Obligation

Manav stared at the glass in his hand. The blue coloured drink it
contained was non-alcoholic, he had enquired before picking it up from
the tray, but what the drink actually was, he forgot to ask.

The beverage had the smell of a fruit juice, but it didn’t look like
any fruit juice that Manav had ever tasted. He felt it was better to
keep it aside on the table for now.

Manav had come to attend a wedding reception. It was the son of a
family friend. Manav had no interest in attending the event, however
the rest of Manav’s family was out on vacation.

“I know you are busy and you have things to do, none the less these
things have to be given importance to even if you have to pretend to
be there,” Manav’s elder brother had explained to Manav and Manav had
looked back with an irritated expression since work was the reason he
was not able to join his family on the vacation.

Hence, here was Manav at the wedding wearing one of his finest sets of
clothes, and looking at the watch trying to judge when it would be the
time which would say ‘all right you have been here long enough, you
can go now’.

“Make sure you are part of videos or a few pictures, so that later I
can tell them that you had gone there on our behalf, despite the
mountain of work on your hand. It ought to cover up at least some of
the after effects of the absence of the rest of us,” Manav’s mother
had told him.

Hence, Manav had made sure to spot the videographer and the
photographer after reaching the venue, however, coming into focus
proved to be a bit more of a challenge than what Manav had thought. He
tried to be at the spots where he was sure the camera would spot him,
like around a group of talkative people or around someone who looked
like they were important to the family organising the event, but there
was never a moment when he was entirely sure whether his face had come
within the vision of the camera.

Hope was not lost though, there was one sure shot way of being in a
photo or video, that was with the bride or groom. There was a long
line of people waiting to get their photos clicked with the bride and
groom and by the time Manav was about to get his chance, the bride and
groom were taken away by the cousins of the family to the dance floor
and the videographer and the photographer followed. But, Manav wasn’t
giving up just yet, despite being a terrible dancer, he made an
attempt to be the part of the dancing crowd by trying a step he had
seen in a music video, only to disbalance and fall beside two small
boys who were surprised and scared at the same time.

The embarrassment the moment caused would be remembered by the many
eyes present there and now Manav was not only captured by the
photographer and videographer, but also by the several guests who were
capturing video of the dancing bride and groom. Now, certainly no one
would doubt Manav’s presence.

“Listen, do not go and just sit there. You need to talk to people and
socialise. Maintain a smile always. Remember, you are representing
your family there. Since I am not there, you have to do it,” said
Manav’s father.

Hence, Manav maintained a smile all throughout his time in the event,
smiling to people he knew, the ones his parents knew, the ones he
thought he might know. A few of them did return a confused look and
later he got to know that one of the people, a lady, whom he thought
his family might have known, mistook his smile and greeting as him
trying to show his interest in her daughter and hence she enquired
around if Manav’s family was interested in getting him married.

Manav looked at his watch again and this time he was convinced that he
had been there for a sufficient period of time to leave and he got up
to leave.

“Is that yours?”

Manav turned to look at two girls standing and one of them pointed at
the glass full of the blue drink he had kept on the table. Manav did
not know them and neither did Manav’s family and since it was time to
leave…

“I think it was already there when I came here,” Manav said before
walking away.

Written by Sayoni Mahapatra Chatterji

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