How I Met My Love

This post is about a gal who walked into my life a few weeks back and changed it for ever. A gal, who from now onwards, would be the most prized possession of my life, one who would be known from 11-Dec-11 as my wife.

Her name, Shilpa Ramachandran.

Even though I had this post in my mind since a long time, I thought of waiting for the "right time". This Sunday happens to be our Engagement, and to me today turns out to be the "right time" to share our story, not just with all of you out there, but also with her, in my own words.

This one is for you, my gal...

I shall begin the story with a flash back. I would like to take you through one of the many conversations I have had with my friends who like me once had or still have the 'most eligible bachelor' title tagged onto their names. This particular conversation took place between me and Vinay a few months back while we were returning from work on a chilly evening in Melbourne.

Vinay: “What happened to that proposal that you were talking about in the afternoon?”

Me: “Nothing. Dad had called, said the horoscopes don’t match”

Vinay: “Hmm…all this is crap…horoscope matching and all…such a waste of time…even in my case horoscope is a problem...

Me: "Look at these Aussies, they don't give a damn about such things...”

Vinay: “Yeh, they would be laughing at us. I mean, it would be hard for them to digest the notion of having your parents find the “suitable match” for you and you getting married to that person."

Me: "I know. They would get constipation if they get to know the complexity of the algorithm that is used to find the “suitable match” which involves parameters like – birth date, time, horoscopes, stars, signs, religion, caste, region, family background, parents, siblings, gal n boy’s education and profession, and finally…the gal and boy!”

Vinay: "And, at the end once everything matches the guy and the gal would realize that they are not meant for eachother."

Me: "Seriously man. I at times get scared at the thought of ending up marrying someone who is not of my type."

Vinay: "Don't have too much of expectation."

Me: "I know...I don't have too much of expectation...I just want a gal who would do Bungee Jumping with me."

Vinay: "What? Bungee Jumping?"

You guys would be wondering what has Bungee Jumping got to do with marriage. Well, I had the most thrilling experience of my life few months back when I went Bungee Jumping in Queenstown, NZ. While coming back to our base camp after the jump I had this thought that I should marry someone who would do Bungee Jump with me.

It wasn’t a thought that cropped up out of nowhere. The thought was the result of the realization that my parents were desperately searching for their daughter-in-law and my days as a bachelor were numbered. My parents had been on the lookout since last year mid. Initially I had no interest in getting married for next couple of years. But over a period of time, seeing most of my batch-mates getting married and even becoming Dads & Moms, somewhere down the line I also sort of started getting concerned about finding the right match.

Dad would send across Matrimonial Profile IDs of gals and ask me to have a look. Some were good and some were pathetic. Whenever I used to come across a profile, I used to execute my own filtering algorithm – the “Bungee-Jump Filter” which just consists of this million dollar question:-

What would you do if you are asked to go Bungee Jumping with your husband? Choose from the following options:-

a) WTF dude??! It’s ma lyfe…n m gonna do ma Bungee Jump all alone…ya stay outa it..!

b) Are you nuts??!! I am not going to do such a stupid thing, neither am I going to let him do. He can jump inside the house if he is so particular about jumping.

c) Ayyo rama, I will not do Bungee Jump and all. I shall let my husband do it by himself and watch him do it.

d) Oh…I would love to go Bungee Jumping with my husband.

e) Awww…so sweet, I would love to go with him to the zoo and watch the Bungee jump…by the way, Bungee is some type of a monkey? Like Chimpanzee??

This might sound strange, but that's precisely what I was trying to decipher from all the information I could get from a gal's profile. I wanted to marry a normal gal, neither a babe nor an aunty. Ironically, in the arranged marriage market aunties and babes seemed to dominate normal gals. That's something which I realized after going through the profiles filtered with all the parameters. The most influential parameter among the list was my horoscope. I have something they call - "Shudha Jathakam" in my horoscope.

Just to give you a view, limiting ourselves to the gals available in the marriage market within my home state - Kerala, out of 1000 gals 700 would get filtered out on the basis of Region, Religion & Caste. Out of the remaining 300, 200 would get filtered out in the name of educational qualification and profession. From the 100 that remains 95 will get filtered out in the name of horoscope. Finally you will end up with 5/1000 i.e., 0.5% of the available pool of gals ready for marriage. Now, on top of this if you apply additional filters like family background, looks and all, 0.5% would come down to 0.05%.

