Marriage Woes :P

Arranged marriages have two phases…When your parents realise that you have come of “marriageable age”, the first phase begins, also known as the ‘thinking phase’. And soon after ‘the finding phase’ follows. I never realised how tedious the whole process is till I happen to witness it this time at home. The victim is thankfully not me but my sister. For her the first phase began at the same age as I am now.

I have always believed in late marriages, but when I heard that my few college friends are already distributing their wedding cards… I thought of mentioning it to my parents and see what they have to say to it. I decided it was time for some serious talk with my parents, maybe they’d too started worrying about it but maybe they didn’t know how to break it to me!

It wasn’t long enough when I had the shock of my life from my uninterested parents!

I pleasantly brought up the topic of my friend’s parents looking for a match for their daughter and how it was time they too should start thinking about it. I was totally prepared to sit back n enjoy their manic reaction. But I suddenly became conscious of the pin-drop silence in the room. A few totally hushed minutes passed and then, my father turns around n asks me, “So… Who’s the guy?”

Well, I don’t understand why would my father fire such a question at me. What kind of sadism was hidden behind that question? I believe he was trying to insinuate me of my ineptness of having no boyfriend. Or that’s what my father thinks ;)… there was a weird grin on his face. As the conversation progressed, my father was seen frantically hoping that I already had a boyfriend with whom I was too much in love with and would go to any lengths to marry him. He asked each and every guy’s name that he had heard from me in the past few years (most of them being his figment of imagination). The list was fast diminishing… The search for that hint of blushing on my face when I spoke “his” name was unsuccessful. My dad expertly ended his side of the conversation by saying “Marriage…What marriage!!…you are just a kid now...Abhi aish karo beta...(Now’s the time for you to enjoy..)!!”

In following days of my vacation, all my mother had to say with respect to the topic was, “See Mrs M’s daughter is marrying an IIT educated guy; she didn’t bother her parents to look for a guy at all. In fact girls these days should elope, have an audacious affair…we won’t have any qualms... Any religion/caste/creed/community/etcetera will do as long as the boy is from a good family, well educated and earning well...”

Considering the “no-long-lasting-boyfriend” scenario, I had always been skeptical about this whole “marriage” thing, worried about whether I would ever get married, the sole re-assuring thought that helped me through those difficult times was that my parents would find a nice guy for their precious younger daughter and get her settled like they plan to do so for their elder daughter. And now I have been unceremoniously ditched by them...Hhmmppfff!!! This is so not fair!!! While my sister gets to just reject the guys, I have to LOOK for one for myself!
Mom-Dad, having happily turned the tables on me, quickly forgot about the whole thing. But I’m still fervently praying that some genuine sense dawns upon them and they think about “Log-Kya-Sochenge” and “Society-mein-humaari-naak-kat-jaayegi” type parents find a Oonche-Khaandan ka boy for me… :D :D. Whilst I prepare myself to have a controversial affair, as per my mother’s guidance, and write a chapter of my life!