Hitched For Life

By Anchal Rana Aggarwal

Born and brought up in the peace and quiet of the hills, life in Delhi proves to be a big challenge to Alisha, Maria, Ishika and Nisha. Careers, marriage and romance expose these modern and independent women to the double standards of life in the big city. But the four friends have each others back as they tackle the expectations and notions of people around them.
After marriage, Alisha finds herself trapped between tradition and her feminist thinking. She has to deal with an insecure mother-in-law, overbearing sisters-in-law and a secret that threatens to shatter her family. But she finds a great pillar of strength in her husband, Aryan, who stands by her at all times.
While Nisha’s love marriage turns out to be a bitter pill to swallow, Maria’s dream bubble shatters when her boyfriend’s family opposes their marriage. Seeing her friends’ bumpy ride, Ishika is not sure how married life would turn out for her.
Will they be able to find their feet in this tough world?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Oct 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9789352064250

Book preview

Hitched

for Life

Anchal Rana Aggarwal

Notion Press

Old No. 38, New No. 6

McNichols Road, Chetpet

Chennai - 600 031

First Published by Notion Press 2015

Copyright © Anchal Rana Aggarwal 2015

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-93-5206-425-0

This book has been published in good faith that the work of the author is original. All efforts have been taken to make the material error-free. However, the author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To my husband Dheeraj and my late

grandfather Thakur Ganpat Rai

Acknowledgements

I wrote short stories when I was young but I never thought that I would grow up to write a novel. Sometimes, unexpected events happen in life.

Above all I want to thank Lord Ganesha for blessing me with beautiful people. I want to thank my husband Dheeraj for being a pillar of support. Without his encouragement, I may not have written this book.

I want to thank my father-in-law, Amar Kumar Aggarwal, for letting me be me, and my brother-in-law Hemant for helping me with the technical aspects.

I also want to thank my father Dr Ravinder Singh Rana, my mother Kiran Rana, and my brother Rahul for their love and support.

My heartfelt thanks to my mausi, Dr Neeraj Rajan, for guiding me, and my cousin Akshima and my friends Kanika, Sonal, Maulshree, Gaurav.

Thanks to the team at Notion Press for accepting my book proposal and helping me publish it. Without them, my dreams would not have turned into reality.

And last, but not the least, thanks to my readers for choosing to read my book. Hope you all like it.

Contents

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

1. The Beginning

2. The Day

3. The Night

4. My New Home

5. Sister-in-law

6. Hitched

7. Back Home

8. Girlfriends Meet

9. Traditions Maintained

10. Space

11. The Secret

12. The Dilemma

13. Freedom as it is

14. Nisha’s Wedding

15. Misunderstood

16. Trouble

17. Surprise Visits

18. Caught in a Double Drama

19. The Change

20. Welcome Mansha

21. Courage to Bear

22. A Long Way

Glosssary

1

The Beginning

Standing in front of the mirror with the dupatta from my wedding outfit over my head, I wondered how I would look on my wedding day. Would I look beautiful or not? My make-up did not go well with my hairdo during my engagement ceremony. This time, I didn’t want to take any chances.

I clicked pictures in my wedding attire and sent them to my girlfriends for their comments. We were a gang of four girls – Ishika, Maria, Nisha and I. We were best friends from childhood. We had studied in the same school but parted ways in college when we took up different streams of study. But our friendship was forever. We were soulmates.

"Alisha beta," my mom called me as she entered my room.

Oh god! How many selfies will you take? Today’s generation…!

Mom, just take a look at my pictures.

Aww! My beautiful daughter. Let me ward off any evil eye from you.

"Oh come on ma."

I looked at the wall clock. It was 11 a.m.

Gosh, I need to go to the parlour for my bridal dress rehearsal. I am getting late.

Wait, I will come with you.

Mom…

What?

Okay, let’s go.

On our way in the car, my mom held my hand in hers and said, "I will miss you, beta. She was getting emotional. All I could manage to say was, I will miss you too."

For the first time in my life, I was learning to express my love for my parents. They were terrific people and I wanted to thank them for everything – for putting up with my tantrums and misbehaviour and for allowing me to marry the love of my life. I wanted to tell them how much they meant to me and how much I loved them but I could not.

Aryan and I were college mates. I didn’t know how my parents would react when I told them about him. I decided to tell my mom everything after my graduation. I had dropped subtle hints earlier. I had talked a lot about Aryan to her. I had told her we were best buddies but she never once questioned me.

I remember the day I told my mom about wanting to marry Aryan.

One day, when we were chatting in the kitchen, my mom told me that a family known to her wanted to explore a possibility of a marriage alliance with our family. The boy’s parents wanted to ‘see’ me. The boy was an orthopedic surgeon. I had no other choice than to tell her about Aryan. Mom, Aryan and I are in a relationship. I don’t see a future with any other man than him.

My mom was surprised at first and then she said, "Okay, if you want to get married to him, we will make it