Once Upon A Hullabaloo!

CHAPTER 16

Note: I've made a few alterations in the previous chapter but none of them are drastic enough to damage the story-link of you awesome and (highly) patient readers! :p

Only major alteration that you guys should know about-

Previously, chapter 15 showed that Miral takes omanah's advice and confesses her doubts and insecurities to Mohit.

The alteration is that she doesn't talk to Mohit about her fears in chapter 15.

Happy reading!! :* :*

*************************

************************

Nervousness is a very natural but uncomfortable feeling. The symptoms are sweating palms, heavily pounding heartbeats or in my case, mouth stuffed with a whole bar of chocolate that is flavored with tangy orange. I wiped the chocolate from the corner of my lips and licked the finger.

Miral was surrounded by a hoard of enthusiastic, talented women whose only mission for the day was to turn Miral into the most beautiful bride ever. Miral shot some unsure, nervous glances in my direction every time a woman broke away from the human barrier around her.

It was very unlikely of Miral to hold in her curiosity for so long. Since last night, she hadn't teased a single strand that was as much as close to my confession about Kshitij. Even on my part, I wasn't very keen on sharing the whole story. I wasn't exactly proud of how I had picked up a random stranger from the cafe and brought him home.

"And we are done!" One of my cousins announced, moving away from Miral.

I looked at my sister in her traditional gujarati bridal dress, a red and white panetar saree. One glance at her and I realized just how many years I had lost on of bonding with my first cousin. The thing that we did last night could have been done long back.

The strange part was that it was the younger sister amongst us who had taken an initiative and that too a day before she had to leave this family and accept some other man's name. Maybe she had been waiting for a few words of encouragement from me all her life and I had failed on being an elder sister I had to be until last night.

The 'ifs', 'Ors' and 'Maybe' are as speculative as they sound and pondering over them was never of any use.

"You make the most beautiful bride I've ever seen." I smiled at the blushing bride.

An impatient knock on the door made me gather my sweet-pink and cream colored chaniya to go and open the door. Jigna kaki hurried in as soon as I pulled the shutters. Pushing me from her way, she rushed to her daughter who was settled on a puffy near the dressing table.

"You look so angelic." Kaki dabbed away her tears before kissing Miral's forehead.

"Mummy." Miral sniffed fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes and ruin the make up of four hours.

"Alright," kaki turned to the group of young women who were busy admiring their work on Miral, "everybody out of the room. We should give Miral some space to gather herself before she sits in the Mandap."

The women left with exciting chattering and shut the door behind. I went to the mirror and dabbed some gloss on the lips. Taking a good look at my chaniya-choli, I adjusted the neck of my blouse and drew the dupatta over the bust.

"You could have left it as it was." Kaki scanned me from tip to toe, "Vikram is an NRI, he would prefer---what do you kids call it?-- yes, a sexy woman!"