Random Thoughts

Have you ever noticed how most independent, cosmopolitan, single Indian ladies crinkle their noses when they hear that one of their kind is going to sacrifice her freedom on the altar of an Arranged marriage? If I told them that I was out all of last night drinking and that I am high on cocaine just to ensure that the after effects of the night does not catch-up with me, I swear I wouldn’t get a weirder reaction, as a matter of fact they would have thought me infinitely “cooler” and a lot more “hip” had I said that!
This eminently prominent reaction of theirs made me sit & waste a hours on end wondering what is it that makes a girl the Arranged-Marriage-Type and what turns her into her (supposedly) more vivacious and infinitely more popular (though God alone knows why) counterpart the Love-Marriage-Type.
However worse than the raised eyebrows of colleagues and friends, was the even more humiliating reaction of close friends, who just let their jaws drop to the floor (some almost with the precision of a cartoon character, complete with the eyes popping out of their sockets and the unrolling of the tongue on the floor following the jaws-dropping-to-the-floor bit) and their inevitable reaction of “YOU?!? An Arranged marriage? I would never have thought…”
And on my innocent query of “why?”, I would get an abysmally vague reply of “I donno… you never seemed to me like the Arranged-Marriage-Type.” This answer only makes me wish with a sudden ferocity that I were an English lady of the 1800s who’s been magically transported to the future, so that I could have swooned on the statement without insulting or offending anybody. But sadly, I am not, so I give them a somewhat strained smile and try to swear the conversation towards some topic less hazardous to my sanity.
The first place, nevertheless, in the list most atrocious reactions to my marriage has come from the small yet extremely close friend circle of mine. Trust me I base my statement on a long history of experience, when I state that these guys and gals have never failed to surprise me. These friends of the bosom or chaddi buddies so to speak of have badgered me with ONE question over and over again until the point where I have literally come dangerously close to actually swooning!
This monumental question has been: “You sure this is an arranged marriage?”; “You perfectly sure about it?”; “Swear on me you are not lying?”; “Are you absolutely positive?” And about as many different variations of the same question as imaginable. They have time and again made me feel like I were sitting on the hot seat on KBC! And as I bet you can guess, my answer has always been “YES!”; just in varying degrees of emphasis, exasperation and just plain old frustration!