The tableau continued. I turned to leave.
‘Wait, I will come,’ Aditi didi said. ‘I don’t understand what you are doing. But I will come.
Can’t let my sister do this by herself.’
She stood next to me and held my hand. I smiled at her and held back tears.
‘I will also come with you,’ Pankaj mama said. ‘Come, Richa, we can’t let her go alone.’
Richa mami debated between the roles of obedient wife and offended aunt, and chose the
former.
‘No need,’ my mother said. ‘She does everything alone anyway.’
‘Dad, you should come,’ Aditi didi said. My father stood up.
‘Come, Aparna,’ my father said in his soft voice. My mother looked at everyone. With much
reluctance, she stood up.
‘Yes, let’s go. Let’s get fully shamed,’ she said.
I rang the bell. Brijesh opened the door. He didn’t say a word and stepped aside to let me and my
relatives enter. The room felt ice-cold, and not because of the air conditioning.
Mr and Mrs Gulati, Brijesh’s parents and my almost in-laws-to-be, stood with glum faces.
Brijesh’s relatives, his father’s brothers along with their respective wives, sat gingerly on the bed.
Brijesh’s mother’s sisters—Rohini masi and Gunjan masi—sat on the sofa. Everyone looked like they
had had knives stabbed in their backs. Brijesh had already told them.
I struggled to figure out where to start. This is where age helps. For my mother seemed to
know exactly what would be a mature reaction. She burst out crying and went straight to Brijesh’s
mother to bear-hug her.
‘Somebody’s cast an evil eye, Sulochana,’ my mother said. Her lone hysterics made everyone
in the room feel even more awkward. Brijesh’s mother didn’t hug my mother back.
‘We are ruined. I had no idea my girl would do this to us. What do you do when your own
child is defective?’ my mother said, howling at top volume.
‘Sit down, Aparna ji,’ Brijesh’s father said.
I realized I had to take control. I went to the centre of the room and addressed everyone.
‘Hello everyone, I will just take a minute. To all in this room, I am sorry. I am really, really,
sorry. I am sorry because I was not prepared for this marriage but I said yes. I am sorry because I
brought shame to your relatives. I am sorry because I ruined your happy moment. However, I did this
because I felt going ahead would not be fair on Brijesh and his family.’
‘This is fair?’ Brijesh’s mother said. Her voice had a sharp sting to it.
‘No. But going ahead would be even more unfair. Between two unfair things, this felt less
unfair.’
I fought back tears as I listened to Brijesh’s mother.
‘In this room it is just us close relatives. You realize what we have to go through with all our
acquaintances who are also here?’ she said.
‘I do. I am sorry,’ I said, tears flowing. I folded my hands. ‘I really am sorry, aunty.’
Brijesh looked at his mother and then me. He stood silent with arms crossed on his chest.
‘You look so good together,’ my father said. ‘Can’t we do something?’