"Changing Minds" – A short story

Praveen was excited. This day was not planned but all these happened suddenly. If Shweta had not been home this holiday, this wouldn’t have happened. All thanks goes to her. Praveen was wearing a white shirt and a white dhoti and Shweta in a new type of saree designed by Remuki, her elder sister who is 5 years older. Remuki helped in Praveen’s costumes also. Praveen insisted to wear a black coat just like a Christian groom. He was inspired by Lawyer uncle’s marriage last week. Shweta and Remuki were already over impressed by the just finished priest’s daughter’s marriage and wished that this marriage should happen in the same way. After all you are not allowed to dress as you wish on your marriage. Praveen lost to the ladies but complimented it by arranging an English style music band over a traditional tabla and natasvaram.

All arrangements were done personally by Praveen and Shweta. Their parents should be nice asleep after their heavy Sunday lunch. Who knows, they might not even be aware of the marriage. Who cares to inform them about these silly things? The music band started playing. The marriage procession was a feast to the eyes. Men dressed in red were at the front playing marriage music numbers. The second line was made of relatives called with all respect as mousa mousi, dada daadi, bhaiya bhavi and all other possibilities. They hate their parents, so there was no papa mumma. The last line was occupied by the remaining crowd. In the middle was our beautiful bride and groom whose eyes were full of joy. They were holding hands. Surprisingly the same level of joy was found in every one else’s eyes. There was an aura of fun and excitement just like any other marriage. The music played was a bit asynchronous like a crow singing in myna’s concert, but who cares. There was sound and that is enough to make a marriage.

A beauty in this marriage is that there was no dowry discussed to sell the girl. No one cared about each others caste, region or social status. There were no aunties moving in and out promoting Khazana jewelers and there was no girl trying to outsmart other girls in the family to win the coveted “She is pretty” title. Praveen wished Shweta to be her bride and she agreed. Others were not given with a chance to interfere since the idea of getting married is Praveen’s and they didn’t want to interfere.

The marriage procession has walked almost 100 meters. The temple where they were supposed to reach is just 50 meters ahead. “PRAVEEN” shouted a big man with big moustaches. Praveen turned back just to see his surprise turn to shock. It is his Uncle from the military. He had a long machine gun raised in his hand. The procession halted. There was complete silence. Everyone was looking for Praveen to react.

Praveen removed the clutch from Shweta and accelerated towards his Uncle. The moment he was 2 foot away from his Uncle, Uncle leaned forward and gave the gun to Praveen. To everyone’s surprise Praveen opened fire at Shweta. Dududududdddd. Shweta accepted the bullets and fell down without any resistance. Then he went close to the crowd and shot everyone. Beautiful marriage turned into a war ground. The crowd fell down one after the other. In fact everyone enjoyed the change. Victorious Praveen went back to his uncle and said “Thanks Uncle, have you brought me more toys to play?”. “Yes my eight years old soldier” replied Uncle and lifted Praveen.

Shweta and the crowd understood that Praveen will not come again to play. They stood up from ground and headed towards the park to play ring a’ ring a’ roses. No one was worried except Remuki, whose carefully designed costumes went dirty in this mock marriage game.