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janaknandini-singh999 · 10 months

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Day 25: Saptiya? (Did you eat?)

@desi-lgbt-fest

Vilasini came running and opened the door to the terrace sighing, a plate filled with food in her hand, thinking she'd finally get a little respite, leaving behind the humdrum of the wedding downstairs for a while at least and be able to eat out in the open. She was tired of pretending to be the perfect girl as desi atmosphere usually pressurizes one to be.

"Your name means cheerful and brilliant, so act like it, beta" some distant relative had told her smiling at her house when she was very small and introverted. Even though her parents had just laughed and agreed with her then, they had later told her not to take it to the heart but still subtly reaffirm what the relative had said every now and then through their actions even though mostly they were very supportive and flexible even for brown parents.

"I should be grateful" she thought, but that incident and similar ones engraved themselves on her and she became The Vibrant Vilasini - smiling and laughing along even when she didn't want to and eventually it naturally birthed into the role to overshadow all her other flaws that came out when she was just Villu (the nickname only her close friends and family called her).

Even right now, she was just being The Vibrant Vilasini with everyone in the wedding, joking around and asking everyone if they wanted anything. Honestly, she started kinda enjoying it. Being lively wasn't so bad at all and it had gave her a lot of nice experiences when she was with people she actually enjoyed being around with. But after a while, she always felt like she needed an escape.

Like she had needed right now.

Run.

It was moments like these she'd run and find peace under the moonlight or something.

But right now, she suddenly froze upon seeing the back of someone leaning on the handrail, quietly watching the baarat from above. "Ugh I wasn't expecting anyone to be here at this time. God, WHY me?"

Run.

That was the first thought even right now so she turned to leave when she heard a notification from the person's phone and then a thud on the railing. She looked back again as she saw the person had hit the railing or something and put their hands on their head in frustration. Vilasini closed the distance between them and saw it was a beautiful girl in a yellow sari with soft eyes turned slightly red in anger and long, lustrous hair like that of a goddess. Vilasini couldn't hold herself back from clearing her throat and whistling,

"Oo someone is really angry."

There. The Vibrant Vilasini was back. Vilasini could kick herself in the stomach right now but something wanted her to stay here with this girl and talk to her for a bit.

"Who the heck are you? And what do you want?" She looked around at her and snapped.

Oof, not the best start. But damn? She looked lovely even while furious, Vilasini stared for a second and then peeped a glance at the girl's phone at whose notification had seemed to trigger her earlier. She clicked her tongue.

"Ah, your friend didn't show up. I'm so sorry.. but I can keep you company in their place." Vilasini winked and braced herself for another blow. But it never came.

Instead, tears silently rolled down the girl's cheeks. Vilasini then noticed that her eyes had shifted to the procession below, which was now at its peak extravaganza. The groom was dancing heartily on the horseback.

"I loved him.. so much" the girl finally whispered.

Vilasini took a step back and started singing "Accha chalta hoon-" but the girl wasn't even looking at her anymore, not even acknowledging her presence as if she was invisible. That attacked right into the careful armour of her vibrant persona, which cracked open and now she felt more sad and connected to this girl than ever, it reminded her of herself when she was her true self. Maybe the energy reached the girl too so she looked at Vilasini now and asked quietly, "Did I love him too much, or too less.. that this happened?"

Vilasini had never wanted to hug someone so much her entire life but she withheld herself because she wasn't sure of this girl's comfort space. So, she just smiled. A genuine warm smile and whispered,

"You loved him enough to let him go."

That made the girl finally smile back. And God. If Vilasini thought she was gorgeous in anger, she was heavenly when smiling.

"You're red in the face, are you fine.. umm"

"Vilasini is the name. But Villu or Villaa or Villy or whatever you like, gorgeous." she said in a sing song voice. "And well, I'm red coz I'm ANGRY. THAT dude was your one true love?! Are you kidding me?? Coz well, he's my jiju now so ya know I stole his jooti but how much I got in RETURN? 2 RUPEES?!! WHO DOES THAT-" Vilasini handed the coin aggressively to her.

The girl burst out laughing, wiping away her tears and said, nodding and laughing in between again, "He's always been a miser."

Vilasini grinned back, and refused when she gave it back to her, "You can keep it. Consider it the last sign of his from the universe that Thank God You Didn't End Up With Him. My sister may have been an idiot in love to marry him, and I couldn't save her, so now I have a jijjaji that won't even give me TREATS. UGH. But don't worry coz I bet you're gonna find someone a million times better than him now."

