I never believed in destiny, I never believed in love & I never believed in forever things!! But tracing the road with speed breakers, you finally land onto smooth driving along the expressway. It was time for me to experience this unmapped expressway, a journey which I was unprepared for and to an extent, unconfident too.
I sat nervously on the edge of the chair, eagerly waiting for his mom and him to arrive. Revising through the questions I had noted down and goggling my eyes from the corner of the restaurant door to my Bhabhi’s action on instructing the waiters the entire meeting schedule as well their role to be played.
As I started fidgeting with my hair to make sure I look proper, I sensed the sounds of walking steps towards the door. At the first glance, my eyes noticed a tinge of shyness and cuteness in his eyes. Hurriedly he grabbed a seat beside me, widening his eyes and directly looking into mine.
Folding my hands in a gesture to her mom and trying to avoid eye contact with Pushkar, I started my conversations with all the formal questions. Answering and asking a plethora of these questions, my Bhabhi and his mom decided to shift to some other table, to give us some personal space.
It didn’t feel uncomfortable with him, everything seemed fine and for a while, all my noted checklist had taken a setback. Suddenly my inner self raised a voice, “Don’t go with his flow and be allured by the vibes, ask what you want!”. Raised my voice I asked, “What’s your take on your wife working after marriage?”
“Stupid me”, I said to my inner self “Could have framed the question better!”
With a calm and poised expression, he smiled,” I don’t want you to sit home and just watch TV. You can definitely work”
We again returned to our Rajma Chawal and other Netflix discussions, very casual and friendly altogether.
But my inner mind had no peace, again came with an explosion “Has he forgotten it’s not a friendly date and he has come here for marriage perspective!” “Why is he not asking me questions?” “Is he cool or is he pretending?” “Is he of those types who promise a lot before marriage and later back out?”
Accidentally my legs touched his and my mind hit the present moment, asking “Do you know to cook?”
Unusual this time, he had wrinkles on his forehead, and rubbing his hands, he exclaimed “Yes…uhmmm..a bit of maggi and tea with someone’s help…Are you expecting me to cook after marriage?”
With a burst of laughter, I clarified “No..no, I didn’t mean that. Was just trying to know if you like cooking, nothing more.”
With a sense of relief, my inner voice again reappeared “Let’s not ask any more judging questions, he looks to be a decent and true guy”
I loved my inner self and continued with the fun conversations we were having before. Everything seemed alright, right from our conversations to a waiter serving the tea and chaats. The only thing which didn’t that our conversation ended, when my to-be mother-in-law and my Bhabhi popped to our seat to set us apart. We did go different roads that day, but our destinies had already met forever and ever.:)
