Part 4
All I had wanted was my own little family, an understanding husband and two kids I would raise in my home sweet home.
Tarun
Virat
Rajat...
I was amazed I didn't even remember the names of the men who rejected me after Rajat. There were at least 5 more. Some thought I was not pretty, some said I was boring. Some wanted my beautiful sister instead. That reminded me of my best friend Suresh, who wanted to marry me because he felt no one was marrying me, while he desired my sister too. Thankfully, I had found out before it was too late and called off the wedding myself, for a change, unlike my other few marriage alliances that were broken by the groom or his family.
And the last one was Abhishek. Although I had agreed to a fake marriage with him, I had decided this was going to be it. My mother wanted to see me as a bride and she was going to. And once this marriage ends, I planned that I would leave Mumbai and shift to Delhi. I always wanted to pursue my Ph.D. course at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and I was finally going to do that. That would keep me away from the prying neighbors and even my mother wouldn't be as worried since she wouldn't see me every day.
One thing I knew for sure. Even if I refused to marry Abhishek, my mother was going to find another guy and that guy would reject me, yet again. The cycle would never end. I was sick of it. I wanted to focus my life in something else other than marrying and making a family.
Marriage just wasn't my cup of tea.
I felt a lot better forecasting the next year of my life as I tried to sleep that night. Images of the car ride with Abhishek and his words kept on interrupting in between.
The next day I went to an Internet cafe and printed out applications for the Ph.D. program. I also collected information on the possible advisors I want to pursue my research with. Meanwhile, it seemed like Abhishek had given a head start to the wedding preparations since I saw a lot of exchanges between my mother and his Daadi.
Hi Chashmish, meet me at Marine plaza at 6 pm. Call me when you are at the reception ;-)- Abhi
Bulbul was the one to let me know of the text from Abhi, since my mobile phone was left in the living room. She was excited that Abhi had called me for a date. She was also intrigued with the offensive nickname he had given me. She was his fan and of course she was going to call his name calling antic cute, very much to my fury.
I guessed Abhishek wanted me to do the pre-nuptial agreements. I had never been to a posh hotel like that but when I reached, I was nervous. The people around were so different from me that I felt out of place. I called Abhishek and he did not pick my call. I waited for a minute at the reception wondering if I should call again and a person dressed in formals introduced himself as Abhishek's lawyer and took me to a suite. Abhishek was waiting for us there.
"Hi, thanks for coming. Mr. Bose, you have met her already, my partner in crime", Abhishek introduced me to the lawyer.
Mr. Bose went through the details of the agreement. He explained to me that both Abhishek and I needed to declare our assets and come to an agreement over the provisions after divorce. I literally had no financial asset worth mentioning and hence the agreement was only going to be about Abhishek's belongings. I was amazed at how many properties he owned and how much he was financially worth. I couldn't believe he had that much money at this young age. But then, I was repulsed thinking how it was all about money. I let the lawyer finish what he had to say and at the end of it I said I didn't want a penny out of Abhishek's pocket for alimony and I could give it in writing.
But the lawyer argued it wasn't as simple as that, and I could refuse to accept alimony when we actually divorced. It was decided that Abhishek was going to offer me a huge property near my house as compensation, some other things and a certain amount of money. I was not going to have any rights over his music or the house he currently lived in and a bunch of other clauses were put forward. Most of which went over my head for I was not really concentrating on this cynical agreement of a fake marriage. I signed wherever they asked me to and I just wanted to get out of that place as soon as I could.
The whole ordeal took more than an hour and finally the lawyer took our leave.
"Thanks, Chashmish. Look, I don't trust anyone. That's why we had to do this", Abhishek explained.
"Hmm, money matters before everything else", I said sarcastically.
"Money does things to people you can't even imagine, Chashmish", he said in a quick reply.
I wanted to ask him to stop calling me Chashmish, I wanted to argue I didn't give a damn about his money, but my mind was thinking how whatever fake relationship I was going to start with him is going to be based on clauses and not basic human emotions and values. And what was there to prove in a fake relationship anyway?
I got up to leave for home but Abhishek insisted he was going to drop me. I was in no mood to argue with him and hence agreed.
On our way to my home, he tried to pick up conversations about random things and I hardly responded.
"What am I getting myself into!! Gotta thank my luck, this is only a fake marriage. They say shaadi is barbaadi (weddings are destruction), truly so. Can anyone imagine dealing with a wife like this? So much nakhras (tantrums) that she doesn't even respond to half an hour of an attempt at conversation? And my Daadi thinks this is the best girl on earth", I heard him suddenly talking at a loud voice and all I could do was looking at him amused.
"How can you talk like this when we are doing something so strange and lying to everyone around us?", I couldn't help asking him.
"At least you opened your mouth. I am blessed. By the way, now that we have agreed on this fake marriage, what's the point in maintaining a grouchy face and bore me to death?", he said as he stopped the car in front of my house.
"It's not easy..", I tried to say something and I stopped midway as he pulled my cheeks to make a smiley face.
"Wondering if you can move your facial muscles at all. Hmm?", he made such a silly face that had me smile a little. He shook his head. I got out of the car and started walking to my house.
Although I was still smiling, I did not like that he actually made me smile.
"Smile all you want in your house. I won't even know", I heard him say as he drove off.
Needless to say Bulbul saw me smiling and kept teasing me over it for the next few days.
The next few days were spent in wedding preparations. The wedding was only a week away and we were not going to have a dedicated day for engagement. It was decided that we will exchange rings on the wedding day itself. I did not meet Abhi until the day of wedding but his wedding planners often visited me instructing me over my wedding dress and even had me do rehearsals in the marriage hall. Abhi wasn't a part of any of the preparations and his Daadi had told us he was out of station for a concert. Although I often remembered him, I brushed away my thoughts thinking that there was no point.
