Once Upon A Hullabaloo!

CHAPTER 11

The Mandap mahurat and the Grih Shaanti puja for the peace and happiness in the new couple's life was to be held in the courtyard below. The groom and their family had the same ceremony going on at their place while we held our's in our house courtyard. The vacant guestrooms of the house had almost filled up with the arrival of the close family relatives. Rest of the guests were given a stay at the rooms rented near the wedding venue.

With most of the guests due to arrive tomorrow, the courtyard was enough to hold the ones that were present for th pre-wedding pujas. Miral's hysterical behaviour was my alarm to wake up in time for the occasion. 

"I lost this perfect bracelet which goes with the saree I am wearing today." She sat on the bed with teary eyes, "Can you believe it?! It is not supposed to happen right before the occasion!"

I stared at her with a tooth-brush stuck in my tooht-paste foam filled mouth. At the temporary loss of the ability to talk, I went to the bathroom to finish up the task of my dental-hygiene. I found her going through her cupboard and scattering everything inside when I came out.

"What are you doing?!" I rushed to her and pulled her back from the mess, "Are you out of your---"

She stared at me with her puffy eyes while her red nose flared in fury. A stream of hot tears running down her cheeks couldn't seem to stop. I tried to come up with something appropriate to say but didn't succeed at it. I had never seen Miral this upset and infuriated at the same time.

"Let's find your bracelet. I'll help you." I put my arm around her shoulder.

After a rigorous search of the room, I found a silver bracelet studded with pink stones lying under the dressing-table. 

"Here." I said handing it to her, "One of us must have accidentally knocked it off the table."

She stared at the shining stoned in her palm, "Although I adore the bracelet, I doubt if it's the perfect fit for my saree. What if it doesn't go well with it?"

"You wouldn't know until you try it." I shrugged, "You should get ready. We shouldn't miss the auspicious time fixed for the puja."

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"She was acting weird." I said draping a dark-green and white saree on my magenta blouse, "I think she was having these pre-wedding jitters maybe."

"Look at you- sympathizing with Miral. That's unusual!" Naina giggled from the speaker of my mobile-phone.

It was the first time I had called my magic-beans since I had abruptly left for Ahmedabad the other night. The phones were on loud speaker on both the ends so that I could talk to all of them while getting ready for the function downstairs.

I rolled my eyes still struggling with the length of cloth around my body, "She is still my sister and it will freak me out if she starts sobbing over some piece of imitation jewellery. It's a different story that I mentally murder her all the other times. Shoot!"

The pleats I had made for the saree to tuck in fell from my hands.

"What? What happened?" Zalak asked on the other end.

"Nothing." I bent down to grab the part of saree lying on the floor in a heap, "I am late for the function. The puja has already started and I'm still wrestling with a saree in the room! Baa is going to slaughter me into pieces."

"Tell me you're wearing the saree I gave you!" Zalak screamed on the other end, "Don't you dare skip out on that outfit because---"

"Shut-up already! That's not even important." Drishti interrupted in, "Tell us how it's going with you and kshitij? Is he being the perfect man he is supposed to be?" She added in a drooly voice.