Vermilion

She woke up to the early morning sun rays playing hide and seek with her bedroom's curtains. She turned to look at the face sleeping next to her and smiled a lazy smile wondering on how life had been throwing surprises at her when she least expected it.

She drifted back in time, when things were not so pleasant as they seem and she had gone to the extent of contemplating suicide.

Purvi hailed from an economically backward village situated in the remotest corner of Karnataka where girls were married of even before they achieved puberty. She was the first one to defy the culture of the village and stalled getting married till she completed her tenth. This was completely unheard of in her village and she was already the target of the village elders because of this act of hers!

Although her parents supported her decision initially, they couldn't do so for long and had to bow down to the wish of the elders of the village. Her wedding was fixed with a guy from neighboring village who was employed in the city.

Her marriage we performed in the village according to the customs & traditions. She hadn’t even met her husband before the wedding and was scared on what was in store for her.

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Much to her surprise, Vinay turned out to be just the opposite of what she had imagined her husband to be. Having stayed in the village all her life, she had thought that her husband would be just like all the men of her village – a drunkard, a wife beater; but Vinay turned out to be just the opposite. Vinay was graduate employed in one of the international banks in the city. Having stayed away from the village for a very long time, he was very outgoing, decent, ambitious and very humble and modest (just like his name had suggested)

He had given Purvi time to get adjusted to the city life, encouraged her to complete her education and join work. He had taught her to be independent, make her own decisions and trusted her abilities completely. More than being a husband, he was her best friend, confidant and soul mate with whom Purvi could share anything.

They had built their cozy little family in the midst of the chaos of the city and Purvi was happy living a blissful and blessed life until that fateful day when she received the dreaded phone call. Purvi was at work and the news that came with the phone call came as a shock to her. She fainted on hearing the news. Her colleagues helped her out and she was unable to share the news of her husband’s accident with them.

Things moved in a blur after that. Her husband had met with an accident when he was returning from a client meeting. He was admitted to the hospital. Since he was injured on the head, the doctor had very little hope of his survival. Vinay passed away after 3 days of struggling for his life.

Things had gone out of control after that. Her friends had sorted out the hospital bills and taken care of the insurance and stuff. Her parents had come and taken her away to their house in the village. She was locked away in the darkest room for 11 days where she was objected from showing her face to anybody.

On the 11^th day when the last rites of her husband were to be performed, the sindoor on her forehead was wiped away by the elderly village ladies. She had cried and cried for Vermilion had been Vinay’s favorite color. She was dragged to the village square to have her head shaven off by the local barber. That’s when Purvi had come to her senses and ran away from the village. She was chased by the local goons, but she had given then a slip. She managed to reach the city and hid in her friend’s house for sometime till matter’s settled down.

She had changed her identity, her job and moved to a different city to build her life from the scratch. She was wary of strangers and did not talk to anybody other than her team members. That is when she had met Sumeet. He had sensed her fear, befriended her, encouraged her to talk to him and bought her out of the shell. She had shared her story with him and he had marveled at her spirit.

One thing led to another and before she knew Sumeet had proposed to her for wedding. She was hesitant in giving her approval but Sumeet had won her over, giving her no chance to complain.

They had got married in a simple court marriage with a few of their close friends as witness. Sumeet had taken her to their new house where their friends had celebrated their wedding till late in the night. After everybody had left post their wedding celebrations, Sumeet had taken her to their bedroom made her sit on the bed and had given her a small gift box. When she opened the gift she found a small silver barni in it filled with sindoor. He had taken the sindoor and applied in on her forehead giving her life a new meaning and a new color!