Arranged Marriage --- Chapter 2 ..Secret Meeting

The scene at home was as expected .. just after an exam, parents would ask how was the paper, will you pass, etc ..this event was no different. Questions were being gunned at Rahul as soon as he reached home.

He was quite cheesed off with the questions being hurled at him by his parents about the meet ." How did you find the girl, what did you all talk, what do you think the girl will say yes?  "

Now how do I know a girl in a first meet in an hour? Rahul found it too stupid to answer these questions. Mom's next question...hope u all ate something. Yes, we had coffee. Only coffee? Yes, at Starbucks, coffee costs Rs 600. Mom fell silent, and Rahul added on ..by the way, she paid for her coffee.

Mom was shocked, she felt this didn't sound too positive .her expressions said it all. After a while, the interrogation stopped.

Rahul had this habit of capturing the happenings on his notepad, perks of being a blogger.

Glances on my cell

To see her ping...

I Wonder, is it to her,

Such a difficult thing! 

A bond, which is

Now on a string...

Wouldnt she want

It to take wings ?!

He keyed in his thoughts, re-read it, put a title “ Arranged Marriage– First Meeting “  Browsed his mobile, no ping from the girl as yet. Somehow, he expected her to ping him. The only text he received after the meet was that she had reached home.

Rahul wrapped up his work for the day, it was quite late in the night. No pings from Shruti yet, Ok let me just surprise her, he thought.  Opened his Notepad and sent the blog to her and fell asleep.

Next morning he woke up to a message from her “ Hi Rahul. Good Morning! Nice blog, you could have sent it to me directly than sending it to my Dad .”  Rahul’s eyes almost popped out, FucK did I goof?  He checked his message, Damn, it was sent to Shruti’s dad.  Fumbling with the phone, he replied “ Am so sorry, I meant to send it to you, it was a mistake “.

She replied with a shocked emoji and said her Dad is pretty strict and how she, by chance happened to see this ping before her dad could while setting off the alarm.

Oh, what a blunder, Rahul thought, but somehow that incident made way for a series of chats and finally he could convince her to meet up without the knowledge of both their parents. The whole point was to get to know each other a little better  before  the parents were involved with their usual idhar udhar ki baatein of probing each other’s background, – well,  parent’s can be such interrogators, must say 

So, they met in a nearby restaurant close to her workplace. Rahul reached late, made her wait for 30 minutes .. traffic sucks especially the day you want to be on time.  He apologized, as he joined her on an empty table. To be honest, he did check Google search for “Questions to be asked for arrange marriage” and found some rather, boring questions. It only added to his mental agony of changing his role to that of a psychiatrist, analyzing prospective brides with questions...

As the conversation flowed, Rahul gave a   brief about his background.  “ Simple guy, professional. I earn good enough to keep me going, I am responsible, mature, good looking, and I’ve ambitions and dreams.  Since you will be moving from your house post marriage, am sure you would want to know about me and my family before you would made a decision?  Direct conversations always suited him.  She was at ease while talking .. spoke about hobbies, books, authors, music, career aspirations, expectations from a life partner. She replied, "I feel comfortable talking with you, next level of decisions will surely need my Parents approval too " 

OMG, parents approval, now this was a Red flag. In a love marriage, the decision is made by 2 people about living their life together, and they convince their respective families for the same. In an arranged marriage, it's kind of a family decision. It won't be wrong to say of late Arrange Marriages have become too materialistic. A lot of factors come in to play ...the job, financial standings, family details, house, vehicles owned, property, etc. Everyone looks for a better deal.

Well, their talks went on for a good one hour. For Rahul, it was not love at first sight nor was he desperate to impress the girl, he was clearly interested in trying to understand her better.  It would be the same for Shruti too. Of course, it was too early to say NO or YES.

It was time to wrap up the meet, this time  Rahul insisted that he would drop her at her place, she agreed through a bit reluctant. Not much conversation happened during the drive .93.5 FM playing Arijit Singh’ s classics was the only romantic stuff happening!

Dropped her off at the gate, Rahul stepped out to say bye to her as she walked towards the gate. Well, this time he had a surprise in store... Her Dad. He was looking straight into Rahul’s eyes as if he wanted to ask what was he doing with his daughter right in front of his house ?! Rahul’s immediate reaction was to get the hell out of there. Still, out of respect, he stayed for a few minutes and said goodbye and left.

As he drove away, the first thought that came to Rahul's mind was ..." Hell, I have lost a beautiful moment" ...he wanted to tell Shruti that " the blog I sent to you was the edited version ...what I penned initially was my unfiltered thoughts  ..of what I felt about you and our meet. I keep this personal and don't share it with anyone. But today, I wish to share the same with you"!

Rahul wanted to share this moment with her ....well seeing her Dad at the gate dashed all his hopes of Sharing it...

Rahul's thought was ...now will her Dad say YES ?  !! 

We humans are wired to want intimate relationships; to love and be loved. Make sure to communicate. Communication is one of the relationship goals that keep the bond strong. Everything from a simple text to say hi to the big conversations let your partner know that they matter and you value their opinion.