Not much Ado about Something

Today was a landmark day in the 30 year history of Mr. Ramalingam G a.k.a Vivek. Here's what happened.

I was in the midst of serious work. I was preparing for a client meeting involving very senior delegates and my mom calls me up. I answered the phone and she asked me if I had some time to talk. I said yes inspite of the fact that I was in the middle of something. I dunno why I said yes, because normally whenever I'm deep in work, I always tell mom or dad or anyone that I'll call back later. But today I said yes.

I could feel a tinge of elation in mom's tone. So here she goes about this marriage alliance which she found on some matrimony site and how the next month in the Tamil calender is not an auspicious month so she wanted to go and visit the family. I said, "Mom-I'm busy I dont think I can make it because of the client meeting coming up but nonetheless I'll give you call when I'm free to talk".

Now, fortunately or unfortunately, my work today got over early and I was free by 07:00 PM. So, being the dutiful son that I am, :-)) I called up mom and asked her where she is. She said she's on her way to meet this family and dad's also coming. She started trying to convince me also to come and tells me about how the bloody "HORRORSCOPE" has matched very well and of all the different "Yog" and blah blah blah.

I always literally close my ears whenever mom starts yapping away to oblivion about damn "HORRORSCOPES" and planets influencing peoples' behaviour and life and most irritatingly about future. I just dont believe in them. I just cannot believe how a planet billions of miles away can influence an abstract entity like the future of ones' life. Anyways I'm digressing from my post.

So she's trying to convince me and out of sheer frustration from listening to her rant, I relented to her emotional blackmail. I agreed to go and visit the family. All through my drive I was thinking about my decision. Brooding about how to conduct myself in front of a family who would be watching or probably scrutinizing each and every one of my move, every action, every response, every statement that I make. I will be "evaluated" carefully at every step to see whether I am "suitable" or not.

And frankly, I can now perfectly understand what goes through the mind of nearly every "eligible" girl in India when she is subject to such an ordeal.

I decided to approach this as a visit to a family friend. I decided to NOT think about the "real" nature of visit. Not that the visit was meant to be that, it was just a friendly casual meet between two families, but I couldnt help but think about the underlying motive which was only subtly expressed. Anyways, I decided to conduct myself in a very casual and friendly way.

Something all the more surprising is the near total lack of traffic that day and believe it or not, I completed the journey between Powai and Andheri in a span of 35 minutes. Which considering peak hour traffic and bad east-west connection roads is a phenomenal achievement.

SO I met mom and dad and then together we proceeded to meet this family. We entered their house and they were extremely friendly and completely contrary to my thinking of me being "evaluated". I soon relaxed and got introduced to the family members. The whole talk proceeded in a very casual manner.

To be very honest, there were a couple of instances when the "elders" started to talk among themselves and I felt left out, but during some of those times, the girl's mom came to the "rescue" of my silence. And I found that quite interesting. The girl's mom showed me the girls' pictures and I must admit she's definitely pretty.

Mom and dad were talking about how the HORRORSCOPES matched and times when they lived in Matunga and all typical "elders" talk, while I was talking about my educational background, my work, my career focus change from deliveries to business development, about my movie interests, about my new flat in Powai, all these things.

Anyways, at the end of it all, I guess this was an ice-breaker for me of sorts. Until now, I was pretty closed about "settling down" and I even told this other girl I met - that I'm not ready for taking the plunge yet. But somehow this visit opened me up to atleast acknowledging the idea that I might have to "settle down" eventually.

UPDATE (11/07): If anyone else is reading this please understand that whatever is mentioned here are just my thoughts and views and perceptions and mine alone and what went through my mind. Please donot misunderstand the post because it does NOT have a bearing on anyone else.