Chapter 1: The first meeting

"I am trying to get this marriage fixed. They are distantly related to us. Wear good clothes. Meet her properly. Be nice. I dont want to hear one more person telling me how taciturn u r..."

My mother was telling me on the call. I dont know where exactly I lost the thread. Normally me and my mother get along perfectly. But these days if the topic turns to marriage, I tend to ignore the finer details and pick up the gist. The gist was that my mom was trying to arrange my marriage with a distant relative's daughter. I had to wear good clothes. I had to meet her properly. Be nice to her. And not let her feel -- rather not let her tell anyone --- that I was taciturn.

By the way, I am not. You can ask my friends. I am the life and soul of all the parties. I have an excellent sense of humour and I have numerous hobbies. But like all normal guys I get tongue-tied on such occasions. How can you talk freely with a girl you might end up marrying??

I have seen her photograph. She is "healthy"; yeah...a better word for fat. Sometimes I dont understand mother. Actually many times I dont. Why will I go and get married to a girl I dont know, who is fat!! I cant imagine falling in love with a fat girl. I mean all about beauty being skin-deep is fine. Call me shallow, but I like beautiful girls. I am not on look-out for models or Miss Universes. Actually, I dont even dig for very skinny ones. But obese ones are a definite no-no. Anyway, so this girl is fat and looks forty. She is wearing a lot of make-up; so, I cant tell you how she really looks. In the photograph she is wearing a shocking pink traditional sari. Why do girls take such pictures and expect guys to like them enough to agree to marry them!! Maybe they know how the mothers think...Anyway, my mother wanted me to marry this girl.

She was going to come over to Union station. She was also a consultant working with a major software giant back in India. She had sent me an e-mail telling me where she would come and when. She had avoided calling me. She had flatly refused to give me her number before meeting. So, we were chatting. I was not sure if I could recognise her. To ask that I would have to strike a conversation. To strike a conversation, I had asked her what were her hobbies. She said that she had attached her matrimonial resume , which I already had, along with her -- professional resume!! Professional resume!! Huh!! I left it at that!!! She decided the meeting time and she said she will recognise me from my car. She had seen a picture of me with my car. And she thought she will definitely remember the car and number plate. She also thought that she found photographs deceptive. And she thought that I looked different in my every picture. Well you can imagine my apprehension to meet a girl who thought my car has a better personality than me. I definitely did not want to marry her.

For all those who have not been here, San Diego is a very beautiful place. This particular sunday was even better. On such a lovely day, what I would have done is, I would have packed my backpack and gone trekking to Yosemite. But, what I did do was that I dressed up in formals and went to the union station to meet her "properly" wondering how could I refuse this marriage without sounding taciturn or rude or anything that would make my mum want to talk to me for a couple of hours!!!

She had asked me to wait in the parking lot inside my car and thats what I had done. I was prepared for a 30 min to 1 hour long wait. I had barely parked my car. And before I could switch off the ignition, she was at my car window.

"Ajay??"

"Yeah"

"Hi. You are five minutes late."

"Oh. When I have to meet a girl I generally go a little late so I dont have to wait longer", I said. My feeble attempt at humor.

She looked puzzled. No smile.

"Ok."

Ok????

She sat in the car.

"Where should we go?", I asked conversationally.

"Its eleven. I need to freshen up. We will first go to your home. Then we will go to a Thai restaurant for lunch."

Uh-oh!!! Should I remind her that we are still strangers??

"Actually its sunday and I am not sure if my home will be in a condition for you to enter."

"Its ok. It will help me guage how will it be when we are married."

When we are married???????????????????????

"Ha ha. Dont say later that I did not warn you."

"I wont."

My sense of humor was dying a slow and painful death. We went to my home.

She said, "I will wait outside for five minutes. You can go in and clear up everything you dont want me to see. I will be using just the restroom."

Well, that was nice of you ma'm.

"I was just kidding. You can come in."

I forgot to mention that she was wearing a scarf and goggles and gloves and a jacket along with everything else. So, I had still not seen her. I was willing to postpone that moment forever.

My house is generally quite tidy and that day was no exception. So, I was not really worried. It was a one bedroom house. My roommate was not home. I pointed out the bathroom to her. I started to browse thru channels on the television. Assuming that she will be putting on some make-up and dressing up for the occasion, I had given myself a complete half an hour. Again she surprised me.

I was still surfing the sports channels when she came out. She took barely five min. I was not prepared for what I saw. The goggles, scarf, gloves and jacket was off. Contrary to the picture, she really was pleasantly chubby and thankfully, not fat. She was tall, fair and very well-endowed. She was not dressed nor made up for the occasion.She was just the opposite. She had come in simple jeans and a T-shirt.She had beautiful waist-length curls. She had tied them up in a pony-tail. Some stray hair were fallen on her face, She looked about ten years younger than me. And all this was completely lost in the sparkle of her eyes. She was not a conventional beauty but she had a very pleasant honest face with eyes sparkling with energy.

"You keep your house well". She said with a smile.

Ok. forget everything I said before. Her best feature was definitely her smile. When she smiled her eyes sparkled like diamonds. I wish she would keep smiling forever.

"You look different from your picture."

"Which one did my parents send you?"

"The one in which you are wearing that pink saree."

"Oh yeah. Its magenta actually. I was around twenty pounds extra when we took that picture. But thats the only one in traditional sari."

That explains.

