Is this the right time?

 

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…

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