Royally yours

42. Engagement

Daksh

Days passed sooner than expected and it is our engagement tomorrow. We decided to have every wedding ritual in both traditions including the engagement. As part of this, today morning was my Roka, and evening is baraksha(where the bride's side males give gifts to the groom and accept him as son-in-law). We are going to perform this ritual in Hithens' home as none of our parents want to perform wedding rituals in hotels or resorts for some unknown reasons.

Chaitras' brothers opened a few resorts in  Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Jodhpur, and Bangalore in the last 2 weeks. It was a prestigious project that kept them busy for the last 2 years. Chiatra was traveling continuously as she was the one who did something called 'paalu ponginchadam' and she played a significant role in those puja events though her parents or her brothers and their partners did Puja, she was called a lot of times to perform their aarthi, make offerings to god and other things. I realized Daughters of the family play a very important role in Telugu family special events be it buying something, starting a new business, or performing puja. Even in our families, we give importance to daughters but I am not sure if it was equal to the importance they give.

We landed in Hyderabad yesterday night and I dropped Chaitra at her home. She said she would manage but Papas' strict orders made her come with us without any tantrums. I spent this morning in our branch office going through a few files.  I returned to the resort Akash arranged for us by afternoon and freshened up. We reached her place in the evening.

We were greeted by her parents, Hithens' and Devs' parents, and her grandparents. Akash and Dev gave me a brotherly hug and we took our seats. I looked around to get a glimpse of her but she was nowhere to be found.

"Where are bhabi, Bindu Di, and Ishika Di? I can't find Hithen either?" Akshaya asked looking around for them.

"They went to see Ganesh Pandals beta. Chaitra is not required for this ritual and Bindu wanted to go out. So, they all went out along with Vivaan." Chaitras' maami replied making me huff internally. From where does this girl get so much energy to roam around? She traveled for a whole week but is still in the mood to go out.

Once her father applied tilak on my head and gave me gifts, her parents blessed me. Her maamu maami and Atha, mama followed the same and bestowed me with gifts and blessings. Mumma and Papa are also required to give gifts to her as part of Godbharai and they are going to go to her home after this and they denied me from coming along saying I have no work there.

Her family, I mean all of them combined gave me some expensive watches, rings, perfumes, a brand new sports car, a few suits, cufflinks, broaches, and a pen studded in diamonds.  I would have rejected them but they said they had every right to spoil their Chaithus' husband and that made me shut up and accept all their gifts.

My family bought a few sarees, handbags, makeup items, perfumes, a jewelry set, and a few watches for her godbharai. I tried to stop them saying she doesn't need all those but their glares made me shut up and do whatever they wanted to. She really doesn't need them as I have already done a lot of shopping for her and her previous collection was no less but who will say that to my family? Not me, obviously. I don't want to get teased by them.

My family left for her home along with her family asking me, Rohan, and Naksh to go back to the resort at which we rolled our eyes but we had no other option so we went back to the resort.

"Did you like the gifts?" I texted her once my family returned and waited for her reply while reading a file.

"Yes, but aren't they too much? I mean I already have a lot in my collection!" She texted and I could imagine her expression which would be a mixture of happiness and sadness. She would be happy as she got new additions to her collection but sad because she doesn't know what to do with them. 

"Well, I tried to stop them but they love their daughter-in-law way too much and asked me not to interfere." I sent and she liked the message before typing a reply.

"The same happened here! When I told them you had a lot in your collection they straight away asked me to shut up!" She sent along with a huffing emoji making me chuckle. We chatted for a while and wished each other good night. I checked my sherwani fitting once and let sleep engulf me.

The next morning I attended an online conference and by the time it concluded it was already afternoon. My sisters left for the parlor their 'Bhabi' suggested to get ready for the engagement that would take place in the evening. 

I took a short nap and trimmed my beard before taking a relaxing shower. I got dressed in my sherwani, applied a little gel to set my hair, and wore the pearl set maa forced me to. I sprayed my favorite cologne and I was ready to go. But the girls who left for the parlor in the afternoon didn't return yet.

"They said they would reach there directly," Rohan informed us after talking to Nithi Di and we all started to her home where the engagement would take place. Her brothers welcomed us and guided us in. I met an overly energetic Vivaan who was jumping in his mother's hands blabbering something. He smiled at me once I was standing in front of him and forwarded his hands asking me to take him which I did. He better stay in my hands rather than in hers. 

Akash and Dev introduced me to some of their business associates and I did the same introducing them to my business circle. 

"Akash, mumma is asking you to guide Daksh to dias, Pandit ji is here and it's time for Nishitartham," Bindu said and Akash excused us from the men and took me to the stage. There a Pandit Ji was waiting for us with some puja items. Soon, maa, papa, and Chaitras' parents came onto the stage. Now only she is left to come. 

I felt someone nudging me and frowned looking at Rohan who turned my head to the front from where Chaitra was coming. She looked beautiful in that saree. Suddenly, everything except her blurred and I could hear my own heartbeats. Her hair is perfectly set and beautiful earrings adorned her ears. A bindi laid between her perfectly shaped brows. She lifted her liner-adorned eyes and looked at me with a small smile on her rosy lips. Her neck was filled with a golden choker and haar, and her slim waist was bound with a waistband that held her pallu in place. Her hands were filled with bangles that made a jiggling sound with her every movement. Ishika bhabi and Bindu bhabi helped her onto the stage and she sat between her parents. Pandit Ji performed some rituals and wrote the lagna patrika and read it out. After that, our parents exchanged the taals her parents gave the taal to my parents which contained a suit, and a platinum ring and my parents gave her parents a taal that had a saree and a choker. Then we exchanged garlands and she went away to change into her engagement lehenga. She wanted to wear a saree for Nischitartham and agreed to wear a lehenga for the engagement party at my and her cousin's request.

She came back wearing the silverwork lehenga that I liked at first glance. She was looking breathtakingly beautiful. Ishika forwarded a ring to her and she looked at me holding the ring between her fingers. I forwarded my hand and she slipped the ring looking straight into my eyes with a beautiful smile on her lips.

Akansha forwarded the ring to me and I held her hand, made her wear the ring, and kissed her knuckles lightly.

"Congratulations, to be Mrs. Chauhan!" I whispered huskily near her ear tracing the ring on her finger. Her cheeks flushed pink while her eyes cast down with shyness.

"Congratulations to you too, Mr. Chauhan!" She whispered back in a low tone tracing the ring she made me wear a few moments ago marking me hers. 

 Then we were forced to pose for 100s of pictures before we were allowed to eat.

*********************************************************************************************

Paalu ponginchadam - It's something like boiling the milk until it flows out and making kheer/ rice pudding with that. This would be offered to Bhagwan as bhog whenever people start something new and mostly the girls of the family will be cooking this as it is believed that the girls of the family are incarnations of goddess Lakshmi and they would always bring success and fortune to their family.

Nischithartham - is an engagement ceremony held in South Indian households. On this day, the priest would check the horoscopes of the bride and groom and write lagna patrika that contain details like the names, father names, and clan details of both bride and groom along with the auspicious date and time of the wedding. Once these Lagna Patrika are exchanged between the families they can start with the wedding preparations.