It was the last day at the office before which Vikaas was flying
out of Dubai to attend to one of his close friend’s marriage, back home.
The planning for the wedding was well charted out weeks before the travel and
most importantly it was the re-union of his besties gang. So, the excitement
knew no bounds and it was well amplified on his face, right since a week from
his travel date.
Taking the direct flight to his hometown, Vikaas was eagerly
waiting for the marriage day to come. Meanwhile, as he had come home on a short
break, Vikaas’s parents had planned to visit Pranika’s home, as well. Actually,
since the last few months Vikaas’s parents had been actively engaged in finding
a suitable bride for him and when they did come across Pranika’s profile, they
found it to be a perfect match for him. Vikaas had even looked into the pics of
Pranika, and had given the go-green signal to his parents for the process ahead.
So, two days from day of landing, the trip to Bangalore was fixed and Pranika’s
family was informed of the same.
Having a conversation with a stranger was not a difficult task at
all for him, however this time a meeting with the girl and with whom he might
have to travel the rest of his life, in case everything goes out well, was
making him think a lot. A kind of mixed feeling was going on within him and he
just tried to stay calm and not get nervous about the interaction. However, on the brighter side,
just to make things easy for him, Pranika was from Bangalore and Vikaas held a very
close connect with the city, as he had always loved it and wished to settle
down there. So,
thinking of revisiting the city after a long break calmed down the storm within
him and he was getting ready for the big day.
It was the early morning train to Bangalore that they were
taking and was a six hour journey to cover, by which innumerable thoughts were
already bombarding within his mind. He was not sure how the interaction would
go on and he was little skeptical if Pranika would even like him and if her
family would accept him or not. Honestly speaking, the reason for the sudden
spike in pressure was that he had always dreamt a lot about how his marriage
should be and well of course what sort of a partner she should be. Supposedly
if he had been successful with his love life, the story would have been
entirely different by now. However, since this was an arranged marriage,
wherein he totally had zero knowledge about the girl, a sudden fear does creeps
into anyone thinking what if the ideologies and the thought process contradict
a lot.
But sticking to the reality and going by it was the practical
move to take, which Vikaas had also done. So, he just made sure that he was
clear about certain things and wouldn’t compromise on them when projecting
himself to the other family. Some of them were like not to falsify his character just
for the sake of impressing the girl, to be open and honest all the time, and
not to play around with his originality. Because he well knew that telling a lie is easy, but to
maintain it during all the times is the hardest part of all. And moreover it is
okay to earn a bad name by telling the truth than earning a good name by
telling a lie. So
it was wise to tell the girl and her family the truth, as how it is and not unnecessarily
induce false expectations for them.
With this clarity of thought in his mind, he was lazily gazing
out through the window of the speeding train. The first few sights of the Kannada script eased his nerves and slowly
as the train decelerated into Bangalore, his mood totally uplifted. Pranika’s dad was already waiting
at the train station and he received them warmly. And as they exited out of the
station they were now greeted by Dheeraj, Pranika’s elder brother. And minutes
later they were all now heading towards the hotel, when a sudden strange
thought hit Vikaas’s mind.
All these while, right since from his schooling to college to
office days he had dated quite a lot of girls, and in all those cases, it was usually the girl with whom he gets along well at the
beginning, followed by building a good rapport with her siblings and then
finally ending up getting known to her parents. But, here in the case of Pranika, it was
totally the other way round. He just got introduced to her dad first, and then now
with her brother and well who knows he may even get introduced to someone from
her family and finally it would be her. This experience was a first of its kind
to him. JJJ
After some ten minutes of drive, the car came to a standstill
and so did his thoughts. As he was offloading the bags, he overheard his dad
telling Pranika’s dad that they will quickly freshen up and be at their home in
the next thirty minutes. So, the countdown has begun and all that he had was a mere
1800 seconds in hand to get himself all set and prepared.
What happened next is to be followed in the upcoming posts.
So, please stay tuned.
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