It was the second day of her marriage and Sunaina was as nervous as on her first job interview. Just a month ago she had been working as an airline ticket agent for an esteemed airline. She had never stayed away from her parents even for a day except when she had to go for an orientation trip at her new job, where she went to Shimla for three days and two nights. Other than that, Sunaina always went to school, college and office from her parent’s home. Hence staying away from her beloved parents was in itself a very big challenge for her. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach even on the second day of her wedding. She had only just started to know some of the relatives in the house where she was married to just 2 days ago.

Sunaina’s was an arranged marriage which was fixed in a very regular manner as is the case in most of the Brahmin families in South India. Her parents were from Kerala, born and brought up there but she was born and brought up mostly in Delhi. Her father had a high profile job in the Government but it was a transferrable job due to which the family would move around the country every three years. This gave Sunaina lots of power to adjust, accommodate and face change in a very positive light. She believed that she could adjust under any circumstance as she never used to complain much to her parents even when she had to constantly make new friends at the new places they would shift to! Sunaina was a very content soul.

When she had settled in her airline job, her father had started looking for a prospective groom for her and asked her for her requirements in her future husband. All she said was that he should be good-hearted and understood her apart from the preference for a dark-skinned groom. Sunaina was a fair-skinned petite girl but she always liked dark-skinned people. The reason could have been that her favorite Hindu god was Lord Krishna who is famous for his purplish dark-skin tone. So there were no major conditions or requirements that Sunaina had and that made her parents work easier.

The fact that her father wanted her dear daughter to stay near him even after marriage, made him to search for prospective grooms in Delhi itself. As in all Brahmin and most of the other Hindu customs, the first step was to match the horoscopes of the girl and the boy. Once the first step has been passed, the next step was the exchange of photographs on the approval of which, the families would arrange to meet up in person. In Sunaina’s case, the first step itself was not getting crossed as the window of search was very narrow. 

Slowly the search was extended towards all the major metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore but still no luck. Then slowly the circle of search was enlarged towards whole of India and that led to an array of matched horoscopes from which this one clicked and all the next steps were a breeze and finally the marriage happened. Although the place where she was to be married off to seemed bit remote yet the fact that the groom seemed to be of a progressive mind-set and was extremely humble, warm and respectful, made Sunaina’s dad free from any wasteful doubts regarding his daughter’s happiness after marriage.

The real life begins after marriage, that’s the realization that Sunaina had at lightning speed. The first day went in a haze just like any married couple would experience. From day two, slowly it sinks in that it’s no longer the old routine and one has to suddenly get accustomed to new ways and means with total strangers in an entirely alien atmosphere. Anyways, Sunaina was confident that she will pass this phase with ease as she had done many times adjusting to the myriad of places she had stayed based on where her dad would be transferred to. But little did she know that that adjustment was alongside her loved ones, whereas this one was with completely unknown strangers.

Anyhow, the nervousness of her second day had a hidden drama in it which Sunaina was totally unaware of and which was to slowly unfold during the course of the day!    It was her first day of her monthly periods and little did she know that there were strict rules and outdated customs which her in-laws household used to follow!! She was told about the custom of untouchability which meant that no one could come in touch with her or she with others during the first three days of her periods as a mark of purity. This was easy she thought as just being careful so as not to come near anyone was not that difficult. That was her biggest mistake!!

Sunaina and her husband were invited for a dinner at his aunt’s place and Sunaina was looking forward to it while wondering how the whole untouchable thing will work when they have to go in the same car. She was going to go with her husband and brother-in-law. So the arrangement was that she would sit at the back seat while the men would sit in the front seats. All this amused Sunaina a great deal. When they reached aunt’s place, she continued staying away from everyone. The aunt enquired why Sunaina was standing so aloof from the rest, to which Sunaina mentioned bleakly that she was in that time of the month etc. Listening to this the aunt was amazed for she never believed in these outdated customs and rituals and expressed her disbelief in someone as modern as Sunaina to be following such outdated customs. Sunaina herself was feeling quite uncomfortable in the fact that the whole world seemed to know about her normal bodily function.

