9th December 1998

Naina watched the approaching pink palace, growing paler by the second. The orange 'Wren and Martin' that she had spent hours decoding, hadn't included neither a word nor phrase that defined all that she was feeling in that moment.

While her colleagues made some enthusiastic remarks on sighting their destination, Naina experienced nothing but trepidation. As their car drove through the long driveway, her face almost matched the white Bauhinia blooms overhead.

Their driver was waved in the direction of a side entrance. As the other passengers eagerly exited the car, Naina sat very still, unable to move. Her mind was buzzing with too many memories and thoughts.

She silently addressed the long departed old man, Nanaji, all these years, I have lived by my promise to you and never taken any trips with strangers. Even today, I am not breaking it, considering I am accompanied by my colleagues. And yet coming back to this place feels so ominous. You understand, right? She had grown used to talking to him in her mind, saying things that had never left her lips all these years.

Naina took a few deep breaths, as she slowly counted in her mind. She got to fifteen by the time she felt ready to step out, and yet she shivered as her foot touched the ground. Mihir asked her "Naina, are you alright? You don't look too well..." She brushed away his concern forcing a tiny smile on her face "I am okay. It's just a little headache." Headaches... such a convenient ailment to blame during our moments of emotional distress.

They were met by Piyush from Radhika's team and shown to their rooms. Piyush, a jovial man who seemed to be in his early twenties, explained that their rooms were in the west wing, which were originally used by the palace staff. The wedding guests were occupying the main and east wing of the palace. The new arrivals were given half-an-hour to refresh and were expected to then meet up with Radhika for further instructions.

Naina noted that this time, her room was a very basic, no-frills version. A simple single bed, a cupboard with a mirror fitted on one of its doors, a wooden table and chair was all the room had to offer. No fancy chandeliers or painting gracing the walls. And definitely no assortment of pillows on a four-poster bed!

A tiny window offered a view of the back garden and the lemon grove. She could almost smell the lemons, at the recollection of walking through that grove. The memory of the tangy sweet pickle she had gobbled years back, now brought a metallic aftertaste at the back of her throat.

Casting another look across the plain room, she decided that this was good. At least, it would not let her forget who she was, and why she was here.

She had an urge to curl up in the bed and let the tears pour out, the ones that she had so doggedly contained, since she found out about the assignment the day before. But with only twenty minutes to spare before the briefing with Radhika, there wasn't enough time to indulge.

She quickly changed from her travel clothes into the red saree with a green border, which was her uniform with her current employer 'Royal Tours'. Tidying her hair and make-up, she slipped the lanyard with her ID-card around her neck.

As Naina stood in front of the mirror, she suddenly wondered, who was staring back at her? So far there had been three distinct versions of her: Naina-before-Sameer, Naina-with-Sameer and Naina-after-Sameer.

The Naina-before-Sameer had known joy, but it had been nothing like what Naina-with-Sameer had experienced. He had arrived like a cool soothing breeze during that arid hot summer. And those days had been magical! Her lips had been graced with a lingering smile all the time.

But the wind does not stay in one place, and she realised that he had been just passing through.

And then, the Naina-after-Sameer had experienced sorrow like never before. Her eyes had overflowed with never ending tears. Though it had got easier over the years, she had learnt that the waves of grief could come crashing out of nowhere, anytime and anywhere.

For some reason, probably the place, it seemed like the girl in the mirror was a combination of all the three Nainas. Did it mean she was finding pieces of herself that she had left behind?

Naina determinedly brushed away all these thoughts to some corner of her mind. It was time to conquer the anxieties and anguish of the past. And maybe let go of some of the things she had been clinging on to with all her might.

Grabbing her work diary, she left the room.

Radhika briefed the four tour guides from Royal Tours about the programme for the next few days, the number of guests and the requests already made by the client. She reviewed the ideas put together by them and shared her suggestions.

