Palette of Ironies

It was the eleventh day…
Hugging her knees to her,
Kaveri played the bride’s part to perfection; bright red Saree, multicoloured glass bangles, a large Bindi…
Yet her eyes were sad and blood shot.
Her pretty face was smeared with blotches of Kohl.
That’s when she saw Kumar, through a fresh curtain of tears.
It is a brother’s responsibility…
With clinical stupor,
Kumar reached for Kaveri’s forehead.
First he roughly erased the vermilion traces of her nuptials
Then he and slammed her wrists,
onto a decorated grinding stone.
The widow-making ceremony
was completed, successfully
Later, after the feast,
when the elders had retired for a nap,
some kids assembled around the sacrificial spot, wondering about the broken bangles
The brave amongst them stepped up and began collecting the pieces
of Kaveri’s shattered fate.
He made a Kaleidoscope for his school science project,
and won an award for his ingenuity;
life breathed on cruelly ...