"Nandini! I can't believe you are still sleeping. Wake up. It's your wedding day, you are supposed to be anxious and unable to sleep but look at you! Sleeping like there is no tomorrow." I half-open my eyes to see Navya standing near my bed.

"What time is it?" I yawn closing my eyes again.

"It's 7 Nandini. You have slept more than you should have. Get up." She pulls my duvet off me.

"The wedding is at 2 Navya. There is no reason for me to wake up this early. I need to sleep." I grab the duvet and hide my face in it.

"Exactly it's at 2! We don't have time." She pulls the duvet again. I glare at her and hold the duvet.

"Your mom is expecting you downstairs in 10 minutes so you can either sleep or get up." I groan as I throw away the duvet and stretch myself.

"Are you excited? I can't believe today is the day."

"For now I'm annoyed." I walk towards the washroom and stumble a couple of times which woke me up a little.

"Hurry up! We are getting late for the chooda ceremony." My mom yells the moment she saw me walking down the stairs.

I roll my eyes at her impatience and walk slower than before just to annoy her.

"Nandini!"

I sit down on one of the couches and looking around I see more faces than I expected. All of my relatives are here. They are all talking loudly in groups. Some are helping my parents prepare for the ceremony while others are drinking their tea.

"I can't believe she grew up so fast. It feels like yesterday when she was a small child running around making a mess everywhere." My uncle pats me on my head.

"Are you happy Nandini? Do you like Manik?" My aunt sits beside me and looks at me.

"I do. He is wonderful and I believe he'll keep me happy."

"Of course he will. I selected him after all." My mom comes in front of me and keeps the big bowl with the milk on the table.

My uncle places the chooda (bangles) in the bowl of milk to purify them.

The chooda is one of the most evident marks of a new bride. The bangles are white and red and it is worn by the bride for a minimum of 40 days.

A set of 21 bangles are placed on each hand that are selected by the bride's maternal uncle.

One by one the bangles are placed on my wrists. Growing up these bangles always fascinated me. I remember feeling jealous looking at the brides who wore them.

When my uncle is done, Navya along with a few of my cousins come forward with the kalire that would be tied to the bangles.

Kalire are umbrella-shaped hangings and they signify happiness and eternal love between the newlyweds. They are usually either silver or golden.

"Wait before you tie the kalire we have to cover the chooda as Nandini can't see it until the wedding."

"But how will we tie the kalire then?" Navya looks at my mom confused.

"We'll put two of the gold bangles I have in the front and you can tie them on those."

After covering the bangles, Navya ties one of kalire and soon she is followed by my cousins.

"Okay now comes the part I was so excited about. All the unmarried girls sit there." I point a place to them and they follow quickly.

I am going to shake my hands on top of their head. It is believed that if any of the kalire part falls on any of them, she will be the next to get married.

I slowly go around shaking my hands. When it is Navya's turn, I shake them violently which made one small part fall on her.

I scream in happiness and she jumps up with her eyes wide open.

"I'm next?" She says in disbelief.

"Yes!"

She stares at me before shaking her head.

"I'm not marrying Cabir." She cries out.

I look at her confused but she walks away still shaking her head.

"Nandini come eat something." I hear one of my aunts.

In all this madness, I forgot that I didn't have anything yet.

~~

"Nandini the baraat is here!" I stop the makeup artist who was making the final touches and get up to see the baraat from the balcony of the room.

Just like the movies, I see Manik on a white horse while all his family and friends are dancing around him on the beats of the Indian drum.

The baraat is essentially the groom's procession. Horses have significant importance from ancient times. A horse signifies controlling the senses and letting go of childish behavior and entering a new phase of life.

I catch myself staring at Manik who is smiling looking at Cabir who is dancing like a crazy person who finally escaped jail. Yeah, that's definitely I-escaped-jail-happy-dance.

Suddenly Manik's eyes move up and land on me. He smirks at me and winks his eye. I chuckle and wave my hand before moving back inside.

"Are you ready Nandini?" I turn to look at my mom who is standing near the door of the room.