She gave them a quick orientation of the palace layout, and explained which rooms were assigned to the bride's and groom's sides. Later she took them over to a lounge allocated to the bride's family and introduced them briefly to the bride and her mother. Explaining that Vibha and Mihir would be assigned to their side of the family, she left those two guides behind to get better acquainted with the bride and her family.

Radhika then set out to the lounge allocated to the groom's family. Naina and Guptaji attempted to take in all the information being shared by her as they tried to match her brisk pace. Along the way, Radhika pointed out a few other areas set up for all the guests to meet and mingle irrespective of which side they belonged to, and where the various functions would be organised over the next few days. Some parts were already set up, while the labourers were busy working on the others.

As the entered their destination, Radhika waved at a very graceful looking middle-aged woman in a beige saree and led them towards her.

On reaching the lady, Radhika started "Good evening Mrs Somani. I hope you are settling in alright." The lady smiled back "Thanks Radhika. You staff has been most helpful. All the guests who arrived an hour back are also in their rooms resting now. And yes, the lunch served this afternoon as lovely too. But please can you make sure that they include a simple pasta dish in very meal? Some of the younger kids prefer it more." Radhika promptly agreed.

Naina watched this exchange, thinking Mrs Somani looked familiar but couldn't figure out why. Radhika addressed the two guides smiling "This is the groom's mother Mrs Vishakha Somani, which means our most VIP guest! Make sure you keep her very happy!"

As Vishakha chuckled at this introduction, Radhika turned to her "Ma'am, these are the two guides allocated to your side of the family: Mr Pramod Gupta and Ms Naina Agarwal. As I had explained earlier, they will ensure that excursions and activities are planned as per the preferences of your guests. We have arranged for two minibuses to always be available for these two. That way they can plan separate activities based the varied interests of your guests. For example, if one group wants to go sightseeing and if another group prefers to go explore the local shopping areas, Pramod and Naina can guide the two groups simultaneously."

Vishakha smiled "Nice to meet you both." Radhika added "Ma'am, please nominate a couple of points of contacts in your family for Pramod and Naina to co-ordinate with. If they start getting a variety of requests, they will consult with your contacts and finalise the plan. It will be perfect if you can nominate one male and one female as the co-ordinator."

As she mulled over this request, Vishakha's eyes scanned the room. She beckoned someone over and said as the girl reached them "This is my daughter Deepika. She will be one of the contacts from our side."

Radhika took over "That's great Ma'am! Deepika, this is Naina. She will be co-ordinating the local trips with you. If you or your guests need any information, or have any requests please feel free to reach out to her." As Naina smiled and muttered a "Nice to meet you ma'am." Radhika addressed Deepika chuckling "Consider Naina your Go-To-Girl for this week!"

Deepika did not look particularly excited to take on this responsibility, and cast her mother a hesitant glance "Mom... can't you ask someone else to do this?" Vishakha tutted "Deepu, please do this for me... beta, I will be more relaxed knowing you have this under control." Deepika recognised her mother's hidden agenda, but nodded offering Naina a small smile. Radhika rushed to assure the young woman "Don't worry, it will be an easy task. Naina has a lot of ideas. She can present them to all of you and you can accordingly decide."

Vishakha addressed Radhika "Let me have a think about the other contact. I think one of my brother-in-laws will be a good fit. In fact, I think I saw him somewhere around here just a couple of minutes back..."

Naina was once again looking at Vishakha feeling a little disconcerted by the familiarity, when someone approached from behind and addressed Vishakha "Mom, Veena aunty was looking for you. She wants to show you the sarees that she has bought from Delhi."

Naina felt the hair on her neck and arms raise with his every syllable. The blood gushed to her ears as she turned her head towards the speaker. And then time seemed to stop.

He continued talking, but she couldn't hear a word. She was convinced she was hallucinating. That could possibly be the only explanation why Sameer stood in front of her! She was sure that he would disappear in a moment, just the way he always did. But she wanted this moment to last forever.

