Good Morning Readers!
One of my friends and a constant Sunday Reader, Prashant, called me last
Sunday, after reading last week’s Post and mentioned how much he liked that
post! He then started discussing with me on various topics with his feedback on
my Posts and finally suggested me a topic which you readers would now be
reading…
Raj walked down from the terrace
of his apartments and entered his room.
“From when do you have a
girlfriend?” Santosh asked Raj.
“I guess the call was from his
manager. He must be scolding Raj and so he ran to terrace” Vishwa said with a
mild laugh, as Raj walked silently into his bedroom.
Both looked at each other when
they dint receive any response from Raj. He just walked silently and
laid down on his bed. They continued watching the MTV Roadies without bothering
themselves much.
It was 10 PM when Ganesh called Raj
for dinner and he walked out of his bedroom, still looking spellbound, and
started his dinner without speaking a word.
“What the hell happened to you
dude?” Santosh asked him
“Who had called you?” Vishwa
continued.
Ganesh shook Raj by his shoulders
waking up Raj from the Coma.
“Who had called you dude? What happened?
Is everything fine?” Vishwa asked again
“It was my parents” Raj said
meekly
“Anything wrong buddy?” Ganesh
asked as Santosh kept down his dinner plate and turned at Raj seriously.
“No. Nothing wrong” Raj said.
“Then why the hell have you
turned silent since the call? Why did you run to terrace?” Santosh asked.
“It was my Mom. She said, she has finalized a
girl for me. Next weekend we have to visit their home.”
There was loud uproar and the
silent room now filled with all mixed talks, cheers, bullies and just every
possible noise three irresponsible boys could make!
All the three of them surrounded
Raj as he sat on his bed after dinner. They now wanted the complete details.
“But why are you shocked? You
should be happy” Ganesh said followed by others who supported him.
“Yes, right! Why am I shocked?”
Raj asked himself.
Was he shocked? Or afraid? Or
turned silent with happiness? Or he just dint knew what to react?
Like all thousands of bachelors,
he too was a fun loving irresponsible bachelor till few hours back. He was a
hard working software engineer spending most of his day at his cubicle in
office. His daily routine was exactly similar to most of the single unmarried
software engineers living in the Software hub, Bangalore.
Wake up at no specific time in
morning, take a quick bath and run to the office. Office, being a second world,
often cuts off a software engineer’s life from his first world. No outside
contacts, no phone calls, no memories, just work, work and work! He too worked
hard with his peers in his second world, having fun, coffee breaks, lunch break and Facebook breaks
in between his work. As the day ended, he returned to his room, where he would
be accompanied by three other bachelors and they all would spend the evening
discussing on various random topics covering the Global issues, like the
ongoing peace talks at the Mid-East to the vary local bathroom issues, like the
leaking tap. None of the topics, ever coming to any conclusion!
They enjoyed each of their
evenings with these discussions, petty quarrels, various TV shows, cooking
dinner together, movies, nearby malls, dinners at nearby mess and everything that they could do.
During weekends, Raj would hang
out with them at the Malls wandering over the area or just stay back at room
spending all the 48 hours rolling left and right on his bed along with his
favorite novels.
To put together, his bachelor
life was on a roll. He was enjoying every moment of his life and this sudden
breaking news had even broke down his routine. He was now in a deep thought on
what to react and what to decide. Was he still young? Or was he old enough to
stop enjoying like this and get married and settle down? It was a big decision to
be made and hundreds of thoughts had been revolving in his head from the time
he had cut his Mom’s call. Every time he thought of something, another thing
would counter attack his thought and the same question would pop up in his
head.
All four of them discussed about
their bachelor life and then they discussed on how the life would take a turn
after marriage. Their discussing too ended with a negative note, marriage would
put an end to all the ongoing fun!
Raj, now afraid, slept awake with
eyes wide open thinking again and again of how he was now and how he would be
after marriage. But again and again the same question kept torturing him the
whole night –
Is this the right time?
When he woke up from his thoughts
the next morning, he declared to his roomies that he would tell his parents to
postpone his marriage by one or two years. He declared, with full confidence,
that he was still too young and still wanted to enjoy his bachelor life. He
still wanted to visit Goa with his friends for the coming New Year as they all
had decided.
He felt relieved and headed to
his office. As soon as he stepped into office, he first saw his teammate, who
was just married, talking over phone and smiling all through the call. Something
deep down his heart tickled him when his teammate mentioned it was call from
his wife asking if he liked the breakfast she had prepared for him that morning.
He thought life would be beautiful once a girl walked into his life. He
resisted that tickle and sat down in front of his machine. Logging into his
machine, he opened up his mailbox and went through the mails. Satisfied with
the amount of work he had that day, he locked his machine again, thinking of
getting his coffee.
As he sat back with his coffee,
he opened Facebook, silently making sure his manager was not around. He saw an
update from one of his college friend – Sam is now committed!
What the hell, wasn't Sam the one
who always said, back in college, that he would be the last guy to get married? Kicking
off all the thoughts from his mind, he forced himself to concentrate on his
work and started working normally. But still the random thoughts kept
disturbing him now and then. Every few minutes his desktop screen would change
and the same line would flash on his screen as screensaver –
Is this the right time?
