The Garden City Tale: Part 2 – The Meeting

“Narrating it from first person view”

The countdown was over and my blood pressure was rising fast as if the rocket had just blasted off from its blast pad and searing fast into the atmosphere. Dheeraj was on time to pick us up from the hotel to their home. Though it was a short drive, millions of neurons were fast bombarding against the walls of my brain. The car to came to a halt inside a small lane next to a big lake and I could see Pranika’s father standing at the entrance of their home.

He welcomed us all inside and there we were greeted by her mom, her sister-in-law Anasuya, their pet dog Rover and at the far end of the living room stood Pranika in her Ghagra Choli. Greeting them all one by one, I signaled a short “Hi” at her with a gentle smile on my face, not knowing if she had even noticed it. So, all of us got settled and the elders were having their own set of conversation while I was wondering what my conversation would be with her. This whole arranged marriage setup itself was totally being strange to me and yes, I had never imagined that I would also end up doing an arranged marriage.

Well, I am not against arranged marriages but I had always wanted to break the odds against the common notion that was prevailing with a middle class family about love marriages and prove to them they can’t just go by presumptions. However, as you know, things tend to be always opposite of what I want and so was in this case, as well. No regrets though, I was sure that my parents would have definitely found a nice life partner, since all these years they had offered me the best that they can afford with.

Very slowly each member of her family was having light conversation with me and slowly it made me ease my nerves and feel comfortable with the new place. And then Pranika came serving us some cold beverage and some snacks, which I do not remember right now what it was. All I could do was to grab a look at her face and even before that sight could get register in my memory she vanished off, like a swift bird.

“Uff, tough luck” was my mind voice.

But, her sudden disappearance rerouted my attention towards the side table next to the TV, where one of her portrait was neatly framed. It was just a casual pose and Pranika had a bright smile on it. Wow, that smile is contagious and may be that was the moment when I fell for her. Meanwhile as all the pleasantries were exchanged between both the families, Pranika’s father uttered the golden sentence.

“Why don’t Vikaas and Pranika go and speak somewhere private?”

My mind voice was like, “Thank god, finally!!!” someone spoke it up. Oh please, don’t judge me as a despo, but well yeah that was the sole purpose of visiting their home. To get to know Pranika, her views, thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc and most importantly if she can sustain to my tantrums and lead a life with me. Anasuya, took Pranika and me into the room next to the living room and left us both with two chairs facing each other. The immediate thought that popped up into my mind was, “Am I having some sort of an interview?”.

 

What happened next is to be followed in the upcoming posts.

So, stay tuned folks.

The Garden City Tale: Part 1 – A Journey of Thousand Dreams

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.