Through the daze, she realised that she wasn't the only one looking at him. Pramod was looking at him curiously too and Radhika smiling slightly. Vishakha's word cut through the haze, "This is my son Sameer. Sameer, you met Radhika this morning, right? Here are two other members of her team, who will help us with sightseeing and stuff... Pramod and Naina."

Sameer nodded at the Radhika and Pramod and then turned in the other direction of the other girl. She wasn't facing him completely but looking at him over her shoulder. But he didn't need to see her entire face, just her shocked eyes were enough to stun him too.

Vishakha said something to Radhika for the next thirty seconds for so and then walked away followed by Deepika.

Belatedly Vishakha's words registered with Naina. She was his mother and that's why she had seemed familiar. Naina recalled seeing her that one time. And then something else sprung to her mind. Vishakha is the groom's mother, which means he is the groom!

Maybe she should have left dizzy or fainted like what is shown in the movies, but Naina just felt numb and stood still for the next few moments. Then muttering "Excuse me", she rushed outside, towards the restrooms that Radhika had pointed out earlier.

Sameer wasn't sure if she had been real. Had he just imagined her again?? He had envisioned her walking in the garden with a bunch of flowers when he arrived that morning, but that hadn't been real. Maybe this hadn't been either. God! This place is seriously messing up with my mind!

Just then he heard Radhika question the other guy "What happened to her? Where did she rush off to?!" The guy replied sounding a little apologetic "I am not sure... But I think she was feeling a little unwell when we arrived here. Let me go check on her. We will come find you." The man walked away in the same direction that she had dashed off before.

Radhika smiled uncertainly at Sameer and turned to leave after mumbling "Have a nice evening and let me know if you need any help."

Sameer sounded hoarse as he managed to push out the words "Who is she? I mean... the girl who was just here... who might be unwell." Radhika was confused, hadn't his mother just introduced both the guides, but reiterated "Oh, that is Naina. She is one of the local guides that we have hired for the event. There are four of them."

The words following her name seemed to fade away. His heart thundered, She is here. Really here!

Naina stood slumped over the basin in the toilet. She had thrown up the moment she entered. As she started cleaning up, she threw up again. She waited a few minutes for the nausea to pass and then splashed water over her face and rinsed her mouth.

When she looked up in the mirror, her own reflection did not register, instead all she could see was him standing there in the lounge. He had changed. He wasn't as lanky as she remembered him, and his hair looked different too. He had been wearing a black shirt, she hadn't noticed his trousers though.

Well, her one question had been answered. She had often wondered, if they would immediately recognise each other if they met again. A small part of her was infinitely relived, he hadn't forgotten her, at least not completely. Thank God for small mercies!

Naina was startled when someone knocked on the door. Her hands shook wondering if it was him. A voice asked from the other side "Naina, are you okay?" Recognising it was Guptaji, she replied "I am okay. Just feeling a little sick." He asked sounding worried "Should I fetch Vibha or Radhika?" She replied "No, it's not serious. I will be out soon." He replied kindly "Okay, take your time. I will wait for you."

She stayed inside for few more minutes trying to regain her composure but had to eventually step out. Guptaji had been standing a few paces away. He immediately rushed to her side "What happened? You said you had just a headache earlier... but you look really unwell now!" She muttered something about the roadside food from earlier not agreeing with her.

Guptaji glanced at his watch and said "It's still an hour and half to dinner time. Why don't you go to your room and lie down for a bit? If the Somanis' wish, I will present our ideas to them before dinner and ask them to decide and come back to us after dinner. That way we can finalise the actual plans for tomorrow when you are feeling a little better." Naina smiled at him gratefully and walked away.

Finding the thought of returning to that tiny room stifling, she stepped out into one of the numerous balconies. Dusk had started gathering and the temperature had dropped a few degrees since they arrived. She absentmindedly pulled the saree pallu around herself.