In the end, applying my “Bungee Jump Filter” on this 0.05% would almost end up with a figure which will be equivalent to the number of hairs on Mike Tyson’s head.

Nevertheless, the search continued. Once in a blue moon a good proposal would come, but would go the way it came after the horoscopes were matched. Dad and Mom even went to see a few gals when I was still at Melbourne. Nothing clicked.

After lot of compulsion from my parents, I went for my first "Pennu Kaanal" in December last year when I had come to India on a 3 weeks’ vacation. For those who don't know, "Pennu Kaanal" is a funny affair where the guy and his family would go and see the gal and her family. The guy and his family is treated with sweets and other delicacies, and the guy gets to flirt with the gal with the blessings of elders.

Going for the first "Pennu Kaanal" was fun. I was least bothered about whether it would work out or not. All I was looking forward was to have a first-hand experience of this funny event which many Malayalam Movie Scriptwriters have made money out of.

It didn't work out. We didn't like it. Reason - The gal's Dad was shabbily dressed in a Mundu like a Mallu cab driver and tea was served to us in "kuppi glass"(you would usually see this at the local tea stalls in Kerala) instead of a decent cup and saucer.

The rejection criteria might sound absurd, but when it comes to arranged marriage you got to pull up your socks because you are gonna be scanned through microscopic eyes.

Anyways, I was glad that it didn't work out. I then left for Melbourne with peace. However, the hunt continued back home. Proposals came and went. Though I wasn't keen on getting married immediately, still seeing the proposals come and get rejected due to horoscope mismatch was kind of frustrating. Moll also had some problems in her horoscope and we kept on searching for over 3years before we got the right match for her. That was one of the main reasons why Dad & Mom were so eager to find someone soon for me.

Then, in July, after winding up my assignment at Melbourne, I returned to India. While going home from the Airport in Kochi, the main topic of discussion was the bride-hunt. Dad told that we would go the traditional way and give an ad in one of the famous dailies inviting suitable alliances. I said I was fine with it as long as the wedding was not lined up for next one year.

On 14-Aug-11, the famous daily in Kerala - Malayala Manorama took me to the doorsteps of my prospective brides. Enquiries started coming in from 6am in the morning. The number of calls we received was phenomenal. We didn't expect to get so many responses. That scared me a little bit, since somewhere back in my mind I was telling myself - "don't worry dude, it would take another year or so for them to find a suitable match for you…you still have lot of time before you give up your bachelorhood". I feared it was going to be proved wrong.

The calls kept coming for next couple of days. As per the final tally, more than 50 calls came, out of which we shortlisted 15 proposals based on the details provided on call and in their corresponding matrimonial profiles. Dad then took these 15 profiles to our beloved astrologer to shortlist further. Going by his track record of rejecting proposals in the name of my horoscope, I expected him to cut the list down to less than 5.

But, he seemed to have already made enough money out of me. He approved 11 out of the 15 profiles. Dad & Mom then shortlisted again from the final 11 to first pick up proposals which were in and around Kochi. 4 profiles got shortlisted. Dad then got in touch with parents of these 4 gals and fixed 4-Sep-11 as the day for the "Pennu Kaanals".

Though I always keep telling Dad to note down the full name of the gals so that I could search for their profiles in FB and see if there are any mutual friends who could be recruited as spies, Dad always used to forget it. This time it was better, out of the 4 he had noted down the full name of 3 gals. I then searched for their profiles in FB to run my "Bungee-Jump Filter”. All 3 had put up pics of kids as their profile pics(these girls...I*^&^&%$&$^). Ironically, I couldn't also find any mutual friends in any of those 3 profiles.

Anyways, the momentum started building up. We had planned to go and see all 4 gals on the same day so that we could take a decision easily. However, the "Pennu Kaanal" of one of the gals had to be moved to 3-Sep-11 as they had some other plans on Sunday. This was the gal whom we couldn't trace in FB as we didn't have her full name.

On 3-Sep-11 afternoon, I ventured out for my Pennu Kaanal No.2, with Dad, Mom, Moll & Soorajettan. We didn't take Shreya as we didn't want to disturb her afternoon nap. Our destination - Alleppy. Name of the prospective bride – Shilpa **something**.

The gal's Dad had explained in detail the route to my Dad, mentioning each and every junction on the way. I was at the wheels. Dad and Soorajettan were playing the role of GPS by reading out the names of these junctions as we crossed them.

