Marriages are made in He............

Here comes the second part of the story (Part 1):

20^th December, 2009:

After getting the shock of my life from that command of Dadaji, at least one thing was sure. I could not evade going to Nokha. I had to go there anyhow.  But I had to make sure that all the rest of my family members were on my side when I make a refusal. A refusal which they couldn’t refuse! So I called up Mom and Dad to make sure that they also didn’t like the picture of Ms. Manisha Bagri. And as bad the picture was, even they did not like it. Yes!! Similar were the thoughts of my sisters. I could always tell Dadaji that if all the people in the house don’t like her, there is no way I’ll marry her.

As my last master stroke, I thought I would take my younger brother Munna with me to Nokha. His presence can give weight to my decision. But as an afterthought, it came to my mind that this could be seen as “too much of a scam” from Dadaji! Hence, I decided otherwise ;-)

Racy, Anshul and I returned home as there was actually no conveyance to Bikaner or Nokha at that hour of the night. And I was definitely not in a mood to spend 6-7ks for going all the way to Nokha to just to make a refusal! It would be ridiculous. Hence, I decided that I’d take the early morning bus to Bikaner and further proceed to Nokha. I remember saying to Rinki before sleeping that night, “Don’t worry sis! Mana karne jaa raha hoon! Fatafat salta ke aa jaunga!!”(Actually this was my plan till the end!!)

After having a night-out, Racy came to drop me off at the bus stand. He wished me good luck, and then, I boarded the bus for the most annoying journey I’ve ever had. Since it was a sleeper coach, all I was thinking before boarding was good sleep, an honorable refusal, good sleep! But the bus driver had other ideas. The sound boxes were blaring on top volumes the crazy Punjabi songs of Babbu Mann!! Aaaaargh! “Son Di Jhadi”, “Chak Lo”, and many such insanely torturous songs were enough to make a person lose their mental balance. But I fought! The solace was calling Uncle and Aunty and also taking them to my side about the Refusal I was planning. Also was continuously texting Pinky Didi and Dipanjali about how I had everything worked out! But in heart of hearts, I was also very guilty thinking about the girl. But again, I thought. At least I’ll be honest. It’ll be good for her also (Oh! I hated the System for this!!!).

So after surviving the mind numbing journey, I got off at Bikaner. Dadaji was there to receive me. In the one hour journey from Bikaner to Nokha, I made it very clear to Dadaji that whatever my decision was, I would not talk or argue about it to anyone else. I’ll just tell that to him. He was fine with it. I felt a little more relief!

After reaching Nokha, I found that along with my Dadaji and Dadiji, a few of my other relatives were already waiting for me at my home with their hawk like eyes! One of them was my cousin uncle, who was also the negotiator. He had come to tell Dadaji how all the arrangement would be made. Firstly, the girl’s Uncle will meet me at their (Negotiator Uncle’s) house at 5 p.m. And after that, if all works out, then they planned to make the bakra and the bakri meet at a temple.

At around 4 p.m., Dadaji told me to get ready. Now, I had a plan for getting ready to. After taking my bath, I dressed up in the best way to receive a rejection from the girl’s Uncle only, and the matter would not have to be taken beyond that. And I wouldn’t have to take the burden of guilt of Refusal! The jeans was bought 3 years back, had frills coming out of the bottom with all the sweeping of the roads that had done by it. And to add effect, it had also not been washed for the last 15 days. The shirt and sweater were very average. But to show my one-dimensional figure (Yeah! have got that as a compliment too besides the regular “gush of wind will blow you away” and “why don’t you eat anything” or “haddi-raja”) I had taken the sleeves of my full length sweater as high as I could to make my ultra skinny hands fully visible!

Proud of my punctuality, I reached my Negotiator Uncle’s home at 5 p.m. They were constructing a new shopping complex at their backyard. So I went there with uncle to see the progress and kill my time. As we were talking two men entered from the back gate and started listening to our conversation with keen interest. One of the men was stout and the other was very short. After listening to our conversation for around five minutes, the introductions were made. Both were uncles of Manisha! Oh Fish!, I thought. Had I known earlier, I wouldn’t have made some good observations about the shopping complex and blabbered! Plus one in their book I thought!

Then we were shown a room where, supposedly, they were about to grind me! But I was too confident! I mean, how hard getting rejected could be! [In later months, I came to know from Minakshi that her uncle had grinded more than 90 boys before me for her! May be the Nervous 90’s got him! ] And then the interview began. He started by asking me questions in Hindi. In defiance, I answered all his answers in Marwari and also mocked him humbly about how our mother-tongue should not be forgotten! Then he started in Marwari. I was still very rude by my standards. I told him I had my base in the North East, was in a job and body-building is definitely not my hobby! [In later months, I also came to know that he wanted Minakshi’s husband to be in some family business, having a healthy physique and he hated the North-East! He wanted no connection with it, whatsoever!]

All in all, after the meeting was over, I was confident that I had pissed them off real good. And there was no way the meeting would be arranged! I laughed! Then destiny laughed at me! Within the next 5 minutes it was decided that I was about to see a girl for marriage at 6!!!!

To be continued……

Part 3