.second attempt: Naani’s Marriage She took off the last of her gold bracelets and set it on the dressing table. The dressing table, like the carpet underneath, was new to the room. The room was new to her. She had come to the room with the furniture, a modest dowry. She raised her head and looked at the mirror. The fluorescent light ricocheting off the mirror hurt her eyes. Her eyes were puffy from all the crying she had done today. She turned around and adjusted the end of her sari to cover her bare midriff. It was important to conceal as much as possible. She woke up today in the house she had woken up all of her 20 years. Everyone seemed unusually busy in the small house. Her father was a professor at the only University in Nepal. He didn’t make much money but he was a reputed scholar. She was the only sister to four brothers. Her parents and her brothers had always pampered her, never letting her feel as poor as they really were. Naani, they called her lovingly. Some days, there would be a competition amongst the brothers to shower her with presents. Of late, those competitions had become fiercer. The marriage ceremony started around noon. The astrologers had decided it was the best time and would make the marriage happy. They said the marriage would last, that neither the bride nor the groom would die young. Naani felt the ceremony was much longer than the four hours it took. She had to sit beside the groom for the whole time, her chin almost touching her chest. Her mother was on her other side, sobbing softly. Covered in a heavy silk veil and unable to see anyone, she had finally been granted the privacy to think about her marriage alone. Naani remembered the only time she had seen the groom. A match-maker had taken the proposal from her parents to the groom’s family. They had decided to take the proposal seriously on the merits of her family – high caste, unpolluted lineage and a respectable social status. Two weeks later, the groom, his immediate family and a few friends came to seal the relationship, the linking of the two families. Her mother and sisters-in-law had dressed her up and turned her into a doll, pale underneath the coat of red rouge on her cheeks. “How is your daughter doing?” the groom’s father asked. “Would you like some tea?” her father replied. Her eldest sister-in-law handed her the tray with three china cups filled with tea and motioned her to enter the room where the guests were seated. “Come with me. Please,” Naani pleaded. “Ok,” she grabbed a tray filled with steel cups and followed Naani. At the door, she looked around the room. She had no trouble recognizing the man she was going to be married to. The match maker had given her his picture the previous day. Her head lowered, she walked around the room, nervously serving tea to the groom’s father, mother and the groom. “She has one year of college left to finish her bachelor’s. I had hoped she would finish college before I gave her away...” her father’s thick voice trailed off. The groom’s father was audibly moved. “Sir, your daughter is my daughter now. She is my responsibility.” She felt a slight push and looked around to see her sister-in-law gesticulating discreetly to move the last of the china cups further down the tea-table. Her palms began sweating as her trembling hands pushed the cup. She had confused the man she was going to marry with one of the other men, probably a brother. It had to be a brother. She just wanted to cry and flee the room. Her head lowered even more to hide her red, sweaty face, she tried to move towards the door but couldn’t. She raised her head and snatched a glance at her man before swiftly following her sister-in-law out of the room. “I can’t believe you set the cup in front of the brother,” her sister-in-law sounded almost accusing. “But their faces were so similar.” “Yeah, there are five of them with similar faces. You are supposed to be married to the youngest.” “What do you mean supposed?” Naani was worried. “Well, you never know. I heard the youngest isn’t keen on marriage and one of the others is not happy with his marriage.” “They can’t do that!” Naani was shouting, “Baa would never allow that to happen.” “There is only so much your father can do. If the elder brother sat beside you during the marriage ceremony, baa would have to keep quiet or risk never being able to marry you off.” “Doesn’t baa know about this?” “He does. But the family is good and rich. He doesn’t want to lose this great opportunity.” “I didn’t want to get married in the first place.” “It is not your choice.”