Indian Wedding Shoe Snatch

Indian weddings are quite the whimsical sight, wherever you look, something is happening, a story being shaped, told, and lived all at once, in the very same breath.

And in that beautiful chaos, there's often a smaller soul watching quietly, a younger sibling, watching their elder sister get ready to belong to someone else's home. Too young, sometimes, to fully understand it. For all they've ever known is their sister, the one who grew up beside them, playing, laughing, taking up such a big, warm part of life. And then, quite suddenly, a prince charming steps out of those fairytale books and into the courtyard, here for her.

So begins the fun chase, stealing his shoes, hiding them away, so he cannot take her just yet. A ritual so playful, so beloved for a century over, and yet, underneath the giggles and the game, a quieter question lingers: a bond this vibrant, can it really be broken so easily? And softer still: this new brother, found so suddenly, will he love me too?

Imagining it all as a book is my favourite thing to do. And perhaps, if I let myself wonder a little longer, I'll get to imagine even more.