"Umhmm"

"And yeah I am wearing that horrid make-up in that picture. Of course I know guys like it. But I am not too good with it. But dont worry, I am learning how to do it from a professional and if we are married, I will wear it everyday."

Now I am worried.

"You look good without makeup."

"Really?". I was sure she was taunting me.

"Yeah. And in that picture you look fa...I mean a little healthy. You really look good after losing weight. "

"Thanks". She deliberated.

Silence.

"Do you prefer girls wearing sari?", she asked.

"No. I mean, whatever looks good. You look better in western wear." I said last line very carefully.

"So, basically, you did not like my makeup or my sari. You thought I was looking fat which you obviously mind. I dont think you read my resume. Why did you agree to meet with me???"

Oh my God!!! I did not know we were going in that direction!!

"Well, I did read your resume." I said defensively.

"Which one?"

"Huh??"

"Matrimonial or professional?"

"Both"

"Really??". A smile had started to linger in her eyes. I was torn in a desire to see that smile and a desire to not make a complete fool of myself.

"Yeah. Of course. Why else did u think we are meeting?"

"Ok. Whats my name?"

"Er....I did not read it from front to back. I know ur name starts from D. Is it Deepika?"

"Devyani. Friends call me Devi. Where did I do my engineering from?"

Oops. What was going on?

"Pune"

"Pune has 35 engineering colleges. Where did I graduate from?"

"I did not memorize your resume. I barely glanced through the professional one."

She was grinning.

"Ok. What are my hobbies?"

A fleeting thought entered my mind that the conversation should have had a questionnaire from my end about her. I was also wondering where did I actually lose it.

"Ummm...Reading??"

I hesitated.

"Really??"

"I mean music...."

She was bubbling with merriment.

"Are u sure??"

"I think cooking..."

I had started stammering.

Starting with a small giggle, she started laughing. I was half-embarassed and half-spellbound. At this point I was actually congratulating my mother for her choice. I know I was looking like a fool. But it was still worth knowing Devyani.

"Lets have a shot at honesty. Your parents made you meet me, right??"

"Yes. Well, no. Just my mom. My dad is pretty cool."

"Do you know any good Thai restaurant? I am getting a bad craving for it."

"Yeah sure. Lets go."

She put back her shades and kept the rest of her adornments in my backseat.

"So, what are your hobbies??", I asked while driving.

"Ha ha. I am not answering anything from the resume. Before you do decide to marry me, you will have to go through the complete resume. I had to tell you my name. Thats the only bonus you get."

"Ok. So, do you cook?"

"Wrong question again. This is present in the FAQs attached to the matrimonial resume."

"FAQ??"

"Frequently asked questions. You did not even glance through my data. Hmmpfff."

FAQ????

"Well, what do we talk about then??"

"I think that these meetings should be more pertaining to what is not there in the bio-data. e.g. I know you are tidy and you keep your house clean. You did not read my info before meeting me so, you are not thorough. Your mom can force you from thousands of miles, so you can be brain-washed and you cannot find topics to discuss, so, you are not creative. And yeah, you lie, but you are a bad liar."

"Are you maintaining a check-list?" I asked with chagrin.

"No.But if it does not work out between us, I will keep one for the next candidate. But lets not be too optimistic. So tell me about yourself."

"Well, my name is Ajay. I am from Pune.."

"No no no. Looks like you haven't read your own resume either. Tell me something that is not there in your resume."

"Like what?"

"Like....you say that trekking is your hobby. Have you tried bungy-jumping or sky-diving?? What other things have you done?"

I wont get into details of what happened next. I told her my hobbies. I told her of my fears. I told her about what I really liked. I told her about my cooking, driving. We discussed our childhoods. I did find out her hobbies. She was an excellent singer. She loved painting, travelling and cooking. She was an avid reader. She talked a lot. But the strange thing was I was also talking a lot. I told her about girls I had coveted, I had gone out with and I had lost. She told me about guys in her life - accepted and rejected. I have never talked to any girl as much as I talked to Devyani. Neither have I been this comfortable. After lunch, we watched a movie. We discussed movies. We went to a beach. Finally at sunset she said she had to leave.

"Ajay, I really had a great day. With all your faults, you are a nice person. I will be lying if I said that I am in love with you, but I wont mind marrying you. That is the best evaluation I can give. The ball is in your court. I will be leaving for India in two weeks. After that our parents will meet. I will like to have your honest answer before that. Please dont say yes or no unless you are definitely sure. If you wish, we can meet again. Dont answer right away. I know my faults and I am sure you did not get a shot of those in these 8-9 hours. But if you decide to say yes, you should know them. That is the reason I sent you a separate resume right at the beginning. The FAQ contain my faults also. Please go thru them. Au Revoir."

She drove away with a smile.I was smiling myself. I was satisfied with the day. I knew that today one person in this world will definitely not call me taciturn. And yes, as soon as I went home I downloaded the two documents and started reading the resume.

I really did not feel like doing anything that evening. I had just met a girl with whom I got along very well. And in her own words, I did not mind marrying her. I was talking about her to my roommate till late night. My roommate thought that I was love-struck. I would have loved to be, but I was not. And I would have loved to be in love with Devyani. But I was not. But I did want to see her again. Her resume was a total riot. FAQs were mind-blowing. She is so funny. Sarcastic, boys kind of funny. She was easy on the eyes too. Not the usual tel-kadhai model my mom would have wanted.That night I could not lie. Not to myself. Not to my mom. I did not call my mom. I thought that only so much excitement was ok for one day. I went off to sleep smiling.