It was a Saturday 15 days before my wedding and I was planning to fight the crowd on commercial street to pick up some things I still hadn’t. I was set to head home for the marriage ceremonies in the coming week. I woke up grudgingly thinking of all the things that were unchecked on my to-do list. I still had to go to the parlor for the reception trial make-up and I was already worrying too much about what all the make-up would do to my sensitive skin. I brushed my teeth, splashed water over my face and there it was, a sudden sting. Ow! The water was ice cold during winters in Bangalore but it had never stung before. Had my skin become extra sensitive with the trial make-up for wedding that I tried out yesterday? I turned to the mirror and my loud shriek jostled my best friend & roommate to a wake. She had a mouthful to say to me for disturbing her in the “midnight” (Well, 7 AM was midnight to her since her morning starts at 11 AM). I had to shake her awake and show her the pimple on my forehead to shut her up. But that didn’t shut her up, instead she was suddenly wide awake and started yelling at me for a variety of reasons – For gorging on that cutlet and onion pakodi during our friend’s wedding (According to her eating too much oily food brings you pimples, especially when you can’t guarantee the purity of the oil), for not listening to her about washing my face 5 times a day, about not taking her with me for the trial make-up so that she could eat the stylist alive about what brands of make-up she uses and how she does the make-up.

There were all these ceremonies starting days before the wedding and I had exactly 10 days to make this pimple go away without a blemish if I wanted the clicks of my wedding to be as I wanted them to be. I called up the love of my life, who was sleeping joyfully with his comforter pulled over his head and informed him of the tragedy (While my friend was still yelling at me in the background) All I got in response was a grunt and something about how wolverine should not have done something in X-men. Only when I yelled into the mobile that our marriage was in danger, that he yelled back a shocked ‘What?’. I replayed the reason for which I was waking him up at that ungodly hour. Although I knew that he had no idea why this was upsetting me so much (Guys!!!), after years of experience, he knew how to tread such fine lines. “Won’t 10 days be enough for it to go away?” was his first question. I thought about it and replied, “10 days might be enough if I treat it but it has to go without a mark”. He was suddenly as nervous as I was. The last time I faced a pimple problem was before my brother’s wedding and only he knew what a bitch I was when the mark didn’t vanish in time for the photo shoot. This time around it was our marriage and he knew he was doomed to hell if this was not solved. He thought out loud and cut the call with a promise that he would check with his grandmother, sister, mom, friends and any woman alive on the planet who would give him a way to save his wedding and honeymoon plans.

The entire day, my friend was on internet surfing the various home-remedies, face-washes and beauty tips while I nervously paced the room. All the plans were cancelled, I was ordered to stay inside the room, away from all the pollution. When I meekly started about the shopping that I still had to do and the trial make-up,my friend gave me her famous steel glare and asked me “Do you want to get married or not?” After that I did nothing except pester my mom and grandma over the phone, asking for home-remedies. They told me a lot of things and herb names which I could not even dream of getting in Bangalore. When I kept ignoring all of their suggestions, they turned against me for making such a big fuss about a small pimple. I cut the call before my grandma could go on one of those “In my days..” rant. I resorted to the popular ways that the internet suggested – applying lemon juice on it(nothing happened except the pimple burned like it was on fire), washing the face often with a variety of face-washes(My hostel had water shortage and had to order tankers for water, I had washed my face that many times), applying sandalwood powder(this gave a cooling sensation but the pimple was still in all its glory). I was too scared to try anything out of ordinary lest it further worsens. So in a nutshell, the following days were a mayhem, my friend was trying to calm me down and find some remedy at the same time, my soon-to-be husband terrified like a mouse was calling every woman he practically knew.

Then on the evening of the 3rd day since the pimple showed its ugly face, I was woken up by a call from my fiance at 7.30 AM. I had to leave for home the next day and had lost all hope of getting a blemish-free face for my wedding. I had even packed the suitcases without bothering about the pending shopping. “Come out, I am waiting outside your hostel” was all that was said. I woke up with a start and wondered what the idiot was doing up so early in front of my hostel. Either way, I went out pulling a scarf over my head, hiding that horrible pimple as much as I could. There he was standing in the cold, with a small parcel in his hand. Before I could say anything,he thrust it into my hand and said “Try this, this is the last hope I have for your pimple problem.” As soon as I heard the word ‘pimple’ I was wide awake. Inside the parcel was a “Garnier Pure Active Neem” face-wash. I had given up on face washes and hence looked at him as if he was insane. He said, “Just try this one for me. My friend told me this one works. Anyway, there’s no harm in trying na?” I had no reply to that and hence decided to give it a go. I didn’t bother to look if it actually made progress because I had no hope. The next day I left for home on seeing me, my mom said, “Was this the pimple you were making so much fuss for?” I was pissed off that even my mom didn’t take me seriously and went to the mirror to check it. I was in for a surprise. The pimple was still there but it looked smaller. I wondered if I was hallucinating but no, it was definitely smaller than it was the day before.

Image Source: onedaycart.com

I started religiously washing my face 3 times a day with the face-wash. Each day, I could see it drying up a bit more and on its way out. I called the man who was the reason behind this and chirped away happily. I could tell that he was relieved but later he told me that he didn’t care for the pimple but only for my sanity(Hmph!) My friend saved the day by picking up the things I had to shop and coming a couple of days early to deliver them to me. On the day of my wedding, there was nothing but a tiny spot where the pimple was. I was not bothered by it as it was too light to be visible in the clicks and I was going to marry the love of my life in a few hours. There were only laughter throughout the wedding, no pimples. At the end of the day, I told my newly-wed husband, “I now know that I have made the right choice. No man would brave the Bangalore cold to get me a face-wash and no man would ever take these girl problems so seriously. None other than you!” And his reply was, “Pimple or no pimple, I love you for who you are. But when something bothers you, it bothers me too. And that is the reason why I took it so seriously”. That’s my man!

This post is written as an entry to the Garnier Pure Active Neem Face-Wash contest on Indiblogger in association with Garnier.

Until later 🙂