He left office early in the
evening, returned to his room and continued his novel. His bad luck, the novel
was a romantic one. As he went on reading, it read…
Then he just looked into her
beautiful small black eyes. Her eyes twinkled when he held her hand in his. The
whole world, jealous of their pure undying love stood still, surprised, as they
both romantically kissed each other and a new dawn set onto their lives!
Raj closed the novel suddenly and
sensed he was sweating a bit. He walked into the kitchen and got coffee for
himself and Santosh and sat with him watching a film on the TV. To his bad
luck, the Hero and the Heroine in the film were just married and the a song was playing which portrayed the best days post marriage!
He was now being forced to think
the pros of marriage, he slowly started getting a hint of how his life would be
after marriage. What he was missing and what he would gain. He started thinking
the need of his better half in his life to share each and every small thing. Raj
now started getting bored of bachelor life suddenly. Somehow he started thinking
of all the romantic Bollywood movies and decided he should now get married.
He said, to himself, “Enough of
roaming all over the city like a Bull. Now it’s time to settle down. I should
get married, have a sweet girl in my life with whom I can share all my life, my
thoughts, my feelings. I can share her burden, her feelings. We can both be
always together, be happy.”
He was smiling looking at the
blank wall when Santosh said, “Dude, what happened?”
“Nothing”
“Then why are you smiling
stupidly?”
“Nothing I was just thinking of
something”
“Don’t lie. You were thinking of
your marriage. You saw her photo right?”
“No ways!”
“Ha Ha. Don’t lie. You are gone
Raj! This is the end!” Santosh said, smiling crookedly.
Raj felt this as a warning and
again started feeling like his thoughts were taking a U-Turn.
Just then, the other two useless
roomies walked in. Santosh declared to them, “Raj got the photo of that girl”
before even they untied their shoe laces.
Again, a round table conference
was called in and a big discussion started.
Though no result came out from
the discussion, it bashed the decision Raj had made up in his mind. When he
closed his eyes and compared the table of Pros and Cons of marriage in his
mind, they equaled. He had no way to find out the best of them. Again the
screensaver flashed
Is this the right time?
Finally losing his patience he
yelled, “Will you guys stop?”
All three of them turned to Raj,
surprised.
“Every time you guys start a
discussion, I end up changing my mind.”
“Now what we have done. We just
put all the options in front of you. You have to make the best decision. We
have to help you with giving you all the choices and then upon that listen to
your scolding’s” they said in unison and turned their attention to the TV.
As he opened his mouth to reply
to them, his mobile rang.
“Hello Mom” Raj said climbing the
stairs of his terrace.
“Son, what did you decide?” his
mom asked anxiously.
“Mom, I am still young, I think...
At least give me time to think... Please Mom next year” Raj said thinking of
the fun he wanted to have in Goa with his friends this New Year.
He then talked about what all
happened during the day and how much he missed her specialty dish Brinjal Curry!
It was easy for him to convince his mom as he had been doing that since his
childhood.
“Raj, how are you?” he heard his
Dad’s strong voice when his Mom handed the phone to his Dad.
“I am fine Dad. How are you?”
“We are all fine here Son. So,
what did you decide about your marriage? Your Mom had told you about it
yesterday right?” his Dad asked, in his bulky voice.
Raj was unprepared for this and
that too he never could stand up to his Dad’s voice.
He had no time to think and
meekly replied, “Yes Dad, that’s fine with me”
As he said a YES without really knowing
what he had said, he thought how romantic it would be to sit on that terrace
holding his dear wife’s hand and looking into her eyes. He would then go on
telling her all that happened in office and then she would share her daily
story and then she would cook a nice dinner for him, may be the same Brinjal
Curry which he missed badly, and they would have dinner together, looking into
each other’s eyes just like in the romantic novel!
Thinking of a beautiful life
lying ahead, he entered room.
“Dude, call the mess and order
four Rice Plates” Ganesh said.
“Why the hell me?” Raj yelled.
“Because you have mobile in your
hand. All of our mobiles are on charging” Santosh replied
“Shameless creatures!” Raj yelled
at him
“Dude give me your mobile I will
call” Santosh said snatching the mobile from Raj.
Raj gave him his mobile and
walked into his bedroom, thinking how good the life would be when his wife
would say, “Raj, dear, come for dinner, food is getting cold” instead of his
roomies saying “Raj call the mess for dinner”
When the doorbell rang and Vishwa
collected the food from the delivery man and called everyone for dinner, Raj
came out of his room. All four of them sat together and
started their dinner, planning for their weekend. They decided to go out on a car
trip to nearby place and then a late night movie show. They even planned to go
for a long drive till Maddur on Sunday noon just to taste the World famous
Maddur Vada.
After dinner, as they were still
discussing, another of their friend called in and keeping him on Loud Speaker they
called him for the weekend trip and when that friend told his girlfriend will not
allow him as they had already made plan for a movie and he would miss the trip; upon that when he added how his bachelor life had gone into her hands and
he now missed those trips and weekend hang outs, something hit Raj on his head.
Again his thoughts took a U-Turn.
As the day finally ended in their
room and the lights were switched off, Raj closed his eyes and suddenly
something flashed across in front of him –
Is this the right time?
I do welcome your suggestions, feedbacks and comments right below this
space… It would just require a Gmail ID of yours…
Vishal…
