New beginnings

This story is part of a novella – A girl was born

Do check out the first and the subsequent chapters – https://firsttimemommy.net/category/a-z-blogging-challenge-2018/

indian bride - 14th chapter.jpg
Image: flickr

Tara couldn’t believe that Nikhil, the sweet and simple guy whom she had met two months ago was now her husband. At first, Tara had refused to meet him, in fact she did not want to meet him at all, but under the family pressure she had relented. It was her mother’s tears that finally did her in.

She said, “Honey, you have been refusing good proposals for the last 2 years, but now we want to see you married and happy with your husband. It’s not that we are asking for much.”

Her father then joined in, “Child, just for one mistake do you want to suffer all your life. Haven’t you repented enough?” He wasn’t wrong. She had regretted her one mistake long enough. Her one big mistake of falling in love, with the wrong man. She had cried till there weren’t any tears left.

She had met Nikhil and realized that he was very different from Himanshu. He was a man of few words. He didn’t talk much, just asked Tara if she would be OK living in Mumbai, away from her parents. She nodded. She hadn’t thought of it really.

On her wedding, she was dressed in a beautiful red brocade lehenga with a rich zardosi border and studded with tiny diamonds. Her makeup was simple and she wore a tightly tied ‘veni’ of sweet smelling mogra around her hair which was wrapped in a bun. The wedding is the happiest day in a girl’s life, then why the bride’s eyes looked hollow and why her smile didn’t reach her eyes, if guests at the wedding thought that, they kept this thought to themselves. When Tara made a promise in front of the holy fire that she would strive to make her husband happy, she didn’t lie; she really meant it.

Moving to Mumbai was a blessing in disguise. Managing a household in a different city where she knew no one from her past kept her very busy. She changed the home décor, bought groceries, entertained Nikhil’s friends; her life was full.

Tara and Nikhil were like chalk and cheese. Tara was impetuous, while Nikhil thought things through. Tara was fiery as the sun, while Nikhil was cool as the moon. Together, they made a nice pair. No one looking at them would say there were made for each other, but they looked as if they were in for the long haul.

Do you think she should have married Nikhil? Do you think she would love Nikhil the way she did Himanshu? Read it in “Ombré happiness“.

Memories haunt forever

This story is part of a novella – A girl was born

Do check out the first and the subsequent chapters – https://firsttimemommy.net/category/a-z-blogging-challenge-2018/

thirteenth chapter

The next morning, Tara woke up late. In between bouts of crying and helpless anger, she managed to sleep only in the early hours of the morning.

She entered the kitchen with eyes huge and swollen. Her mother gave her an ice pack and hugged her.

“Take a shower, you will feel much better. Then we have to go to the temple for puja. Remember it’s Thursday today, we need to offer prayers to the banana leaf.” She said.

“No!” Tara shouted.

“I am not doing any puja henceforth. And no fasts either.” Then with force, as her fingers were swollen too in the morning, she started taking off one ring after another and throwing them on the floor.

“I don’t want any of these either. Fat lot of good they did to me.”

“At least ask Himanshu what happened,” her mother pleaded with her.

“I am doing nothing of that sort. I waited for him for 15 months, he said he didn’t want to marry just yet, and I agreed. I did whatever he asked me to do. And this is what I get at the end of it. Rejection.” Tara was furious with herself. She was furious with her destiny and all the Gods in the world.

“No one will ever talk about that wretched man ever again in this house,” her father entered the kitchen at just that moment and announced. Her mother nodded her head.

It wrenched his heart to see her daughter suffering so much. He felt his chest constricted and his eyes heavy, but he didn’t cry then. He needed to put up a brave front. He wiped his eyes with is kerchief only once he was alone in the bedroom. Curse that man!

It was time he found Tara a good husband. A husband and kids should make her forget about her past.

She took sleeping pills to make her sleep. But, even they refused to work on her. Tara woke up in the nights with wet cheeks and pain in her chest. She wondered how one could feel so much pain and still go on breathing. Sometimes she felt she should cut her heart out from her body. Her life had shattered and scattered into a million pieces and she did not know how to pick them up. She was not even sure if she really wanted to.

Her parents saw her moving like a zombie and hurt inwardly. They did not know what they could do to help her. Their child and they could do nothing to wipe off that permanent doomed expression from her face. But how did you comfort someone who did not need comforting?

Love was such a scary thing. It overwhelmed you till you were just putty in its hands. She felt she was in a bog of memories, however much she tried to get out of it, more the memories would pull her down and haunt her.

Himanshu had once asked her, “What will you do if I leave you?”.

She had replied cockily so sure of this turn of event never happening, “I will haunt you for the rest of your life”. The truth was that it was him and his memories that were hell bent upon haunting her.

Will Tara ever find love and happiness again? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s chapter!