"I understand she is just 21, but you know, you will never get a good 'rishta' like this,ever!"
"Riya is so young, still in college and she would give CAT this year".
"Look, Mrs. Sharma fortune knocks the door once, ONLY ONCE, you better grab it!".
"No.. i mean, how would she handle all the responsibilities at this tender age?".
"Oh come on, don't tell me.. okey.. I was only 18 when got tied up and our Riya is so smart, educated. Listen to this advice and make her join 'SUNITA SHAW'S COOKERY CLASS' ".
"Still, i think.."
"Didn't you heard about Mrs. Jhunjhunwala's daughter?? ah.. poor girl.. she was ambitious and wanted to do CA! she did cracked CA after several attempts but she is 28 now..and her parents dying every day to see thier daughter in bride's dress! now do you want the same for Ri..".
"No, no, no, never"
"So..?"
"Yeah, i would have a talk wih Mr.Sharma and callback".
That was the conversation between my mom and Radhika Aunty a month ago. I'm Riya, final year student of B.Com. Radhika aunty persuaded mom for the "GIRL DISPLAY CEREMONY". Mom said all the emotional things she could possibly say and i had no other option but to agree to be the center of attraction of the ceremony!What? i could have said no? Alright, what if your mom says you 17 such incidents where girl stayed unmarried because of studies and she keep saying her wish to see me in the "dulhan" avtar!! what if your grandpa comes and say he is too old now and can die any moment make his last wish true before he sets away for heaven's trip! And your frinds, yes how can i forget them!! They make you dream about your 'sapno ke rajkumar' and tell how exciting is romance, new clothes, love and sex! i mean, its hard to say no when somewhere inside, even you want to feel, how it feels to be in love!
'Should i ask mom about name of this guy','nahi nahi, wo kya sochengi','might be if i sit near her..she would'..
"Riya beta, ek pen paper leke aa.. jaldi"
"Huh??"
"Make it fast.. table se pen kaha chala jata hai pata nahi!"
"Bolo" pen was in my hand, eyes on the telephone, heart pounding!!
"Ha..write.. Navin Ahuja, 22 September 1984, gurgaon, haanji.. okey.. arre you didn't said the time of birth?"
"4.56 pm? okey, thank you"
She snapped the phone down,her face lit up, all she needed now is a PANDIT to say "chattis ke chattis gun milte hai" and she would be the happiest person!
"What is this mom? Don't they know to mail a bio data??"
"Of course they know beta, and they will send it tomorrow, i just thought pandit ji is coming today so name, place and time of birth will say everything!"
"Mom, you are impossible"
I shifted my eyes towards the piece of paper, had a glance again, and suddenly a bright bulb was above my head. Idea.
"I have assignment to finish am going ma"
I had no assignment to do. The idea was FACEBOOK! Yes, i have the name, i can search him in facebook now. Very soon i was logging in my facebook account.
'Okey.. so here is the search option.. here i enter his name'
'NAVIN AHUJA' loading.. 'NAVIN AND RIYA' not bad.
WTF? 14 Navin Ahuja? How do i know which one is he? Okey lets enter the city also. 14 Ahujas can't belong to one city. 'NAVIN AHUJA DELHI' Loading.. Huh? 3 of them. Lets see. One with no picture, one is a guy with a girl.. oh.. his relationship status is married. That means its the last one. SHIT. Next week is Christmas. So Mr.Smart has a Santa picture on his profile and everything locked to be viewed by his friends only.. That was enough! I shut down the computer without even logging off my account even after knowing my sis can switch on the computer and nothing can make her happier than snuffing into my facebook account. After a while i logged in again to make sure to logg off! Sisters! You can't take risks you know.
The next day was sunday and i couldn't sleep last night thinking about Mr.Ahuja! And was a sunday so i can sleep late, it was on 7.15 when my head was hammered by a long shout "RRRRIIIIIIYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
"rrriiiyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaa" ab kya hai yaar.
With half opened eyes "What?"
"Beta, Radhika Aunty ka phone aya tha, they have sent the mail with pictures"
"So?"