Everyone was excited except myself and of course the groom. My mother and his Daadi were running around with so much enthusiasm and joy that I was scared of thinking scenario that could occur when this marriage was to end. But I was going to deal with that later, as it came.
The wedding itself was a hoopla. Although it was conducted at the marriage hall owned by my mother, the place had turned into something else. Police security, and every possible media company had surrounded the hall. Faces that I only had seen on TV or movies were a part of the wedding guests. I was told by Abhishek's Daadi that he had instructed the wedding to be simple with minimal guests. I didn't know what was grand if this was simple.
But the wedding was short since most of the rituals were avoided or done for namesake. The actual wedding ceremony quietly happened in the Gurdwara in front of our house, something that made me ashamed that I was faking it in front of God. And later on there was a reception that had a routine of Abhishek introducing me to a celebrity guest and the guest hugging me, kissing my cheeks and saying some exaggerated praises while looking at me disapprovingly.
Abhishek hardly spoke to me throughout the wedding, nor did I make an attempt. We always had someone or the other surrounding us or talking to us, so, most part was just us fake smiling and going with the flow. But I knew how annoyed he was, when he rolled his eyes at me having to bear with every presumptuous guest.
I was never the emotional one in the family, but when I had to leave my mother's house for good I had broken down. I knew I was not only going to my married house, perhaps going away from this house forever. I knew my mother wouldn't really want to see me in this house ever again although she loves me to death. So, basically I was leaving the house I lived for pretty much all my life, and that was unbearable. I simply cried my heart hugging my mother, sister and Daadi. Abhishek's Daadi was with me the whole time trying to console me while she assured my folks. It's when she took me to the car I noticed Abhishek was already in the car looking away. Daadi sat with us too with me in the middle of Abhishek and her.
Daadi kept on talking to me with her soothing words often trying to get Abhishek to talk while he kept looking away or answered in monosyllables. But the only thing he said a few times was how he now wanted Daadi to get regular with her dialysis so that the kidney transplantation could be done soon.
When we reached the Mehra house, I finally took a look at the huge mansion I was going to live in for the next few months. I learnt that Abhishek's uncle and his family also lived in the same house. However, I was surprised to see that the number of house helpers exceeded the number of people actually living in the house. Daadi took her time to introduce me to everyone while also instructing how I was their boss from now on, which made me feel embarrassed.
It was almost midnight when I was taken to Abhishek's room by his Bhabhi and was left to wait for him sitting in the middle of the decorated bed. The first thing I did after Bhabhi left was to jump out of the bed. Suddenly was feeling restless having put in a room full of flashy stuff, a decorated bed for newlyweds and the worst part being the realization that I had to share the room with Abhishek. I paced around the room registering every little object that reminded a certain 'rockstar Abhi' and once I felt a bit better, sat on the large sofa.
"Can you believe I had to wait for two hours to come to MY room? That's because you had to be here before me!", Abhi lashed into the room and closed the door behind him. I got up from the sofa and looked at him.
"And what is this flowers and all?", Abhishek started removing the flower decorations on the bed. "What are you looking at, come help me", he ordered and I sure knew having the decoration removed will ease some of my discomfort too. Between the two of us, we cleared the flowers in no time.
I then noticed Abhishek removing his sherwani followed by the undershirt in the room itself. I was horrified at that act from him and cleared my throat to get his attention in case he didn't remember I was in the room too.
"What? Will you sleep in this heavy stuff or what? You can use the washroom or the closet to change", he told me and I didn't want anything other than running away from that room. I found my suitcase that the driver had left in the room and rolled it inside with me into the closet. I closed the door and started to remove my jewels.
It took me a while to undo my hair and get the heavy dress off of my body. As I started wearing my clothes I heard continuous knocks on the door. When I didn't answer immediately I heard him say "hey dumb Chashmish, I need my night wear. I just took a shower and I am freezing here".
I quickly wore my salwar kameez and didn't want to go out without clearing my stuff. I decided to find his clothes and with a lot of searching I found what I thought to be night wear from his humungous collection.
"What did you say? Dumb! Stop calling me these names", I said strictly as I opened the door and handed him his clothes.
"Oh you can talk, I thought you had lost your voice! Did you even say a word since we are in this room? And people who don't talk are called dumb", he was ready with his explanations. My mind did not register much since his still wet, only towel wrapped body did distract me for a few moments. I quickly went back to the closet and started folding my wedding clothes.
When I came out of the closet, he was spread on his bed already. He got up from the bed seeing me.
"I will sleep on the sofa, you can take the bed. Yeah, I can't share the bed with you. I don't want any complications you know", he winked.
"You won't fit on this sofa. You use your bed. I will sleep on the sofa", I said calculating how his 6 foot tall and broad frame wouldn't fit on the sofa.
"As you wish! Good night", he said getting back to his bed.
I got a comforter I had seen in the closet and laid myself on the sofa. It then occurred to me what he could have meant when he said he didn't want complications. I thought I needed to give him back on that.
"I am not looking forward to share bed with you either", I almost yelled.
"Of course, Miss Babaji", he said as he turned away from me.
Finally silence prevailed for some time and I closed my eyes hoping to sleep. A few minutes later I noticed him waking up and getting a water bottle from the fridge. He took out something from his side table drawer and it seemed like some pills that he gulped with water. Thinking he must have a headache, I felt my head to be hurting too. It took me a while to even feel sleepy for I kept on thinking about the events of the day, my mother, Daadi, sister and the future. And that's when I heard him snore lightly and rather than being disturbing, it somehow gave me a rhythm that I felt lulling me to sleep.
Edited by -Tia- - 9 years ago
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