Meena finds me!!!

July 2015:

We have all gathered for a community conference of 600 delegates to talk about the current business scenario among our nagarathar people. Hardly did I know I would find my Meena there, after all these years of wandering. After all, everybody who wanders in the dark isn’t lost; some get lucky like I did that day...and there she was!

Little did I know then, someone who I noticed randomly in the middle of a crowd would end up being Meena.

August 2015:

The proposal comes; we start enquiring here, there, everywhere, trying to know about them as much as we could. I surf the internet; try to find out every little detail there is to know about Meena. A mental image of Meena slowly takes shape. I am convinced she is more beautiful than the Meena I had imagined for so many years. I say yes...I say “a 100 times yes”.

An uneasy week to ten days goes by being made to wait for our horoscopes to match. I knew, as per our family process, that is the final step; if that is through, Meena would be mine. So the anxiety for THE call to arrive builds on, on and on. 

September 2015

September, the 11^th: 5 pm

My sister makes appa and me coffee. The aroma of the coffee fills the room. They both had started to get anxious about the call too by then. We sit chatting wondering when the call would come...

5.30 pm:

Appa’s phone rang and I was beaming like never before. The news came and the wait, not just for the call but for my perfect girl, was finally over.  Meena had well and truly arrived, into our lives to change it once and forever.

September, the 17^th: 3 pm

For those unfamiliar with Tamil culture – this is called ‘the ponnu paakura event’ (meeting the bride event). I am supposed to meet her and her extended family with mine and get introduced to each other formally.

Of course for me though that day was all about meeting her. It was scheduled for 4.30 pm at a temple near Karaikudi called Koviloor! Oh yes, that day was Ganesh Chathurthi day too...

I finish lunch, dress up to the best possible and am all ready by 3.30 pm. It takes one hour from my native village of pudupatti to there. I sit in the car all anxious, a little nervous and very restless.

Pon.Pudupatti – Nerkuppai – Thirupattur – Pillayarpatti – Kunnakudi – and huh...finally Koviloor comes...those 40 kms and 55 mins were the hardest ever.

4.30 pm:

We are greeted by my in-laws to-be into the temple. They all seem to be simple and nice people on first impression. They give us juice and her younger brother and cousin get talking to me. Sorry, I don’t remember what I was talking to them about...it is all a blur now.

So somewhere in the middle of my conversation with them, I catch Meena, in the corner of my eye, coming in from nowhere to talk to my sister sitting opposite to us by about 40 feet.

I ended up being too shy to see and take note of her then. Too many people around, doesn’t help. And that is when her mama comes and takes me to have a word with her...I am not sure if I managed to hide a blush in that moment. Maybe I didn’t.

So Meena and I are taken by mama to a corner in the temple. Hmm, true...slowly after showing “eeee” for a bit, yes, we get chatting...with a lot of pauses and silences in between...all adding to the beauty of the moment and her.

We are made to finish our conversation even just as we started it...only to leave us wanting for more and more...these elders know how to play the love game well, don’t they?

So everything is good and we who came as two families go as one to offer prayers and archanas. Boy, don’t I love these kutti kutti procedures which add so much meaning and value to the beauty of the whole scene.

We finish and we move to the madapam outside the temple. We exchange pleasantries, coffee and much more.

Suddenly as I began to eat the snack offered to me, my mami signalled me not to start yet, sitting right across in the ladies side. The gesture meant I had to put on the bracelet on Meena that we got for her!

I knew this was on the agenda...but was thrilled that it was finally time for that! Amma brought Meena and the bracelet to me. We were standing in the centre with 40 odd people around watching us with glee! I had never felt more embarrassed before...haha!

So I did then put on the bracelet on Meena’s right hand...I whispered, “amma and appa got this for you; hope you like it”, as I wore it.  I hope she heard that because I was too shy and feeble understandably. That moment could never be described well enough.  So I'll quietly pass on to the next...

Both families, my new and native, were then discussing on a suitable marriage date and I had to be content with talking to her mamas, periappa, brother and cousins. We finished and it was 6 o cl. We had to take the discussions to another time and bid bye to their family and started home.

