The marriage preparations in both the houses were going on in full swing. As per the customs, the groom's family would select the attire for the bride and the bride's family would select the attire for the groom. Since Pallavi's attire was in the hands of Mrs. Khuranna, she decided to go with a saree, as she and Pallavi both had a liking of sarees. With the wedding date getting close, Rajesh decided to get a headstart on his workload and finish it up. With burring the midnight oil. Rajesh takes a couple of coding nights a week before the marriage. Pallavi supports his decision, though she does nag him a little bit over his excessive toil, as Tarun and Neeraj are not joining him on his coding nights.

"Ahh. FInally, I have enough headstart that I can afford a couple days off. " Rajesh relaxes putting his hands behind his head and relaxing back on the chair.

"About time dude. You have been toiling extra this whole week and you have bags under your eyes. You need to get some sleep. Otherwise, you are going to fall into the holy fire and burn your already ugly face" Tarun remarks from the corner, balancing a cigarette in his lips.

"Yeah." Rajesh replies, clearly not wanting to reply. For now all he wants is to snuggle into Pallavi's waiting arms. With the clock hitting 9, the trio pack up to leave, when suddenly Neeraj's phone gives out a ping. Fishing out his phone from the pocket, he stops dead on his track, on looking at the sender's name of the message.

"Guys I need to take a rain check. I have to head to my relative's house for the night. Mom and Dad have left to native owing to some property dispute." Neeraj explains to his friends, catching up to them.

"Oh. Ok then tell me where is your relatives house. I will drop you there." Tarun suggests, unlocking his car.

"That won't be necessary man. I will take a cab. Its in the opposite direction" Neeraj replies, looking little flustered.

"Its no big deal man. I don't have any special commitments as of now that requires me to reach home on time. I can drop you." Tarun adds up.

"Thanks Man. I can manage. Plus I have to buy some grocerees and stuff to on the way. So I will manage." Neeraj replies, not lifitng his gaze from his phone.

"All right man, Whatever you say. Travel safe" Tarun remarks , getting onto his car. As Tarun and Rajesh zoom off, Neeraj makes his journey towards his destination.

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"Rajesh wake up. We need to start heading towards our wedding hall. Our parents have already reached there. My father just gave me ultimatum that if I am not there in the next hour he will cancel the wedding" Pallavi blares on Rajesh ear's, as he tosses and turns around the bed, while Pallavi is busy running around the house.

"Calm down Honey. We will reach on time. And nobody will stop me from getting married to you." Rajesh tells her, walking off to the restroom. Fifteen minutes later while Pallavi is still packing, Rajesh comes out the washroom flicking off his long hair.

"Babe now you are delaying" he sarcastically remarks, wiping hair cream onto his hair. Pissed off by his remarks, Pallavi pulls on his towel undoing it and skirts into the washroom before Rajesh can even understand what happened. Shrugging off as her playfullness, Rajesh continues setting his hair. Twenty minutes later Rajeshand Pallvi hop on thier bike and vroom to the wedding hall. Pallavi rings up her father, telling him that they might be late by a couple minutes, putting blame on Rajesh. As soon Pallavi hangs up the call, Rajesh vrooms faster and zips through the traffic, causing Pallavi to hold onto him tightly. Foiling her plan, Rajesh reaches the venue on time. Getting down from the bike, Rajesh smirks towards as she shrugs him off and rushes to see her parents. As soon as they come into view, Pallavi runs and hugs her mother, while her father comes behind and hugs them both. Carrying the bag, Rajesh heads towards them and touches their feet and rises up with a smile

Heading inside for breakfast the families separate to their respective rooms as the bride and groom are supposed to meet up only the time of reception. With enough time to the reception Rajesh decides to catch up on some movie and sleep. On the other hand Pallavi spends her time assorting her jewelry for the evening and tommorow.

As evening rolls by, Rajesh gets to the diaz with Tarun by his side. Neeraj had said that he won't be able to make it to the reception as he is bound in his relatives house, though Rajesh could sense that Neeraj was not comfortable with the situation and something was bothering him. But Rajesh did not want to blow up the situation and comprised on the condition that Neeraj would be the first one to be present at the wedding hall tomorrow.

Clad in his gray 3 piece suit, Rajesh paces the diaz up and down, waiting for Pallavi to show up. The entire hall has filled up with the guests and all of them are waiting for Pallavi. Suddenly Tarun taps on Rajesh's shoulder who had been facing the opposite direction, with his head buried in his phone. Rajesh turns around to find his angel walking down the aisle in her gray full body gown.

 With her mesmerzing walk, every head is turned towards her direction. Gracefully picking up her gown, Pallavi makes her way to the diaz, where Rajesh literally is looking with his mouth wide open. She clears her throat, subltly gesturing him to close his mouth, which is promptly understood by Rajesh.

"You are breathtaking." Rajesh whispers into her ear, as they pose for photographs.

"Stating the obvious" Pallavi replies, Rajesh's sarcasm rubbing off on her.