"So? beta switch on your computer and show us the picture"
"Mom, Shweta(my sis) is wide awake, you could have said her to.."
"Beta, aren't you excited to see his picture"
"No.. i have no interest" my nature is like that i don't mean evertyhing i say!
"Oh come on now you are here.. open it na"
I don't remember when was the last time when i was so so excited! My thumb pushed the UPS button, followed by beep sound, CPU was on! it says "WINDOWS LOADING".. itta time loading mein?? this is the reason why science can't progress, we need to sit and look at the doors because "WINDOWS LOADING"!
Finally windows loaded. Alright. Right click. Refresh. Connect to internet icon. Hit it. Connecting.. Connecting.. After 40 secs.. Connecting.. WTF?? Cancel. Connect again. Connecting.. 1 min 38 secs passed. still. Connecting.. Everyday it connects in max 23 secs but today! I wanted to throw the windows out of my windows. But then. CONNECTED. Clicked Google Chrome. Gmail.com. Enter. Id and password. ah.. Finally.. One new mail. CLICKED. loading.. There he is.
'Sharp nose, deep brown eyes, wheatish complexion, tall, hmmm.. not bad.. good infact great, i bet none of my friends can get a better looking guy as thier life partner, i was happy'
"He is so good, my Riya and he would make a beautiful pair. They are made for each other couple" mom said and papa agreed.
I didn't say anything because if i still show no interest and they think of cancelling the girl display ceremony! Couldn't take the risk. The best thing to do was keeping shut and showing no expressions at all.
Since the day i seen his picture, it became impossible for me to concentrate on studies, i started waching more romantic movies, listening more romantic songs, smiling for no reason, watching couples sitting hand in hands, everything looked pleasant to me. The day meeting day was decided, next Tuesday. I wanted to go shopping and buy dresses, nail colors, clutches, rings.. Everything which would make me look better. The grand day was approaching. And finally the day came.
"Utho beta.. you are late"
"oh shit" ah.. i knew it, will it be exam, birthday or a special occasion like this i am always late, because of excitement ( or fear) i couldn't sleep till late and so.. always late latif on a special day. But now, hmmm, finally, a beautiful morning, i was thinking, might be tomorrow morning a message beep of Naveen will wake me up saying "good morning dear" . Oh boy, i dream too much. Everything was decided, clothes, accesories, sandals, even the lip gloss. Bottle green complements my looks, so i was in a beautiful bottle green dress, specially brought for todays "girl display ceremony".
"You look beautiful, Riya"
"Thanks mom" i wish he feels the same.
"Okey, mandir me matha tek lo, fir chalte hai".
"Ah.. yes" how can i forgot god, whom i begged for a life partner every time i seen a couple romancing.
We reached first, ceremony was in the "BIRLA MANDIR". I was little nervous. Honestly, very nervous. Till we reached the BIRLA MANDIR i kept checking myself in the mirror of the car. And after reaching i was like , my lip gloss must have gone till now, it was so hot out there, my make up must be fainted.Oh damn, my hairs.. STOP IT, RIYA, i told myself. You are over reacting. Its good if your make up is all gone, you would be more natural and someday somebody said, you look best with no make up, natural. Alright, i was back to my senses. Somebody said from the family "They have arrived" with a big smile on face.
Even i smiled big, but nobody knew it. There he is, i didn't wanted to, neither i care to watch anyone else but him. There he was, some 6 meters away from me. And here starts "me display ceremony" . I bent and touched feet of uncle, aunty, and all the accompanied family members, said "hi" to his younger sister. While her mother was testing me by asking typical questions about studies and interests. I noticed Navin's eyes were continuously shifting to me from my father and uncle. That was a very positive sign, i guess. After the rapid fire round they said us to take a walk and see how good is this famous temple.
neither of us spoke for first 44 seconds, i was determined not to talk first, or actually i didn't knew what to talk.
"Hi" he said first (yipee, i won).
"Hi"
"I'm Navin"
"Riya"
"Nice name"
"Thanks"
"You are studing now, right?" (haven't you read my bio data)
"Ah.. yes, final year"
"Good, so how is it going" (just planning to get university first)
"All fine, what are your hobbies?"