Finally we reached the place where her Dad was supposed to be waiting for us. There he was, tip-top in a pant and shirt. It was such a pleasant change from that old bald man in Mundu whom I saw in December last year during my Pennu Kaanal No.1. I was glad. The first impression was good. It may sound odd to some of you folks as to how or why should the appearance of the gal's Dad bother. Well, if it's a love marriage you would oversee all the shortcomings, but when it's an arranged marriage your eyes would join your parent's eyes and be on the lookout for shortcomings.

Anyways, after exchanging smiles he guided us to their place. While following his car, I started preparing myself from within for the onslaught. I knew that the moment we entered the perimeter of their house, all eyes will start scanning me, from top to bottom. Every move I make or every word I say would be analysed in detail. Probably Obama would know what I am talking about as he would have experienced it when he came to India early this year.

I stepped out of the car. I saw a lady smiling at us who I thought was her Mom. I greeted her and another elderly person, who was her Grandpa. As I was removing my shoes, I had this feeling that there were people at sniper positions aiming at me, one of them - the gal. The situation at ground zero was nothing short of an action movie. The action was just about to begin.

We entered their house which was quite nice and pleasant. I was the last one to enter and I saw the folks already sitting in the bilateral talks mode. To my right, sitting in a straight line were Soorajettan, Moll, Mom & Dad. To my left, were her Dad, Grandpa. Her Mom & another lady who was later introduced to us as her Aunt were standing next to her Dad & Grandpa. I was symbolically seated in the position of The Mediator, with the two camps sitting on my either sides.

The conversations in a Pennu Kaanal seem to be more like a Question-Answer session. Someone would ‘ask’ something and someone would ‘reply’ to it. This 'asking' and 'replying' will precede and succeed with lot of thought process. The person 'asking' will try to phrase the question in the mind and before letting it out would execute a sanity check to ensure that the question is sane and not controversial. Once the question is delivered another round of sanity check is executed to ensure that the release was fine. Emergency patches are applied in case any anomalies are identified in the question. The person 'replying' will analyze the question and frame a reply again ensuring sanity checks. After the delivery of the reply, emergency patches would be applied, if required. Though all this might happen in a few seconds, still the entire process wreaks havoc on the poor brain cells who have to slog overtime.

Her Mom fired a question at us, which set the brain cells in our camp on fire - "Where is Shreya?"

Expecting the gal’s Mom to know my name was fine. But expecting her to know the name of my niece was out of question.

"She was sleeping when we were leaving and we didn't want to wake her up from her sleep", Moll replied.

"Oh ok...well we have seen her pics in Abhinav's FB profile...she is really very cute...", her Mom replied.

"Oh..is it?", my Mom replied.

"Yeh, infact we have seen all of you in pics, in Abhinav's profile."

My Mom looked at me with a smile. Dad was looking elsewhere. I looked at Mom with this expression on my face - "See...see...I had told your husband to get the full name of the gal, but what happened??!!!"

The conversation aka question-answer-session continued with awkward silences in between. There was a window exactly at the opposite end of the room from where I was sitting. Couple of times, I felt as if there was a sniper aiming at me from there. But whenever I would bring my line of sight straight at it, it would vanish into thin air. Later I got to know that it was the main sniper – the gal.

Anyways, minutes passed by. Finally, the moment came. The gal made her entry.

Contrary to most of the Pennu Kaanals in the movies she wasn't in a Saree, instead she was dressed in a simple Salwar Kameez.

I looked at her. She looked at me. I smiled at her. She smiled at me.

Though it wasn't love at first sight, there was something special about her. She was different from the pics I had seen in her matrimonial profile. She had a beautiful smile on her face, and her eyes were full of life in them.

Dad initiated the conversation with her. I don't exactly remember what he asked. I guess my mind was too busy to record that.

"You had Onam celebrations in your office?", this was the first question I asked, if I remember it correctly.

"Yes", she replied.

"She had been complaining of pain in her legs due to "Thiruvathirakali", her Mom replied.

I could see the way she gestured her Mom in embarrassment, signaling her not to say all that in front of us. It was cute. She reminded me of a kid. I had to tell myself at times to keep my eyes rolling around, instead of having them stuck at her.

At one point there was an awkward silence for several seconds. I thought of pitching in and breaking the ice. "Let's have tea", I said to which everyone laughed.

All of us then moved to the dining room where the delicacies were waiting for us. As usual, I was the last one to get in and the seat left for me at the dining table was at the worst possible position considering where the gal was standing, I had to turn more than 100 degrees to my left to see her. Meanwhile, I was also introduced to her Grandma in the dining room.

