Lockdown blessings
Sanjana
and Saaransh agreed to find their partners through a typical arranged marriage
process. Their pictures were exchanged and it was their parents who played
pivot roles in this process. They met each other for the first time at Sanjana’s
house as ‘rishta’-proposal came from Saaransh’s family. Their meeting was a
very formal one in the presence of all relatives from both the sides. Like
every other arranged marriage, they were given some time for interaction. In
mere exchange of conversation, they felt a striking connection between the two and
agreed to proceed further in this process of marriage.
After
both of them gave green signal to their families to proceed in this matter, the
family astrologer found out a suitable and auspicious date for engagement
process by matching each other’s kundli; birth chart, which was just a month
away from their first meeting.
After
their first meeting, Saaransh went back to his city to join his workplace while
Sanjana got busy with the preparation of her final year semester which was the
most important task in her list of priorities for her as it was just a week
away. She kept herself immersed in the preparation process of end-semester exam
and promised her mother to help her as soon as the exam got over. As Saaransh
was staying at a faraway city, he had to join his workplace immediately as he
was leading an important project.
Sanjana
has always been an ideal daughter for her parents, a heart-throb for many boys
of her school, college and a sincere student for her teachers. She was not just
good at academics but possessed various qualities to enchant anyone. Fair look,
beautiful radiant smile, slim built, limousine eyes constitute parts and parcel
of her magnetic personality. As promised to her mother, she showed her active
involvement in the preparation of Engagement ceremony after her exam got
over.
The day
of engagement arrived as decided by the astrologer and all family members had
gathered at a temple selected by both parents. Relatives of both parties were
invited who arrived at the venue at the decided time. Sanjana got dressed up in
a beautiful Silk Saree as selected by her mother and put a little make up to
complement with her attire .Her ever green smile added volume to her confident
persona. She was brimming with an extraordinary satisfaction; a sense of
satisfaction of witnessing her parent’s happiness.
Source:Google Images
As soon
as she got down from the car at the venue, she saw Saaransh too getting down
from his car. It was as if timing was well matched by the destiny, their eyes
met for a moment and she could find Saaransh staring at her from the corner of
his eye. They exchanged rings after the chant of certain Sanskrit shlokas and
performed certain rituals which could not be deciphered by many at that moment.
Everyone sprinkled petals of flowers over them as a mark of their blessings to
start this beautiful bonding. Engagement process is analogous to the concept of
couples proposing each other but in this case they barely knew each other or
had spent any moment with each other. The feast began after the ceremony got
over.
The
photographer called them to the back side of the temple to pose for couple
pics. It was when they got some personal time away from the crowd, after their
first meet, to shed off some of their personal inhibitions. They weren’t
comfortable in giving poses as they had not even interacted well with each
other, so they just made it simple. Saaransh broke the ice by complementing her.
After some brief interactions, before the photographer started bothering for
subsequent pics, they exchanged their mobile numbers to stay in touch; after
all officially they were fiancée. The
astrologer selected the nearest Muhurt to be 2nd day of next month
which was barely thirty five days away from their engagement but this time
there were a lot of work and both parties agreed to it. All guests and
relatives returned to their respective homes with a sense of satisfaction with
the arrangement process, food, decoration and divine aura.
Again
Saaransh returned to his workplace a day after his engagement. Just after two
days, Sanjana received a ‘Hi’ message from Saaransh and their interaction started
through messages. After few days, their chatting converted to phone calls
.Sanjana was busy with the wedding preparation like shopping clothes ,printing
cards, negotiating with catering services, making a list of guests, inviting
guests as well as helping her brother in academics. There was
barely any moment of rest for her. Time was slipping away so fast.
Finally
the D-day arrived. Sanjana was feeling little anxious inside ; a mixed feeling
she was under going ; excitement of embracing a new phase of life as well as
going away from her own family was causing some emotional turbulence within her.
Amidst all these feelings she tried to maintain that confident smile which she
always carried.
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| Source:Google Images |
Who
knew that something like Corona will lock everyone inside their homes for such
a long time!
After
completing all rituals of marriage and a brief stay with her in-laws, Sanjana
had to relocate with Saaransh to Pune where he was doing the job. It was just
after few days of entering into a new city, Lockdown 1.0 was declared and it
was urged for everyone to be quarantined. Everything was new for her, the city,
this new phase of life, new terms like quarantine as well as breakthrough of
this new disease called COVID-19.
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| Source:Google Images |
Like
every other girl, Sanjana too had weaved a lot of rosy dreams about her future
partner. Even though she had never expressed it to anyone, she too had some
expectations from her marriage and her future husband. Due to the fast paced occurrence
of her marriage, she didn’t get much time to enjoy her courtship period with
Saaransh. The videos of being proposed with a bouquet of multi-colored roses fascinated
and excited her .She had downloaded some of those pictures in her mobile. She
would often see those pictures and imagine herself to be one of those girls which
filled her heart again with hopes for love. The declaration of Lockdown 1.0
made her happy secretly as she considered this as a golden chance to live her
courtship period again. Was God really reading her mind and knowing about her
secret desires that no one had known? Perhaps, yes! Lockdown felt like blessing
to her and it was carrying forth a lot of surprises for her.
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| Source:Google Images |
Slowly
and steadily Sanjana got used to this new phase of life. She started to devote
more time to her hobbies which she had forgotten to have existed because of
academic commitments. She was now living and enjoying life like a child;
singing, dancing, painting, reading and giving time to a newly found hobby; cooking.
She was getting to know Saaransh better;
his likes, dislikes etc. She found that Saaransh too was very supportive of
her.
Months
passed and the news of rising positive cases of Corona affected people
intimidated her. She took all measures to keep her safe from this novel virus.
Saaransh was also allowed to work-from-home due to the declaration of complete
lockdown. She was missing her family and it was the first time in which she had
been away from her family for such a long time. What could have been done in
such a time of pandemic except for saving each other’s lives by adhering to
safety rules?
It was
a day before her birthday. She was missing her family and friends very badly. She
was wondering how her birthday in lockdown would feel like. Just few minutes to
her birthday, she was asked to come to the hall of their home where Saaransh
had managed to decorate everything secretly. Her favourite chocolate flavoured
cake with icing of multi-coloured rose was kept on the top of the table. She
was overjoyed to witness all these. Before she picked the knife to cut the
cake, Saaransh stopped her and started to do a conference call to her family,
friends so that they could all be a part of this-virtual-lockdown-birthday. Lights
were turned off, candles lit the room up. She picked the knife and started to
cut the cake after blowing the candles, she felt something was obstructing the
process of cutting. While she leaned forward to catch the culprit obstructing
the process, she found out a small box. Saaransh quickly snatched the box from
her hand and sat on his one leg, like a proposing pose, with a bouquet of
multi-coloured roses, slid the ring into her finger and confessed that “We didn’t
get much time to spend with each other after engagement, think this phase to be
like a live-in-relationship. So, can I have the liberty to confess my
live-in-partner my deepest feelings that I love her every moment since the time
I saw her and always wanted to propose her like her dream proposal? Will you marry
me again and be my wife forever?” All these felt like her dream coming true,
something straight out of a fairy tale. She shyly said yes and everyone cheered
them up in the virtual setting.
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| Source: Google Images |
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| Source: Google Images |
Lockdown
gifted her best memories to cherish for lifetime as she had learnt to enjoy
life the way it came instead of complaining about the shortcomings. She now, believed
that no dream has an expiry date and every dream comes true one day.
#LockdownTales #BlogATon59
All Rights Reserved!
Swati
Sarangi
19.07.2020