"Me, i like basket ball a lot, even played in district level, and i like good music, hanging out with friends, paintings.. kind of artistic person"
"Oh.. thats great, even i like paintings.. who is your favourite painter?" (don't tell me nerolac people paints the best)
" I love Van gogh, his paintings are just .. fantastic"
"You must be kidding me, that's my favorite too."
"Wow, .. great". We discussed about Van Gogh's paintings, todays weather, politics, internet, facebook(i didn't told him about my detectivepana of his profile)
I was feeling great, i can't tell how happy i was then..
"Times up" that was my sis and his sis.
"Looks like, you guys got along, really good" (Good? are you crazy? say it great, awesome, superb).
"Yeah" he said. I could hear violens all over my head, i could see butterflies everywhere. This couldn't have been better. After the so called "walk". We came back where everyone was waiting eagerly for us. No body asked us anything. After a little more chat everyone exchanged good byes and pranams. It was expected that they would go home and ask Navin about his opinion and vise versa. And was the same at our side. Questions were thrown from every member of the family and they knew from my smile that "it was a YES FROM MY SIDE".
I know similar things would be going on with Navin too. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I was too happy too accept.
We reached home, Radhika Aunty said, we would be getting a call any moment, get ready with plates of sweets "muu meetha jo karana hai".
Since we came from mandir all i could do is smile. Everyone was eagerly waiting for the call. 1 hour passed. Phone did not rang.
"They don't want to show how eager they are to say yes" uncle said.
"Ha.. yes" everyone agreed and laughed.
I thought he was a shy guy, may be taking time to convey his feelings to parents.
2 hours passed. No phone call.
"Why are they taking so long" mom said.
"Oh come on, this about marriage, no joke, they have all the right to think"
"Yes" everyone agreed.
3 hours. 4 hours. 5..6.. No call.
What's wrong? was the question in everyone's mind. Everythig has gone so well. This ceremony was best it could possibly be. Then what happened?
I was the one who didn't knew how to react, what to think! Why on earth, aren't they calling up??
Phone rang.
My heart was pumping so hard and fast, i was afraid everyone would hear it. Papa took it.
"Hello"
"Hanji, Mr. Sharma speaking." why was he sweating in an air conditioned room?
"Hanji.." the person at the other end of the phone said something and papa's expressions changed, he was looking even more tensed now.
"oh..". What is it, dad? Speak it out. I'm kinda dying.
"Okey".
He replaced the phone where it was. Silent.
"Kya hua?" mom asked.
"They.. thheeyy.. they said .. they said NO".
That was it, i don't remember anything after that. All i remember is i was lying on my bed, there was doctor infront of me, giving instructions to dad.
"Hey braavo! what is this , they don't know what they lost, a gem! a real gem! my dear daughter"
"Papa, what reason did they gave?
"Relax beta, you need some rest and.."
"The reason, papa!"
"They said you were little short for him. They think both of you guys height don't match, silly! isn't it?"
"You think so, papa?"
"Of course not, beta, you are 5'4 and he is 6'3. That's perfect."
But not for them, i thought. But still, i shouldn't be so hurt, i mean whats the big deal yaar. They haven't signed a contract to say "YES" after the "girl display ceremony', it was expected like how it is expected you might fail or pass the exams. You just failed. Can't gulp it down? The simple fact, that you failed. I couldn't stop myself thinking about him and how can some one actually "REJECT" me.. yes, the word "rejected" is killing!! I started hating love songs and "sau dard hai" became my favourite song. I found myself no more starring at the mirror. Kind of inferiority feeling was building up.. Relatives asked every other day about the ceremony and mom have to explain everything. All of this was so so hurting, i don't want to feel to be in love. I hate it. Some days after the incident, we came to know from one of the relatives that the day Navin and his family came to the ceremony, they have been in 4 more ceremonies like that, on different locations , and he found a girl fairer, richer, better than me. So it was easy for them to say "NO", with a silly reason of "height doesn't match"! They never thought i could be hurt. I could be so hurt that i could never fall in love. They never thought. Because they had their son and it was fun to go places and attend another "GIRL DISPLAY CEREMONY".