"Yeah." I spray a little of Black Opium on my neck and wrists. The smell of coffee and vanilla instantly hit my senses.

"Okay let's go then. The priest is calling for you."

Navya comes forward and helps me with my lehanga.

"I think I'm going to cry. The day is finally here." I can tell from her voice that she will start crying at any moment.

"Don't cry because then I'll cry and all my makeup will be ruined. Also, Manik is very impatient so he'll probably come up and drag me downstairs to marry him no matter how bad I would look."

She looks up for a moment before turning her attention to me.

"Okay, I'm not going to cry. Oh, I almost forgot. So you know how the bride's sisters are supposed to tease and stop the groom and their family from entering unless they give money? Yeah, so I did that with Manik and guess how much he gave me."

"One million?" That man is stupid when it comes to money so I won't be surprised if he actually gave her one million.

"I wish but no. He gave me less than that but still, it's a little too much for this small ritual. I got half a million from him."

I chuckle as she says the amount. Definitely not surprised. Manik is very extra.

"He wrote you a check for half a million?"

"Yes! I bet your cousins would have wanted to be there now but too bad they missed their chance."

"You two can talk later. Everyone is waiting for you." Abhi takes my hand and pulls me along with him.

As I'm walking down the aisle with Abhi by my side holding my hand while Navya is holding my lehanga, I feel all the eyes on me but the eyes that mattered the most were frozen.

There he is staring at me frozen with his one hand in the air pointing at something. He looks like he was in the middle of a conversation when he saw me.

He blinks a couple of times to compose himself. Cabir whispers something in his ear but he ignores him completely and stares at my every movement.

Manik comes forward when I reach near him and holds his hand out for me. Giving him a small smile I place my hand in his and he pulls me closer to him.

"Afreen." Leaning forward he whispers in my ear. 

Afreen. An Urdu expression for showing amazement at something very beautiful. I'm afreen? Malhotra sure knows how to make me feel special.

"My eyes haven't moved from you since the moment I walked in so needless to say you're looking your best Malhotra and I feel very lucky that I'll be able to call you mine for the rest of our lives."

I almost see him blushing before he covers it up with his smile.

Navya gives me the floral garland and Cabir does the same for Manik. With the exchange of the garlands, we accept each other as life partners.

I raise my garland to put it around Manik's neck but Cabir and Dhruv lift him up to prevent me from doing so.

Oh no here comes the struggle. I groan loudly and give my cute expression to Manik.

His eyes soften and he whispers something to Cabir and Dhruv and they put him down.

I see Manik bending down on his knee and I hear loud gasps instantly before hearing loud praises along the lines of "wow she's so lucky" or "I'm so jealous".

With shaky hands and a very obvious blush on my face, I put the garland around his neck.

He finally stands up and I feel Abhi coming forward to lift me to tease Manik but I stop him.

Manik puts the garland around my neck and we smile at each other.

"Sit down." His mother whispers to us.

We take our seats beneath the mandap, a canopy. The priest starts saying the stuff I can't understand and the stuff he's getting paid for.

My dad gets up to do my kanya daan, which means he's giving me away. He puts my right hand in Manik's right hand which symbolizes us as equal partners.

Kanya daan is a very emotional moment for a father and I see few tears in my dad's eyes as he's doing the ritual. I close my eyes and look up to prevent myself from crying.

The priest tells us to join our hands together and he starts chanting his mantras.

"Stand up for the pheras." Navya comes forward to assist me with the lehanga.

Manik takes my hand and helps me get up while Navya helps me with the lehanga.

Holding hands, we start walking around the agni, the holy fire that acts as a witness to the ceremony.

We take seven steps around the blaze and the sanskrit words that I can barely understand but know the sum up version of are chanted.

With the first step, we vow to provide for and support each other.

With the second step, we vow to develop mental, physical, and spiritual strength.

With the third step, we vow to share the worldly possessions.

With the fourth step, we vow to acquire knowledge, happiness, and peace.

With the fifth step, we vow to raise strong and virtuous children.

With the sixth step, we vow to the fruits of all seasons.

With the seventh step, we vow to always remain friends and cherish each other.