Though there were many tempting things served at the table, my mind had no time to focus on them. I then asked her one of the many questions which I had already planned to ask her.

Me: "Do you know anyone from Rajagiri 2006 batch in your office?".

Rajagiri was the college from which I completed my engineering in 2006.

She: "Yes, I know Iswarya Vinod"

Me: "Heyn...who?"

I was expecting her to mention names of some other folks from my batch who were working at her office - TCS, Kochi.

She: "Iswarya Vinod"

Me: "I don't know anyone with that name in my batch"

She: "She was your classmate in college"

My brain cells were again set on fire at such unexpected responses.

Me: "Hmmm...no, there wasn't anyone in my class by that name. There was however another gal whose name was Iswarya Rajmohan"

She: "Yes, she got married recently and Vinod is her husband's name"

Me: "Oh yes yes...I know her. We were in the same class in college. How do you know her?"

She: "We work in the same project"

"When we searched for your profile in FB, we found Iswarya to be a mutual friend", her Mom added.

I looked at my Dad, again with that grunt inside for not getting her full name which we could have used to employ Iswarya as our spy.

"Oh....so what did Iswarya say about Abhinav? Did she say he was a spoilt brat in college?", Dad asked.

"No no...she has said good things about Abhinav", her Mom replied.

"Friends will always say good things only, right?", I pitched in.

The conversation continued. Many questions were running through my mind.

"Why didn't Iswarya tell me about this if she already knew it?"

"Last I heard from Iswarya was when she was working at Mumbai..when did she join TCS Kochi?"

"Iswarya had pinged me in gtalk last week but by the time I replied she was offline...did she ping me to tell about this?"

In the background I could hear the folks discussing about "Besan Ladoo", one of the delicacies served on the table, while my brain cells were gasping for breath. Some more question answers were exchanged, and it wasn't long before her Dad delivered the most awaited dialogue - "You both will have things to talk in person, right?". A glee appeared on my face. He then got up and asked us to follow him. He took us to a room which was adjacent to the hall where we were initially sitting.

The room had a bed, a computer table, a chair and a window from which I could see our car parked outside. While he was about to leave I was visualizing how I and the gal should be seated. I sat at one end of the bed and pointing towards the chair said - "please sit down".

"If you don't mind I shall sit here else it would be like an interview", she replied pointing towards the other end of the bed.

I was taken aback by the reply. I mean, usually in such a situation you would expect the gal to be overly shy, drawing the map of India using her toes as shown in the movies.

But, I liked it. This gal seemed to be frank.

I nodded and she sat at the other end of the bed.

My first Pennu Kaanal was some 7 months ago and I was not at all serious about it at that time. This time it was different. I had done my homework by asking my sister and friends on what sort of questions to ask and what not to. In fact I had sequenced the questions also in my mind. But all that was screwed up by the Iswarya Vinod episode. Our conversation started off with Iswarya and how they knew each other, followed by the cliché topics of hobbies, do you know cooking, do you know driving and all…

She told me that she had gone through my FB profile on the day her parents called my Dad seeing the ad in the newspaper. She also told me that she had gone through my blog and liked the way I write. She asked me why I didn't I write more frequently.

She was talking to me as if she knew me before. In fact, the way her Mom and Dad were initially talking to us gave us an impression that they knew us very well. All thanks to my FB profile, blog and the Iswarya Vinod factor which contributed to the "oh yes, we know you very well" feel from their end.

We would have spoken for around 5-7minutes. It was the best conversation I have ever had in such a short span of time. I ran my "Bungee Jump Filter" in my mind. Mike Tyson now had a hair on his head.

By the way, I also asked her the most important question – “What’s your full name?”

“Shilpa Ramachandran”, she replied. It had to be from her that I was destined to hear that name for the first time in my life!

As a closing note, I asked Shilpa whether she had anything to ask or tell me. She said she didn't have anything. I smiled at her and said, "let's go then".

While walking back from that room to the dining room, I remember my mind flashing images of the conversation, and to my surprise in all those images Shilpa's eyes stood out. The way she makes use of her eyes as she talks animatedly is just awesome. Anyone who meets her for the first time and talks to her for a couple of minutes, would definitely take note of those eyes. It's hard not to have them make their presence felt.

We got back to the dining room where everyone else was waiting for us. After a few minutes of conversation we decided to make our move.

