How I Met My Husband (Part three)

Story so far..

As per Hindu traditions, there is an inauspicious period of 15 days (pitrupaksh or mallayapaksham) where people refrain from embarking on any auspicious events-especially marriage. Since that period was nearing, both set of parents (esp mine) insisted that we meet up before it started. Now that was just a week away. This was first week of September. I was not too keen on meeting up just yet. I wanted to establish some more comfort factor. When I spoke to him he also felt it would rush matters unnecessarily although he didn’t quite mind it. The tentative date for the meeting was set for 6th September.

I was in a new job and my induction was to take place on the same very day and I could not miss it. So, I mailed him and asked him if he could meet me at the place where my induction would be conducted. It would save us the time I would spend in commuting all the way home (in the Mumbai traffic) in the evening after the event, I reasoned. He was new to the city but agreed nevertheless. A day before the D-day, he called me to say that his manager from the US has flown down for an important meeting and hence he wouldn’t be able to make it on 6th. Hah! Was I relieved!!! (I later learnt that he had sensed my hesitation and anxiety and decided to make an excuse. He won my heart all over again.)

So, it was decided that we meet after 15 days on the 24th of September. This gave us both some breathing space. In the meantime we spoke over the phone and exchanged a few more mails. I noticed that he began to address the mails with my name..:-). He also sent me a recent snap of his shot at a picnic and he looked much better -in fact he was good-looking..:-)

He was to come down to Mumbai to meet me. I asked him if we could meet alone and he said that he was fine with it and was in fact about to ask me the same. So we decided to meet at a park by a lake near my place. I picked him up mid-way from my place in an auto. I don’t remember what we spoke about but we ended up spending two hours by the lake-side. And the rest, as they say, is history. He later on came home with his sister and family to formally meet my parents. The engagement was fixed for October and the wedding in March. I ended up taking an off from work the next day and we went for a movie together-my first real date. He would come every month for an extended weekend stay at his sister’s house to visit me during our courtship days.

An arranged marriage to begin with ended up with love blossoming on both sides and our relationship getting stronger with time. As the saying goes, fruits of patience are sweet. I can certainly vouch for the truth in this saying.