(For posterity's sake, am attempting to lock up the fragrance of the Present in a wordy vial. The story comprises of two chapters from the End till the Beginning)

The End

The Arrangement of the Arranged
_________________________________________________________________________________

(Samar)

Like most of my male peers, I have been emotionally scared and logically doubting the institution of marriage. Rather, I used to look down upon the very concept of love as a Bollywood conspiracy, an exaggerated delusion, a cultural hypnotism cocktailed with a gush of hormonal juices oozing.

Doubts notwithstanding, I braced myself up to venture into the unknown, trusting my gut.

Went through  half a dozen life altering  dekha-dikhai sessions - wherein the families meet and try to guess/assess(whatever they can?), such meetings are punctuated by valleys of  embarrassing silence and some peaks of brazen self-marketing. 

Then the boy meets girl, they go out for a coffee and they talk. I had lately become a pro at the 'talk' part, even though I had started nervous( owing to the high voltage of expectations) and awkward. But in due course it had become a banal routine affair.

To add,its also a scary feeling to consciously judge people, which brings with itself the guilt of rejecting someone(for no fault of theirs or ours) or the scars of rejection. One tries to be objective, but it ain't easy.

From most of the meetings, the hard part was when you come back from the rendezvous with the Lady. The family looks upon you with red blooded screaming eyes, like a famished predator looks upon its prey. It's hard to explain the 'why it didn't click, the abstract and the subtle part is tough to explain especially when the tangible part is unblemished. Mum saying, "Beta I just fail to understand what are you looking for...kudi sohni eh..Maape well settled ne...?#@". In fact, I was starting to feel after uttering just a few NOs that my idea of 'her' was probably a fantasy, or was I too unreasonably rigid(uncompromising) 

But then I met her, and talking 10 minutes with her or so I knew, I knew. It's an epiphany, a moment of enlightenment, an intuition, a irrepressible feeling. You just know. It was her.

The Start

The Interview

______________________________________________________________________________________________
(Sona)

The day when Samar was coming home along with his family a week prior to that my Mum Dad told me that they have uploaded my profile on "Shaadi.com".. mujhe kaha gaya tha "beta ek bar haan toh kar de, shaadi jab bolegi, tab hi hogi" I said yes though I wasn't happy and they got a green signal to start looking for a match 

After a week, Samar came home along with his family. I was nervous and was praying that things should go in my favour as I wasn’t ready, but no luck!!!...,We spoke for around half an hour & I was a bit tensed thinking what will he ask. First time in my life, I was sitting for an interview which was purely non-technical  We both were quite for some time and were waiting as to who will start .Finally he asked “Tell me something about yourself, I want to know you as you haven't mentioned much in your profile“. I spoke from the abridged version of 'My Story'  - the journey from childhood onwards. Things like my schooling, graduation, the companies I worked etc... strange but I didn't have anything to ask him. I remember his one after the other question, full of eagerness to know me, my hobbies and a lot in very little time . Also, the best part of our conversation was after I finished talking, Samar said “Your voice is very nice. Why don’t you sing. Seriously do think about it”. I said OK, but somewhere I wasn’t convinced… Sorry Samar.

 

Questions I remember - 

1. Do you watch movies? 

2. What was the last movie you have seen? with my limited list of movies he understood that I am a SRK fan... then comes another one 

3. Is SRK your favorite actor ? I said yes and Samar smiled, that time I didn’t understand but I got to know that he too liked him a lot ..

4. What type of songs you like?

Movies ke mamle main laga humari choice similar thi, we found ourselves discussing story lines of romantics like “Jab we met” , “Love aaj kal” & “Tanu weds Manu”.. 

Jokes apart, but I feel either one had to start talking, so good that he didn't let me feel uncomfortable. While talking to Samar I saw Dadu was enjoying a lot. Learnt that one doesn't need any reason to be happy.In fact, more than Samar, Dadu was excited to come, leaving aside all his pain. Samar ki baatein sunkar pata chala, how close he is with Dadu. Looking at Dadu I got to remember my Nani that day... bas yeh sab baatein hue and then we were called for a tea. Mummy ji came to call us, she smiled and said "Chalo bacchon ab baatein ho gaye ho toh andar aa jao"  Mumma was a bit surprised to see Samar, who was not ready to come & was forced to come.Rather should I say, he came for the sake of his Mum, with an attitude “Chalo dekh letein hai” .

My  Mom'n'Dad  asked me immediately after they left, and I just nodded my head and went inside my room. The families exchanged the nods, and from then onwards we started talking on phone. 

Samar usually had many questions to ask, one of the very interesting ones, which I remember was - "What will you do with a bag of 1 Cr. ?".Don’t remember what I answered, probably Samar can contribute here ..  to know each others likes & dislikes.... .Gradually I got to know, why Samar asks so many questions? maybe because of he's used to taking almost an interview a day at his office  mera bhi kafi lamba interview period tha 

Then we went at Samar’s place and things got finalized. I must say that though I wasn't ready earlier, but later, after meeting/knowing Mumma Dadu and Samar I felt very lucky. Mumma is very sweet and friendly. Dadu loves me a lot