But Sunaina felt a great relief in knowing that the aunt was just like one of her maiden house members and hence opened up to her about how her mom was a teacher and back in Delhi they never even used to mention about having periods, let alone the entire community knowing about it due to the three-day rule. Her aunt understood Sunaina’s dilemma and gave her assurance that she is by her side and invited her to come and stay with her on those three days. Sunaina was glad to have found at least one soul who understood where she came from but obviously her in-laws, especially mother-in-law and husband would never allow her to go stay with the aunt three days every month but just knowing that she could talk to someone with a broad mind was a big comfort for Sunaina.

So, the dinner was about to start when the doorbell rang and Sunaina went to open the door. It was her brother-in-law who had brought something to eat from outside as a snack before dinner time. By nature, Sunaina was a pro-active helpful girl and so she forwarded her hand to take the plastic packet from her brother-in-law. To her surprise he seemed hesitant to hand over the packet to her. She thought since she is a new bride, her brother-in-law may not want to give her any such feeling that he wants her to take the packet and dish out the eatables for everyone. Being a new bride always has the pressure of proving to the new family of having the capability to do everything efficiently. The same pressure took the better of Sunaina and she literally took the packet from him and handed it over to the aunt. She felt proud of herself for starting to be the good daughter in law that she was supposed to be!

After that Sunaina started helping her aunt with few other random chores outside the kitchen as she knew that even if her aunt does not believe in this ridiculous custom, she should not disobey her in-laws .When both the women came out to the sitting room, they found Sunaina’s husband sitting alone watching cricket in the sports channel. The aunt quizzed as to where his brother was to which he replied that he had to rush back home and he left. Both Sunaina and the aunt were surprised at this sudden departure of the young man. Anyways the three of them had a hearty meal and happily bid farewell to the aunt, thanked her and left for home in their car making sure to keep distance between them. 

On reaching home, Sunaina planned to rush to her bedroom to freshen up and call it a day as she was extremely fatigued from the pressure of her new role in her new surroundings which she was still getting used to and not to speak of her period pains. Anyways on the way to her bedroom she had to cross the hallway and to her surprise she saw almost a dozen relatives there and everyone seemed stiff. She was now a bit used to the house being full of random relatives at all times but was a bit anxious to find all of them still awake this late. Amongst the sea of heads, she saw her mother-in-law’s furious face with stern eyes peering on her. She immediately got tensed wondering what could be the reason for this tense atmosphere!!

Anyways, she waited for the next scene to unfold. She was very careful to stay at an arm’s length from everyone so as not to break any ritual and wondered if something had happened in their absence for this dead silence. Suddenly the silence was shattered by the shrilling angry voice of her mother-in-law. The next fifteen minutes went like a blur for Sunaina where she could literally not fathom all that she was hearing. Her mother-in-law blamed her for breaking the rule at the aunt’s place and that she was ashamed of her behavior. Sunaina didn’t understand why her mother-in-law was upset as according to her she didn’t touch anyone and her aunt didn’t mind her helping outside the kitchen and there was no other mistake she could think of. Her mother-in-law barked at her insulting her mother by saying that it was a shame that she was not taught anything by her mother before getting her married etc. To witness someone accusing her beloved mother for no rhyme or reason made Sunaina extremely sad and her eyes filled up with tears. After a rather long outburst of curses and insults from her new family head, she slowly comprehended the reason for her unbearable anger. Apparently her brother-in-law had to dip in the pond to purify himself after he abruptly returned from the aunt’s house. Her mother-in-law started blaming her for making her younger son to have to bathe in the cold water at night and to have returned without any dinner. 

