I put my cupcake down and then wiped my mouth with my napkin. Well you see, my father owned one of the biggest corporations in America, and he opened more headquarters around the world, so inbetween recitals and school, I got to travel to fashion capitals such as Rome and Milan and LONDON! Which was exquisit. I also got to travel to Japan, but after my parents were killed in the car accident .... I was passed between homes until I ended up at my aunts house. I've said a mouthful, speaking of mouthful my mouth is a little dry, I grabbed my water bottle and took a sip.

Maybe she'll come after the movie is done! Look on the brightside.I giggled.

"I'm sorry about your parents", Bala said. She was a bit uncomfortable thinking about the topic. She had never known anyone who'd lost a parent before, much less both. She wasn't sure how to act or what to say. Kairi wasn't dwelling on it, so Bala wouldn't either.

"Well I do hope she does well. That way, they might pick her for more movies. And that is her dream after all. But if they don't, she'll come here and that would be great." Bala took another bite of her cupcake. It was really quite good. She was glad she had saved it.

"It sounds like you liked London most of all. I've never been there. The closest I've ever come is Berlin." She leans over closer to Kairi and in a stage whisper says, "the minimum age to buy and drink beer there is 16. That was wonderful. I felt so grown up." She smiles broadly and leans back. Resuming her normal voice she adds, "I got into trouble when I got back to Pittsburgh. I was in a store and went to buy a six-pack of beer. They don't like sixteen-year-olds doing that in Pittsburgh!"

She laughs remembering the incident. "My father understood. But he still grounded me for a week." Bala takes a sip of water. This is the most fun she's had since she got to the island. Kairi was a really nice girl.

"So what did you like the most about London? Big Ben?", she says with a giggle.

I giggle when she whispers in my ear about the beer thing. Lol Big Ben was pretty cool, but in all honesty, I like their culture more than anything else. The clothes they wear are funaminal and the clubs are full of actual dancing with dance music. Unlike America where people stand around like they don't know what they are doing while some type of hip hop fills the room. I yawn then take the last bite of my delicious cupcake. I smile.

So what else do you have left to do today? Maybe we could watch movies later or something!

(((OOC: Hi? ))))

(((OOC: Hi. Holidays. I'll be back soon.)))

"I'd like that", Bala responds. "I don't have any more classes today. I was looking for a way to kill some time. Wanna go to the common room and watch TV there? We could watch some movies on this thing, but the subtitles would be hard to read."

Bala finished her cupcake and licked the crumbs off her fingers. She was full and didn't need to eat the chicken. She took out a sheet of paper and wrote a note, giving it to whomever wanted it along with the date and time. While she was writing she looked at Kairi and said, "if you have more classes or something, I can go to the common room and wait. I have some reading to do."

(((Sorry to have taken so long. The Holidays were crazy. I should be back to my more normal, slow posting rate.)))

((( Was beginning to wonder if you gave up on me, at about new years I decided to stop checking lol SORRY, but i did miss you)))
I smiled at her shaking my head a little at the whole chicken incident and really hoping it wouldn't go to waste. No more classes for me, I'm done for the day. I picked up my books and smiled at her. So what movie did you have in mind?

(((Yay! <Gives Kairi a big hug> I missed you alot too. Welcome back. Don't worry. It was my fault. I didn't think I'd be so busy over the Holidays.)))

"Oh how wonderful", Bala said. She really did have some reading to do. But she'd be much happier spending time with someone, especially someone as nice as Kairi.

"We can watch one of my favourites. I think you'll like it and it will introduce you to Indian arranged marriage customs. It's a film called Vivah. 'Vivah' is Hindi for marriage. It's about this girl who..." Bala closes her eyes tightly, almost as though she were in pain. Opening her eyes again, she continues, "is raised by her Chacha and Chachi. That's paternal uncle and aunt. A friend of the family arranges a marriage with the son of a wealthy businessman looking to get him married off. And the rest of the movie is the two of them getting to know each other. There's a crisis near the end of the film that the two must overcome before they can marry. It's a really good movie and I cry everytime I see it."


(((If you actually want to see the film, you can watch it here. It's in Hindi w/ English subtitles.)))

(((EDIT: They moved the page. I updated the link. It defaults to Hindi only. But you can get to the one with English subtitles with a little effort.)))

Kairi giggles at Bala's enthusiasm.

Does she really love him? I love movies that have happy endings. Wish life was like that. Everyone had their perfect soulmate the world was full of such color and illustration like those in the movies. Oh my gosh, I really want to watch this movie now! Lets go!"

Kairi slides her arm through Bala's and smiled at her giggling.

"I think that they do grow to love each other before the marriage. They spend alot of time together before the wedding. That's unusual for arranged marriages. I don't love my betrothed, Daivik. I've never met him. But I'm sure that I will grow to love him once we're married."

Bala put the dvd player into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder for the trip to the tv room. This was wonderfully weird. Bala had never met someone, who wasn't Desi, who like Bollywood movies so quickly.

Fortunately, no one was watching tv. Bala looked it over and noticed the built in DVD player. "That will make things easier", she said. She put the DVD in the player and proceeded to try and figure out how to use the remote to play it.

(((Updated link to film in my earlier post.)))

"You're betrother?" I gasp in shock and I know my face showed. "Please do tell me more. Do you know anything about him? What he looks like, what his future goals are, where you want to go on with the relationship you'll share? SPILL!" I kept throwing all of these questions at her, and I'm sure she felt overloaded. I calmed down and stepped back and gave her some room.

Bala smiled at Kairi's barrage of questions. "I'm sorry for shocking you. I forget that this isn't normal for most people." Bala put her hand on Kairi's arm and smiled what she hoped was a disarming smile. "It's my fault. I felt so comfortable around you that I thought of you as an old friend. Clearly, there are some things about me that you don't know yet."

Bala guided Kairi onto the couch and sat next to her. Once they were settled, she began answering Kairi's questions. "I don't know much about him. His name is Daivik Shahalia. His friends call him David. You can hear how close the two names sound. The Shahalias descend a warrior tribe in ancient India. He graduated from Harvard Business School. He's 23, five years and two months older than me. He works for a company in New York City. I don't know what he looks like other than he's handsome. Our families exchange Christmas cards. For a couple years they did the family photo card. So I know what he looked like when he was 7.

"Our fathers were friends as children in India and kept in touch after they moved to America. My father became a Citizen first though." Bala beamed with pride at that statement. "For the last couple of years they've been talking about a union. They finally agreed to it in December. Mother and Daddy told me that it was my Christmas present." Bala gave a slight giggle at the last bit. "I don't know what the dowry is going to be. Daddy told me not to worry about it."