The middle aged woman saw Indrayani peeking through the kitchen. There was a square shaped hole between the kitchen and the living room and it was covered by a thin cloth so that women could communicate with men. Indrayani was peeking through it to know what was going on.

"Just to make it clear, we don't mind if the women of the house want to see what's happening here," the woman, MAdhavi said, stifling a laugh. It reminded her of herself when a guy had come to see her sister. She was hiding and peeking like that.

There were whisperings from the kitchen as the women came forward behind Mahamaya and stood in a corner. Madhavi, pointed them towards a cot as the women sat there. Pooja was still inside the kitchen, because she was menstruating and the living room was where the miniature temple was so she didn't leave the kitchen.

Pooja was very confident before her marriage but she was used to the veil of the kitchen after her marriage. She didn't feel comfortable coming in front of men anymore.

It was weird how much she had changed, from wanting to model, to this but the people around her loved her and she was so used to this cage. It was bad to cage animals, but it was worse to free them in the wild after caging them. She felt the same way about freedom.

She was supposed to like freedom but she didn't and weirdly enough, she thought it was her freedom to choose this instead of that. So, she kept watching everything from the kitchen cube. Madhavi noticed this but didn't say anything.

Mahamaya, who was standing all this time, lowered the tray as they took their cups of tea and she later placed the tray on the centre table. It had plates of kaande pohe, another snack as she sat with her mother, holding her hand, knowing how nervous she would be.

Indrayani could swear that she was having a nervous breakdown but as soon as her daughter touched her, her every anxiety melted, as if her hand was held by God himself. Smiling, she reciprocated the hold a little, as Mahamaya smiled too, feeling the strength of her mother return.

"I think both the kids should talk to each other?" Mahamaya's grandfather suggested.

Mahamaya got up, as the guy did too as she escorted him to the only proper bedroom they had in the house, sort of. They both sat down on the cot as Mahamaya played with her fingers.

She was very confident normally but today, she was feeling so nervous that she didn't even look at anyone of them clearly.

"Hey, so I wanted to get to know you. So, umm, what is your favourite hobby?" he tried to initiate conversation as she raised her gaze and looked at him. He looked good, not better than Raj or whatever his real name was but definitely good enough.

"I, ahh, whatever actually. I like everything, reading, writing poetry, exercising, music, little bit of sketching, playing the flute, cooking, worshipping but most of all, I like helping people, mostly people I love with chores," she blabbered, before she realised that she was in the company with someone as he was intensely staring at her, analysing her body language, trying to understand her and her entire body turned red with embarrassment.

As she stopped talking, he observed her reactions and chuckled, before he asked, "How can you be interested in everything?"

She said, "Well, I like stories, especially Panchatantra and Jataka tales or just Mahabharata stories (Collections of Indian origin stories). They help me bond with my patients while I recite these to them so I like reading them. I like writing poetry because I like to try writing devotional songs and I like to remain fit, so exercising, lots of exercising, I like listening to devotional songs too, sketching because I like to make rangolis or mehendi (henna patterns on hands), cooking because I like the idea of someone eating the food cooked by me and praising them, even if they don't voice out the praises, I'm feeding someone. I just naturally like worshipping, and well, my favourite one is helping others, because I can and I like to just help out I guess," Mahamaya stated, thinking of everything that she liked to do.

Aarav was looking at her with wide eyes as she finished. He couldn't believe a girl like her existed in today's times. Who listens to devotional songs all day? Who likes to worship? It was unbelievable. He was almost an agnostic but his parents were great devotees.

He never really found the time or thought it important to engage in religious activities and everyone around him was fine with that. He found religion useless. They were just stories anyways but the girl besides him was making him love religion for the first time. He wanted to listen to those stories which she told to her young patients.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by her melodious voice, "And what is your hobby?"

He smiled and replied, "I don't have as many as yours but I'm a workaholic. My parents joke that I'm married to my work and it's time for me to actually marry a human."

This sentence led to melodious giggles fill the room as he closed his eyes, absorbing the sounds. He wanted to listen to those all his life. He had made up his life. If she was okay with it, he would like to marry her. She made him want things he never thought he would want.

Holding her right hand gently, he placed a peck at her knuckle, making her come out of her laughing fits. Her hazel eyes looked in his brown ones as they both smiled at each other.

"So, what is your favourite dish?" he tried to start the conversation again. This made her go on a blabbering spree again on how she loved everything her mother cooked. After a few more questions, both of them decided to join their elders.

"So, what do you both think?" the older man, Om asked as both his son and the girl was back. He personally liked the family because they talked too while the youngsters were gone. Om thought that they were simple people too, like him and the girl was looking well cultured and good hearted too.

Mahamaya nodded slightly, her face glowing brighter than normal and fully red. Her fair face was making the blush more obvious as Aarav nodded too.

The older woman, Madhavi, smiled. She liked the family too. They're simple and good hearted and she liked that but everything seemed too perfect too. She was feeling something ominous from this girl.

Mahesh cleared his throat and stated, "Actually, we are in a hurry for this marriage. We want to marry our daughter off as soon as possible."

Mahesh's father's eyes snapped to his son. What was he speaking? Why was he talking like Mahamaya was some kind of burden on them? Did something happen?

The woman snapped and spoke again, "Why? Is she pregnant and you want my son to bear the responsibility?"

*****
A/N:

Well, that was intense haha. I have seen this thing among women. They blame that men don't support them but in reality, women don't support each other and that's what I tried to show here. What do you guys think?

So, this week, first of all, Goa liberation day, which is in 19th December. So, Goa is a state, just to the south of Maharashtra. It is small and its local culture is almost identical to the Maharashtrian culture but they were occupied by the Portuguese and heavily and brutally converted. So, they have their own separate state.

The state was liberated in 1961, even though, the entire country was liberated in fifteenth August 1947. There were talks on if Goa should be annexed in Maharashtra and when votings were done for the same, about 54% said that they didn't want Goa to merge with Maharashtra so Goa remains to be a separate state.

You can read more on how Goa was liberated. I can't tell everything here but Goa is a state well known for tourism. If you want to visit India but don't want too much of cultural shock, you can visit Goa and its beautiful beaches. If you want, you can travel further into the local villages to find more about the local culture and if you pay a fee, I think a few locals let you stay with them for a few days at a very cheap rate compared to the hostels and give you homemade food too so you can try out local dishes. If you can handle some spice I think this would be a good option..

I hope you liked the chapter.