Back in the car on the road back, I was more relaxed, felt the need to be more responsible and blah and blah...Soon we reached back home and went for a treat at my grandmother’s. There, they wouldn’t stop telling me how lucky I am. The day couldn’t have ended anymore perfectly than to know everybody in my family liked Meena and her people.

September, the 19^th:

I was back in Chennai by that morning. Even in the morning, I got edgy and wanted to start texting her. I feebly sent her a ‘Hi’ on FB. And from then on, I can’t tell you people much. Sorry!

To dear Alamu with

lots of love,

Viggy!

Post Script:

This blog is something I wanted to write to help us treasure this amazingly beautiful feeling and not let time erode it. I hope I have said enough to serve that purpose!  I wish you all for such beautiful moments with your girl/man. Believe me, love is a very fine feeling and it is only going to be a matter of time before all this happens to you (even if it already hasn’t); and the wait, I promise, will truly be worth it!!!

From "last seen" to "online" to "typing"!!!

At 6 o clock in the evening, you are in the middle of a work file; your last one for the day. You are desperate to get done for the day. The clock ticks, the file's last few pages come up; your routinely boring average day of work finally gets over. You no more would need to be in the company of people you hardly want to spend time with, atleast for the rest of the day.

You shut your computer down. You put your files in the shelf. You are ready to leave; You momentarily pick up your phone from your pocket.

There comes a wholehearted smile, out of the blue, perhaps for the first time in your day. Your friend, from another continent, has just typed two letters 'Hi' and sent it across to you. That's all it takes. Your indifferent mood through the day changes for good. 

That's all you need, a nice conversation with a dear friend about something you like chatting about. To me, life is nothing more than a bunch of beautiful conversations. 

Conversation is an art that only a few master. If you have friends who, while they can talk about anything under the sun, make a lot of arguments and end a conversation with a laugh, I would say your life is beautiful. 

Talk about the power of internet these days; talk about the world of social chatting apps and websites - the whatsapps and the facebook chats of today. Isn't that a newer version of the letters we used to write a couple of decades back. 

I remember the days when I used to write letters to my parents while living in a hostel during the 90s. I would have written in childishly adorable handwriting, "I want to come home; miss you mom and dad", as an 8 year old kid. I still cherish the feeling I would have when I am about to open the reply letter from them. I would have read their 5 lines on the letter 50 times and would still save it to read it for later. How different is seeing the same message as a text received over a phone at the end of a tiring day?

That's how much I cherish seeing my phone every time to check if a particular friend has sent me a 'Hi'.

And the conversation through texts goes on,

you forget the usual world around you, 

you breathe a sense of fresh air,

you talk non-sense,

you laugh,

you argue,

you make-up,

you tease, 

you celebrate.

The sound your phone makes when it receives a text, oh gosh! That's life!

Sometimes, you would be done seeing all the movies on your to-see list; you would not have a good book in hand to read; I am often bored with the music collection I have, you might have been too. Often you go without a friend to hang-out with in your city; this world is a busy-place these days. But your phone always pings; there is a friend whom you can always reach for a lazy chat.

You would remember the many times you would have ended up having a sweet little conversation, unheralded late in the night. I have fought my sleepy eyes to enjoy such chats before. I am sure you have loved doing that too.

I would wait for my message to be seen, eagerly follow the typing sign on the text box, then give a quick repartee to it and smile thinking I have got one up on the other person. The cycle would continue. The moments from "last seen, to online and then to typing", I tell you, are a different experience of fun altogether. 

So go on, enjoy the experience of texting and conversing as and when possible. Make the most of interesting people!!!

Okay finally quickly now, here goes my dedication of this blog. I had my reasons to write on this; One of them is, I have been spending a lot of time texting, off late especially after my university friends moved in different directions. There are two or three of my friends with whom I hardly go a day without texting and having a chat with. I guess they would know who they are while they read this; to them I particularly dedicate this blog to for all the good moments they have given me from the other side of the screen. May them and all you guys continue sending me those texts, because those conversations are something I absolutely treasure.    

gtg,

Viggy

Title credits: "Ajit Johnson"