheck my own shrilly composure of what I was doing. I hadn't sounded this desperate ever, today all the records would be broken, the logical part of my mind analysed. And I would be impetuous to not notice the death stare he threw at me like I was some plague he was trying to restrain himself from! How barbarous!

"Boo girl, kindly stay away from me," he had vocalised and was trudging towards the holy pavilion. The audacity of this man, my nostrils flared in sheer anger and humiliation. What did he think of himself? The emperor of hippopotamuses of Assam? What was he doing here then? Should be roaming in the Kaziranga National park, right with his nose held high along with other hippos? I started backward counting from ten to one to not to crack his brainless head in my ferocity.

The dare, the dare! My mind evoked me reasonably and I promptly started stalking him wherever the hell he was trying to run. Hippos could be cranky, I laughed at my thought and followed him.

But the plight of my laughter suddenly crashed as his majesty of Kaziranga suddenly thought to stop his legs and make me hit his back, and I ended up colliding with him. That pained, ouch, I grimaced but immediately looked at him as he asked in a scolding manner, "Why are you following me?". If not for the dare, I wouldn't even have glanced at you, I rolled my eyes and made a fire-stirrer face at his question. "Because you're cute," Anchal and others were already watching over me, laughing in between, I would have to execute my plan otherwise, punishments would've been already chosen for me.

"What?" his eloquence showed rawly how much pissed he was right now, save yourself, Preet if you love your life, my intelligent mind suggested rationally. "Bye, I was just kidding, and no, you are not cute, you're just a grumpy grandpa," I sprinted away at a breakneck speed and didn't even endeavour to glance at his expressions as he might be already super-duper us se bhi upar angrier at me with his red nose already resembling the Kashmiri apple due to his angst.

"That was close," Anchal murmured lowly as soon as I had approached her. I huffed tiredly and grasped one orange juice glass that the waiter was offering to the other guests. In one whiff, I gurgled down the whole orange liquid down my oesophagus. Since the time I had been with that hippo-ticked man, I was extremely parched. "No more pranks with that man, please, I would've been murdered in cold blood," I lamented out once I got back my breath and senses in control. They accepted and we moved towards the room where our Meera was currently seated.

The propitious moment was here now, I chided in and eventually brought her out of the room towards the altar where our Rudra Jiju was impatiently anticipating for her one indivisible glance. Holy Sanskrit mantras were chanted, pious rituals were tailgated and a lot of flowery petals were showered on the newly wedded couple.

Meera and Rudra, coincidentally they shared the same last two alphabets in their names.

Simran Pabhi was beside me all the time and we both were an emotional wreck, witnessing how a girl was forthwith given to another man to start a new life from a brand-new chapter leaving behind her old family and friends.

"Agli baari teri hai Preet," Simran Pabhi expressed out in a no-nonsense tone making me look at her in absolute nervousness and of course, stupefaction. I couldn't see the teasing behind her stoic expressions. I wasn't willing for such a consequential commitment, not now. "The biggest piece of Kaleerein had dropped on your head, baby so you're the next in the line to be hooked in the knot of marriage," she expressed out and the ancient remembrance of today's morning started playing in front of my eyes.

How Meera had reeled her Chooda and Kaleerein laden wrist on unwed girls and whence impeccably it had only bestowed on my head and another girl who was one of the cousins of Meera.

It meant next marriage would be mine, my fluttering heart somersaulted and exactly at that time, that hippo too emerged out of the blue in front of my eyes from nowhere and his eyes likewise located me in the crowd. Earlier he had a neutral visage but now he looked he was in search of the person who had killed his favourite pet, my sardonic mind calculated sympathetically.

Not being able to hold on to his penetrating gaze, I shifted my eyeball and started looking here and there, anywhere but at him. But we girls have the sixth sense, I could still feel his keen-edged gaze cutting through my skin.

The photo session had now commenced on the splendidly adorned scaffold where the newly wedded couple was sumptuously seated on a cathedra-like, ornamented loveseat and all the friends, family and far-relatives had a hard time to hold on to their galloping horses as they wanted to be photoengraved before the ink on the page were dried and also, before their favourite Paneer from Shahi Paneer could be plundered by others.

"Oye, Preet. Look, that same seat-belt wala Munda," Simran Pabhi nudged me and I abruptly had a yearning to smack my head against something. Unfortunately, Pabhi had started praising this guy as a lot of corroborative facts had been promulgated about him in the past few days in the newspaper columns as he had battled against a much-prolonged case of fake rape allegations on a man. And yes, I also had come to know about his whereabouts. He was none other than the Divyaant Jain, the famous criminal lawyer of Chandigarh.

So, hippo's name was Divyaant whose meaning is beautiful in Hindi, but from where was he beautiful? Someone, please give me a pair of glasses maybe my eyesight had turn graver.

I agree he was doing a great job but we couldn't quarrel with the fact that his nose was excessively & cumbersomely encumbered with loads and loads of anger and irritation.

Scrunching my nose in distaste, I let out my mortification, "Pabhi, don't admire him, he's just a rowdy man, full of arrogance and a..." before I could've completed my sentence, I heard someone calling out my name and that voice felt too familiar and freshly heard.

"Pritika Di, someone is calling you," it was Meera's cousin Priya who rustled out in a hastening manner having her breaths skyrocketed to the ninth cloud. "But who?" I would be lying if I say that I was not uptight the way Priya had announced all these things to me, I was sickly worried.

"In the garden, he's waiting for you," she responded in a solemn tone and trudged away towards the stage as someone called her for some work. Simran Pabhi too disappeared like some ghost leaving me on my own, I lamented biting my lips in sheer anxiety.

Should I go or not? I battled against all the logical, illogical, right-winged, left-winged and other parts of my cerebellum and decisively concluded after a gazillion of senseless talks with my conscious mind.

I had decided to go for it but what I hadn't expected in my wildest dreams was the person whom I never wanted to meet, ever would be standing there with his hands inside his pockets!

~**⁕**~

How's it?
Silent readers, it would be really awesome if you comment and vote. Come out of your shell and speak up, who's stopping you?;)

And, who's that person, any guesses?