2 States The Story Of My Marriage

betel nut. I offered it again and the priest accepted it. He announced the wedding
details - the non-abbreviated name of the venue, the lagnam, the star and
tomorrow’s date.
‘Six-thirty muhurtam,’ the priest said.
‘In the morning?’ Rajji mama said, shocked.
Ananya’s relatives congratulated each other on the formal setting of the time.
My relatives were aghast.
‘This is a wedding or a torture? It’s like catching an early morning flight,’
Kamla aunty said.
Fortunately, Ananya’s mother calmed the ladies by bringing in ten bags full of
gifts.
‘Mrs Kamla,’ she announced, reading out from the first bag. Each gift had the
receiver’s name, relationship with me and a code word for what was inside.
‘Me,’ Kamla aunty said and raised her hand like a child marking attendance in
class. There’s something about presents that turns everyone into kids.
‘We’ll open them in our hotel,’ Shipra masi said after the end of the prize
distribution ceremony.
‘And now, we will have lunch,’ Ananya’s father said, inviting us all to the dining
hall to a meal of rice, sambhar, rasam, vegetables, curd and payasam.
‘We’re trapped. No paneer here,’ Kamla aunty said as we moved to the paneer-
less dining hall.