The car rocked while entering the gravel pathway to the heaven on earth. My favourite place. My Tharavadu

The old tiled palace like house stood in all its glory. This house was passed down in my mother's family for generations. It might have been a palace in its time but now it was just a house with lots of rooms with beautiful architecture.

It might look old from the outside from inside it was all remodivated by one of my cousin Varun. He was the architect of the family.

It might look a little creepy but the interior is amazing.It was the coolest place. Like literally cool. It wouldnt feel hot in the hottest of days. There was an big square shaped opening in the middle of the house.

A literal square shape around which the house is constructed. It is called nadumuttam (courtyard in the middle of house). It is due to this the house has a lot of air supply and remains cool.

During rain the courtyard fills up with water and kind of makes a swimming pool in the middle of a house. Me and tara used to love that and used to play in tbe water for a long time until my grandma used to beat the shit out of us.

Also during festivals when all of the cousins come by we used to take bath in the pond behind the house at night. Me and tara used this opportunity and used to climb up the roof and stare at the moon and the stars.

This family were filled with scholars. Doctors, engineers, architects, teachers, fashion designers and.... an llb drop out.

I always had a complex about that. But they never made me feel like it. I dont know if they think it but they sure doesnt show it.

No one stays here anymore. It is more of a vacation home now. My grandma stays with Tara's family in the outhouse. Which was like 10 feet across the Tharavadu. That big of a house for 5 people got a little too much for Tara's mom geetha aunty to handle.

As the car pulled into the drive way i saw the gray haired women with wrinkles up and down her body standing there with the brightest smile on her face. I jumped out and ran towards her and enveloped her in a bear hug and heard the shrieking laughter from her. It was music to my ears.

"Ohhh my maya.. let me look at you " she pulled me from her arms and made my stamd in an arms length.

"My my.. what did you do to your hair? Did you cut it? What is this red on your hair? Paint?"

She started picking on every single thing about me. How i got thinner, How much darker i got, even pointed out the number of freckles on my face.

I shoukd be irritated by this but all i could do is grin like an idiot while tears pricked the back of my eyes.

I hugged her again and kissed on her cheek.

"God!!!! I missed you amumma" i put my arm around her and saw my nieces running towards me.

Aditi and adha Varun's 5 year old twin daughters ran upto me. They were actual faeries. Brown curly hair tied up in small ponytails, light brown eyes like their mother and dimpled cheeks like their father. They were wearing identical purple flared frocks.

"Heyyy bun buns" i took both of them in my arms and sat down on the floor.

"Maya auntie you look so thin. Where did all your fat go?" Adha asked poking at my stomach.

I chuckled "I sold it."

"You can sell fat?" Aditi asked with wide eyes.

"Of course you can. But they only buy grownup fat. So you can try when you get older ok?"

"Okay" both echoed.

I grinned. I saw my parents walking through the doorway. My mom bent down and touched amumma's feet seeking her blessing. Dad folded his palms in a praying gesture.

Ammuma touched my moms head and led them both inside. I loved the fact that she ignored dad's gesture. Amumma had ignored my dad for all these years. She doesnt like him anymore. She said that If she knew that dad was hitting me, she would have taken me in without a second thought. But thats the thing, no one knew about that side about him. He was a perfect gentleman to the outsiders. Only if they knew.

I grabbed the girls in each hands and went inside the house. The house was packed with relatives. I was tackled with bear hugs from my cousins and uncles many times.

My mother had 3 brothers and a sister. Tara was the eldest brother's daughter. My moms relatives and Tara's mom's side all of them were here. It was so nice to see all my family at the same time.

I was so hazed by the crowd of my family i didnt notice the squeel that came from behind. It was too late when i turned and saw a sprinting tara jumping up and held me in a spider monkey lock. I lost my footing and fell on my ass.

Multiple laughs rose from the room including ours.

"I think my time has come. I've been falling too many times these days." I said pushing tara away from me.

"Dont say that" he slapped my arm. Hard. "Dont you ever say something like that again." She stood up and pulled me to my feat.