The next couple hours is spent in various poses of photographs, family photographs, quirky photographs with colleagues. Neeraj's absence is felt deeply by Rajesh, but he does not show it outside. With the reception function coming to an end, and the guests off to dinner, the couple heads to the dining hall. While Pallavi remains decent as to taking selective things into her plate in considerable quantities, Rajesh and Tarun attack the buffet, filling their plates with pretty much everything possible. Balacing their plates to the nearby table, they both rid themselves of their jackets and dive into the plates. Pallavi and her parents watch in awe while the Khuranna's hang their head in shame.

"This...is...for..tomorrow too." Tarun speaks up in between his gobbling up, while Rajesh doesn't even lift his head. Finishing their dinner, everybody heads to their respective rooms. Changing into the nightwear, Rajesh excuses himself and calls up Tarun in the lawn. Lighting up their smokes, they take off their tiredness of the day.

"You worried about tommorow?" Tarun asks.

"A little. The bachelor part of my life finished pretty fast." Rajesh replies, blowing out.

"Regretting that?"

"Not especially. Litlle pang that maybe I am entering the married life pretty soon. But the excitement of married life is more. So its outweighing the pang."

"Well and good man. If you are saying that you are getting cold feet, I will kill you bury you in this very park"

"Thanks for the threat man. But I am sure its not cold feet. Anyway lets hit the hay. Big day tommorow. Night dude"Rajesh speaks off, heading to his room while Tarun lights up another and contemplates whether to let Jenny back into his life or not. realizing that he will need an entire day for it, Tarun finishes off the cigarette and heads back to his room.

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The morning comes with the blaring of Mrs.Khuranna into both her husband and her son's ears that they are late in getting up. Waking up they find Mrs. Khurnna already ready in her outfit and sitting in the chair.

"Your mother being ready is sure shot sign of we being late. Lets get ready fast" Mr. Khuranna comments, racing to the washroom. While his father is occupying the washroom, Rajesh spends some time on his phone. Fifteen minutes later his father hops out of the washroom, giving Rajesh a thumps up for his entry. In the next forty five minutes, Rajesh donning his blue sherwani, and his family is ready, just about when Neeraj pops his head inside.

"Uncle and Rajesh, you are required in the mandap. The priest has called for you. As for aunty, please make your way to Pallavi's room and wait for my call." he passes on the instructions, before making a beeline back out. Shrugging it off Rajesh and Mr. Khuranna are about to make thier way, when Mrs. Khuranna holds Rajesh hand and pulls him in for a deep hug.

"Congratulations son. Today you are going to become a husband Its a big responsibility and I sincerely hope you will fulfill that responsibility" Mr. Khuranna adds up. Getting out his mother's hug Rajesh nods to his father, as the Father-Son duo make their way to the mandap, while Mrs. Khuranna makes her way to Pallavi's room.

Twenty minutes later the priest tells them that the girl should come, for which Tarun sends a missed all to Mrs. Khuranna. From the moment Tarun dials the missed call, Rajesh's eyes are fixated on the hall entrance, trying to catch a glimpse of his bride. Looking at his restlessness, Neeraj bends down and puts his hand on Rajesh's shoulder.

"Calm down bud. She will come" he whispers into Rajesh's ears, which clearly exits through his other ear. At that moment Pallavi enters the hall through the center hall. One glance at her and the entire world zones out for Rajesh.

 Walking elegantly in her blue saree with her head down, she could take on all the celestial nymphs without breaking a sweat. The continuous tapping from Tarun brings Rajesh back into the world. With a deathly scorn, Rajesh turns his face towards Tarun who is gesturing him to calm down. When Pallavi comes to the Mandap and takes her seat next to Rajesh, Rajesh doesn't spare her a moments rest from his glance. How could he, for his beautiful girlfriend was sitting next to him in a heavely blue saree, with subtle makeup and soon she would be his formal wife. All this while the priest has finsihed his hymns and the mangal sutra has gone to the guests for blessings. Mr.Khuranna nudges his son, to be ready for the moment. Taking in a few deep breaths and calming himself down, Rajesh finds himself staring at the mangal sutra, held in front of him by the priest, insinuating him to take the leap. Confidently Rajesh takes the mangalsutra from the priest's hand and turns towards Pallavi, for a momentary glance. He finds her smiling face, waiting for his step. Replying to her smile with his on smile, Rajesh leans in towards her, taking his hands on either side of her neck, tying the mangalsutra at the back. The musicians go aloud with wedding music , while the guests shower them with rice, for prosperity. Mrs. Khuranna takes over from Rajesh, correcting the knot and straightening the mangalsutra in the front.

Rajesh and Pallavi looks towards each other teary eyed,.... for both have found solace and peace amongst their turmoil.

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A huge thanks to my sis @siyasarasaga,for her pains in hunting the dresses for me. Without her contribution, I would have not been able to find the proper dress for Rajesh and Pallavi.

I would request my readers to checkout her books whenever comfortable. She writes real awesome stroies.