Tears of Mehndi by Raminder Sidhu

Author:Raminder Sidhu [Sidhu, Raminder]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781894759960
Publisher: Caitlin Press
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Asha – Hope

* * *

The envelope was addressed to Sonia Brar in Asha’s neat handwriting and I knew what was in it as soon as I took it out of the mailbox. With my house keys and the fancy envelope in one hand and my textbooks under my other arm, I plopped down on my futon. My body was burning, but not because my wool coat was too thick for the cold January afternoon. It was the anger directed toward my merciless society that was blistering my skin.

There in bright red letters was the announcement I feared:

Mrs. Lalita Kumari Uppal and the Late Mr. Harbhajan Singh request your presence at the auspicious wedding ceremony of their beloved daughter Asha to Eshaan Chopra.

The date for the wedding was set for February 7, 1996, less than a month away.

I had not heard from my best friend, Asha, in almost a year. Not a phone call or a letter. And now this. The last time I had seen her was the day of her father’s funeral. Although my mother had not approved of my attending the actual funeral, she had insisted we pay our respects at the home since I had come all that way and everyone else in the community would be there.

The women had surrounded Lalita, Asha’s mother, where she sat on the couch, while my mother motioned for me to have a seat on the floor next to Asha and some of the other girls.

“Bechari,” Mrs. Gill chanted again and again to Lalita as if every other word in her vocabulary had been exhausted. “Poor woman.”

“What will you do now?” Baksho asked. “What does it matter that he wasn’t a great man? At least he was around to offer you his name and a roof over your head. As long as you have a husband, you’ll get by in life. People will respect you no matter what kind of aadmi you’re married to. But what will you do now? Once you try to venture out into the world alone, you’ll only encounter defeat and ridicule.”

“That’s okay, Lalita,” Indu said, rubbing Lalita’s back while the widow cried into her dupatta. “Just let it all out. I heard about this woman from my village who was in such shock when her husband died that she did not shed a single tear. The elders said she went crazy-croozy because she did not express her despair. They had to bring a live-in nurse to take care of her.”

My mother nodded her head in agreement, but I knew she did not really care. She was only there because of her loyalty to her clan. The Dukh Sukh Club, as Asha and I called them, consisted of my mother and all her friends, but on special occasions like this their clones from neighbouring areas joined them as well to offer their unsolicited wisdom to the grieving family. The group took it upon themselves to provide Asha and her family with the inspiration and hope to move forward with their lives.

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