Mangalyam thantuna nena..-4

Vishali woke with a start to realize that she had fallen asleep in the middle of her math lecture . she rubbed her eyes greatful the professor DPS had not seen her snoozing he had a very nasty way of pouring water over the student to wake them.
she stifled a Yawn again and thought " i cant wait for this semester to end.."
Atleast i get to go shopping today evening " the thought perked her up .
Sudha's wedding was only 2 weeks away and she had promised her that she will go shopping with her.
Vishali was still surprised at the speed at which the wedding this is proceeding for sudha" but then i have never been so personally involved in the process may be this is how it is really done"
Vishali mused " still it had been just mere 2 months since the entire process had started and already they are getting married. sudha actually was starting to feel some prewedding jitters " shankar had told her as much but he had not elaborated on that matter.
" well i will talk to her this evening i will know what it is" Vishali thought pursuing her lips " watever it was shankar seemed very unhappy about it..if only this boring class got over"
"Vishali" professor DPS voice seemed to break her out of her reverie " can u solve this differential equation" he said
" god he had noticed i was asleep " vishali thought frantically as she started walking to the board " now what was he talking about..."
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" hey why the glum face" shankar asked when he joined her outside the class
" well i feel asleep in the class and Prof DPS made a do a problem on the board just when i got up and it was such a disaster i could not even remember which chapter we were in.." vishali replied glumly
" well forget about it yaar things like this happen" shankar said and that surprised Vishali it was not like him to give up a chance to poke fun at her
" are you ok" she asked him
" just a little worried about sudha and things at home. with only 2 weeks left amma and appa are busy with all the wedding preparations ..u know his parents always want to add one thing or the other after the arrangements were made"
Vishali had heard about these little requests that seem to be popping up from divakar's parents " what do u they want now??" vishali asked
"a light music troupe for the reception..u know all his friends might like it" shankar replied a little heatedly " there are only 2 weeks left and where will we find one??"
" hey relax ...did sudha talk to divakar about this??" vishali asked
" well that is what started the other problem divakar had not called for weeks and so amma casually asked his mom about it and then next day divakar called so sudha talked to him about these requests of his parents and all that guy said was to do as his parents asked and then after 10 mins he just hung up that was about 2 weeks back ..and then i guess he told this to his mom who called sudha and lectured her about ettiquettes of an tamil brahmin girl who is about to be married . sudha was crying the whole of the weekend and amma consoled her and told her that once she got married things will change as she will not be staying with her inlaws but in america."
Vishali felt bad for sudha and also for the fact that she had not talked to her in a week's time.." well i can rectify that today" she thought
" iam going to your house only want a lift" she asked
" no yaar i have a class in another hour i will come and meet you after that" shankar replied and said good bye to her
Vishali got on her scooty and reached shankar's house sudha was waiting for her and got on her bike not before vishali snagged some mysore pakku from shankar's patti and hugged her.
they both started towards the market centre to get some bangles first
Sudha seemed very quiet during the ride
" not the behaviour i expected from a about to be married girl" vishali said trying to make a conversation with her
" dont feel like one " sudha replied
" you know what lets first go and have some lassi and then we can do our shopping" vishali said and stopped at the nearest ice cream parlour
" hey sudha what is really up yaar" vishali asked her once they had given the orders
" i dont know vishali..i dont know if things are going wrong or something is wrong with me. u know when i thought about marraige i always was resigned to the fact it will be an arranged marriage and that it will take people to warm up to each other. i understand all that but i some how feel like divakar is feeling anything towards me there does not seem to be even a mild curiousity as to what iam doing or what i want. i dont know sometimes i feel like that but other times i feel like iam imagining it" sudha stopped looking about hesistatingly
vishali did not know what to say in response so " hey it will be ok .i think it is becos u guys have not seen each other may as ur mom says things will be better after u got married"
Vishali smiled at sudha encouragingly " now lets finish the lassi and then we can go and do some good shopping "
Sudha smiled back at her and nodded her assent.