Dark is Beautiful-Lavi's Choice

8/14/2019 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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Dark is Beautiful-Lavi's Choice

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