Then her eyes fell upon a little box of the burning stuff—there was something red in it. It was something that gave Ishani a queasy feeling seeing it engulfed with fire.

Kriti put her hand on hers and told Ishani, "Come with me; you have to go, Ishani!"

She started pulling her away. However, after a step or two, Ishani would come to a halt and pull her hand out and run back toward the fire. She blindly put her hand into the fire and grabbed the little box out of it.

However, as he attempted to extract the box out of the fire, the hand of Ishani was seriously burnt.

She twitched in pain and began blowing on it to soothe it. Ishani could see how Kriti glared at her when she reached into the flames like that.

Ishani turned back to Kriti, with glistening eyes, and said in a low voice, "Mumma always said to me that sindoor (vermilion) is sacred.

When it is stuck in the parting of the hair of a woman, it helps to start a new life—life with a family and happiness. When I considered the family and happiness... I simply could not dare to wash it off. So I pulled it off my head and had it safely in this box.

Ishani was so innocent, almost childlike, as she spoke.

Kriti looked at her in disbelief and told her, Ishani, I cannot believe what you are saying. Do you even consider that fellow, Vikrant Singh Shekhawat, as your husband?

Ishani shook her head hastily.

"No! Not at all. I do not look at him as my husband. Actually, I despise the very thought of marriage. But I don't know why... I simply wanted to keep one, and that is what Mumma used to say. She was ever telling me that when a man stuffs the hair of a woman with sindoor, and a portion of it falls on her nose, she then knows her husband will love her so much. But in my instance it did not merely fall on my nose, but it dropped all over my face.

A bitter smile came to light on Ishani as she went on; maybe that is the reason why my husband would love me too much.

Perhaps that is why I was not able to dispose of it. As in my life, love is that which does not stay long. All who have ever loved me... their love somehow gets stolen off. And I'm left all alone. So maybe... because of that... I only wished to have it nearby—for love's sake...

Her voice became lighter and lighter until it nearly died out.

Then she abruptly added, But that is no reason why I think that grumpy, arrogant man is my husband! I did not even think that he was the one that I had to be married to. And though technically he is my husband, I will never think of him in that light, as he is cruel and rude and heartless. No one in between, no one in between, there will be no one in between.

With this, Kriti clapped her hand to her forehead in frustration and sighed, "Sometimes I think you are the cleverest girl in the world... and sometimes, the stupidest."