“Akshay weds Shweta”- The golden letters on the brown envelope of the invitation were shining under bright sun light. A sense of happiness and disappointment ran through him as he read them. Having been an outright frank person, Rohan found it tough to hide his feelings and fake an excitement. He knew this was coming though. But he wasn’t prepared. Not in the least. Shweta read his mind just the way she had done it all these years. “What’s wrong Rohan?” she sounded worried. A million thoughts ran through her mind, for this was not the reaction she had imagined. Not in the wildest of her dreams. “Nothing!” he said. Lying was alien to him.
“So when did you start lying?” her worries multiplied with that response from him. But she knew her words could make him speak.
“We have talked about this before. I thought you were more matured.”
“You are sounding vague Ro! Please be clear.”
“I never thought you would nod your head for a typical arranged marriage”
“Do you think I have a choice? I am 25 already. I don’t have enough time to find a person, get to know him, fall in love and then marry! I have already been through Shubham and I feel cheated enough now. It is time I start looking at it practically”
“Practically?” he smirked. “Would you rather choose anything that comes your way and adjust your life accordingly? You are not someone who can compromise that easily Shweta. I think I know you!”
“That’s how life is Rohan. I will have to learn to.”
“Ah! That same old crap. So you mean to say living a life of that sort is better than making another attempt to find a person who suits you?”
“Akshay suits me Ro! Totally!”
“Seriously? What makes you say that? How long have you known him?”
“That is not the point Ro. He is an investment banker with close to 5 years of experience. His job must have definitely taught him how to handle stress. He must be good at managing things. I have spoken to him a couple of times, met him once and he sounds just fine. One of the very few sane guys I have ever spoken to! And guess what.. My parents have spoken to his. All are so happy about this wedding happening. Mom said our horoscopes have the perfect match. 10 / 10 she says” she tried underplaying her excitement and tried to comfort him, but a few doubts started arising in her mind. She was wondering if she actually had any more reasons to marry him. Rohan was staring at the mud on which his foot was making a temporary impression.
“Hmmm! Forget parents. One must marry for oneself. Not for somebody else. Chuck that. But, an investment banking profile and an appropriate date and time of birth – Is that all required to marry you girl? Are you looking for a life partner or are you filling up the vacancy for the post of your husband with a suitable candidate?” his questions were always like a freshly sharpened knife.
She didn’t have answers. They just looked at each other for a while. Silence prevailed – that was the only thing that could separate them. A few minutes went by and somebody had to break the silence. Knowing that Rohan was adamant as always, she came up with a question, “What do you intend to do Ro? In case you don’t get to meet a girl who suits you?”
“Not marry at all !” the answer was lightning quick. She must have guessed that she thought. However radical he might sound, Rohan’s clarity was something Shweta was always proud and jealous of. He would never do something that he is not OK with - even if the Gods came down to Earth and asked him to do so.
“That might be a choice that you could afford to. Not me. I have a sister who needs to be married off too”
“Alright, so now you are marrying because Preethi needs to get married! Is this a sacrifice or an attempt towards martyrdom?” his rage grew. In his eyes, Shweta was sounding totally immature.
“Call it anything you wish to! But I am not going back on my decision to marry Akshay.” In her eyes, Rohan was sounding highly impractical.
“I never asked you to go back. But what if he...” Rohan didn’t have to complete that sentence.
“I will have to take that risk Ro. I neither have the time to get to know another guy nor the patience to wait and know whether he would suit me. You are the only guy I know very well as on date. And you know it won’t ..”
“Yeah I do!” He didn’t let her finish it. It was two years ago, when they had what they would call one of the most useless conversations, but the one they would remember vividly. A phone call to discuss the travel plan to attend one of their friends’ wedding ended up in an argument on whether best friends can marry each other. While they agreed to disagree on the generic question, they knew the answer very well when it came to them. To put it in Shweta’s words, “We are the best friends, but would be the worst couple, if we were ever to marry” Rohan couldn’t agree more. An entire college believed otherwise. But, Shweta’s occasional immaturity and Rohan’s typical straightforwardness were agreeable to each other as friends, not as partners.
“Exactly! So what do I do now? I have a sister who has to get married. I don’t have enough time to search for someone who will suit me. I found a guy with a good profile and a decent attitude. He works at my hometown. I can shift to the place, live near my parents. I have been away from them for years. And he is not bothered about whether I work or I don’t. He earns enough. Both his mom and dad are retired. I found these good enough to say yes!”
“You mean those are reasons good enough to strike a business deal that you would term as marriage? A marriage of convenience like they call it! It is supposed to be such a lovely relationship. Why has it become ...” He was at loss for words – his anguish clear in his eyes. The last person he wanted to hear these from, was her.
“Why are you so against arranged marriage Ro? Your mom and dad had one. Aren’t they happy? They are such a lovely couple!”
“One-off case Shweta. They belong to the previous generation – the one that had more maturity and more patience. They were people who compensated compatibility with flexibility. They had better temperament and their saturation points were very high. We are a very fast and volatile generation. We break so soon. We keep complaining when something goes wrong. Arranged marriages won’t work for the majority of us.”
“So what do you think a love marriage gives this generation? The accountability for the decision or the compatibility?”
“Both! This generation needs one too many reasons to hang on to something. But just a hint of something going wrong to leave it and move on.”
“I don’t disagree Ro. But, why aren’t all love marriages a success today then?”
“That’s because it is not founded on love. It is infatuation or lust that transforms into myriad forms and creates a dream future in the minds of the ones involved. And when reality hits them, it hits them real hard and they are at a point of no return and nothing ahead.”
He seemed to make sense. He always did. But, all that he said sounded very good during arguments, but not for life – she was deep in thought. “Why did you have to say a yes?” he was going back to square one this time.
“Let us assume that I actually have a guy who is the best I could get and we both are in love with each other – head over heels. My parents need to agree. You know them! They were in love with each other before they married. But look at them today. Your parents are better than mine when it comes to all those factors you stated. Their experience has made them strictly against me choosing a guy.”
“Just because they made a mistake somewhere? Do they believe horoscopes more than your judgement? Don’t you find it ridiculously ....” He stood up from the bench and started walking a few steps away. He did not wish to speak those words. He had had his dose of idiocy for the day and he couldn’t take it anymore.
She bent down and placed her elbows on her thighs and her folded fists on her cheeks. While her clarity was unperturbed, she had no answers to his questions – she felt the world did not have any either. He came back in a few minutes and picked up the invitation that he had left on the bench.
“Nice design ! I like the font” he remarked.
“I thought you would never notice”
A silence crept in again as he kept staring at the card. “Will you come?” she sounded sure but anxious.
“Do I have a choice?” he asked, bringing a smile on her face. He received a punch on his shoulder – the one that he gets whenever they have an argument of this sort.
“I guess this will be the last one I get. You will have better things and a different person to argue with in the future.” he said with a wry smile. He wished time never moved. For a few moments, Shweta saw the emotional side of her extremely rational friend – a rarity she knew.
Quickly recouping, he said, “It’s time. Mom will be waiting for me. I will have to take her to the temple. Shall I drop you?”
“Akshay has come over for the weekend to meet me. He said he will pick me up from here.”
“Good then, you have your official driver now.” he faked another laugh.
They exchanged their byes. Rohan knew, it was time to move on.
Ever loving!
Ganesh Ramachandran