I gave the keys of the car to Soorajettan asking him to drive back. I didn't want to drive as I wanted to sit back and replay the entire episode in my mind before I conveyed to them my opinion. But Soorajettan insisted on me driving back. I then got into my shoes and then into the car. While getting into the car I noticed the window of the room where Shilpa and I had our conversation. Later I got to know that Shilpa had positioned herself at the sniper position in that room earlier as we drove in. She then had to do a 100m sprint to get out of that room, cross the drawing room, dining room and then to the kitchen, before any of us could take a note of it.

As I put the gear in reverse I suddenly realized that I hadn't said a "good bye" to Shilpa and her family. I immediately got out of the car and apologized for not saying a proper bye. I took their leave, steered our car back onto the road. Everyone got in, and I looked at her for one last time. She was standing there, behind her mother with a smile. A sight worth capturing in mind for ever.

I don't remember precisely who was the first one to speak in the car. I guess it was Soorajettan. He said - "Kollam, eniky ishtapettu...nalla kutti...nammuk pattiya bendham..."(Good, I liked it...good girl...this is an apt alliance for us). The same sentiment was echoed by everyone else.

"What do you say?", Moll asked me. I said let everyone complete sharing their opinions in detail first. I listened carefully to every single word being uttered by each of them in favor of this proposal. It was good to hear the way they were sort of marketing the proposal to me. I looked at the rear view mirror as Mom was saying something, I could see Dad looking at me and smiling like a kid. They all seemed to have been swept away by Shilpa and her family.

Finally they asked me what did I feel.

"Enikyum ishtapettu"(I also liked), I replied.

The next big question I had in my mind was, what would we do about the remaining 3 Pennu Kanals which were lined up for the next day.

Me: "Dad, do we need to go tomorrow for the remaining 3?"

Dad: "Hmm...I would say we should go ahead with them. It won't be nice to call off at the last moment."

Me: "But then, we all liked this proposal, right? Why do we want to go and see those 3 gals, if we have already made up our mind?"

Soorajettan: "That's ok. Let's just go and see them also. We might either find a better proposal or we might eventually realize that Shilpa's was the best proposal."

That sounded logical.

As per the protocol, after a Pennu Kanal, if the guy's side liked the gal and her family, and are interested to proceed further, they would call gal's Dad and convey it. On the other hand, if the guy's side didn't like the gal or her family, they wouldn't call back. In short, Shilpa and her parents would have been expecting a call from our end. Soorajettan suggested that we call them in the evening and express our interest to proceed further, but I felt that it would be better to wait for another day. So, it was decided. We were to go and see the remaining 3 gals from the initial list on the next day and convey our decision to the best among the 4.

The first thing I did after reaching home was to search for Shilpa's profile in FB. There she was. The first gal to pass my "Bungee Jump Filter". Her wall and albums were private, unlike mine which were public. Hence, I couldn't find much apart from what she had given in her profile info.

I then called up Iswarya to discuss about this. She seemed to be in a hurry and told me that she would call me back later. I then texted her about the Pennu Kanal and told her that I wanted to know more about Shilpa. I also recruited couple of other spies who had links to her friends in school and college. I entrusted them with the job of enquiring about her and letting me know whether it was ok to proceed from our end. I got an immediate response from one of the spies in affirmative. Iswarya also replied saying that though she didn't know Shilpa much, to her she appeared to be a good gal. She said she will get the details from one of her colleagues in a day or two.

There was still a night left before taking, what was to be, the biggest decision of my life. To be frank, I couldn't sleep properly that night. My mind was replaying the entire event again and again, especially the parts that included Shilpa, the conversation we had in that room, her smile, her eyes...

I was trying to put myself in her shoes and imagining what would be going through her mind. There were only two possibilities:-
1. If she and her parents liked us, they would have been anxious to hear from us. In fact, they would have been disappointed that we didn't call them after returning.
2. If she and/or her parents didn't like us, they would not be much bothered about the call from our end.

The second seemed to be less likely, going by the fact that they knew almost everything about me and our family even before we stepped into their house, and also considering the warmth with which all of them interacted with us till the end. Assuming this I felt sorry for Shilpa, especially because during our conversation she had told me that mine was her very first proposal and I was the first guy to come and see her.

"Shucks, we should have called them tonight itself", I yelled at myself. I took my phone and checked the time. It was about to be 11PM. Bad time to wake up Dad and ask him to call Shilpa's Dad. Damn!

I got up early the next day and went down to the dining room where Dad was reading newspaper.

