It was midday in 1993 in the city of Bangalore. A small lane near Mangal Karyalaya (Wedding hall) was filled with hundreds of people gathered to attend the wedding of Mangaladevi's elder daughter, Priya. The big banner named "Priya weds Prakash" welcomed all the guests.
The nadaswara howled loudly, but the festive sound no longer carried joy. In the decorated wedding hall, banana stems tied at the entrance swayed with the breeze, while garlands of marigolds and mango leaves drooped heavily.
But all of a sudden, many Guests whispered behind folded hands, some shaking their heads, others are leaning close to exchange gossip.
Inside the bridal room, Priya sat still, the heavy orange silk saree stiff against her trembling body. Her eyes stung with tears, her kajal smudged at the corners. The gold jewelry her family had painfully arranged for her clinked softly as she clenched her hands.
"Amma…" Priya's voice cracked, "I am sorry, this is all because of me! You both are suffering so much just because of me?"
Her mother wiped her own eyes with the end of her pallu. "It is not your fault, don't blame yourself! We gave them everything we could,… but they wanted more. Your brother begged them, but…" Her voice broke as she turned away.
Outside the door, a group of women hissed:
"Did you hear? The groom's family did not come!
"Santosh and Shankaranna went to call them."
"On the wedding day itself! How shameful."
"Poor girl… who will marry her now?"
Meanwhile, Santosh and his uncle Shankara came running and said, "They did not agree, we came to know that they had already fixed their son's marriage with a rich businessman's daughter of Mysore, so only they made this excuse of dowry and escaped."
Mangala said, "But we have lost everything by fulfilling their demands!"
"They returned the cash Rs.50000 and said rest was spent on us only during engagement as well as the gold chain and ring which we gave to Prakash. But did not take responsibility for the wedding expenses and extra 50000 which we spent!" Santosh said.
"Aiyyo Rama! We spent more than 2 lakhs for all this by taking loans! How will this compensate?" Mangala sat on the floor crying by hitting her head.
Shankara, distant brother of Mangala, sat next to her, saying, "I asked Ramamurthy's teacher to get his son married to our Priya, but he said no, as his son is in love with someone else and will marry that girl only!"
Santosh said, "I have also asked Ramesh Babu to get his younger brother. They were asking for Priya before this marriage was getting fixed, but now they are saying the marriage is broken like this, it is unlucky and can bring bad omen to their family, so they are not ready now."
"People are muttering the same outside that this is omen, and no one will marry Priya. Moreover, lots of people are angrily saying that you people had rejected their proposals previously, so only this happened!" Saying Durga came from outside into the room and sat on the floor next to Mangala.
"Yeah, so they mean that we should have considered those drunken, useless, hopeless men for our soft, innocent girl?" Mangala uttered angrily.
Mangala was widowed 10 years ago. She raised Priya and Santosh single-handedly; her husband Ramanna was a drunkard and died due to illness at a young age. He lost all his money in his bad habits; they had to sell their house and gold in his treatment, and clear all his debts. Priya was 13 and Santosh was 12 years old at that time. Somehow, Mangala worked in a garment factory as a tailor and educated her children till the 10th grade. Priya looked after the house when her mother went to work at the factory, and Santosh joined the well-known private garment export company as a peon with the reference of Shankara, who was working in that company as a clerk. Shankara stood by them during their ups and downs. Together, Mangala and Santosh saved 2 lakhs for Priya's marriage. And for this marriage, they also took a loan from their respective companies.
Priya was a beautiful young girl; many people came with a wedding proposal for her, but Santosh and his mother always wished to get her married to a well-settled man with no bad habits after seeing her father. That is why they rejected many proposals and fixed her marriage to a government bank clerk, Prakash, who belonged to a well-to-do family, but they did not know Prakash and his family's bigger bad habit that was greed!
Santosh agreed to pay a heavy dowry of Rs 1 lakh (1990 Rs 1 lakh was a huge amount), a bike, a gold chain, and a ring to Prakash. But Greedy Prakash and his family got a proposal from Mysore's rich family, who gave 3 lakh dowry, a car, and more gold, seeing that he was a government employee. To get rid of Priya's family they started increasing the dowry demand and made it 3 lakh! Santosh and his mother said they would try to bring that much money on the wedding day, but they couldn't arrange it as they had already taken a loan! As a result, Prakash and his family did not come to the wedding at the hall.
Priya was a shy, soft-hearted girl, but she used to get angry very soon when it came to the prestige of her family; each word pierced Priya's heart. She shut her eyes, filled with tears and anger, wishing she could disappear into the earth. She saw how her mother and brother arranged each rupee for the marriage as it was the only dream of their life to see her married.
She told Durga, "It is ok if no one wants to marry me, I will not marry anyone and start a new life by doing something to help my mother and brother. And together we will cover all these expenses!" Tears dropped out of her eyes behind her words. Mangala cried, holding her daughter, seeing her courageous words.
Santosh also went outside crying. Shankara followed him and said, "Shall we ask all the people to eat food and leave as the wedding is off!"
Crying, Santosh went outside. Shankara stood still, tears dropped out of his eyes, he wished, 'It would have been the best if I had a son, I would have got him married to Priya!' as he knew the person who marries a girl like Priya would be the luckiest man on earth!