The
legendary Rendezvous:
The legendary temple!
As
planned, I reached the temple at 6 p.m., which was set as the meeting time. I
was accompanied by my Dadaji, Dadiji, Negotiator Uncle, my cousin brother
Kailash(who has btw changed his name to Divyaansh!!) and my Dadaji’s sister. The
distance between the temple and uncle’s house wasn’t much. Hence I could not
think much about how I was going to evade this! All my little scams were going
horribly wrong. Also, with all the elders in the car, I couldn’t call and take
advice from anyone about to go about the job. So, it was clear that I was
completely dependent on myself there. (Life me pehli baar responsibility ki
feeling! Aur wo bhi saala kahan jaake!)
The
last working scamster in my mind muttered some very cliché suggestions. “Tell
her that you love some other girl and you are seeing her only because of family
pressure!” “I am a drunkard! I can’t even think straight without a glass!”[Though
later, she was the one who made me change my views on drinking! :P]. But
the fact of the matter was that my mind had lost! Such a good excuse-maker
turned into a normal cry baby! So the long wait began. It was 6: 15 now.
I
got a little annoyed as they were supposed to come at 6. I hate people who come
late. (Ok! I am not talking about my college classes!) 6:30! Still no sign of
them. The annoyance turned to anger! 6:45! Bloody hell! What is going on. To
pacify myself I thought of texting Pinky Didi and Dipanjali! But it turned out
that they were biased towards me as expected. So the replies were something
like “Saala lao ladki ko. Kitna intezaar karwaoge!” and “Tumhara koi value nahi
hai kya!”
Now
the combination of all these factors had made my anger reach its boiling
point!! (No please! No comparisons to Arnab Goswami!) At 7:00 the daily aarti
of the temple started. To cool off my mind, I joined in. (Yeah, I wasn’t an
atheist then!!) I was almost standing in a perpendicular view of line from the
statues of the deities to the entry gate. Now, after many days I heard an aarti
in such a beautiful synchronization. The music of the bells was perfectly in
sync with the claps and the voice of the Panditji was also not bad. I tried to
immerse myself in the aarti closing my eyes! And it was just wonderful. Though
my anger had not subsided but it had been reduced considerably. And then the
final round of the bells began!
(The
description of the following excerpt has not been taken from any Hindi movie)
The
symphony of the bells. The conch shells sounding as calls from a different
world. Music. Peace. Bliss. And the
anger in me. I open my eyes. I see her. She doesn’t see me. My anger is gone.
Pooof! This is Destiny!
I
come back to my senses. She is talking to all the other people who have come
with me. My Dadaji asks her qualification in English! She replies. Then my
Dadiji and Dadaji’s sister start their queries of cooking, knitting, sewing,
etc etc. Seems she passed their test. And then, the moment of reckoning awaits.
We
are instructed that we may to talk to each other. I do not remember who
accompanied her. I was accompanied by my cousin Kailash/Divyaansh! And then the
craziest conversation begins:
Me: Manisha, right?
She: Minakshi
Me: No, Manisha!
She: No, Minakshi! And you are?
Me: Poonam
(A
little smirk from her. Me thinking “Yeah! Yeah! As if I don’t know that look!
It’s a long NAME story!”)
She: Ok.
(“What
was I supposed to say??”, I think! What do people actually say in these
situations? The cliché! The cliché!)
Me: So, what are your hobbies?
She: Dancing and getting my photographs clicked. What
are yours?
Me: Singing and clicking photographs! (What was I thinking?
Or maybe I wasn’t.)
Now
I tell the side characters, “Will you get the hell out of here?” Ok. Politely.
I just wish I could say it that way.
She and me only. A little silence.
She: What are views on friendship? (Are we in a
philosophy class, for heaven’s sake!)
Me:
Be it friendship or any other relation. Only two things matter. Trust and
space! (Man! I was on fire!)
She: That’s nice to hear.
Me:
Yeah! I need to tell you something. I was madly in love with a girl for about
3-4 years. It was one sided though. I couldn’t even tell her. Just thought you
should know.
She: It’s ok. (Ok? Are you drunk? Don’t you have
anything to say?)
And
then the more comfortable zone of the conversation arrived about how both of us
had lived in a joint family, what our expectations from our prospective life
partner were. It was chill. All the while, I was ogling at her eyes. She had
and still has the most beautiful eyes! Now I was average in chemistry and I think
chemistry is the most misused word while talking about two people who really
hit it off well. And I was pathetic in physics but the word I can use has come
from physics. Energy. Positive energy. And there was such a flow of positive energy
that I felt completely bemused. I mean something was there which I couldn’t
explain that was so positively positive. This is right! This has to be done!
This is meant to be!
The
disturbance. Kailash comes in and says that they are calling us. It had hardly
been 15 minutes. I put him away for 5 more minutes saying, “Thoda to time do
yaar. Zindagi ka sawaal hai!” She smiles. I made her smile. Eternal bliss. My
final words to her that evening, “ I do not know what you are feeling. But I
have very positive feelings. It would be quite ok even if things don’t work
out. But this was a positively happy meeting. ”
We
go back. They made us stand together to look at the height and health
difference. Acceptable they say. Her mom sees me. Looks radiantly happy looking
at me. I do not understand why.
I
come back to uncle’s house. I am left alone in a small room for an hour. Seems
like gazillion hours of thinking. The onus is on me. Few gazillion hours again
it seems. This is it. I want to marry her. I talk to Papa, Mummy and Uncle from
that room. I tell them. Then I go down. Tell my Dadaji. He has tears of
happiness. Craziness! He then calls the Bagris and tells them it is a “Yes”
from us. Everyone is in a joyous mood! Then I start worrying. What if she doesn’t
like me? But after a sleepless night of speculation, it’s confirmed early next
morning. She has said “Yes”! “Yes”! I call all my friends in the return journey!
All are happy, surprised, elated! Most bemused reaction by Anshul and Rinki “Mana
karne gaya tha! Sagaai kar ke aa gaya!” Oh! It was one helluva journey. And I knew
after everything that happened,
“MARRIAGES ARE MADE IN HEART!”
I LOVE YOU MINAKSHI! J
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