"Kabool Hai?" (Do you accept?)

I realize there is perhaps too generous a use of terms that are non- English in this story. While I have placed a good deal of footnotes to try and explain the traditions and the meaning of the words, the intent was to give the atmostphere of the strongly cultural setting it is in. I apologize if the terms interfere with a smooth reading of this story.
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“Kabool hai?" 1

The air was filled with the mingled fragrance of mehendi 2, incense, flowers and perfume. The tiny mirrors on the decorations and on the ladies' dresses and jewels twinkled like stars in the soft light. The old Qazi’s 3 voice was hypnotic as he read the nikaah namah 4 from the other side of the curtain.

“Kabool hai?”

Within the veil, Shabana closed her eyes. All around her, the women waited with bated breath. Image after image tumbled in her mind’s eye like a kaleidoscope.

**********

Kasim’s naughty eyes as he stood in the middle of the bridge across the stream.

“Give it back!”

“Will you?”

“No.”

“Then—” He held the book poised over the stream in a silent threat.

“No, no…the Ustad 5 will kill me!! Please, please Kasim…”

“Say you will.”

“OK, OK—I’ll marry you. Now please give it back…”

Kasim pursed his lips in triumph and came back over the bridge.

“Here.”

Shabana snatched the book and put her tongue out at him, turned and ran.

“I’ll never marry you…” she shouted when she was too far away for him to catch her.

Kasim cocked his cap with a naughty smile and winked at her. She could still see the confidence in that seven-year-old’s smile.

“You will!” he had shouted back.

**********

Kasim at the bangle shop, peeping at the window.

“Go away, Kasim, Ammi 6 would see you.”

“Let her.”

“No! I will get scolded.”

“I didn’t come to see you, I came to see Anjuman.”

Shabana pouted and turned. Kasim pulled the ribbon on her braid.

“Let go…” She tried to pull away.

“Ha ha… bye….” He laughed and ran away with the ribbon. He was already taller than most boys at fifteen, and his bronze-brown hair flew in the wind as he ran.

**********

Kasim dancing with her brothers and cousins on Zarina Aapa’s 7mehendi night 8.

“Hmmm, what a handsome boy Kasim has become!” Shayina pinched Shabana’s cheeks as she blushed. “When will your nikaah be, sweetheart?”

“Shayina…!”

“Look at her blush!”

“I’m still in college”

“That will be a year or two more…”

“Then I want to study further”

“Hmmm…and what if Kasim won’t wait that long? He’s already doing well in his business…He’ll want a bride soon.

“He will wait!”

Shayina laughed and pinched her cheeks again.

“That much confidence?”

Shabana laughed.

**********

Kasim with his face hidden by the flowered sehra 9 at their wedding. He looked like a prince on the chestnut horse.

“What a wonderful match!”

“They were made for each other.”

Her friends tittered as they brought Kasim to the zenana10 for mooh-dikhayi 11.

“Are you seeing your bride for the first time?” Zakina teased him.

“Yes…”

“Jeejaji 12…we know everything!!” they had laughed.

“I’ve seen Shabbu before, but she was never my bride before!” he told them, laughing.

Mamaji put a mirror on the table and covered both of them with a red dupatta. When Shabana looked into the mirror, Kasim crossed his eyes and put out his tongue.

Shabana laughed.

“You’ll never change.”

Kasim winked and smiled. Shabana blushed.

**********

Kasim with red eyes and a glint in his eyes she had never seen before.

She did not even remember what she had said to cause the rage. All she remembered was hearing a dull thud. And realizing just before she fainted that it was the sound of the bronze vase hitting her head.

By the time they took her to the hospital, she had lost a lot of blood…and her child. In the third month, shock was reason enough for the miscarriage.

Abbu had insisted on the separation. And Kasim, broken by the losses in his business, the cursed intoxicants and the guilt of what he had done to her, never said anything. Her Mamaji 13 and Zarina Aapa were both weeping but they were both witnesses. And Kasim had looked stricken when he had said it.

“Talaaq...Talaaq...Talaaq 14

It was hardly more than a whisper, but Shabana thought thunder could not have sounded more earth-shattering. Three times; and she flinched and shuddered each time she heard it. Again and again as it echoed in her memory.

**********

Abbu 15pleading with her, looking old and sad.

“I know it is very soon, but you are young and Shareef is a good boy.”

“Abbu, I can't…”

“Beti 16, I am old and won’t be around for long. How will I die in peace if you are not—“

“Abbu!!”

“Shabbu, I am begging you. Shareef will be returning in two weeks…”

“Abbu…Kasim…”

“Forget him, beti. It is past and will never come back. Please agree…”

“Abbu…”

“Shall I go ahead with the Nikaah preparations?”

Shabana bit her lips and tears coursed slowly down her cheeks. She bowed her head silently in assent.

**********
“Kabool hai?”

"Do I accept? NO!" thought Shabana. "Life was not supposed to change like this. Kasim was not supposed to change. We have always been together. We were meant to be together. No, it is not acceptable. I still love him... They never asked ME if it was acceptable when they made him divorce me. They never asked me if I wanted my life to change. I did not want this to happen"

But it has.

And life goes on...

“Tell the Qazi, beti. Kabool hai?” an old lady beside her whispered.

Shabana opened her tired eyes. She took a deep breath.

“Kabool hai.” she whispered.

The echoes went up in the air as the women repeated it breathlessly.

**********

Footnotes
1  Kabool hai? – The Qazi ( Muslim cleric) traditionally has to ask the girl if she accepts before solemizing the marriage, and receive an affirmation before it can proceed. Literal meaning – "Do you accept?” if it is in the form of a question and "I accept" if it is a statement.
2  Mehendi is Henna, a herb that gives a reddish dye when ground to a paste and applied on the skin. It is tradition to decorate the bride's palms with henna on the night before the marriage.
3  A Qazi is a muslim cleric who comes to perform the marriage
4  A Nikaah is the marriage ceremony. The Nikaah Namah is the proof or document of marriage, which lists the name and parent's of the bride and the groom
5  Ustad - Master/ teacher, usually religious
6  Ammi- Mother
7  Aapa - Elder sister/cousin/female relative
8  Mehendi Night- Usually the night before the day of the marriage or Nikaah. The bride’s palms and feet are decorated with henna designs on this evening. Close friends and family gather for food and dance to celebrate
9  Sehra- A flower garland to cover the groom’s face on the day of marriage
10  Zenana- the part of the house reserved for women and girls in a Muslim household
11  mooh-dikhayi- Literally “face- showing”,a ceremony. Traditionally, the ceremony after the nikaah that the groom is showed the bride’s face. A mirror is placed face up to show him the girl’s face. In the traditional muslim communities, marriages are arranged, and a man and a woman were not permitted to meet each other before marriage (or even face-to-face before all the festivities were complete, hence the mirror), so this was generally the first time he sees his bride.
12  Brother in law
13  Uncle
14  Talaaq- Divorce. According to a custom, if the man says it three times in the presence of at least two witnesses, the divorce is considered valid.
15  Father
16  Daughter