"Riya is so young, still in college and she would give CAT this year".
"Look, Mrs. Sharma fortune knocks the door once, ONLY ONCE, you better grab it!".
"No.. i mean, how would she handle all the responsibilities at this tender age?".
"Oh come on, don't tell me.. okey.. I was only 18 when got tied up and our Riya is so smart, educated. Listen to this advice and make her join 'SUNITA SHAW'S COOKERY CLASS' ".
"Still, i think.."
"Didn't you heard about Mrs. Jhunjhunwala's daughter?? ah.. poor girl.. she was ambitious and wanted to do CA! she did cracked CA after several attempts but she is 28 now..and her parents dying every day to see thier daughter in bride's dress! now do you want the same for Ri..".
"No, no, no, never"
"So..?"
"Yeah, i would have a talk wih Mr.Sharma and callback".
That was the conversation between my mom and Radhika Aunty a month ago. I'm Riya, final year student of B.Com. Radhika aunty persuaded mom for the "GIRL DISPLAY CEREMONY". Mom said all the emotional things she could possibly say and i had no other option but to agree to be the center of attraction of the ceremony!What? i could have said no? Alright, what if your mom says you 17 such incidents where girl stayed unmarried because of studies and she keep saying her wish to see me in the "dulhan" avtar!! what if your grandpa comes and say he is too old now and can die any moment make his last wish true before he sets away for heaven's trip! And your frinds, yes how can i forget them!! They make you dream about your 'sapno ke rajkumar' and tell how exciting is romance, new clothes, love and sex! i mean, its hard to say no when somewhere inside, even you want to feel, how it feels to be in love!
'Should i ask mom about name of this guy','nahi nahi, wo kya sochengi','might be if i sit near her..she would'..
"Riya beta, ek pen paper leke aa.. jaldi"
"Huh??"
"Make it fast.. table se pen kaha chala jata hai pata nahi!"
"Bolo" pen was in my hand, eyes on the telephone, heart pounding!!
"Ha..write.. Navin Ahuja, 22 September 1984, gurgaon, haanji.. okey.. arre you didn't said the time of birth?"
"4.56 pm? okey, thank you"
She snapped the phone down,her face lit up, all she needed now is a PANDIT to say "chattis ke chattis gun milte hai" and she would be the happiest person!
"What is this mom? Don't they know to mail a bio data??"
"Of course they know beta, and they will send it tomorrow, i just thought pandit ji is coming today so name, place and time of birth will say everything!"
"Mom, you are impossible"
I shifted my eyes towards the piece of paper, had a glance again, and suddenly a bright bulb was above my head. Idea.
"I have assignment to finish am going ma"
I had no assignment to do. The idea was FACEBOOK! Yes, i have the name, i can search him in facebook now. Very soon i was logging in my facebook account.
'Okey.. so here is the search option.. here i enter his name'
'NAVIN AHUJA' loading.. 'NAVIN AND RIYA' not bad.
WTF? 14 Navin Ahuja? How do i know which one is he? Okey lets enter the city also. 14 Ahujas can't belong to one city. 'NAVIN AHUJA DELHI' Loading.. Huh? 3 of them. Lets see. One with no picture, one is a guy with a girl.. oh.. his relationship status is married. That means its the last one. SHIT. Next week is Christmas. So Mr.Smart has a Santa picture on his profile and everything locked to be viewed by his friends only.. That was enough! I shut down the computer without even logging off my account even after knowing my sis can switch on the computer and nothing can make her happier than snuffing into my facebook account. After a while i logged in again to make sure to logg off! Sisters! You can't take risks you know.
The next day was sunday and i couldn't sleep last night thinking about Mr.Ahuja! And was a sunday so i can sleep late, it was on 7.15 when my head was hammered by a long shout "RRRRIIIIIIYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
"rrriiiyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaa" ab kya hai yaar.
With half opened eyes "What?"
"Beta, Radhika Aunty ka phone aya tha, they have sent the mail with pictures"
"So?"
"So? beta switch on your computer and show us the picture"
"Mom, Shweta(my sis) is wide awake, you could have said her to.."
