COVER STORY
Amani grabbed Hina by the arm and pulled her along the side of the stage of Ray and Gohar’s mehndi. “Nonsense,” Amani said to Hina, “there’s no way you’ve forgotten the dances. We put so much practice into it. Just follow my lead.” She pulled Hina onto the dance floor. They stood there, waiting for their cue. The first notes of their song started tinkling over the speakers. Hina stared out at the audience, which had turned into a haze of faces. She couldn’t tell who was who. Amani, who was already two steps into the dance, flicked her dupatta at Hina. Hina stepped out of her daze and looked at what Amani was doing. She followed Amani for their first two songs, then somewhere into the third she remembered all the times the three friends had stumbled over a particular step in the dance. She remembered and did the step by herself. The next part was pulling Gohar off the stage and onto the dance floor to dance with Hina and Amani. Hina caught Gohar’s shy smile and Amani’s energetic movements out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly, the audience came into focus. She could hear her cousins hooting, Gohar’s cousins clapping and recognized the relatives who were watching. By the time dancing had become easy, it was over. The three friends moved off the dance floor to let the next group come in. Amani and Hina walked Gohar back to the stage.
Later, over heaped plates of food, surrounded by her family, Hina couldn’t stop talking. She only stopped during the car ride back home. Flying onto her bed the moment she stepped in her bedroom, Hina took her shoes off and stretched her legs. “Two more nights,” she told herself.
Next day’s session in the beauty parlour was better than the first. Gohar did not need as much encouragement to get into the bridal section of the parlour, and Amani and Hina settled into their seats with sighs of relief.
“I think this whole party makeup at the beauty parlour thing takes as much time as the event itself,” Hina said over her shoulder to Amani in the next seat.
“Why wouldn’t it? It’s important. Of course, it will take time,” Amani said, blinking as her beautician swept a brush past her eyelids.
“It feels like it takes forever, almost like it’s a waiting room before the real fun begins,” Hina said.
“You can think of it that way,” Amani said. “All the real fun was over at the mehndi, though.”
“How can you say that?” Hina asked, and her beautician told her to stay in her seat, as Hina had almost leapt halfway out of it. “I’m spending hours at this parlour so I can have fun looking good at my brother’s wedding. I’m not done having fun yet!”
Fun would have to wait until serious matters were sorted out first. The scene of the solemnification of the marriage, nikkah, was an emotionally charged one. Hina thought she would be all right until she looked at her parents. Abbu, who usually reserved his emotions for the daily newspaper, looked very serious, almost as if he were about to cry. Ammi, breaking all the norms of how she was known to her family members, was actually crying. Hina saw a few tears slide down Ammi’s cheeks, and she was shaken. She did not think Ammi capable of such emotion, especially in public. She felt her own eyes well up and tried to blink away the tears. What was she crying about? It was the first marriage in their family, a happy occasion. Ray was going to have a family of his own from now. The tears fell hot and fast. There was something so huge, so indescribable about the change that was going to happen in a few minutes. Then, it happened just like that. Three declarations of “I accept”. Signatures on the marriage certificate. It was over. It was done!
Hina immediately launched herself onto Ray. To her surprise, he hugged her back tighter than usual. It was not a joking hug done after a few rounds of sibling laughter. It was not a celebratory hug after someone had done something worth praising. Hina could tell Ray was holding onto her for dear life, and she wondered whether he was holding his own tears back.
Then, time sped up as waves upon waves of congratulations washed over them. Hina, who had spent hours making the marriage celebration goodie bags with her cousins, did not even care if she herself received any of the bid. Someone had handed her one a few minutes ago, but she did not remember where she had left it. She went over to Gohar’s side where Amani was lecturing Gohar about not spoiling her bridal makeup with tears. Hina dove in for Gohar like she had dived in for Ray, and Gohar threw her arms around Hina as if she were a lifeboat.
“You’re going to make her cry even more,” Amani said sternly, grabbing both of them by the shoulders and separating them. “Fun times now!”
Fun at the barat consisted of a continuous stream of photography. Hina smiled and smiled until it felt like her face would fall off from all the smiling for photos. Finally, dinner was announced. Gohar’s sister appeared with a highly decorated glass with a straw poking out of it.
“Oh, fun time,” Amani said, getting into line behind Gohar’s sister.
“What are you doing?” Hina asked.
“We’re going to do the doodh pilai, duh,” Amani said. “We’ll charge enormous amounts for this glass of milk!”
“I’m in, too,” Hina said, but Amani laughed.
“The girl’s side does this, Hina,” Amani said. “Aren’t you with the boy’s side?”
“Not anymore,” Hina said, as the three of them approached the stage. “I’m totally Gohar’s friend for this part of the wedding.”
“You too, Brutus?” Ray asked, meeting Hina’s gaze across the top of the glass.
“I switched sides,” Hina said brightly.
“I noticed,” Ray said.
Hina let Amani do most of the bargaining. She had switched sides but it still felt strange to bargain with him for the milk money, when she should have been on his side of the stage. She looked around. So many people had pressed in around the stage to watch the playful banter that there was hardly any room for the photographer to squeeze in.
After a while, Hina snapped back to the present and registered that Amani was still going at Ray with full force. She laid a hand on Amani’s shoulder. “That much is enough, don’t you think?” she asked.
Immediately, the girl’s side started booing. “Are you really on our side or not?” several people called out.
Hina stared back, not knowing what to do.
To be continued...