Settling on a chair in the corner, she took some deep breaths. Over the years, she had imagined so many scenarios of how they might meet again. Ranging from him showing up outside her office with a bunch of roses and confessing how terribly he had missed her, to suddenly running into each other during one of his trips to Ahmedabad. But, meeting him in Dasi Mahal like this, had never crossed her mind!

Along with the feeling of wretchedness, anger flared inside her too. How could he return here to get married?! She had long decided that she hadn't meant much to him, but it was hard to accept that she had meant so little.

She looked at the sky and asked Him, why had he chosen to mock her feelings thus? What more was left to break? All that philosophy about God putting us through the fire to make sure that we come out on the other side as pure gold... Did He not understand that there was hardly anything left of her? She wasn't sure what the strings were made of, the ones that kept all her broken bits together. But she was sure, they couldn't withstand any more fires.

No, she refused to put herself through more agony. Money or not, I am not going to stay here to see him getting married! She would request for more tours, work all weekends, do whatever else was required to save for Nani's surgery, but not this.

Her years of training, of prioritising professional over personal kicked in, and she started planning the next steps.

Naina decided that she would approach Radhika and tell her that she was feeling very sick. Yes, she would pretend that she had a very bad case of food poisoning! She would call Asmita ma'am right away and ask them to send a replacement immediately. If they sent someone overnight, the client would not mind as long as there was someone to attend to them tomorrow morning.

Once she had a plan in place for handling the professional predicament, her mind wandered back to her personal crisis.

Naina marvelled at her own calm. How was it that she hadn't crumbled in front of him? After years of fantasying about the one big confrontation with him, she had walked away without uttering a single word?!

A part of her tried to reason that she had done what was professionally right, as it would have been unprofessional to create a scene under such circumstances. But another part accused her of being a coward, after all, wasn't she planning to leave without seeing him again? The already defeated part of her tried to defend, what's the point of any questions now?

And yet, there was one small part that she stubbornly refused to acknowledge, which was more than a little delirious, If not him, at least the air that has just touched him, is now caressing me too!

* * *

Sameer had stood rooted in place for a few minutes after her colleague left - too stunned to react. After years of gazing at those photos where he had tricked her into modelling the red dupatta for him, he had been certain that she was just a figment of his imagination, as she stood draped in a red bandhej saree.

But Radhika had confirmed that it was her! By the time he managed to gather his wits, he wasn't sure where to look for her. He couldn't spot her, or that male colleague of hers in the area outside the lounge.

Just then Mr Rathi had approached him wanting to apprise him of some slight changes to the plans for the evening. Sameer only half listened, nodding at times, while his eyes kept searching for her. Partway through the conversation, he noticed her colleague returning to the lounge alone.

He quickly made some excuses to Mr Rathi and approached the guy "Excuse me... Sorry, I didn't quite catch your name earlier..." The man smiled back "No problem sir. I am Pramod Gupta. Most people call me Guptaji. But you can call me Pramod or Guptaji... whatever you prefer." Sameer had no interest in calling him anything at the moment, but nodded politely and then asked "That colleague of yours... Naina... Is she okay? I think I heard you mention to Radhika that she might be unwell."

Guptaji though taken aback by this unexpected concern from such an important person, replied reassuringly "Don't worry sir. She is alright, just a little indigestion from the food we had on the way here. I have sent her to the room get some rest. She will join us for dinner."

As Sameer helplessly looked in the direction of the door, he went on "Can I help you with something? I was planning on sharing some ideas with your group before dinner, but we can do it now, if you like." Sameer walked away muttering "Maybe later..." as Guptaji dutifully nodded.

Sameer paced around the lounge for a bit not able to decide on what to do next. Deepika who was passing by asked him "Are you alright? Why are you just marching up and down??" Realising he was acting strangely, he mumbled something and headed to the adjoining terrace.

He stood, gripping the ledge. Why had she run off like that? Agreed, she must have been shocked to run into him like this, but so was he! Does she have nothing to say to me even after all these years? Not even a simple bloody hello?!