"Beta, aren't you excited to see his picture"
"No.. i have no interest" my nature is like that i don't mean evertyhing i say!
"Oh come on now you are here.. open it na"
I don't remember when was the last time when i was so so excited! My thumb pushed the UPS button, followed by beep sound, CPU was on! it says "WINDOWS LOADING".. itta time loading mein?? this is the reason why science can't progress, we need to sit and look at the doors because "WINDOWS LOADING"!
Finally windows loaded. Alright. Right click. Refresh. Connect to internet icon. Hit it. Connecting.. Connecting.. After 40 secs.. Connecting.. WTF?? Cancel. Connect again. Connecting.. 1 min 38 secs passed. still. Connecting.. Everyday it connects in max 23 secs but today! I wanted to throw the windows out of my windows. But then. CONNECTED. Clicked Google Chrome. Gmail.com. Enter. Id and password. ah.. Finally.. One new mail. CLICKED. loading.. There he is.
'Sharp nose, deep brown eyes, wheatish complexion, tall, hmmm.. not bad.. good infact great, i bet none of my friends can get a better looking guy as thier life partner, i was happy'
"He is so good, my Riya and he would make a beautiful pair. They are made for each other couple" mom said and papa agreed.
I didn't say anything because if i still show no interest and they think of cancelling the girl display ceremony! Couldn't take the risk. The best thing to do was keeping shut and showing no expressions at all.
Since the day i seen his picture, it became impossible for me to concentrate on studies, i started waching more romantic movies, listening more romantic songs, smiling for no reason, watching couples sitting hand in hands, everything looked pleasant to me. The day meeting day was decided, next Tuesday. I wanted to go shopping and buy dresses, nail colors, clutches, rings.. Everything which would make me look better. The grand day was approaching. And finally the day came.
"Utho beta.. you are late"
"oh shit" ah.. i knew it, will it be exam, birthday or a special occasion like this i am always late, because of excitement ( or fear) i couldn't sleep till late and so.. always late latif on a special day. But now, hmmm, finally, a beautiful morning, i was thinking, might be tomorrow morning a message beep of Naveen will wake me up saying "good morning dear" . Oh boy, i dream too much. Everything was decided, clothes, accesories, sandals, even the lip gloss. Bottle green complements my looks, so i was in a beautiful bottle green dress, specially brought for todays "girl display ceremony".
"You look beautiful, Riya"
"Thanks mom" i wish he feels the same.
"Okey, mandir me matha tek lo, fir chalte hai".
"Ah.. yes" how can i forgot god, whom i begged for a life partner every time i seen a couple romancing.
We reached first, ceremony was in the "BIRLA MANDIR". I was little nervous. Honestly, very nervous. Till we reached the BIRLA MANDIR i kept checking myself in the mirror of the car. And after reaching i was like , my lip gloss must have gone till now, it was so hot out there, my make up must be fainted.Oh damn, my hairs.. STOP IT, RIYA, i told myself. You are over reacting. Its good if your make up is all gone, you would be more natural and someday somebody said, you look best with no make up, natural. Alright, i was back to my senses. Somebody said from the family "They have arrived" with a big smile on face.
Even i smiled big, but nobody knew it. There he is, i didn't wanted to, neither i care to watch anyone else but him. There he was, some 6 meters away from me. And here starts "me display ceremony" . I bent and touched feet of uncle, aunty, and all the accompanied family members, said "hi" to his younger sister. While her mother was testing me by asking typical questions about studies and interests. I noticed Navin's eyes were continuously shifting to me from my father and uncle. That was a very positive sign, i guess. After the rapid fire round they said us to take a walk and see how good is this famous temple.
neither of us spoke for first 44 seconds, i was determined not to talk first, or actually i didn't knew what to talk.
"Hi" he said first (yipee, i won).
"Hi"
"I'm Navin"
"Riya"
"Nice name"
"Thanks"
"You are studing now, right?" (haven't you read my bio data)
"Ah.. yes, final year"
"Good, so how is it going" (just planning to get university first)
"All fine, what are your hobbies?"
