Arjun's POV :

With the usual chaos maker in the family Ananya, out of the way, peace should've prevailed in our house. But that evening turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable ones ever. In my whole life. And that's saying something.

Almost half an hour before Dr Ashwin and his wife and son were about to arrive, mom had gone to Janvi's room with an old salwar suit of hers.

"I wore this when your parents came to see me to fix my marriage with Raj", she told Janvi crisply, anybody else would've expected her to be tearful but I knew better. Mom wasn't one to get emotional at these times. I could see she was very keen to get this alliance fixed "We're not real sisters but we've rarely been anything less than that. Take it as my request. I'd like you to wear this today evening", she said.

Janvi took it reluctantly. I could totally see an inner storm building up inside her head. I wondered what she had up her sleeve. Would she say yes? No way! But the sparks would fly if she dared to openly reject Mr Columbia Graduate.

                                        ~~~~~~

When the door bell rang, mom called for Arav to open it. He got up and reluctantly hovered towards the door. He wrenched it open weakly and then awkwardly moved to the background as quickly as he could. Dad went forward to welcome our guests.  I stood further behind Arav hoping that they would mistake me for a part of the wall.

"Arjun! Go see if Janvi is ready!" Mom gave me a sharp nudge in the ribs.

Too glad to find an escape, I dashed over to Janvi's room and knocked the door, "Jan! They're here!" I mouthed "Are you ready?"

Silence.

"Hey? Are you there?" I asked.

I heard the bathroom door inside open and close and then I heard Janvi, "What? So soon? I'm not ready yet Arjun. Give me five minutes. Tell your mom I'll be there soon".

"Alright", I said and trotted back to the living room as slowly as I could.

Our guests had already taken the couch. It was just three people like we had expected. The doctor couple and their doctor son. But they were totally different from the two people I had seen as personifications of the word 'doctor' all my life - my parents.

Unlike mom and dad, both Dr Ashwin and Dr Veena were enormous and took up almost the entire sofa. They were dressed as if they were already coming for a wedding.

Dr Ashwin was wearing a visibly expensive suit  and his wife was wearing what I could make out as a designer saree, probably Gucci and at least half a kilo of unnecessary jewelry adorned her. She wore big jhumkas and makeup which was too cakey and not suitable for her age seeing that she would be at least ten years older than my mom. A handbag sat next to her and she had made sure the Louis Vuitton label on it was visible to us.

These two were clearly not surgical cardiologists. Perhaps, they just ran the hospital and took care of the management.

I looked at their son who was also in a suit. Compared to his parents, he was lookable. And much fitter. He had managed to screw into the same sofa with his parents. But he was no hunk. He was a total chump compared to Shaheer who looked like a Hindi TV show star.

Compared to my level headed and grounded parents, this family was clearly a bunch of brats. I totally couldn't understand why mom and dad were dying to impress them. I couldn't even picture Janvi having these dodos as her in-laws. There was no way my aunt was going to marry this buffoon. I mean, Janvi's a perfect ten. This guy wasn't even a five!

We just had to wait for Janvi to come and reject him.

Arav had clearly been introduced already. He was now miserably handing out coffee and onion pakodas that mom had got made by Radhika that afternoon.

"Our first son Arjun", mom now introduced me. I wasn't sure whether I should just say hello or fold my hands.

All three of them pompously acknowledged me at the same time by inclining their heads and smiling briefly.

It was like being introduced to the district collector. Not that I'm fond of district collectors. They always cancel our rainy day holidays.

It was typical formalities and niceties for the next ten minutes.

I will never understand all this superficial crap. Why should you act like you're happy to see someone when you're not? But all people do it. And when they do it, it's called being worldly. But when others do it, it's hypocrisy. 

However it wasn't too bad until the lady went an extra mile and asked me my least favourite question, "What are you planning to do after school Arjun?"

I decided to pull their leg. "Hopefully get into an Ivy league college", I said.

Mom and dad simultaneously looked at me very quickly. Arav nearly dropped the pakoda tray.

Since I was sure Janvi was going to reject this guy anyway, why shouldn't I have some fun?

The lady however didn't seem to notice and said "Really? That's wonderful! Our son has also studied in Columbia. You should consider that too you know".

"Your son studied in Columbia?" I asked with the maximum amount of surprise I could feign "That's amazing! I never knew that" I exclaimed, looking at their son now.

If only Ananya had been there to see this circus!

"Bro, you'll be a role model to me from today!" I cooed "Oh Janvi is so lucky!".

The guy who seemed to be one ounce smarter than his parents looked at me slightly doubtfully but gave a reluctant smile.

By now my parents and Arav had totally realised what was going on. Dad decided to step in before our guests realised what I was doing.