The carefully constructed pretence of having made his peace with her decision was shattered in a split second.

I'll be damned if I put up with her silence this time! Seething silently, his first instinct was to instantly barge into her room and demand an explanation. But then, he realised that he didn't know her room. And he could hardly go around asking her colleagues where she was staying! He impatiently glanced at his watch and thought that he might as well be patient for the next hour or so.

He suddenly realised that her hair was different now. It was much longer, almost reaching her lower back. That was the only change he'd noticed in that moment. His chest tightened as the thought flashed through his mind, What if she's married now? Try as he might, he couldn't recall if anyone had mentioned her surname during the introductions.

* * *

Naina's chain of thoughts was broken when a couple entered the terrace. Well, it was more like the man pulled the woman in there! Lost in themselves, they didn't notice the person sitting in the corner.

The woman protested "Why have you brought me here? I have to finalise the decorations for the cocktail party. Radhika is waiting for me." He complained encircling her waist "Sanju, we have barely spent five minutes in private since I arrived last night! Enough with these preparations. Who cares if the flowers are pink or yellow, or if the ice sculpture is a swan or a dove?!" She pouted "Well considering it's a once in a lifetime occasion for me, I definitely care!"

For no fault of hers, Naina felt like an intruder. She knew she should make her presence known before she listened in on more of their private conversation. At the same time, she was dumbfounded, wasn't that Sanjana?! Radhika had introduced them to the bride and her mother just sometime back. Who is she getting cosy with?? That is definitely not Sameer. Is she cheating on him already?! Though outrageous, the thought did not feel as appalling as it should have.

The young man continued with his petition for attention "Are you saying you care about all these things more than me?" Sanjana shook her head and her voice softened "Of course not... Nothing is more important than my Honey Bear." He started leaning in for a kiss murmuring huskily "This bear definitely needs some honey..."

Naina cleared her throat loudly, startling the lovebirds. She stood up as they both straightened pulling slightly away from each other.

Taking a couple of steps forwards, she uttered "Sorry... I was just sitting outside to get some fresh air. Didn't mean to startle you." She noted with surprise that neither looked like they had been caught doing anything wrong. She awkwardly addressed Sanjana "Radhika introduced us earlier..." Not knowing what else to say, she started to leave "Let me not disturb you."

Sanjana called out sweetly "You are Naina, right? Sorry, I have been getting introduced to so many people today. All the names are getting mixed up now!"

Naina nodded feeling even more confused by this warm response. Some of her confusion must have been apparent on her face, cause Sanjana carried out the introductions "Ro, this is Naina, one of the local guides from Radhika's team. In fact, she is going to be working closely with your guests. And Naina, this my fiancée Rohan."

Naina blurted "You are the groom?!" Rohan looked surprised by this reaction but laughed good-naturedly "I sincerely hope so! Sanju, please tell me that you have not made any last-minute plans to replace me." Naina blabbered "Oh... sorry... Mrs Somani introduced us to Sameer... and I thought." Sanjana chuckled "Oh, you thought Sameer is the groom?! No way..." She slipped her hand around Rohan's arm and beamed at him "I am definitely sticking with this one."

Suddenly feeling very gracious, Naina offered her congratulation to the couple and excused herself from there.

As she stepped back inside the hallway, her heart felt so much lighter than it was feeling just a few minutes before. So, he wasn't getting married! I am such an idiot to think that he would choose to get married here!

But then she stopped in her track. So, what if the wedding taking place wasn't his?! Maybe he was already married... maybe he was here with his wife! The thought of running into his wife, left her white and cold like a sheet of ice.

She was once again convinced of the wisdom of her resolution to get away from this place as fast as possible. Nothing good could come of spending few days around him, could it?

(Hope you all are relieved by the reveal of who is the groom! :)

Hope the dates at the start of each part are helping you identify the timeline easily. Waiting for your feedback, as always!

Stay safe and healthy. God bless.

Lots of love, May)