The Rejection

12

Haldi ceremony was next scheduled up. Although Sia and Sam both never needed Haldi to have brighter skin, they had skin as bright skin as the Sun. But as it was a traditional ceremony they had to perform. They respected each traditional ceremony and its importance and never pretend to be cooled enough to ignore those traditions. Haldi ceremony was also celebrated by both of them together. Sia’s family and relatives and friends and Sam and his friends were present in the ceremony. Sam and Sia had matched up to their color of a dress, dark yellow, traditional style. Before anyone could put Haldi on Sam, Sia herself did so and put Haldi on his face gently by which Sam was struck by her tenderness for a minute. Everyone put Haldi on them; their friends even threw Haldi on them. Aakriti came in, she applied Haldi on Sia. She did not have any guts to go near Sam and applied Haldi to him. Rose’s petals were thrown on Sia and Sam together by the photographer to click beautiful pictures. The decoration was even very much unique. Couches were decorated with an earthy vibe in shades of lime in the floral garland decor which were combined with origami bird drop on above it.  Wheel of fun was settled up. Mini dares were included in that Wheel, one had to whirl the wheel and had to perform a task which it said. Sia forced Aakriti so many times that she had to go and give a whirl to the wheel. The wheel stopped after rotating five times. She was given a dare to dance. She shied away from before but she had no option as Sia and her friends were not letting her go without performing a dance. Then she tucked her scarf on her waist and performed a traditional dance of her village. Everyone was stunned by watching it. Aakriti did not stop for a long time as she was totally lost in her dance which brought her immense happiness and made her forgot about Manan and Diamonds. It was she was as happy as before all happened in her life. 

She danced, danced and danced for like half an hour. She stopped as one of her anklets loosen up from her leg and fell on the ground and which hit her in her feet. She was hesitating to face all people standing in front of her, as she was lost in her dance and totally forgot about them. She went behind Sia’s back to hide and started to wipe her sweat with her scarf which she was wearing. Then Sia handed her some tissue papers and told her how amazing she was and she was getting worried over nothing, she was amazing when she was dancing and should have continued even after breaking her anklet. Everyone appreciated her dancing and enjoyed it. Everyone had thrown haldi on Sam and Sia. Sia’s mother told Sia, Sam, and their friends about one small tradition, she told them that, “If groom or bride put on the Haldi off of their skin, the one that is already applied on them to someone who is not yet married will get a stroke of good luck and will get to marry soon. It was considered good luck for the marriage.” After hearing that Sia ran and put her Haldi on her cousins and friends who did not want to get married soon. Lastly, the Haldi holi party started and everyone started to throw haldi on each other, while Sam was given a haldi bath- Bucket filled with Haldi water was thrown on Sam by Sia. Photographer sure did not forget to click that picture. Everything was about to wind up. Sam was sitting on a bench and was just about to drink water from a glass, but there he was again thrown on by another bucket of Haldi water. He knew it could not be Sia, as he just saw Sia talking to her nephew. He did not know who else would do something like that. All of his friends had already thrown haldi on him during Haldi holi. He was very desperate to see who it could be. He just wiped the water off his eyes and turned back to see who he was. When he turned back to see, he was so happily shocked to see the face who threw water on him. He was Ronith, his best friend, his childhood friend from his orphanage. He spent his entire childhood with him in that orphanage. He was so happy that Ronith could make it to his wedding and he was even happier for a happy surprise. 

Sam and Ronith were friends from the age of five years. Ronith has enrolled already when they took Sam to an orphanage. Ronith was brought to that place by his own uncle and aunt. Although it was not his uncle and aunt they were his own mother and stepfather but he always pretended in front of others that they were his uncle and aunt. He did not want anyone to think bad for his own parents so he used to tell it so. Ronith had Tourette's syndrome when he was in his childhood. Ronith needed special treatment for his syndrome, and special attention with time. His parents could not give him that time, and his father thought Ronith was embarrassing his father in front of his sophisticated friends.  Because of that Ronith’s father decided to abandon him and he was not ready to raise him. Ronith’s mother on other hand was very supportive of him and left her husband but she did not leave Ronith. She could not raise Ronith on his own so had to do a second marriage so she could give a better life to Ronith. 

In beginning Ronith’s mother was happy; she had a happy married life for some time. But after a while her second husband also started to have problems with Ronith, he also threat Ronith’s mother that he would leave him if she would not get rid of Ronith or would get rid of Ronith in his own way and that would create more problems for her. Ronith’s mother did not have more courage left in her to raise a child on her own and start a new life so she then decided to put him in an orphanage and asked for special treatments. As Ronith’s mother was not able to pay any more money they did not provide any special treatment to Ronith. Although Ronith only needed some time and care, he did not need any other luxuries. When he joined other boys in school or lunch or bedtime and doing other activities, each and every boy was laughing at him and even people of the orphanage were also thinking he was making all the noises deliberately and wanted to disturb all. As they were asked to share a room at night, people of the orphanage did not use to share Ronith’s room with anyone as they thought that f he would make noises at night, other kids would get scared and would not be able to sleep. Ronith used to sleep alone and was terrified to sleep alone as other older kids were mean to him and would just scare him off from the ghost stories, he used to cry alone at late night and used to miss his mother a lot. His mother would never let him stay alone at night and would always make sure that when she left his room, he was asleep. At his own place, his mother would feed him with her own hand, and here no one was even ready to sit next to him. His mother would not let anyone point out, while in the orphanage people were mocking and teasing him. 

The change from his own house to the orphanage and that too with his syndrome and other people’s behavior, it was really hard for Ronith to survive in that place. But as there is always one Krishna for one Suadama, likewise, Sam got enrolled in that orphanage. Sam had nearly no memory that how he got enrolled in that place. He did not know if his parents were alive or not if they had died in a car accident, or if he was kidnapped by a beggar and that beggar put him in that place, he had no idea at all. He was Krishna for Ronith. He used to sit and talk with Ronith and would not let anyone make fun of him. Even he was beaten up by some old boys for always sticking up on Ronith and not letting them make fun of him. He requested authority to let him sleep with Ronith, as he knew he was afraid to sleep alone in dark. He had made another life for Ronith and was so supportive of him; he used to stay awake till Ronith fell asleep. He used to make Tourette's sounds along with, Ronith so he would not feel uncomfortable and people would stare at them both so he would not be conscious. As they became ten years old, he has once beaten up the fourteen-year-old boy and made blood came from his nose, the boy who used to harass Ronith without any reason, on his syndrome. Since then no one would mess with Ronith or Sam. While playing cricket or any other games he would always pick Ronith in his team. At the age of fifteen years, Ronith had complete control over his syndrome and within a year or two he got completely rid of it. They were inseparable but as they grew up and chose different studies they had to be apart from each other. Ronith had a career that demanded him to go to London.