Dark is Beautiful-Lavi's Choice
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Dark Is Beautiful: Lavi's Choice
by Raakhee Suryaprakash
As Lavanya Ratnam walked the streets of Cambridge with friends, the strident
ring tone that she’d set for her mother’s number stopped her mid-stride. Dreading the
news Lavi answered the call. She grimaced at the news that her grandmother has been
diagnosed with inoperable cancer and she needed to get back to Nagarcoil to play the
dutiful daughter and granddaughter.
Sid Pillai was waiting for Lavi to join him, her expression was clue enough that
the news wasn’t good. Sid and his sister Anita had tried to be there for Lavi in the last
couple of years after they’d seen how Lavi’s family’s dysfunctionality affected her
personal growth. He and Anita may be orphans now but their parents had lived long
enough to give them both abundant emotional support that consolidated their confidence
—of course their family wealth hadn’t hurt. Their parents’ lifelong battle with their
grandparents to be together had made both Sid and Anita intolerant of family
interference. It hurt them to see Lavi’s family messing with her self-image.
“I have to go home guys,” said Lavi as she walked up to Sid, Anita, and Anita’s
fiancé Henry, “My granny hasn’t got long to live and the entire clan’s been called to pay
homage to the matriarch!”
“You can’t go alone Lavi, you’re only now recovering from their brainwashing,
you shouldn’t take the chance of sliding back into your old mindset, I’ll come with you,”
replied Sid immediately
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“Cool it big brother,” whispered Anita before turning to Lavi, “You know he’s
right, but we’ll both come with you to lend moral support. You don’t have to face your
family alone.”
***
Jet lag and the train journey from Chennai had wiped out the siblings. Lavi saw
them comfortably settled in guestrooms before confronting her mother and granny. She
knew she was procrastinating but couldn’t help the instinctive behaviour. Sid had been
right; within hours of being home she was sliding back into destructive behaviour
patterns that had taken years of Cambridge and the Pillais’ friendship to overcome.
The “audience” didn’t go well. Half an hour later Lavi walked shell-shocked to
her room. Her mother’s words ringing in her head, “You’ve wasted enough family money
abroad Lavanya, your granny agrees with me and we’ve convinced your father to stop
paying your fees. It’s time you were married. It’s not easy finding a groom for a dark-
skinned girl but a family is visiting day after. They’ll make huge dowry demands to
accept you as their daughter-in-law … I don’t know how I had such as plain and dark
daughter.”
“Appa’s no lily-white hunk but still you married him for money,” Lavi muttered
the equally hurtful retort long after the confrontation with her mother. Years of
conditioning had kept her silent and respectful before her mother and granny. Well good
behaviour notwithstanding … they were clipping her wings. What was to be done?
That last question and her mother’s words kept her silent while dining with her
family and Anita and Sid. Their good looks and inherent confidence and breeding had
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