My Ordeal with a ‘Fair’ Bride (Part Three)

Image Source - Google

In India, liking a girl’s photo is just the beginning and it sets off a big mechanism. The guy is supposed to make a visit to the girl’s place with his relatives, friends and whoever-else-cares-for-an-evening-at-a-stranger’s-place-with-coffee-and-snacks. This is when he gets to have a direct look at the girl. This occasion is normally used by the boy’s side to show their ‘might’, their arrogance, and to settle the bargains and negotiations about the monetary aspects involved in a wedding and to start the relationship on a note of strength by proving to the girl’s family as to who will call the shots in future.

The girl’s family will always fall behind and play it soft. Even though they play the hosts, even though they offer all the snacks and coffee (or tea), even though it is their daughter that is going to make that guy complete, they still play second fiddle happily. The father will silently accede to all the demands of the guy’s family and the mother will be silently taking in all the scenes with a calm and forced smile, since they both know that they have a daughter to get married now and hence cannot afford to talk in terms of protecting or projecting one’s self-respect. But, trust me, the mother will be calmly assuring herself that when her son is going to get married, she will wring the neck of that girl’s family and have her vengeance for all this humiliation.

Wait, I have digressed, but this how most Indian families get their daughters married off. Now, I didn’t want any such happenings or demanding relatives to come and jeopardize my opportunity to marry this ‘very fair’ girl. So, I told my parents that only my immediate family will go – my parents, my sister, her husband and myself – and see the girl. My mother was hesitating in the beginning, since she had some plans to bring her not-so-favorite in-laws (read, ‘my aunts’) to see how she is going to get a rich and pretty fair bride for her son. But knowing my attitude and adamant nature, she gave in.

So, an auspicious day was fixed and we travelled to the girl’s place. With all the initial welcoming formalities and fake smiles were presented, we were made to sit in the big living room of that girl’s house. I was so keen to see the prospective, nay, the DEFINITE wife.

There she came!!! Clad in a dark blue silk saree and in a sleeveless blouse of a matching color, she walked into the hall. Wow! What a fairness! Such a fairy-like fairness! I appreciated my inventing a new word  ‘fairy-like fairness’ and decided to note it down in my diary, so that I could show it to my wife later and brag about my language skills. While my eyes were fixed on her face, my mind was doing all such dreamy calculations.
 

Meanwhile, my brother-in-law signaled surreptitiously to me, pointing at my eyes and my mouth. Only when my sister, who was sitting next to me, pinched my thigh slyly, did I realize that I had been staring all the while at the girl in a wide-eyes-and-open-mouth expression. What a shame! Thank God, there was no sign of drool near my mouth. I appreciated my dignity!

But amidst all the scenes of happiness, I noticed a specimen – a dark-skinned woman who was walking alongside my bride and was standing near her when she sat. What a contrast! Looking at both of them together, I was reminded of my chess board, where the opposing pawns happen to stay in front of one another, presenting a picture of contrast. I decided to tell my bride that she shouldn’t keep such ugly personalities nearby, allowing it to spoil her charm.

Meanwhile, my prospective father-in-law saw my enthusiasm – to dignify my drooling expression – and he said, “Why not let the boy and girl talk in privacy?”

Man, was I flying?!

(To be ended with the next installment...)