Let's Stay Together

Chapter 6

The wedding commenced once each and every one of the invited guests were settled inside the temple foyer. The bridegrooms were seated beside their respective brides and the highly decorated priest who was specially summoned down to perform their wedding started carrying out the rituals reguired to complete their marriage.

Dhanusree sat nervously beside Balarama. She was very jittery with excitement and skittishness causing her mother to glare at her several times. That had made her cower and sat timidly. As the ceremony progressed, Dhanusree kept stealing glances at an equally apprehensive Balarama who was very aware of the twitchy and pretty bride seated next to him.

Devyani, on the other hand, was seated calmly with her eyes closed, on the stone platform, praying fervently for a happy life along side her husband. Even though she remained emotionless on the outside, there were a million questions running through her head about her future and she resorted to drown the noise in her mind by praying. Her expression was mimicked on Indrajith's face as well. His face remained too emotionless to the extent that he looked bored by the whole ordeal but that was not the case. He was deeply affected by the beautiful girl who was seated beside him with folded hands. He had not expected his bride to be the epitome of beauty. She had looked like an angel swaddled in earthly ornaments and clothes that did her beauty no justice. No wonder his father had asked for her hand in marriage. As the stray thought passed his mind, his face clouded with anger and he bowed down his face until he regained his composure.

Unaware of the mental ordeal through which her soon to be spouse was going through, Devayani stood up at the command of the priest to exchange the floral garlands. Dhanusree followed her suit. Soon the couples exchanged garlands and the grooms were asked to place the wedding necklaces around their brides' necks while the women all around them hollered as it was tradition during the weddings.

The grooms then proceeded to apply sindhoor in the partitions of bride's hair and the couples circled around the sacrificial fire seven times. The grooms then gifted their brides wedding silks and jewellery boxes upon which the priest declared the wedding complete.

The invited guest flowed down to the stone platform where the couples stood to congratulate them and bless them. Many maintained a distance from the new brides and chatted away with the grooms. But one of Indrajith's aunts, Yashoda, who was an old and shrewd woman decided that there was something fishy about the quick wedding and wanted to know more about the brides.

'Hello, my dear nephews. Look at you boys going ahead getting yourselves pretty little brides without even consulting your old aunt.', she said in mock horror as the bewildered men bent down to touch their aunt's feet as the brides followed their examples.

Satisfied by the responses her nephews gave them, she began addressing the brides directly, 'So girls, tell me your names. When I go back everyone will be drilling me with questions about the new daughter in-laws of the Varma Household. You know, not everyone could make it make because of the quick and hushed manner in which this wedding was carried out.' Yashoda added the last bit to fish around for more information from the couples regarding the urgent marriage. But the four of them remained unfazed.

Dhanusree spoke up bravely, with her hands folded addressing Yashoda's earlier question, 'Greetings, My name is Dhanusree and that is my elder sister Devyani.'

'Such beautiful nice names would only be suitable for such beautiful faces. But tell me one thing Dhanusree, would not your sister want to introduce herself to me or has she taken some vow of silence.'

Devyani looked taken aback by Indrajith's aunt's question. Had her husband not told his relatives about her condition? She looked at Dhanusree to see her face mirroring her own emotions. The sisters waited for their husbands to say something but they too were looking at the sisters expectantly.

Annoyed already at her husband's inefficiency to understand their difficulty at addressing such a sorrowful topic, Dhanusree once again spoke up but this time her voice faltered just a bit. 'Devyani was born mute. She has not spoken a word since her birth.'

Indrajith stepped away from Devyani as if she was something disgusting and stood opposite her but spoke to Dhanusree, 'What did you say?'

Dhanusree just looked confusedly at her brother in law. She was starting to think the whole family was dim-witted. 'Brother in Law, I just said she was mute. Did you not know about this?'

Much to Yashoda's glee and Devyani's chagrin, Indrajith backed away from the stone platform saying, 'Your family has cheated me in spite of my generosity and my self-sacrifice.'

He turned around to address the crowd gathered. 'The marriage that just took place between me and the daughter of Bhaskara Pillai was a sham. I do not recognise her as my wife nor should anyone else.'

Indrajith's words boomed through the temple complex and as he walked away, Devyani collapsed on to the stone platform shattered by the betrayal.