Uncommonly in love!

Are you tensed about marriage?

What?

I asked are you tensed about marriage?

Me??? No way I am super cool.

Oh is it!!  Then why are you eating away tissues papers instead of  the Samosas on your plate?

                  My friend Nandini had a point and I couldn’t defend my gluttony for worries. It was one those occasions where you have no answer but a blushed smile that says ‘ Guys I am screwed’.  Even otherwise I have never won any arguments with her. She is invincible.

Known in the closer circles for impeccable sense of humor and ingenious skills to tease, Nandini is often the star of our get togethers.  She can charge up any party with her trade mark laughter, a skill she claims to have endowed from her mother. She was right, I was tensed. Tensed about zillion things about my marriage, most of them ridiculously trivial to the world.  I had doubts like; 

• What if my dhoti slips down when I am marching to the temple?

• What if I feel like vomiting when I am shoved down with customary spoons of milk and banana  by elder ladies during wedding?

•  What if I catch cold and have a terrible running nose?

•  What if I my tummy get upset?

• What if there is a Hartal on the wedding day?

• Or if the tire goes puncture and I reach late only to find no one in the Mandapam!

There is little one can blame a person who thinks about his marriage from an intense crisis management perspective. I was only thinking proactive and  in between I ate some tissue papers thinking it to be Samosas.

What’s the big deal??

While I was busy mulling over my not so silly feelings Nandini was on phone looking disturbed, with an expression she is not used to.  She stood up and strolled to the wash basin at the restaurant with her phone held to the ears.  I knew there was something brewing up, but poking in an unsolicited fashion can be a little annoying. I finished my coffee and signaled the waiter for the bill.

“So If you have finished eating the tissues shall we make a move.  She sat back wiping her hand in typical Madrasi style.

Everything all right, who was on phone? I asked her cutting in between.

Oh that call, it was Sidharth, called from office to say that he would come and pick me up from the next junction. We got to meet some relatives on the way.  I told him that we are here, She quipped.

We decided to walk till the next junction to meet Sidharth which was half a kilometer from the restaurant.

Nandini got married to Sidharth 6 years ago. A perfect example of  how opposite poles attract to each other, they have been a couple with dissimilar tastes and priorities. While Nandini lived in a world of books, meetings and exaggerations, Sidharth preferred to live in present with minimal words and expressions.  Their personal choices hardly marry each other, and the same applies to their professional goals too. For the world and society it may seem nothing in common between them, nothing that makes them a so called made for each other pair.  But that’s not true.

 I pity the world for its shallow outlook and superficial takes on lives around.  We often are prejudiced with retarded approaches in connecting people with stories and conclusions conveniently in a manner that pleases us.

We are all writers in our own rights. Aren’t we?

Love isn’t about pizzas, café’s, cards, gifts, movies and kuchikoos alone.  It’s beyond that and I learned it seeing this special couple together. There hasn’t been a single weekend where Sidharth hasn’t joined Nandini in Chennai continually for a year where she was working on a special assignment and while he was based out of at Trivandrum.  He made it a point to book tickets in advance, forgo his personal agendas and travel 1400 Kms every week to accompany his wife on weekends only to rescue her from the loneliness of Chennai. If not for him I don’t think a career centric woman like Nandini would  leave her high flung job to settle in a tier 3 city like this. They may not be seen strolling malls, sipping ice teas, shopping exorbitantly but then they have got what’s integral to any relationship. 'Mutual Respect'

“Hello by the way tell me what are you going to wear for reception, with your current  figure I am sure you would look like ‘Winnie the Pooh’ in your wedding album”

Nandini was back with her wits pulling my leg yet again with a winning score card and infectious smile.

We crossed the road and walked past the stand still traffic to reach the by lane where Sidharth was standing next to his car. As usual he greeted me with a firm shake hand and concerns over my growing waist line.

Hey what’s that cover, let me see?

Nandini quizzed Sidharth

She opened the back door of the car stretching her hands for the packet kept on the seat.  She pulled the cover back with an anxiety of a child. It read ‘The Immortals Of  Meluha’ , a book she wanted to buy last week.

It brought an instant smile on both their faces whipping away the delusions of the world around them.  And I only stood in testimony to a wonderful relationship of two unlikely souls who were truly in love.