Journey of a thousand mile

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

New Responsibilities

It was in November 2002 and my parents and grand parents were already looking for my soulmate. It was during my brother's wedding that I was cornered and people saw me as the next prospective bridegroom as I had a decent job to support a family.

In May 2003, the search for a bride for me got intense and very soon I landed up with three girls to choose from. Since, I didn't like the idea of visiting and evaluating girls, I told my parents that I would marry the girl I see first and so I want to cut down the list to only one. We then evaluated the list and then singled on one girl. We all arrived at Chennai before and had a meeting to discuss the finer points. I told everyone that nobody would ask me, whether I like the girl or not in front of the girl's family and we would return back to our base and then convey our decision.

After having agreed to terms and conditions, my grand parents, my parents and three of my relatives set out to see the girl at "Madipakkam", it was a 45 minute drive from Chennai and we had a maruti van and a car to take us to that place. The moment I landed in "Madipakkam", I was received by a large group all belonging to the girl's family. I was not at all comfortable sitting with everyone starring at me but I had to do this, there is no other way of getting married as per the customs. After having a cup of coffee, my grand father started the conversation regarding his family background, our family background and then about myself, obviously it was to impress girl's family. Then he passed on orders to bring the girl, the girl was sitting in a near by room and was escorted by her relative to the hall in which I was sitting. She was nervous and was made to touch the feet of elders including me and I felt like "oh no". She then sat in front of me and started glancing at me every now and then. My relatives now started asking questions about her education and her hobbies. My grand mother chipped in and told her to sing a song, after all these, the girl's parents decided to take her in. Suddenly the environment turned serious, the girls parents were looking at us in anxiety. I told my grand father that I would like to talk to the girl for 5 mins and the girl's parents nodded immediately. I asked the girl about her opinion and told her that I would break the ice.

As soon as I came out of the room, I told my grand parents that I like the girl and he can invite her parents for further talks. Girl's family was going mad with joy and it was time for us to leave, girl came out and waved at me while I was leaving in the car and I responded. The day still remains fresh in my memories and would never die off.


Reach me at hifromsriram 'at' hotmail 'dot' com

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