The girl raised her eyebrows in amusement and tilted her head, saying "Thank you. I wish the same to you."

Suddenly, her stomach started rumbling.

"Oh, RIGHT I TOTALLY FORGOT." Vilasini exclaimed and brought out her plate. "Did you eat?"

"I haven't since yesterday." She replied and looked over the pheras taking place now, a numb sort of sorrow quietly settling itself on her eyes and smile.

"Not again." Vilasini whispered

"I really don't feel like having anything, and this is yours so-"

"Oh, please. There's more than enough food for both of us, and for some reason I've felt oddly full since the morning so even I have not eaten anything all day. But if you're not having, I won't either now."

"You-"

"AHA!" Vilasini quickly placed a morsel of a piece of roti and dal in her mouth as she had just opened it, and smiled. "There's no turning back now, you're trapped into indulging into this delicious shaadi ka khaana."

On the rooftop of a small makaan nearby, and elsewhere all over the city, there were brides breaking the fast by their spouses feeding while seeing the moon together.

It was Karva Chauth 🌙

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night,

"Shlokaa bro, I'm SOO sorry. This bloody fever and cold last minute so I couldn't come to the wedding. I'm a terrible best friend." a voice apologized tensely on call.

"Don't be silly, Aditi. It's alright. I would've been more mad if you had come and fallen more ill because of me. How are you feeling now?" Shlokaa put her phone on speaker and absentmindedly fidgeted with her pen.

"Much better now after the kaadha and stuff mummy made me." Aditi paused, "You know you didn't have to go through all of that all on your own by going to the wedding and seeing him, right?"

Shlokaa put the pen down and thought for a moment, somehow being able to smile at last and say "Nah, I had to. One sided shit barely ever benefited anyone. It was my thing and I needed my heart and eyes to see that it was actually over for good. And besides.. I loved him enough to let him go."

"Proud of you, girlie. Accha listen, you'll have to excuse and forgive your bestie one last time because I've gotta sleep now. Villu leaves from the first train tomorrow early morning so I have to see her off."

"Vi- who?" Shlokaa's heart skipped a beat.

"Arey, Villu.. Vilasini!! She's my cousin. You must have met her at the shaadi yesterday. She is impossible to miss because she's the life of every party. I absolutely have NO clue how she does it but she interacts and brightens literally everyone up in the room. Funny how mummy says Vilasini wasn't always like this but now compares me to her all the damn time, yaaaar. She says if Vilasini can learn then why can't I? Like bro what??Anyway, you'd meet her and think she's the most obedient and charming one you've ever met but trust me, I've known that girl since childhood and in the end, she wouldn't listen to anyone but herself and still manage to do what's best for everyone, and I respect her so much for that. Hello? Shlo bro, are you even listening?"

Shlokaa wasn't. Her mind had been stuck on one name ever since her friend had mentioned it: Vilasini. In no time, she whirled back into yesterday night on the terrace where she first saw her. Adorned in a pink lehenga wearing golden jhumke, she had looked more dazzling than the stars above. Dark eyes, and a faint smile on her cherry lips made her face even resemble the moon amidst the night of her messy hair. Shlokaa remembered feeling even a pang of jealousy on seeing her for the first time because she was also fair skinned, and no matter how hard Shlokaa would try, she believed that effortlessly pretty girls like these would always have an unfair advantage in society over her. But that wasn't the only reason she had first snapped at her. Vilasini had reminded her of the mean, popular girls that had been at her school in the beginning because of her seemingly insensitive and jesting attitude, and she just couldn't stand them. Nor could she stand just being helpess and not doing anything about it. She was a no nonsense girl who revolted against such injustice and people were a little intimidated of her because of that. They would say bad things behind her back to convince themselves that they weren't scared of her, it was she who was weird instead. But Shlokaa couldn't care less. One thing her mother had taught her was to be grounded. Shlokaa may not be a lot of things but she was strong. Her mother lovingly used to tell her how she was so dedicated to reading Bhagavad Gita when she was pregnant with Shlokaa so she had absorbed all the wisdom and values like Abhimanyu had about the chakravyun when his mother had him in the womb.

Coming back - Shlokaa was wrong about Vilasini. She had helped her that night and made her feel something no one ever had, even though she didn't even know her. She could feel her easy yet striking gaze on her even now as she imagined Vilasini in her head, and without thinking what she was saying, she snapped back into reality and suddenly blurted out to Aditi,

"Can you take me along with you tomorrow?"

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