The cool morning and the hot coffee did nothing to clear cobwebs in my mind - the result of the many beers had the night before. One look at my brother-in-law told me he was in the same state. Anyway whatever had to be done had to be done. We were here on a mission - to "see" the girl that I may or may not marry. We called up to inform them our schedule. They certainly weren't very pleased. Nobody expected the prospective groom to visit them at 8 in the morning. These were normally scheduled for the evening so that they could get enough time to prepare the girl for the occassion and make enough snacks to fill the accompanying immediate and extended family.
The hurried breakfast we had did nothing much to relieve the throbbing head-ache. We reached the girl's house at the scheduled time and descended the flight of steps leading to the house. The girl's family were pretty much pleased to see that there were only the two of us and the fact that there were no ladies accompanying us. Usually it was the lady in the visiting family who examines the girl to the minute details and asks all sorts of awkward questions. Sometimes they went to the extent of touching the girl and even pulling her hair to ensure that it was real.
As I sat down I looked around to see at least half a dozen pairs of eyes staring at me. They belonged to faces of various ages, sizes, colors and shapes. The introductions were made, which I hardly remember. I couldnt wait to finish the formalities and get back to the hotel for a good sleep. The "girl" came and stood at the doorway of the room and my br.-in-law whispered in my ear to have a good look as if she may vanish into thin air at any moment. I took a good look as advised. They offered to make her sing for us. We declined. My head, with all that throbbing, was certainly not ready for this torture. Her uncle, the patriarch of the house, suggested that the girl and I had a private talk so that we can understand each other. So much for understanding each other in ten minutes, that too when we know that a half-a-dozen people are impatiently waiting for us to return from our little talk, so that they can get ahead with whatever they had to do.
We moved into a small room detached from the house. As was the norm I started the talk with asking what her interests were. Before we knew the dialogue was flowing freely and smoothely. We found out that we shared our interest in Jeffrey Archer's books, M B Srinivasan's music and host of other things. We get into analysing the books of various other authors. We found out we had the same taste in movies. Before we knew it, the ten minutes allotted to us had become a full half-hour. We both suddenly realized that we had not noticed the time passing. We knew that the others must be waiting for us and wondering what was taking us so long to "understand" each other. We moved to the room where the others were waiting. Again as was the norm the boy, that is me, was not supposed to express his like or dislike immediately. This was supposed to be informed to them through someone at a later date. So we left her house soon afterwards.
In the last twenty-one years our friendship had grown strong. Our discussions have moved to various subjects. Today the subjects are more deep. Bhagavath Gita and Ramayana take up more time. Velukkudi Krishnan & Sukhi Sivam have become household names. Cho's political views are analysed and argued upon. There could hardly be anything that we didn't share. There was nothing that we didn't know about each other. We could spend hours together without getting bored with each other. She had become my best friend.
It is also worth mentioning that we got married 45 days after we had first met.
The hurried breakfast we had did nothing much to relieve the throbbing head-ache. We reached the girl's house at the scheduled time and descended the flight of steps leading to the house. The girl's family were pretty much pleased to see that there were only the two of us and the fact that there were no ladies accompanying us. Usually it was the lady in the visiting family who examines the girl to the minute details and asks all sorts of awkward questions. Sometimes they went to the extent of touching the girl and even pulling her hair to ensure that it was real.
As I sat down I looked around to see at least half a dozen pairs of eyes staring at me. They belonged to faces of various ages, sizes, colors and shapes. The introductions were made, which I hardly remember. I couldnt wait to finish the formalities and get back to the hotel for a good sleep. The "girl" came and stood at the doorway of the room and my br.-in-law whispered in my ear to have a good look as if she may vanish into thin air at any moment. I took a good look as advised. They offered to make her sing for us. We declined. My head, with all that throbbing, was certainly not ready for this torture. Her uncle, the patriarch of the house, suggested that the girl and I had a private talk so that we can understand each other. So much for understanding each other in ten minutes, that too when we know that a half-a-dozen people are impatiently waiting for us to return from our little talk, so that they can get ahead with whatever they had to do.
We moved into a small room detached from the house. As was the norm I started the talk with asking what her interests were. Before we knew the dialogue was flowing freely and smoothely. We found out that we shared our interest in Jeffrey Archer's books, M B Srinivasan's music and host of other things. We get into analysing the books of various other authors. We found out we had the same taste in movies. Before we knew it, the ten minutes allotted to us had become a full half-hour. We both suddenly realized that we had not noticed the time passing. We knew that the others must be waiting for us and wondering what was taking us so long to "understand" each other. We moved to the room where the others were waiting. Again as was the norm the boy, that is me, was not supposed to express his like or dislike immediately. This was supposed to be informed to them through someone at a later date. So we left her house soon afterwards.
In the last twenty-one years our friendship had grown strong. Our discussions have moved to various subjects. Today the subjects are more deep. Bhagavath Gita and Ramayana take up more time. Velukkudi Krishnan & Sukhi Sivam have become household names. Cho's political views are analysed and argued upon. There could hardly be anything that we didn't share. There was nothing that we didn't know about each other. We could spend hours together without getting bored with each other. She had become my best friend.
It is also worth mentioning that we got married 45 days after we had first met.
