Chura ke dil mera goriya chali.

I stand freezed on the bottom steps of the staircase as Prisha, Ayan, Kritika and Rohit form a formation and start dancing.

The guests move back making a space for them on their own.

I laugh as Ayan and Rohit circle Kritika and Prisha, and Prisha and Kritika circle me. And they yell, "Chura ke dil mera goriya chali."

And then the song changes to Dilli Valli Girlfriend. And Prisha is the most jumpy one when the line comes, Tere liye hi to signal tod taad ke, aaya Dilli vaali girlfriend chod chaad ke.

I stare incredulously at them as the guests start recording their dance in cameras.

And then the door to the main entrance opens, and the guests scream, and Kiyansh enters in the living room hall. And the song changes to Mujhse shaadi karogi.

I put my hands on my mouth as he joins them, and then he points at me, Mujhse shaadi karogi.

"Kiyansh is dancing!!!!" My cousin screams from somewhere to my right. And I laugh as my living room turns into a stage, and they all point at me, and do the Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan steps.

And then the song, Rock and roll soniye plays, and Prisha grabs me, and rolls me in a twirl, and then suddenly I am in my Papa's arms, and I laugh and do the same steps he does, and then my mom comes in the group, and for the first time in my life I see my mom waltzing carefree into some amazing dancing steps that I didn't ever remember her doing. And then they both grab someone's hand from the crowd around us, and Kiyansh's grinning face comes into my view.

"You danced." I scream through the music.

He takes my hand and we both jump up into the music, and he yells, "I would do anything for you."

For a second I close my eyes and imagine we are in our childhood back to our bedroom, but then I open my eyes, look into his glittering face as he smiles at me, and look around at us. In a corner Ayan is doing a 90's number with Nani, Ashraf Kaka and Tanya Tai as the song changes to Saat Samundar Paar. Beside them Prisha, Kritika, my cousin and Rohit are doing some kind of hand holding sidestep, which involves Rohit and my cousin being half on the floor.

I look around at the guests participating in the dance, at my parents holding each other and laughing and dancing, and back to Kiyansh's face tilted towards me, always tilted towards me. And I don't have to imagine my childhood. Because this moment, right here, is the best than any other moment of my childhood. It's the best because we all are dancing and laughing, but it's the bestest because we all are here for each other.

______________________________

"You monkey." My Nani is saying to Kiyansh after the dance floor is converted back to the living room floor. "You monkey, you always have a knack for breaking traditions don't you?"

Kiyansh grins at Nani, in that way, and says, "Oh how much I missed you my old monkey."

Her face turns thunderous. "Is this how you talk to your elders?" She turns to my mother. "Aisha, my granddaughter is marrying this monkey?"

"Ma! Calm down." My mother says looking apologetically towards other guests.

"You are telling me to calm down!" She says to my mother, and then turns to me, "You are marrying him! I knew there was something going on between you too, I always knew!" She pointed her finger at me.

"Nani." I laugh. "I love you."

"Tell him to go away." She says.

"No." Kiyansh says from beside me.

She harrumphs and narrows her eyes at him, "Do not think that I lost from you. I am only letting you stay monkey because I love my granddaughter."

Ayan forces back his laugh as she strides away, calling Tanya Tai and Ashraf Kaka's names. "She is amazing." He says.

"Yeah she is." Kiyansh smiles.

___________________________________________
(Play the song 'Kabira' for feels)

The Haldi ceremony starts and it starts with my mother and father bending down together in front of me, my mother puts a finger of paste on my chin and a tear escapes her eyes. And my father looks at her face to mine, and starts sobbing.

My Nani eventually comes up and threatens to 'remove him from the living room' if he won't stop crying, and that is the only way me and my father stop shedding tears, when he kisses me on the forehead and moves away.

Nani bends down next. "The monkey is so lucky to have you." She says, her mouth curling into a rare wrinkled smile. "I always knew this was going to happen." She winks at me, and then glances at Kiyansh. "Don't you dare tell the monkey I said this, but I think he is the best match for you. You both seem to balance each other." She kisses me on the forehead. "While he is the best match for you, don't you ever forget Shanvi, he is the best match for you. The You is so important when you become us. Now I am gonna go before I turn into a mess like your father too." She says putting the paste on my jaw and biting her lips as tears flow down her face.

"Now who's crying?" My father says under his breath from beside my mother.

"I can hear you." Nani says, wiping her face hastily and turning to with him narrowed eyes.

She stands and to my surprise, she flicks her wrist towards Kiyansh, "I am letting you break this one tradition monkey. Do not test me and try another one."

Kiyansh looks at her, and she looks at him and something passes between them as he nods at her.

He walks to me and I lose my breath as he bends down. I feel myself freeze when his brown eyes tentatively move over my face as if he was checking if my face was real. He dips his fingers in the bowl and it slowly moves towards my face as if a heartbeat passes between us.

The countless times he has touched my face flashes before my mind like a movie.

His fingers land over my cheeks like a feather. And without any sense of what I am doing, I grab his hands and take the paste from his fingers, putting it on his cheek.

His eyes meets mine and the time stops.

It's later that I realise someone's clearing their throat pretty loudly that I remove my hands hastily and look around to find almost everyone gaping at us. Nani was shaking her head with a little smile on her face, Prisha and Kritika were grinning whereas Papa was looking everywhere but at us.

****

"You both are so in love with each other." Prisha squeals later when we are in my bedroom after a long day of ceremony.

My heart aches and I open my mouth to tell her. That we are not, I am. That he just cares too much, has cared since we were kids. But for some reason nothing comes out of my mouth.

"So tell me your story. Like what happened. How he proposed. Were you both in love with each other since you were kids?" She squeals and jumps on my bed.

Thankfully Kritika comes out from the bathroom, as an ache spasms in my chest. "GUYS!!! Did you see this??? This is so cute!!!!!" She jumps on the bed beside us, flicking her phone in front of us. "It's gone viral." She laughs rewinding the video of us dancing like fools.

"How did this get out?"

"Apparently someone put it on their instagram story. And then someone recorded it and posted it on their gram, and that's how things go viral baby!"

Prisha laughs and watches the video twice.

"I want to make a confession!" Kritika says switching off the phone.

"Yeah?" Prisha asks.

"Yeah." Kritika looks hesitantly towards me.

"Okay" I say.

"Itotallyhadacrushonyourfiance."

"What?"

She takes a breath. "I totally had a crush on Kiyansh."

Prisha and I exchange looks and we burst out laughing.

"You thought you were the only one?" Prisha asks. "Even Rohit, who thinks he is the hottest person in the world, has commented that Kiyansh looks like Adonis."

"And when," I narrow my eyes, "are we going to talk about the fact that you and Rohit are having some kind of thing?"

Kritika's eyes become wide with recognition. "Oh my god yes, they are, aren't they?" She points her finger at Prisha. "Is that why Rohit was coming out of your room half an hour before?"

"What?" I swivel to Prisha.

"No....No." Prisha blinks. "It was just something umm... He, he forgot something in my room."

"Oh you liar!" I grin at her. "Tell us your story and I will tell you mine."

"Deal?" she smiles.

"Deal" I say. "And you" I point at Kritika. "We are not sparing you."

Dedicated to God, who makes us who we are, our family , and the people who make this life worth it, the books which brings smile on our face, and the laughter which makes everyone, feel everything. Thank you everything.