Striking gold may be the norm, but I struck courage.
My wedding was a simple affair. An event strongly and solely focussed towards solemnising my marriage to my now husband, who I wedded after a courtship of 6 years. A wedding that were to happen in March of 2020 but kept getting deferred due to Covid-19 and the lockdown that it brought along to finally materialising in the November of 2020.
This was the least impactful blow I had experienced by then, though.
I had met my now husband in 2015. He lived opposite my grandmother’s home. I visited my grandmother often; her and my husband’s house faced one another. What could have been an imagination straight from story books where these two homes struck regular conversations with one another was, in reality, a nightmare brewing on slow fire.
As I visited my grandmother one fine evening, I was in for a surprise. My husband had acquired a new bike and also enough courage to express his love to me the same day. Meetings and dates quickly turned secretive and within six months, almost provocative to my grandmother and parents. Days and months passed by without their approval. I transitioned from a school-going girl to a college student staying in a hostel. One winter holidays of 2017, I visited my parents from hostel. During this stay, one cold, gray evening, a heated argument broke between my parents and I over my relationship. A lot had happened by this time already. I was well aware that somewhere they felt guilty for hurting me and I say this because I had been in the same state as them. Never in my life had I seen my parents being influenced by “what others think” – this time, I knew who the “mover and shaker” was, of this entire saga.
What ensued next was drama that spanned over 3 days post which I decided to stay as a paying guest near my college. From this moment onwards until March 2020 when the lockdown hit – it was my now husband who had been my pillar of strength. 2019 had marked the final year of my graduation and I simultaneously started practising grooming to make a foray into the field of beauty & grooming services. Independence feels breezy but the path, no matter how challenge-ridden that leads to the independence makes it liberating.
We wanted to welcome 2020 with the auspicious chime of wedding bells. Since I had also completed my graduation the same year, the time seemed right. Covid came uninvited. I shifted my base to my now husband’s home to spend the lockdown. ‘Home’ has always been a fine distillate of my journey with my husband. First, I found it in him when my parents and I quarreled one overcast winter evening and my husband requested them to allow him to take my complete responsibility. Next, when I lived with his family during the lockdown. And both have been the most consistent homes I have known.
As the wedding rolled around, Covid was still mighty and one that influenced our wedding decisions. Almost everything happened at the last moment and yet from our preparations, nobody could tell that a wedding was scheduled. Five sarees, minimalistic jewellery, catering arrangements for 50 guests and booking of a photographer were all it took. Most importantly, my husband and I shared the expense equally. Did our wedding make a visual statement? No but then I saw it being adorned by my parents… who arrived willingly on the request of my sister-in-law. That beautiful morning, happiness floated like petals in air. Only warmth permeated my surrounding; warmth emanating from the rituals of our temple wedding and that, which enveloped us as the cold feelings began thawing.
I was a happy, confident and most significantly, an independent woman dressed as a bride. It seemed like I had conquered all of my fears and worries by the time I started preparing for my wedding. And while I cherish the present but that day, all of my trials were wrapped up with a bow.