Sunaina could not understand what her mistake was! Why was she being blamed for something she never did! But her mother-in-law kept insulting, insinuating, humiliating, and cursing her in front of a room full of relatives but who were just random strange faces for Sunaina. This had never ever happened to her, even at her workplace where her employer was decent enough to put his point across or point out an employee’s mistake, in a very respectful and practical manner explaining what and how the error had been made and offering suggestions or advice to tackle them for the benefit of the company. But here the case was totally different. Her uneducated narrow-minded mother-in-law’s mission seemed not to educate the new family member of the ways and means of the family’s customs but it felt to Sunaina as if she was utilizing this opportunity to get the better of her. Sunaina wondered why her mother-in-law was acting like this as this was a proper arranged marriage and there was no force on her to get her son married to her, then why this hatred towards her!! She could also not fathom as to why her brother-in-law was not clearing the air!

Sunaina suddenly saw her brother-in-law who seemed to have changed his clothes after the now famous pious dip in the temple pond and looked at Sunaina with accusation. Sunaina had no complaint against him but wanted to know the truth behind his accusation since she had abided by all the rules mentioned to her but she didn’t dare to utter a word or to clarify her side when her mother-in-law seemed ready to kill her! Her only ray of hope was her husband who had just two days ago taken the vows to protect her, to maintain her respect, to save her from any harm etc. So fervently Sunaina’s eyes started searching for her new husband among the crowd of newly acquired strangers who were by now staring at her and enjoying the whole drama being telecast at her expense, the director and main actor of which was her mother-in-law and the villain was obviously me!

After a few minutes of search in the midst of digesting the newly bestowed derogatory name tags upon her, Sunaina was almost glad to find her husband’s figure in the last row behind the dozen of relatives. With new-found confidence and hope, Sunaina looked at him straight in the eyes requesting him to speak for her to his mother whom he knows better than her for obvious reasons and to whom he can speak up and explain her side of the story but to Sunaina’s utter shock and bewilderment, her husband immediately hid even more behind all the people present and silently made his way to the door. Seeing him shamelessly escaping from the tense room where she felt like a prey being hunted by a group of wild dogs, it didn’t take long for Sunaina to understand that her husband was a shameless spineless mama’s boy who had no voice of his own let alone protect his life partner with whom he had just taken the precious vows to protect her honor and to be by her side come rain or shine!! 

To save herself from further insults and more so not being able to listen to another word against her parents, Sunaina dashed to her room crying uncontrollably. All she wanted to know was her mistake for which she was being harassed so badly!! Suddenly one of the relatives walked in and to her shock said that her mother-in-law was a very innocent sweet lady and her heart is of gold!! Sunaina trying to control herself and finding some breath in between her wails, asked this strange relative who seemed to have come to advocate her mother-in-law instead of providing some solace to her, why was the mother-in-law blasting her in such a rude and cruel manner. The lady asked Sunaina if she had touched any packet at the aunt’s place, to which Sunaina confidently replied that she never touched the brother-in-law but took the packet’s other corner to help him keep it on the table. The lady said , as per the rules if one touches any plastic cover while the other is still holding it, it is considered to have been in contact with the other thereby contaminating the person and hence her brother-in-law immediately rushed back home and had to take the holy dip and change his clothes. The brother-in-law complained to his mother that he had to dip in cold water and that he could not have dinner etc. Hence the mother-in-law was furious and kept blaming and shouting until Sunaina had arrived, after which all hell broke loose.

This whole thing was so shocking and nerve-wrecking for Sunaina. Firstly she thought instead of showering her with insults and curses, if her new family had respected her life before her marriage, had some decency to explain to her what had gone wrong and had shown some kindness in the fact that she had just left her dear parents home, her job, her friends etc and was trying her level best to fit into a totally new lifestyle, this whole unpleasant drama could have been avoided. 

Her biggest regret was her own judgment in choosing a life partner for herself. She could still understand the behavior of her brother-in-law, the anger of her mother-in-law but she could not get herself to understand her husband’s shying away from his responsibility of speaking for her in such a time of need. How selfish or uncaring a person has to be to hide himself from a prospective requirement of him to safeguard his new wife’s honor. At least he could have come by her side to show his support and maybe tried to tell his mother to give Sunaina more time to get to learn the new ways of her new family. Instead she realized that she was barking up the wrong tree!!!