Another down! Who's Next??

"I have already fixed a girl for you", my aunt from Kolkata said over phone. "She is very well-educated and is from a very good family. Very pretty." She then paused, expecting that I'd ask her more about the girl. Concealing my interest, I tell her to give me some more time to decide. I tell her politely that I plan to study, get another degree. "You are delaying too much, you know. Later on you will only regret."

Not even a day goes by, when someone or the other doesn't ask me when I plan to marry. This, when I am staying thousands of miles away from my parents and my family. Had I stayed with them, they would have already taken me to meet girls' families for negotiations and evaluations. The desperation is such that my family members, all Hindu-Bramhin hardliners, are ready to allow me to marry someone from another caste or community. They have no objection at all, they say. They give the following reasons for their anxiety.-

Nov'14. Shriprakash's at Gorakhpur

1. No GOOD girls will be left.

2. Hormones will become low. You WOULDN'T be able to have kids.

3. You will retire when your kids are STILL in college.

4. We WANT grandchildren.

5. You are staying alone, there's no one to COOK and CLEAN for you.

6. I know you drink and smoke ALL day staying all alone.

I ask them to give me a couple of years more. I have to travel, meet new people, go for more treks, maybe start a company of my own; and only then can I think of settling down.

Dec'15. Wasif, just before the Wedding 

I also have to get my friends married off. Two close friends got married last November. Wasif's wedding was last month. There are a few that are going to get hitched this year - Pankaj, Deepak, and Shukla, among many others.

I had written this piece during my 3rd year of engineering: (http://igavemybest.blogspot.in/2009/10/to-marry-or-not-to-marry_31.html) At the time, I knew nothing about marriage. Now, 6 years later, I still know nothing. What I do know is that I do not have more than a couple of years before I finally have someone as a wife, someone who will (hopefully) know more about me than I do about myself. To be very frank, I do have my own doubts about whether I will be able to be a good husband. Whether I will be able to stand up to the sacred bond of marriage.

Till then, cheers to life !! :))