Ode to the bygone, absolute and sweet nothings

The events and characters in this post have been modified. The writer has, at some places, used the names of the mothers of the real-life characters from whom this is inspired- both to avoid potential embarrassment to the characters, and potential physical harm to the author.

“It is time we get Sunita married”, Kamal said to the room at large. While all others present (comprising the proposed sacrifice’s aunts, cousin and mother) nodded their heads in assent, I demonstrated my shock by a rather weird-sounding WASSCHIZZZZZZ???!!!
The elders (pun intended) looked at me with the motherly concern, washed so clearly over their anxious faces, and which comes so naturally to them. “I am fine”, I hastily explained, and demanded they tell me what they were plotting. (At moments like these, I almost agree with my father when he says a conglomeration of two women or more should be deemed illegal) “Sunita is 23, has completed her engineering, is working in Chennai now, and obviously has nothing more to do, so we think it is about time she settles down.”

My repeated announcement over the years, of not understanding mothers found a new dimension that day. If Sunita is working, how can she have nothing more to do? The last time I heard work was still work. The Almighty’s angels on this Earth (who obviously take their job too seriously) explained that she could work after marriage if she so pleased but it was time a suitable boy was searched for “our beautiful and smart Sunita.” The Venus inhabitants settle on the appropriateness of this time on the basis of how much of it can they afford to spare for a cup of tea in the evening, over which event such life-changing decisions are usually decided. If time is short, they will settle for topics hovering around domestic helps, neighbours, in-laws, or other individuals comprising their sex.

I like to believe that I have a witty and complicated way of expressing the dullest of incidents. But my brooding over something is always written as: “I kept pondering over such and such incident the entire day/afternoon/evening/night.
I don’t know why but I find it impossible to rephrase this activity.

So I kept pondering over Sunita’s proposed wedding the entire evening. It was absurd, the whole idea. Who gets married at… 23?? Seriously? When did that happen? Grudgingly I realized for the women to start thinking about it is, after all, not as absurd as I initially felt. But I permitted ONLY thinking. In my 21 years of living, I have learnt through experience that you expect of others what you, yourself are prone to do at a given situation. Plainly speaking, I am a lazy bum, who can never stick to her plans.

The next day Sunita flew up to Doon from Chennai. In the evening, the six of us sat down together with stacks of photo albums strewn across the room. That is when the subtle clues of us having grown up became startlingly clear. The “Remember the time when” and the “Oh we were so silly then”, followed by a stray “I wish we could go back to that time again” brought this image in my head where I am sitting in a cosy bubble filled with our football, blackboard, ribbons, bicycles, water-bottles and lunch-boxes, and then I draw a needle from my pocket and burst my beautiful bubble, and am falling down… no idea where I will drop.

From the time when we would snigger to see our elder brothers speak with girls to sitting and talking about their girlfriends, from fighting over whose school is better to brooding over when we will meet next, and from fat little pieces of lards adorned with sweaters, gloves, caps, scarves, and boots, who would bunk school with their parents’ assistance to go to Mussoorie, to good looking (I know, I know- me excluded !@#$%^&), and educated young men and women, it has been a beautiful life.

We have grown up, we are all different, we have our own strengths, and our own weaknesses. We are all standing at the threshold of a new chapter, a new phase in our lives. We either are or are about to become full-time professionals and business owners, possessing for the first time, money that is NOT borrowed or stolen. And someday, not far from today, we shall all bear the responsibility of our respective partners and child(ren).

It has all changed, and I am amazed at how fast this transformation has taken place. What remain are the memories, the learning, and their offshoot- the strong bond we share, and the love we hold for one-another. It is what redeems us in our moments of weakness, what gives us the pride and the confidence we possess, and what makes us return to this beautiful, lazy town to indulge in long days of absolute and blissful nothings...