"Our Janvi is very talented too", he said eagerly.

"Where did you say she had studied?"

"She did her BA in photography from IIMM in Delhi", mom said neatly.

"That's impressive", the lady said with a phoney smile and turned to her husband, "What do you think?"

"I am definitely impressed. And we have no qualms with having a working daughter-in-law", he said airily.

Duh! This wasn't 1960, was it?

The lady then audaciously picked up her coffee and sipped it. Mom and dad glanced at each other nervously.

God! How primitive could this get? All this hungama for the Columbia University tag! I was pretty sure anybody could get into an ivy league university if they had the money. And by the looks of this guy, I was almost certain that he hadn't gone in on merit.

I wondered what Ananya was up to. Whatever it was, it couldn't be worse than sitting here in this freak gathering.

"Ah, here she is", mom said with relief as Janvi's room door opened and she walked out.

I looked up and my jaw dropped.

No, it wasn't because she was looking a vision in the salwar that mom had given her. Because, she wasn't wearing that salwar at all.

She was wearing a night dress.

We stared at her and she stared back, standing there in that night gown which was too big for her thin frame. Her hair greasy, uncombed and all over her face. She had no make-up on.

I'd never seen any of the three ladies in my house like this. Mom was always dressed to the nine in a saree, Ananya too never put a toe out of line when it came to outfits and Janvi had always been a fashion queen. I couldn't believe she could look like this too.

But I was not the most shocked in the room. Behind me, I heard Dr Ashwin's son drop his coffee cup and saucer as they went to the floor in sync and crashed into pieces. The bastard! One piece of that beautiful porcelain set which my grandma had got us four years ago was gone!

                                     ~~~~~~

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" dad exploded at Janvi twenty minutes later after seeing Dr Ashwin's family off at the gate.

"Nothing", said Janvi "Just my reply to all of your atrocities. Because in case, you don't remember, my opinion was never asked in this matter", she snapped.

"We never forced you!" Mom said stiffly. She was livid. "Why did you have to put us to disgrace like that? You think this will end here? This will go out to many people!"

"Let it go", Janvi said "It's my honor that I've risked, not yours".

"It's ours too", dad snapped "Because in case you don't remember, these people are our acquaintances. We might have to face them after this. How do you think we'll be able to do that?"

"Even if you were going to say no why couldn't you do it cleanly? What was the need to behave like a rebellion leader?"

"There's someone else", Janvi burst out finally, "I'm in love with someone else. And I want to marry him. That's what it is", and then she crossed her arms and glared at my parents as if daring them to oppose her.

What a mess!

My parents stared at Janvi and she stared back. Me and Arav sat inbetween staring around the room.

"You're in love with someone?" mom asked finally, "Who?"

"Is he a doctor?" asked dad hopefully.

"God! No!", said Janvi.

"Oh okay", said dad making no effort to hide his disappointment, "Then what is he?"

"He's a photographer like me. We work together".

"A PHOTOGRAPHER?!" dad exploded, "Are you serious?"

"Yes", said Janvi sourly. She knew where this was going.

"You can't possibly marry some photographer Janvi", said mom, "That too, someone who works for a fashion magazine!"

"Why not?", asked Janvi defiantly "I am a photographer too. It fits perfectly!"

"What's his name?" Dad questioned.

"Shaheer".

"Shaheer? You're in love with a Muslim? Oh God!"

"Is this what you do in your studio?" Mom now took her turn "Do you actually do any work there or is this the only thing you do?"

"Enough!" Janvi finally screamed for the first time that evening, "Enough of you and your stupid policies and your insults. I'm going to be thirty, dammit! You can't treat me like your child. Moreover I'm not! And I'm going to marry Shaheer as soon as I can! And FYI you guys are not invited to my wedding". 

She walked out of the hall dramatically and before I looked up, I heard her room door bang.

"What a disgrace!", Mom muttered in frustration as she picked up the remaining coffee cups which were still on the table and walked into the kitchen, "I don't what kind of girl she is!".

Halfway into the kitchen, she stopped and turned back and announced, "I'm too tired to make anything for dinner. We'll have to settle with the rice and pickle left from afternoon and you boys can take noodles if you want."

"Arav go see if Janvi is opening her door", dad said.

Arav hurried to Janvi's room and came back in ten seconds, "Nope", he said.

"What a problematic girl!" dad said banging his hands on the table, "You two see what happens when you're given a free hand? No more freedom of expression for anybody in this house! Do you understand?"

Mom conveniently did not come out of the kitchen. I pretended like dad was talking to the wall. The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. Feeling that somebody ought to break it, Arav very quietly said "Yes dad".