Intimacy - Part 28

Rakesh arrived home, four days before the wedding and just in time to get married, happily! He tried his best to meet Aarthi. But, with all the customs, rules and regulations, defined by every oldest soul in the family, he was barred from meeting her.

The big day finally arrived and Rakesh couldn't wait to get a glimpse of his beautiful girl. Even though they kept sharing live updates about each other, meeting in person can never be compensated. As he saw, Aarthi walking down the aisle, in her red silk saree, decked up with jewels and flowers, the whole world went out of focus for him and he sat there like a statue, stunned by her beauty. He almost couldn't hear a sound or say a word, just like a statue! When he came back to his present, Aarthi sat next to him, gracefully. He wanted to kiss her. But, he knew that hundreds of eyes are watching him and he can't even attempt that. Then he composed himself that in an hour, she would be all his’.

The long awaited moment of Rakesh tying the sacred thread around Aarthi’s neck, made them both emotional. Rakesh saw tiny tears emerging out of the corner of Aarthi’s eyes. But, she was smiling too. The happiness that he attained, literally suffocated him. Other rituals and ceremonies followed up and kept them both busy.

More than the wedding, Rakesh was excited about the wedding night, the MEN thing! He dressed up himself, like a prince charming. He was waiting for his girl, in his room. As Aarthi entered, she looked gorgeous in her pink saree and again Rakesh went dumbstruck. She went near him, but she looked uneasy. He understood that it was all the nervousness of the night.

“Hey Aarthi! My dear wifey, what took you so long? I have been waiting for ages”, said Rakesh and winked at her.

“I am sorry, Rakesh!”, said Aarthi politely.

“Darling, I was kidding. Don't be sorry”, said Rakesh, holding the biggest smile, on his face.

“I did not apologise for that. I am sorry that, I lied to you. I did not wanted to confess and I hid it. But, I couldn't do so, anymore”, said Aarthi. Her voice was shaking.

“What do you mean Aarthi? I don't understand!”, exclaimed Rakesh. He looked puzzled.

“Rakesh, you have been thinking that you fell in love with me, convinced our parents and married me.”

“Yes! That's true”

“But, that's not true. I MADE you do all that.”

Rakesh did not respond. After a brief silence, Aarthi continued, “Rakesh, I was in love with you, since our school days. Initially, I had good opinion about you. You were not a flirty type. You were manly and majestic. My friends used to talk a lot about you and all that I heard was, how good a person you are, by heart. Soon, I was impressed. Then the way you teased me during school day function and the way you shouted at me in the middle of the road, does made me upset. But, then I realised, I was just upset, but not angry with you. My friends, instead of fighting for me, they fought with me to make me realise, how a nice person you are and it was all my mistake to take things seriously and ultimately messed up everything. Slowly, I started to feel my heart sail away from me, to you and you started to rule my thoughts. I literally waited for you to talk to me, before we could finish our school. I thought you might say a sorry to me and maybe, we can become good friends. But, it never happened”, said Aarthi and looked at Rakesh. He still looked confused.

Aarthi continued, “then my parents forced me to move back to Trichy and take up studying Physics or Chemistry. But, I had a big war with my family, to join the same college and same course, as yours. Elders of my family, never agreed to me, taking up a professional course. But, I did not wanted to lose you. So, after a big struggle, I came back, chasing you. I loved every single day of college, just for the glimpse of you, that I catch in the corner of my eyes. I thought you would talk to me. But, my expectation went vain. I knew you are basically egoistic. So, only way for me to earn a soft corner in your heart, is to make you feel guilty. That's what I did. When I denied to participate, in college day celebrations, your guiltiness was clearly seen on your face. The look of hatred on your face, turned into look of sympathy. That was my first success. Everyday, I looked for an opportunity to talk. But, never had one”, said Aarthi. Rakesh was sitting at the corner of the bed and looking down on the floor. He was silent and waiting for Aarthi to finish.

