a wedding surprise!!

Radha sat in front of the dressing mirror...she was going to meet him today...he whom her parents wanted her to marry....he whom everyone thought as the most eligible man worthy of her hand in marriage....he who she hadent ever seen but was about to spend the rest of the life with.....

she wondered if she should tell him about 'aakash'---the only guy who she had allowed to come into her life and turn it topsy-turvy....
she had met aakash on the net....thousands of mails, chat sessions and phone calls later, they had confessed they were madly in love....nobody knew their little secret though.....
living far away from home in the US, she had confided in this angel who she considered her soul mate....
savage garden's "i knew i loved u before i met you" happened to be their favourite song back then...

but gradually things changed....it was the fateful night of december 29th that radha realised that aakash was nothing but a stranger who had toyed with her feelings....
All of a sudden he did not have the time to chat anymore...he changed his cell number....mails to him started bouncing back....
it was then that she realised that for three long years, she was being fooled......fooled by some cassanova in cyberspace whom she had trusted and given her heart too......and apparently had left without any valid explanation....
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today, she was getting married....married to someone she hadent met...her parents had arranged everything for her and she had let them....she had returned just 5 days back, to india after trying to fight with the ghosts of her past....and she still wasent sure if they had been exorcised....

she remembered she had blindly agreed when they had told her about alok---a software professional in delhi...
her parents were happy...she was happy that they were happy...and most importantly she was angry...angry at aakash...angry at herself for letting herself trust aakash...and probably this was just her way of getting back...getting even...
'at what?? with what??' she often had asked herself...but she found herself with no answer...
but one thing was certain---she dint believe in her decisions anymore!!
akash was the first and last guy she had trusted on her own and that incident had left her scarred for life.....
'nothing can hurt more than this' she thought....
her parents had persuaded her to speak to alok but radha had plain refused...speaking to him would plain remind her of those times with aakash...she dint want to go through the 'long hours on phone' routine again...not with the person she was marrying..not with anyone!!
alok had agreed...though he found it a little strange at first, that radha refused to speak...but he was too floored by her pics to notice...and then again, the idea of an arranged marriage wherein he hardly knows the bride kinda enchanted him...the whole mystery element of opening up someone's life after marriage allured him...
he knew almost everything about radha and her family and he trusted their values...besides everytime he saw radhas pic, his mind stopped working...it was almost love at first sight...she was all he had imagined his bride to be!!
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there were just 3 hours left for the auspicious moment...3 hours and she would have to start a new life....

radha decided that she would finally leave 'akash' behind....it was high time she moved on...and she did not want alok to suffer because of some emotional baggage which she could never leave behind....
she decided she would never speak or think of aakash again...alok would never know about this chapter of her life she dint ever want to remember...
and then she had been able to avoid it to a great extent...she was beginning to feel the ghosts dint bother her as much anymore...
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3 hours later she was in the wedding hall, all decked up in bridal wear...she looked beautiful and was receiving many compliments....but alok had not arrived yet....
she wondered how it would be...the first meet in the wedding hall..she thought such situations exist only in the movies....and here she was, asif living in some different era betrothed to someone she had never seen or met...purely trusting her parents decision for her...
a part of her was scared...apprehensive...what if her parents had made a wrong choice...but another part of her said that it didnot matter...she dint believe in love anymore and wasent expecting a fairytale life anyways...

and yet there was a strange curiosity as how alok would be...
she had heard he was handsome...she wished she had seen his pic her mom had emailed her in the US instead of directly hitting the 'delete' button...it dint matter...she did not need anything which even remotely reminded her of the times she shared with aakash...she had even stopped accessing her email after that...
fighting with her demons took up almost all her time......
but now in the wedding hall, she silently promised herself not to let them affect her anymore...she was thnking aout alok, the one she was going to spend her entire life with...

just then someone tapped her shoulder from behind...she turned to see her mom standing with alok...he looked handsome in the rich sherwani he was wearing...he was smiling...he looked really happy....
finally they met---on their wedding day!
"hi"
"hello"
it was weird...meeting like this...she had never imagined speaking to the man for the first time on the day of her wedding...just a few hours and she would be in his arms on her wedding bed....
radha smiled at the irony of the situation....

and just then asif like a cold gust of wind,she saw a figure hurridly approaching them....
"heyy bro,u left the gift in the car...i just went an..."
and she FROZE!!

"ohh radha this is for you" alok said handing the gift, neatly packed in pink wrapping paper with a lot of hearts and angels on it..."im not thaat good at gift shopping especially when it comes to girls..so i took help from my kid brother here...
ohh and btw meet the stud---AAKASH"
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there was a deafening silence as two pairs of eyes stared at each other....

alok turned to akash and looking at his pale face, continued "i told u she would leave u speechless"

apparently akash had returned the very same morning from bangalore where he now had moved as his job demanded...
when family had informed him about alok getting married,he was only too pleased...being busy with his job the two brothers hardly got to speak much..if people didnt know how close the two brothers were, their lack of communication could have clearly been misunderstood as indifference...
this time too, the details were skipped as had always been the case....
"leave it as a surprise bhai...il'l meet u guys directly on THE big day now" he had said teasingly when alok had asked him if he should mail him a photo...

speechless he was, akash did not understand how to react.
"when we meet, time will stand still" he remembered flirting with her.
somehow life had come to a full circle....

as for radha, life had flung yet another surprise at her...here she was on her wedding day, meeting for the first time the man she was supposed to be getting married to....

and here had walked in, 'the one' she had been emotionally married to a long long time back....