"ANU.." She turned and smiled as she spotted Kaka walking towards her with a plate in his hand.

There was less than a week left for the wedding. The henna ladies had come by to adorn her hands with intricate motifs. Close family and friends had come by to sing and dance and celebrate the occasion. Clad in a yellow and teal organza ghagra and blouse, her dupatta coyly draped over her head, matching jewelry from her mother-in-law's extensive collection, she looked like a fairy. She felt like one.

Anuj had left no stone unturned. He had gone all out on ensuring that the festivities met up to Anupama's expectations. But Anu, she had no expectations. She was finally marrying Anuj, the man she loved. For once in her life, she was getting what she wanted. She didn't have to compromise, give up her dreams for someone else.

She often sighed in regret when she thought about her past. She wished this had happened 26 years ago. That she'd never met Vanraj. That she hadn't lost 26 years to the Shah family. That she'd experienced happiness and love in her youth. When she had shared her thoughts with GK he'd chuckled.

"Hindsight is always a virtue," he'd told her. "But you don't know what life would have been like if you'd married Anuj 26 years ago. You were different then, he was different then. Life, then,  would have been different.

"There's always a right time for things to happen - babies are born after 9 months, flowers blossom in the spring, it takes trees many years before they are capable of yielding fruits. Nature has its own way of ensuring that things take place at the right time. And should we force things before they are meant to happen, we deal with their unwanted and often ugly consequences.

"Anuj and you were never meant to happen 26 years ago. You were only meant to happen now. So don't feel any regret. Enjoy what you have today."

Her Kaka had put all her worries to rest.

"You haven't eaten anything, have you?" He admonished as he coaxed her to open her mouth and fed her a morsel.

"I'm not hungry, KaKa," Anu spoke between chewing her food.

"Keep quiet and eat. It's bad manners to talk while eating." He placed another piece of roti dipped in shahi paneer in her mouth. "Didn't anyone teach you that?"

Anu smiled. Tears of joy threatened to ruin her makeup. She had spent three hours restlessly fidgeting while the beauticians had painstakingly fixed her hair and done up her face. Everyone told her she looked like an angel. She personally felt she resembled a ghost.

It was only when Anuj had complimented her looks that her fears had been laid to rest.

"GK," Anuj came looking for him. "Mr. Keshubhai Patel is here to meet you."

GK pointed to the plate he was holding out. Shaking his head, Anuj took the plate from his hand. "I'll feed Anu, you go and chat with your friend."

"He's not just my friend Anuj, he's also the ex-Chief Minister of Gujarat."

Anuj smiled. The world might consider GK, Anand Kapadia's employee but he was a force to reckon with.

As GK handed Anuj the plate and moved away, Anu's eyes turned wide like saucers.

"You're related to the royal family of Baroda, Kaka is best friends with Keshubhai Patel, now don't tell me Mr. Narendra Modi will be coming to our wedding."

"He did say he would try."

Anu coughed and spluttered. Anuj hastily placed the plate down and lifted a glass of water to her lips while gently tapping her back. As the cough subsided, Anu glared at him.

"Don't ever do this to me again!" she admonished him. "Lie if you must. This additional excitement is too much for my poor heart to handle. I am a simple girl from a simple middle-class household."

Leaning close to her ears, he whispered: "I know. I know who I fell in love with. Thank you for being you."

He picked up the plate and continued feeding her as if nothing had happened. Anu shivered, lamenting the fact that she couldn't rub her hands to get rid of her goosebumps. She thought of asking Anuj to help. And then chuckled as her thoughts turned naughtier. 

Raising her head, she looked into his eyes. They'd turned a stormy grey. She sighed. He smiled.

*****

"What is this?"

It was 8 am in the morning and seeing suitcases and boxes neatly stacked near their front door, Leela panicked.

"Who has placed all this here?"

Hearing her loud voice, Hasmukh, Vanraj, and Pakhi came out of their rooms to see what the commotion was all about.

"Who's is all this?" Leela asked again, pointing to the luggage near the door. When all the household members looked perplexed, she sighed. She looked around to see the members who'd gathered.

"Where is Toshu? Why isn't he here?"

"He's packing Baa," Toshu's wife replied lugging a couple of suitcases and placing them near the already growing luggage pile.

"What??? And why are you bringing these suitcases out?"

"We're moving out Baa," Toshu's voice boomed through the hallway.

"Moving out, what do you mean moving out?"

"Devi and I are moving out. I have requested a transfer to our Jamnagar office. I will be starting there next week."

"But why?" Leela was in a panic.

"Because Devi is pregnant and I don't want our child to grow up in this house."

Leela sat down on her swing with a thud. She was going to be a great-grandmother. But her grandson didn't want his child to be born in this house.

"Why?" she whispered.

"Because Baa, I've learnt one thing - that money doesn't buy happiness. We could all have been happy, we were all happy when Ma was here. But we never respected her. And then she left. Look what happened after."

Leela looked at Paritosh with accusatory eyes. "You ill-treated her too. You disrespected her too."

Paritosh had the decency to look ashamed. "I did Baa. I did. I saw how you and Papa behaved with Ma and I imbibed that without thinking about whether it was right or wrong. I wish I had been more discerning like Samar."

He sighed and wiped that lone drop of regret that had spilled out of his eye. "Papa should have taken a stand for Ma. He didn't. 

"But I have learnt from his mistakes. If we continue to live here, you will continue to treat Devi the way you treated Ma, and my child will end up not respecting his or her mother. I will not be responsible for that. 

"If we cannot learn from Ma's sacrifices, then the tears she shed in this house would be meaningless. I might have not been a good son. But I will definitely be a good husband. My wife will not have the same fate as my mother."

His wife walked up to her father-in-law. As she bent down to take his blessings, she said: "Bapuji, you're the closest person I've had to a father figure in my life. I would love it if you came with us to Jamnagar. My child needs a grandparent. I promise I will take good care of you."

Hasmukh placed his hand on Devi's head. He was touched by his daughter-in-law's gesture. Without a word, he walked into his room. He came back a few minutes later with a packed suitcase.

Toshu and Devi smiled. Leela grew more agitated. Wanting to prevent an ugly outburst, Vanraj tried to reason, "But Toshu..."

He never got to finish what he wanted to say.

"GO!" Leela yelled at all three of them. "GO. ALL OF YOU GO. What do you think? That Leela Shah is weak? I have my son with me. And as long as he is there with me, I can never be weak. Go. All of you go. Tomorrow you will all come back to me. That time we'll see."

Toshu looked at her. Some people never changed. He walked up to his father and Baa and bent down to seek their blessings. Both refused to bless him. Sighing, he got up and walked back to Hasmukh and Devi. Picking up the luggage, the three of them made their way out of the Shah house.

As the door closed after their departure, Leela finally allowed the tears she'd been holding inside her eyes to spill. The Shah house was falling apart bit by bit. First Anupama had left the house, then Kavya, then Samar. Now Paritosh, his wife, and her husband had moved out as well. 

She looked at the idol of Kanhaji in the house's temple. The idol seemed to mock her. She rushed to the temple and placed her head at the foot of the idol and cried profusely. She didn't know what she'd done wrong. She'd only watched out for her son. How was her family falling apart? There was no answer. Her conscience had died a long time ago.