She continued, “do you remember the ceramic gift? I was the one who bought that for you. I did not even wanted to share the cost with my friends. So, I bought gifts for them, from the money they gave me towards your gift. No one had a clue about it. One of my friend used to tease me that I have been trying to impress you, by ignoring you. I thought that made a lot of sense and I started ignoring you more than ever. So, I wrote my name on that gift but made my friends gift it to you and did not attend your birthday bash, either. Then, the opportunity I had was the group discussion, which I ruined purposely. Wantedly, I answered like a fool, just to make you feel guilty and somehow make you talk to me. But, things went other way. People started teasing you and me and you openly declared that you had a girlfriend. I was totally devastated. I have been watching you closely. I was aware of the proposals that you received from many girls, but you never accepted any. I thought you were lying and to confirm that, I decided to talk you. By god’s grace, I got an easy piece of cake, when you shared the question paper of one of the exams. No one would ever write down the questions and throw it out of the window, unless otherwise done purposely. I thought, I would be caught and the management would spare me, as I was a topper and no one would point you. So, everything would come to an end smoothly. Then, using this as a reason, I thought I could talk to you. But, you were too honest and accepted your mistake. I felt very bad for getting you into trouble. But thank God, nothing worst happened and moreover, we became good friends. Then later, when you confirmed that you never had a girlfriend, I was on top of the moon. But, again the next hurdle stood tall, when you were all set to leave to US. I wanted to convince you and make you stay back. But, your future meant a lot to me. I tried my best to come to US for Masters and even that went in vain. I expected that you would open up your heart and tell me that you like me, before you left. But, you did not. And then I decided that the only way to get you back is to come to US and stay closer to you. Should only a guy can go to US to find his love, win her heart and take her back home? Why not a girl do that, for her love??? So, I decided to come to US, in pursuit of my love. I was in constant touch with you, just to know your whereabouts. I tried finding an employment in US, but wasn't fruitful. Then luckily, I was allocated in a project and coincidentally you were working for that client. I worked very hard, every night and day, to get the opportunity to come and work at the client base. And it happened too. When I saw you there, I knew that I had come closer to my dream. I was eager to find out whether you managed to get a girlfriend there and lost my thoughts. But, to see you angry with me, the first time you met me, proved that you did not had any girlfriend. If you had any, you wouldn't be excited to see me after a long time. And then slowly we became quite a good friends. In fact, more intimate than just a friendship. But, Sandhya was an unexpected turn, in our journey. You seemed to drift away from me, after she came into your life. That's when I decided that I had enough and wanted to  conclude everything. So, I came up with this wedding proposal for me and as I expected, you finally opened up your heart. But, the story won't end there. I wanted to get married, with blessings from both the families. I wanted you to fight for me and for my love. So, I kept insisting that my parents wouldn't agree and you did everything possible to convince both the families. I was the happiest soul, when everything fell in place. I was flattered to see you struggle so much for me and that proved how much you loved me.”

Rakesh still stayed in silence and kept staring at the floor. The smile completely disappeared from his face and his face was growing stiff. Aarthi went near him and sat next to him.

“Rakesh, I would have proposed to you and conveyed my love for you plainly, without any of these dramas. But, I would have been one of the twelve girls who proposed you till date” said Aarthi. Rakesh looked at her in astonishment.

“Yes Rakesh. From Shalini at school days till Sandhya recently, you received eleven proposals and had I expressed my love, I would have been twelfth. You could have easily said ‘no’ to me. But, that is not what I wanted. You could have accepted me and we would have pretended to show the best of us, just to convince each other and might fail terribly. But that is not what I wanted, either. I loved you for what you are. I loved your ego, arrogance and chauvinism. Same way, I wanted you to love me for what I am. I know I am not pretty or modern, like girls these days. I am just an ordinary girl, from a small town in Trichy. But, that never stopped me from loving you or fighting for my love, because my love is as pure as divinity. I wanted to take our relationship to a state where, we cannot live without each other and not stop just at when we can live with each other. I did not wanted to disclose all these till yesterday, fearing that you might disregard me. But, today, as your wife, I felt it a sin to hide everything from you. I lied to you then. Now, I have confessed myself. I am ready to accept any punishment for what I have done to you”, said Aarthi. She stayed calm but the tears kept rolling down. She was impatient to see him silent.

“Rakesh why don't you say something?”

Rakesh looked straight into her eyes. His face looked rigid.

“I am thinking about a suitable punishment for you”, said Rakesh sternly.

Aarthi almost lost her breath.