She was always scared when i talked about death. She was the one who found me that day bleeding on the bathroom. From that day everytime i say death related stuff she beats the crao out of me.

Tara started chattering about all the preparations and led me to her room. My cousins dhriti- Tara's younger sister, My mothers 2nd brother's sons- Vivek and Varun and his wife pooja joined us.

It was always us 5. There were other cousins in my family. And i was friendly with everyone but us 5 were the tightest we are the most close aged. When varun got married we became 6. Pooja was just as crazy as the rest of us.

All of us started talking about our lives. Laughter erupted in Tara's room. Varun was lying down in poojas lap. I was leaning against the headboard next to tara. Vivek and dhriti were sitting opposite to us.

Dhriti suddenly asked "So... maya. How's life in bombay? Meet any cute boys. Any boom chika wow wow?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

I made a disgusting face " Ewww. Did you really just ask me that? "

Vivek locked dhriti's neck betweem his forearms. "And most important question how do you know about boom chika wow? You're thirteen"

"Im 17." Dhriti countered.

"She's 17? And she knows about boom chika wow wow" Varun sat up grinning from poojas lap.

"Stop saying boom chika wow wow " tara shrieked.

I chuckled "When did you become 17?you were like 10 yesterday".

Everyone laughed.

Dhriti's face became red as a tomato. I knew she was going to explode any time now. I braced for the verbal abuse from her.

"I turned 17 a long time ago. If you had bothered to look out from your self obsessed head you wouldve noticed."

I flinched. That was like a slap to my face. The entire room became quiet.

Dhriti too frowned propably realising she was way too mean than necessary.

"Dhriti apologise to her. NOW" Varun ordered.

"Its okay. She's right. I am self obsessed." I winked at her and laid down on the bed.

"Thats no explanation to.." tara started.

"Yes it is..." i gave a meaningful look to tara to stop arguing. "Now topic change. Lets hear about the groooooom. Ive only seen his pictures"

Tara beamed "His name is Arjun. He's a Design engineer at maruti suzuki mumbai."

"Ooooh my city" i cooed.

"He's 6 feet 29 years old, A scorpio and..... wait for it.... he wears glasses"

Me dhriti and pooja sighed together. Pooja got a pinch from varun.

"Show me his photo again"

Tara handed me her phone and i saw a handsome stubbled man wearing a black rimmed glasses. He was breathtakingly beautiful.

I am positive ive never seen this man in my life before but there was a familiarity in his face. The cut of his jaw, the twist of his lips it was like i have seen it before. It is possible he was also mumbai based we may have crossed paths sometimes.

"Stop staring at my man" tara snatched the phone from my hands.

"I wasn't staring. I was looking. He seems familiar somehow."

"Propably seen him in your dreams" dhriti left her 2 cent comment.

"Hmmm not my type".

Vivek poked my back "Then what is your type?"

I felt tara stiffen behind me. Only amumma and her knew about my incident. I placed a hand on thigh and squeezed reassuringly.

"You know you are next in line. You should tell us your type. We have to start looking for potential grooms".

I sighed. "Me? Marriage? Nuhh uhh. It will be a long time when i get married. I need to start my own company remember. Wait next is mahima right? I didnt see her today"

All of them groaned. "Then you're not marrying any time soon. And for mahima i dont even know what she is doing." It was varun who replied.

"The last time i saw her boobs were like this big" i gestured with my fngers. Varun slapped my hand hard.

"Owwww.WHAT WAS THAT FOR??" I shrieked.

"Nothing" he winked and smirked. I lifted a pillow to smother him. But the twins entered the room and protected their daddy.

"Nooo..... dont kill dada" the screamed and covered varun with their bodies. Varun grabbed each of them by their waist so that they wont fall over.

The whole room melted in their cuteness and all of us played with them for a while.

Adhiti started making a flower from the newspaper. She was surprisingly doing it with professional ease. When she was done she handed me a beautiful paper flower which was almost close to real.

