chapter 6

19 years ago… “This is the best marriage proposal that has come our way,” Chetana overheard her father saying, a night before her would-be bridegroom’s visit to the beach house. “Padmini, our daughter is so lucky!”    Chetana was anxiously patrolling outside her parent’s room, waiting for her father to retire to bed so that she could talk with her mother in private. She felt deceived and trapped when she realized the real motive behind the visit to the beach house.     If it were her own town, she would have run away and sought shelter in some friend’s house to escape from the unsolicited marriage proposal. As she had done the same many times in the past, her family had come up with a fool-proof plan to pack her off to her in-laws. Now she was fluttering her wings like a helpless butterfly, eager to run away from the predicament.      But she had no acquaintance in the absolutely new town whose help she could seek to make an escape. She sneaked into their bedroom as soon as the lights were switched off. Her father had already started snoring while her mother was about to plunge into sleep on a grass mattress on the floor. Chetana walked in with stealthy steps and threw a glance at her father before creeping by her mother’s side on the mattress.“Ma, I don’t want to get married now,” Chetana whispered in her mother’s ear after assuring that her short-tempered father was definitely asleep. “At least, let me finish my studies.”“This time, you are in deep waters, Chithu,” her mother Padmini, who was her partner-in-crime and who had plotted, funded and supported all her past absconding, revealed. “The boy is a CA and your Appa is determined that this match happens.”“But Ma…” Chetana cajoled, “How can I marry a man I don’t even know?”“You can marry a man only if you don’t know him,” Padmini replied with a contemptuous smirk. “Do you think I would have married your Appa if I had known him earlier? No woman on the earth would do so!”“Please do something to save me, Ma.” Chetana held on tightly to the arm of her saviour.“Let’s be optimistic, Chithu.” Padmini closed her eyes and replied serenely, “What if the boy turns you down?”“Yes, that’s it!” Chetana had a brain wave. “I will beg him to say ‘no’ to this alliance.”“Don’t even think of doing so,” Padmini muttered in a sleepy tone, “the boy’s father is a close friend of Sivaraman uncle. He will tell your Appa on the very spot. And your Appa will hang both of us.”“So that’s the choice I have,” Chetana said ruefully, “marriage or martyrdom?”“Both mean the same, honey.” Padmini yawned. “The difference lies only in the way you spell them.”“Can’t you think of a way out, Ma?” Chetana looked at her mother for a reply but didn’t get any. “Ma!” She rocked her mother.All that Chetana got in reply were some muffled snores that competed with the loud ones of her husband. Chetana placed her hands on her ears and ran out of the room unable to stand the noisy snoring competition going on between the couple.         *     * “Don’t put so much kohl in my eyes, Ma,” Chetana complained as her mother helped her get ready the next morning. “I don’t want to look good. What if that boy ends up liking me?”“We can’t escape from destiny.” Padmini tried to enlighten Chetana with pearls of her worldly wisdom. “And never from the one who is destined to be ours.”“Don’t you have anything nice to say?” Chetana put a hand on her jumpy heart and glared at her mother with an annoyed frown. “I am already at the end of my wits.”“They are here Chithu, are you ready?” Chetana’s aunt came rushing into the room. “Oh, you look so beautiful!”“I wish I looked ugly.” Chetana grimaced.“Oh, Lord Ganesha! Why would a girl want to look ugly?” Chetana’s awkward remark knocked her aunt by a feather.“She is just joking, Sarojini Akka.” Padmini laughed hysterically to make it look like a joke. “I will just add some finishing touches and then I will bring her there.”Once Sarojini Akka had left, Padmini pulled Chetana close by hand and whispered into her ears, “Look Chithu, don’t talk rubbish with that boy. You know your Appa very well. Don’t break my marriage along with yours!”“Then why don’t you tell me what shall I say?” Chetana crossed her hands over her chest, staring hard at her mother.“Promise me that you won’t say anything more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if he asks you anything. Boys take timid and not-so-talkative type of girls to be perfect marriage materials. Let him think that you are one among them. And keep smiling like Subhalakshmi, the gracious heroine from the old movies, my favorite.”“What a brilliant idea!” Chetana stumbled upon a plan to send the chartered accountant back to his desk in Singapore. “I promise, Ma.” *    *    Chetana stepped into the hall holding a huge tray in her hands upon which numerous glasses of tea were placed. She was clad in a heavily embellished Kanchipuram silk saree and had more flowers than hair on her head. She glued her eyes to the floor and walked forward with light steps at a slow pace. But when she raised her eyes, she was dazed by the sight that she saw.      The parlour was almost jam-packed with members of the boy’s immediate as well as extended family. It appeared more like a cinema hall that had a ‘houseful’ movie playing, rather than the living room of Sivaraman uncle’s house. Her eyes ran through the faces of all those young boys and girls sitting along with the elders of their family. As she couldn’t make out who ‘the boy’ was among all those boys, she decided to start offering tea to the elders first.      On a huge sofa right in front of her, 5 men, who seemed to be in their mid-twenties, were sitting, grinning happily at her. They looked more like a Xerox copy of each other rather than different individuals. Chetana’s detective mind shortlisted them as the suspects and scrutinized them furtively to identify the ‘real culprit’ hiding among them.“Come here, my child,” an elderly lady beckoned Chetana.“She is so beautiful,” another lady said as Chetana approached the group of ladies.“Chetana,” Appa called her in a honeyed voice that she had rarely heard from her gruff father, “why don’t you take Anant to the garden? They should get a chance to know each other better before their marriage, isn’t it Mr. Subramanian?”‘What a fair chance to get to know each other!’ Chetana thought in her mind.