Lost Identity!

An impertinently early crowing of a rooster roused Spurthi from her sleep. She opened her right eye first, as she usually did and tried to focus it on the framed photo of Goddess Lakshmi on the right side wall… It was not there. Alarmed, she opened both her eyes and sat up. The strangeness of the room startled her first. Then, realization dawned on her. She was married. This was her husband’s home…her new home.
The word ‘husband’ evoked a smile on her face. She wondered where he was and what he must be doing now. Still sleeping? Then, where? Funny…. She must be the only bride who spent her first night after marriage sleeping with her mother in law…
“ No nuptials till we perform Satyanarayan Puja…” That was the condition placed before her parents…

She glanced out of the window. Dawn was about to break. The grays and black blotches seemed to merge into golden strands… like a pochampalli sari, she thought… She turned and saw that someone was sleeping on the floor in one corner of the room… She couldn’t see who it was, as the bed sheet was all over the head.

A door opened behind her and her mother in law walked out of the bathroom, obviously having finished her bath. Spurthi scrambled up… Her mother in law was in a hurry… As she walked out she called out, “Lucky, get ready fast… the pundit will be here in an hour. There is so much to do.” Spurthi looked at the sleeping figure. So it is Lucky, she thought. Now… who was Lucky? As far as she could remember, she had been introduced to no Lucky, the previous day. Must be a cousin… What a ridiculous name, she thought…Lucky! Like Sanjay Chacha’s sister in law’s pomeranian! She giggled.

She wondered if she should wake the girl up. Her mum in law seemed to be a no- nonsense person, though not unkind. She had been kind enough to explain to a puzzled Spurthi the previous night, why the puja was imminent before Spurthi and her husband started their wedded life…

“ Bhabhi, mummy asked you to wear an ordinary sari after bath; she said, you can change later… and hurry up, the punditji is coming at 6.30.” It was Priya, her eldest sister in law. Spurthi wanted to ask if she should let Lucky bathe first, as her mum in law had instructed, but the figure seemed so blissfully unaware of any commotion around her, that she decided to have her bath quickly… But where was her suitcase? Where were her things?

She entered the kitchen diffidently. The new atmosphere in the strange surroundings made her feel a little nervous. Half a dozen women of different age groups thronged the kitchen. Some were chopping vegetables, someone making tea, someone frying puris and her mother in law was stirring something that smelled delicious.

“You are not ready yet? Lucky beta, have your bath and get ready.” Spurthi turned around. Had Lucky followed her? She thought she caught the shadow of someone moving behind her.

“My bags and suitcase…” she murmured. “Maya, go and get her bags from Papa’s room,” her mum in law said. Her youngest sister in law got up from shelling peas and joined her at the door. “Come on, Bhabhi… I’ll get your suitcase,” she said. As they turned away, once again, her mother in law’s voice followed her, “ Don’t delay, Lucky. We need another hand here with the preparations.”

As she collected her suitcase from her father in law’s room and walked back to the room where she had slept, she noticed that the sleeping figure was no longer there. The bed was neatly rolled up… So Lucky is up, she thought and wondered if she would take too much time in the bathroom. As she stood with her towel and toilet kit, the bathroom door opened and Prahlad walked out. He smiled when he saw her and told her… “You want to bathe first? Go ahead.” She smiled shyly at him and walked towards the bathroom. As she was about to enter, he said, “Lucky, after you finish your bath, get me a tea…. I don’t want to face all those women in the kitchen... Not that they have any reason to tease me… still…”

His words hardly registered in her mind… She was shocked. Why was he calling her ‘Lucky’? There was some misunderstanding… She wanted to clarify it. “Suno,” she said, “I am called Mini at home, not Lucky…”

Prahlad gave her a surprised look… Mini? But I thought it was Spurthi….”

“ Yes… It is Spurthi but I am called Mini by my parents… Since morning, Mummy has been calling me Lucky. Now even you… I realized only now that you and mummy meant me when you said, ‘Lucky’…”

“Oh…You don’t know? We changed your name during the wedding ceremony to Lucky,” said Prahlad. The pundit announced it… no? It is a custom in our family… From today, you are Lucky…the lucky mascot of our home.” He turned away before catching the shocked expression on his new bride’s face.

Lucky Prahlad Middha nee Spurthi Sharma a k a (once) Mini walked like a zombie into the bathroom… “At least they could have consulted me…” she thought despondently.
She opened the shower fully and stood underneath the piercing jet of cold water… As cold streams of water washed away the last traces of her premarital identity, she started sobbing her soul out…”