Vibha Vinod (Part 1)

She was fidgeting under the collective stares of the ladkawalas. Her mother had told her to look abashed, so she kept her gaze averted.

Vibha was in her final year of Masters and wanted to complete her MPhil so she could teach. Math was her favorite subject, she understood numbers. But the untimely death of her father, a trader, had changed things. Suddenly, as if spurred by her husband's death, Vibha's mother had started looking for prospective grooms with an unjustified urgency. The only problem was that her brother was not working yet, and there was not much of a dowry to be offered.

She was called back from her reverie, by her mother's voice. They were now discussing the achievements of the groom. He looked handsome, a head full of hair, shy smile. He was not very tall, but so was her father. He was an MBA, she was relieved to find that he was at least as educated as she was. They had a lot of ancestral land near Bikaner, though they were settled a mere 4 hours away from her hometown. They were very forward, not expecting much dowry, and of course they would let her finish her M Phil.

What more could a girl ask for!

It was a quick wedding. The immediate family was Vinod's parents and his elder brother's family and his elder married sister. The family was close knit and they indulged her through all the ceremonies, encouraging her to dream about a happy comfortable life.

In later years when she will look back to this time, she would bitterly blame herself to be so naive as to readily believe what they told her family. She would close her eyes and silently scream until she was no longer thinking of that fateful day she said yes to marry Vinod.