The Day of My Marriage

“Get dressed quickly!” I was standing beside the mirror, looking at myself and thinking what lay about my future. ‘A woman’s marriage day is the best day of their life’ people say, however I was 12 years old and thought that wasn’t really true. “All my sisters had a grand wedding why not me?” “Why do I have to marry a farmer?” These questions kept staging me. My mother came to pick me and take me to the mandap (marriage place), I could see the anger and the sadness in her eyes, and I knew she wasn’t happy with the match. I was dressed in a red sari and gold ornaments which were once my mother’s. It wasn’t as much as my sisters though.

We got to the mandap and I sat beside my going-to-be-husband. The priest sat at the opposite side and there was a fire in the middle. Fire is known as a god for Indians when they marry .First we both put rice and oil in the fire, and then we took seven rounds around the fire. Everybody was throwing flowers at us. Then Nathan and I took my parents’ blessings. After that we went into the garden to have dinner.

Everybody went to the garden to have dinner; there was rice, dhal, fish and pancakes for dinner. It was very less compared to my sisters wedding’s dinner. I heard some people sitting beside me say that the marriage was below me. I just ignored them but later I heard some more people talk about it, it was then hard to ignore. After everyone finished eating it was time for me to leave my house, where I have lived for 12 years. After that I had to perform a ritual, which was that I had to throw rice at the back while I walked forwards. My mother had given me loads of stuff which was on the bullock cart already. I took my mother and father’s blessings and got up on the bullock cart having no idea of what lay ahead of me.