Aasai Nooruvagai

Innarku Innaarendru

The place was Karaikudi..

Standing outside the big gates of AKR Marriage Mahal, one would be able to read the nameboard announcing that

On, Dec 12th, 2018

Jeevanandam
Weds
Mullai

Muhurtham - 6:00 am to 7:00 am

From inside the hall came the auspicious sound of that very special music you hear when 2 people tie the knot, become one and embark on a journey of togetherness for a lifetime..in wealth or poverty, in sickness or in health, till death do them part..

Inside the hall, on the Mandapam however were 2 pairs getting married..

The nameboard outside did not announce the names of  2 pairs which would leave the hall as a couple..just 1..

The priest was handing over the toe ring to the grooms to put it on their bride's feet

A lady went near Jeeva and told him

Lady : antha nei konjam thottu Meena viralla thadavittu intha mettiya podu..valikkaama ulla pogum

Wait what !! Why should the groom named Jeeva put the toe ring on a girl named Meena? Didnt the nameboard outside say Jeeva was wedding a girl named Mullai? Was Meena an alias of Mullai??

Lady : (turning to the other couple) Kathiru neeyum Mullai ku pottu vidu..nalla nei thadavittu podu da..puthu metti valikkum..

So the second bride was Mullai? But why was she sitting next to someone called Kathir? Wasnt her wedding supposed to be with Jeeva?

Well there had been a huge uproar just as Jeeva was about to tie the knot with Mullai..Meena had given a gut wrenching "Niruthunga"...the entire hall had come to a standstill for a few seconds before all hell broke loose...

Meena had announced that she and Jeeva were lovers and had been so for over 2 years now..she claimed Dhanam and Moorthy knew about this...

Complete and utter pandemonium broke out in the hall..

Parvathy started with her curses and accusations with Kasthuri (Mullai's cousin and Dhanam's anni) aiding her in every step

Lakshmi was upset with all this..She was shocked that Dhanam and Moorthy had not told her about this..Murugan gave her a long look...Lakshmi amma apologetically nodded her head no as if to tell him they hadn't told her

Dhanam and Moorthy were in a fix..They thought this entire Meena chapter had been buried..

To compound to the problem , Meena's parents arrived at the hall along with Shwetha..Everybody braced themselves for a fresh round of fight..but was it their imagination or was their fight meek at best

The guests were wondering if there was even going to be a wedding..some tried to facilitate the discussions..some started to leave the hall..Kumaresam maamaa and Jega spoke to them and made them sit back

For all the commotion what was surprising was the Pandian Stores Family, Mullai's Family and Meena's Family seemed to come to a decision quite soon...Jeeva would marry Meena..Mullai would still be the PS family daughter-in-law..Only she would enter the house as Kathir's wife..The proposal came from the unsuspecting Dhanam...even she was a little flabbergasted that everyone had agreed so readily..a little too readily..she was thrown by the expressions on a few of the faces..but she did not have the capability to decipher the meaning just now..

But a close inspection of the 2 brides and their grooms revealed that all 4 had a slight smile playing on their lips like everything had gone exactly as per plan..Were the smiles slight due to their shyness or was it a conspiracy that they did not want to get caught committing...

Let's inspect the faces of the close family to see if we can gauge what exists below the surface