Life takes a new turn

And Mom saw that Everyman was all alone and decided that it was not right. She ( and dad too, to a lesser extent) decided that it was time to find Everyman a companion.

Before I stepped on to the flight from Riyadh in April, I had a strong feeling that I would not come back without a pending change in status. I tried to fight it too-but not too much. I was not having any success at all finding someone on my own. Any girl that I even remotely liked ( and there were many :-D) was already taken. And whatever little chances I had were cruelly annihiliated when my company sent me to this barren land. Perhaps it was time to actually start to mingle. Yet, I ensured that I would not be home for too long. Ten days was all that I gave for staying at home. But then, God made the whole world in seven days. For my folks, ten days was more than enough.

Bride watching has got to be the most embarassing activity in the average single Indian's life-cycle. It doesnt matter nowadays if you are male or female. You see a lot of smiling faces, strangers suddenly trying to like you, trust me, it's quite odd.

The first girl I saw was actually quite cute. But I didnt get to ask her the usual "where do you study?" "Can you sing" type of questions. Reason: she was doing most of the talking. I ended up spending most of the time nodding my head sagely. My mom was pretty hopeful of this one working out. When it didnt, she had a strong suspicion that it was because I had told her about my ex-girl. And even though i tried to explain that this girl had said that she wasnt ready for marriage, mom wasnt very convinced.

I thought that would have been it. But I was wrong. Turns out that there was another proposal waiting in the wings already! So off they took me on another car journey. And this was a journey that I would undertake a few times more.

I've always wondered how one could make a life-altering decision in a day, or sometimes, in even less time than that. Do we say yes out of indecision, desperation or out of sheer impulse. I didnt make my decision in a day. She certainly is not someone I share a 'wavelength' with. She finds my Malayalam very funny and I am yet to see her use English. She has never really stepped out of Kerala and I have not really stepped in. There's a big cultural chasm. And I thought whether that would make a difference. I figured that I didnt want someone I could discuss movies, blogging, books or music with. All these were things I enjoyed at a personal level. And as for those things where I needed company, I had my friends. What I wanted was someone whom I would like being with, and someone who would like being with me in return. And no, it wasn't love at first sight..but now, around three months later, I think I am getting there.

And so life takes a new turn..