My Arranged Marriage Proposal

I was adjusting my salwar suit, the navy blue salwar suit, which I recently bought from an executive boutique in Bangalore. It costed around half of my salary that I used to get. I bought it because my mother told me to buy it for myself as my banking training was completed and it was time to say adieu to Bangalore. Little did I know the reason behind this. As I was getting enthralled to handshake my investment bank future in my dreamland Mumbai, my family was busy planning for my first marriage proposal. By the way I was just 23 that time. I remember the moment when I reached home for a short break, before joining in Mumbai. They dropped the bomb of this ‘shaadi rishta’ from Jeevansathi.com.

So after few argument procedures, I reluctantly agreed for the meeting.

Now, all arrangements were done. Venue was decided. A nearby cafe was selected. Only my dad and myself went to meet the guy, as it was our first meet.

And then, the other party came with a number count of eighteen people. I was spellbound by their audacity and I wanted to run from there as fast as I could. But I did compose and control myself. I sat in middle of those strangers. My dad was sitting on other side of table. I was feeling like a piece of art...no, no, no, a piece of art for exhibition is the correct expression. Now the real fun begins.

In midst of all people, my eyes were searching for my prospective groom whom I had seen once in his edited picture only. But the guy who was sitting in front of me was little bulky and the other guy, little lean. I was cursing my faded memory as I was unable to recall the faded face of the guy. While I was busy in recalling the face, all of them started bombarding me with questions. One at a time. That wasn't much annoying I thought as I was sarcastically enjoying the attention. Then after few minutes, a guy entered the cafe and sat adjacent to me. Oh this is the guy!

All were quite tired by that time. All questions were like: “You know this?”,”You know that?”, “What else do you know?”. Some questions were repeated by one among them. Finally the guy’s turn came.

”So what do you do?” He asked eagerly.

It did put me off because it surpassed the degree of all lame questions asked by his family. At least some homework was expected from him side.

“I am an investment banker in a leading private bank”, I replied, calmly.

He was working in a government bank. I knew that before. What I didn’t know was that he thought himself to be very high.

“There is no such security in private banks. They hire anyone. There is no criteria as such.” He said.

I was amazed by his behaviour.

“No one will pay you well if you don’t deserve it”, I replied spontaneously.

Now he was quite shocked by my reply because in our community, girls don’t reply back. Especially in these marriage meetings. His family members gazed at me and him. It seemed like some sort of entertainment to them. As if it were a show or something. During the intervals of our conversation they enjoyed sipping the cold drinks and snacks sponsored by my father.

There was an awkward silence in the room after my reply. I tried to break the silence by asking him the same question.

“What do you do Mr.?” I asked confidently.

Little did I know that they would not be able to digest the fact that ‘I’ asked this question. He seemed to take it as his insult .

He smiled sarcastically. Finally he replied.

“I do time pass”.

To my surprise, his entire family started to laugh, as if it was some kind of a joke. I played along with him.

“Then first do something, after that come for marriage proposal. I don’t have the time to do time pass.”

After that I have never seen that guy again. It was a straight “No” amicably from both of us. I thank God that his whole family showed up that day and I witnessed how they actually are.