Mismatch

I lay there on my bed thinking about how my first day would be. Would we just lie in each other’s arms or would it be more than that. I could not control my thoughts, it was running riot imagining all kinds of things…..Knock! Knock! It was my mother, (I am sure since everyone was busy shopping for the “big day,”) at the door and I was out of my reverie. I opened the door, rubbing my eyes as if I had been fast asleep. My mother took me into the other room and showed me the things that she had bought for the wedding. I absent mindedly ran my hands through the chiffon saris from Satya Paul’s new creation and the Ghagra from Ritu Kumar….It was beautiful and I could not deny the fact.

The jewellery was beautiful too; the new collection from Tanishq, gold, platinum…..All that escaped my lips was “Thank you mummy,” That’s the least I could say, for haven’t they been saving up for this day since I was born.
The only reason I, Rachel was not pleased was that I did not want to marry this guy. He(Rajeev) was nice, but, he was not my kind. He did have a good job, a good educated family, plenty of money in the bank. Was good looking too, if you would call him that? He was tall, 6’ something, fair (since tall, dark, handsome is certainly passé) I then realized that I had my first date with him after the engagement today, he was to take me to some great Chinese Restaurant. Little did he know that I hated Chinese food and was a vegetarian too! He was at our flat at the proposed time, and began exchanging pleasantries with the family he went on and on “mummy, tapai kosto hunu huncha?” (How are you?)Gosh! It was sickening; he was praising everything, even the Dimsums that she had bought from this excellent fast food joint around the corner. After that we went to the door and he put his hands around my waist. What audacity!

At the restaurant he just sat there looking at the waitress, who looked a little like Celina Jaitly, and I am sure he was undressing her mentally too. Then after telling me how beautiful I looked in my outfit, and ordering some “Hakka Noodles,”“Manchurian” and a whole lot of other things he left for the loo. Do you want to know how he told me that, he displayed his small finger? Bah! That much for an educated family! The food arrived, but, he did not. I checked my watch, it was half an hour since he had left, the food was getting cold, but, there was no sign of him. I too wanted to go to the washroom so I just left the food and left. Imagine what the waiter would have thought! Well! Unfortunately that was the least of my worries at the moment. I rushed to the washroom and bumped into someone, my handbag fell to the floor and all the contents spilled out. I have never been that embarrassed before, (except for the time I fell from the escalator when I went on it for the first time.) He(Mystery man) helped me put my things back into the bag, and I thanked him I could feel myself blush, yes, some girls still do! Just as I was leaving, Rajeev came out of the loo and instead of noticing me he ran towards that guy I had bumped into. He held his hand, and told him how much he would miss him; he even kissed him and fixed some meeting for 8 pm the next day. And smiling they went their separate ways. I left the restaurant in a cab, when I reached home I found the lights on and everyone waiting to know what happened. “Timhare le haat samthyo?”(Did you hold hands) “Ke khayo”(What did you eat?) and it went on and on, till I reminded them it was late and we could speak the next day.
When I reached the room, I could feel my mobile vibrating in my handbag, but I really did not care, I wish he had been honest and told me the truth. What would have happened if we had got married? I just switched on my computer and chatted away, till I must have dozed off on the computer table.

You can imagine the next day the whole family was at the table waiting for me. I went in poured myself a cup of tea and told them the marriage was off, I did not tell them the reason all I said was “Mo parkhino chancho”(I want to wait)You should have seen the look on their faces…..and then everyone tried explaining how good he was. I ran into my room and picked up my cell phone….He picked up the phone after about trying thrice, maybe he was busy…I could understand. I told him the marriage was off and that I knew about him. He was worried that I had told everyone about it. “All I told him was “I understand, and it is not my secret to tell” I put down the phone happy that I had made a new friend.
Then I switched on the computer and switched on Yahoo Messenger. There was a message that my love had left for me, it said “I can’t live without you; I will kill myself if you marry someone else”. Preeti.