"Me, i like basket ball a lot, even played in district level, and i like good music, hanging out with friends, paintings.. kind of artistic person"
"Oh.. thats great, even i like paintings.. who is your favourite painter?" (don't tell me nerolac people paints the best)
" I love Van gogh, his paintings are just .. fantastic"
"You must be kidding me, that's my favorite too."
"Wow, .. great". We discussed about Van Gogh's paintings, todays weather, politics, internet, facebook(i didn't told him about my detectivepana of his profile)
I was feeling great, i can't tell how happy i was then..
"Times up" that was my sis and his sis.
"Looks like, you guys got along, really good" (Good? are you crazy? say it great, awesome, superb).
"Yeah" he said. I could hear violens all over my head, i could see butterflies everywhere. This couldn't have been better. After the so called "walk". We came back where everyone was waiting eagerly for us. No body asked us anything. After a little more chat everyone exchanged good byes and pranams. It was expected that they would go home and ask Navin about his opinion and vise versa. And was the same at our side. Questions were thrown from every member of the family and they knew from my smile that "it was a YES FROM MY SIDE".
I know similar things would be going on with Navin too. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I was too happy too accept.
We reached home, Radhika Aunty said, we would be getting a call any moment, get ready with plates of sweets "muu meetha jo karana hai".
Since we came from mandir all i could do is smile. Everyone was eagerly waiting for the call. 1 hour passed. Phone did not rang.
"They don't want to show how eager they are to say yes" uncle said.
"Ha.. yes" everyone agreed and laughed.
I thought he was a shy guy, may be taking time to convey his feelings to parents.
2 hours passed. No phone call.
"Why are they taking so long" mom said.
"Oh come on, this about marriage, no joke, they have all the right to think"
"Yes" everyone agreed.
3 hours. 4 hours. 5..6.. No call.
What's wrong? was the question in everyone's mind. Everythig has gone so well. This ceremony was best it could possibly be. Then what happened?
I was the one who didn't knew how to react, what to think! Why on earth, aren't they calling up??
Phone rang.
My heart was pumping so hard and fast, i was afraid everyone would hear it. Papa took it.
"Hello"
"Hanji, Mr. Sharma speaking." why was he sweating in an air conditioned room?
"Hanji.." the person at the other end of the phone said something and papa's expressions changed, he was looking even more tensed now.
"oh..". What is it, dad? Speak it out. I'm kinda dying.
"Okey".
He replaced the phone where it was. Silent.
"Kya hua?" mom asked.
"They.. thheeyy.. they said .. they said NO".
That was it, i don't remember anything after that. All i remember is i was lying on my bed, there was doctor infront of me, giving instructions to dad.
"Hey braavo! what is this , they don't know what they lost, a gem! a real gem! my dear daughter"
"Papa, what reason did they gave?
"Relax beta, you need some rest and.."
"The reason, papa!"
"They said you were little short for him. They think both of you guys height don't match, silly! isn't it?"
"You think so, papa?"
"Of course not, beta, you are 5'4 and he is 6'3. That's perfect."
But not for them, i thought. But still, i shouldn't be so hurt, i mean whats the big deal yaar. They haven't signed a contract to say "YES" after the "girl display ceremony', it was expected like how it is expected you might fail or pass the exams. You just failed. Can't gulp it down? The simple fact, that you failed. I couldn't stop myself thinking about him and how can some one actually "REJECT" me.. yes, the word "rejected" is killing!! I started hating love songs and "sau dard hai" became my favourite song. I found myself no more starring at the mirror. Kind of inferiority feeling was building up.. Relatives asked every other day about the ceremony and mom have to explain everything. All of this was so so hurting, i don't want to feel to be in love. I hate it. Some days after the incident, we came to know from one of the relatives that the day Navin and his family came to the ceremony, they have been in 4 more ceremonies like that, on different locations , and he found a girl fairer, richer, better than me. So it was easy for them to say "NO", with a silly reason of "height doesn't match"! They never thought i could be hurt. I could be so hurt that i could never fall in love. They never thought. Because they had their son and it was fun to go places and attend another "GIRL DISPLAY CEREMONY".