"This is beautiful bun. Where did you learn this?" I picked her up and placed her in my lap.

"Annie maam taught us" it was adha who answered she was still lying on Varun's chest and playing with his beard.

"It's their playschool teacher. They teach them to draw, paint, make craft. The kids love it." Pooja said.

"You should she them making animals with these. It nearly perfect" varun said over his daughter's ponytail.

"Thats great bun bun" i kissed adhitis cheek.

"Me too" adha complained and lifted her leg for me to kiss. I chuckled and kissed the inside of her small foot and then tickled it. She started giggling and squirming.

Varuns eyes started sparkling looking at his daughters. A proud father.

Something ached in my heart. I have waited a long time to see my dad look at me like that. But never once have i seen this look on his face atleast not while looking at me.

"I never thought in my hardest days that you would settle for a arranged marriage." I sighed cradling aditi in my arms.

"Me neither" tara admitted "but arjun.. he is a really nice guy." Her cheeks stained pink.

"Ooooooooooh" we all cooed.

"We have really similar tastes. We are both designers which means we think in sequences."

"Huh?"

"A designer be any type of it for that matter, only makes a decision after analysing all the sequential action resulting from it.So our life will flow smoothly" tara said.

"Like diarrhoea" vivek croaked.

"Ewwwwww" all of us echoed.

A lot of chitchat and reminiscing our golden days later tara and me were left alone in our room.

"Come i need to show you something" tara pulled me towards the humongous cupboard on the otherside of the room.

"Do you remember the time i got stuck in this thing?" I patted the hard wood.

"During hide and seek right? How can i forget. We actually had to call someone to break the lock"

I sighed "Those were the days"

My next words got stuck in my throat as she opened it.

The entire cupboards was filled with floral printed sarees in different colors and materials.

"Sweet heavens. Tara what did you do? " I gaped.

"Im not the old tara anymore am i? I'm going to be a wife, a daughter in law and a sister in law. So i need to presentable"

"By going on a saree shopping spree?" Dont you think this is too much?"

"Nuhh uhh. I need this maya. Im going to be the best daughter in law. Like gopi bahu" . She wiped a fake tear.

"Ughhh cringe" i groaned.

"Now for the main event. Drum roll please"

I patted my fist on the bed like a drum while tara dragged out a big box from behind the cupboard. I immediately knew what it was.

"Is that the dress?"I squeeled.

"Yup. Open it sista"

I jumped down from the bed and ripped open the big cardboard box and squeeled in delight when i saw The dress stacked on top of a lot of dresses.

It was Tara's engagement dress. It was purple velvet lehenga. It was Regal. It had beautiful patterns made with black and gold tread. The blouse was backless and had stones arranged in wavy patterns and the duppatta was a purple net type material.

"Babe. This is gorgeous." I cooed.

"I know. Arjun bought it for me" tara beamed.

I smiled. She was so happy. This arjun guy better treat her well.

"Now check out your dresses" tara lifted a package to me.

I opened it and saw a beautiful pink lehanga. It had a long skirt embroided with silver string flowers and clear stones in the middle of it.

The top came to midwaist. It was of a darker pink shade and had flared sleeves of transperent white net. The duppatta was pink too but of a smooth material. There was also a packet of accesoriss with it.

A matching necklace, earrings,bangles and a hipchain was in it.

"Tara.... this is beautiful" i hugged her.

"Its Designed by tara jeevan of course its beautiful."

There were 6 dresses in total. All of them equally beautiful and designed for each event. Engagement, Haldi, Mehandi, Sangeeth, The wedding and The wedding reception. All of them came with required accessories. I didnt have to worry about a thing.

"Now did you bring me the stuff i asked you for?" Tara demanded.

"Yes maam." I saluted and pulled down my bag from the bed. She had given me a list of beauty products and face masks from various brands. It was almost a bag full but the bride's wish is my command.

The afternoon was spent drowning in nail polish and moisturisers and face masks. And i had only one thought in my mind.

I am home.

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