The Chosen One

Chapter 38 - A day before the big day

"Mine is more beautiful and bigger than yours" Mithra whined looking at the mehendi clad hands of her twin sister.

"No, see I have two hearts and five flowers, mine is more beautiful" Nethra argued looking at her hands.

"Amma, Amma, Maaa... " both of them shouted and shook Sivaangi who was sitting along with them physically but mentally some where else, while the Mehendi artist was busy showing all her talents on her tiny palms

"Mmm.. sollu ma" Sivaangi asked looking at her kids.

"Whose hands are more beautiful? " Mithra asked with a cute pout on her face.

"Whoa!!! look at that" Nethra exclaimed nudging her twin sister to look at her mother' s hands, which made Sivaangi too to concentrate on her hands.

Sivaangi never had any inclination towards Mehendi ever in her life, the mere thought of sitting in one place for one hour minimum without moving while putting the Mehendi and following few hours of not able to use her hands at all never sounded glamorous to her and to top it  off, she always had this complex how Mehendi might look in her kutty hands, but looking at her hands now, she herself was amazed by the talent of the artist.

"No wonder Mika praised about you so much, you indeed have magic in your hands, this is so beautiful" Sivaangi exclaimed looking at the artist.

The artist gave back a friendly, warm smile while her hands continued to draw like an artist.

"Ma'am, his name?  "  the artist asked.

"hmm.. what? " Sivaangi asked confused.

"I want to know his name, so that I can hide it between the designs, its a tradition, the darker the mehendhi gets the more you love him, the faster he finds his name in your hand, the more he loves you" the artist said with a shy smile.

"Ashwin, but you can just write AK, if writing Ashwin completely is difficult in my kutty hand" Sivaangi replied.

"You are marrying Ashwin anna?  " the artist exclaimed in shock

Sivaangi replied back with a pleasant smile.

"Wow! this is so good, when we saw the picture the other day in Anna's instagram post, we did not want to read too much into it, we just assumed that it was for a project together, even though we really wanted to think otherwise" the artist exclaimed while continuing her work.

"So what do you think  now? "Sivaangi asked curiously

"Nothing to think, I am just happy and content, knowing that destiny and fate cannot be altered even if the respective person involved want to change it, if it has to happen, it will happen, the path taken to reach there might be different and difficult but in the end the destination will be beautiful and perfect" she replied her eyes and face clearly echoing the emotion behind the words while her hands skillfully wrote 'Ashwin' in a beautiful calligraphic way, blending the words amidst the curves of the design, perfectly camouflaging it. 

Both Nethra and Mithra looked at both the women confused trying hard to follow their conversation but unable to comprehend even one single word.

"Akka, why have you not put such big design in my hands? for amma alone you have put until here?  "Nethra asked pulling the mehendi artists' sleeve trying to get her attention and stretching her hands until elbow showing how long her mother's mehendi was.

"Because it is your mother's wedding tomorrow, not yours "  the artist replied mildly pinching her nose.

"No, we are also getting married tomorrow, Appa said, so write appa's name in our hands also " Mithra argued with a cute pout.