Me: "Dad, let's call Shilpa's Dad and tell them that we are interested to proceed further."

Dad: "Are you sure? We had planned to wait till the evening, right?"

Me: "That's alright. We shall just convey our interest. It's not necessary that they will respond to it positively."

Dad: "What if we like one of the 3 profiles more than Shilpa's."

Me: "We shall see that later. Let's just call Shilpa's Dad. They would have been waiting since we left their place yesterday."

Dad smiled at me and reached for his mobile. He dialed her Dad's number.

Dad: "Hello, I am Viswambharan, Abhinav's father."
.......
Dad: "We liked your daughter and your family. We are interested to proceed further. Do let us know your opinion whenever it's fine with you."
.......
Dad: "Oh ok...cool...that's nice to hear...so, when do you plan to come to our place?....next week? no problem...we shall be in touch...convey our regards to everyone there, especially Shilpa"

Whoooaaa....as Dad disconnected the call, it was crystal clear. They also liked us and this thing was going forward. Yeh, baby!!

As Dad was busy elaborating on his conversation with Shilpa's Dad, I was visualizing the situation at her end. She also would have been happy and relieved to hear a positive response from our end. Her eyes would have lit up with full of life in them.

For a moment, I asked myself whether this was happening and more importantly was I ready for this. I then used the logic that Dad and Mom would recite to me every time they tried to convince me about marriage - "we shall have engagement by year end or next year beginning and wedding only by the second half of next year".

But wait, there were still hurdles. Those 3 gals and their families who were waiting for us. I don't know why, but I hoped that none of them turned out to be better than Shilpa's.

It was as if God was in a very good mood that day, everything went the way I had hoped or rather wished for. We went to all 3 of them, none of the gals passed my "Bungee Jump Filter" and none of their Dads were in their pants, I mean they were in Mundu(one of them in Lungi ^&%%%$%#% ) instead of pants.

As we got into the car and drove out from the last house, Soorajettan summed it up nicely "Abhi, it was good that we saw all these 3 gals and their families, because now we can confidently say that Shilpa's proposal is the best one for us."

Meanwhile, I also got calls from the remaining spies who gave their thumbs-up for the proposal.

However, things were not finalized yet. I had to meet Shilpa's elder sister and brother-in-law next week at Bangalore, and her parents and close relatives were slated to come to our place on the following weekend. The first was fine as chances of it going wrong were very less. The second was crucial because it involved elderly folks and you never know how they could mess up things.

Meanwhile, with the approval of our parents, Shilpa and I added each other as friends in FB and started chatting. It was on 14-Sep-11, a day after I met her sister and brother-in-law. Before the final decision was to be taken by elders, we had 4 days with us to get to know each other and see whether we were really meant to be with each other for life. To our pleasant surprise, we both couldn’t find a reason as to why we weren’t.

Finally, on the evening of 18-Sep-11 the final verdict was pronounced to us - "Abhinav Viswambharan & Shilpa Ramachandran were to get married to each other".

When? Well this was tricky, since this was dependent on many external factors. I just wished it to be somewhere around mid of next year. Even Shilpa was expecting it to be around that time. But then, fate had something else in store for us. There were no suitable dates available after Jan-12 and before Sep-12, and parents at both ends didn't want to delay the wedding by a year. The final shocker came when we were told that no wedding halls of our choice were available in Jan-12, hence the wedding had to be moved to Dec-11!

So, we were introduced to our THE DAYs: Engagement on 30-Oct-11 & Wedding on 11-Dec-11.

It's been over a month since all this happened, and looking back at all this seems nothing short of a pleasant dream to me.

From time immemorial, the most common topic of debates, especially in India, has been "Love Marriage vs Arranged Marriage". Usually the young blood would tend to favor Love Marriage more than the concept of Arranged Marriage. Even I used to feel that falling in love with someone first and then thinking of marriage was more fun and way easier, than having your parents point to a stranger who matches a pre-defined criteria and forcing yourself to fall in love with her/him.

But, based on my experience, I can say that, the whole experience of Arranged Marriage can be as sweet as that of Love Marriage, if not more. Agreed, you are sort of taking chances with a stranger, but then so would be the case in Love Marriage when you meet the person for the first time with whom you would supposedly fall in love. In Arranged Marriage, you have backing of the entire family and you get license to fall in love without worrying about anything else.

Anyways, I don't wish to set off any debates or arguments here. All I want to say is I am thankful to God for the way things took shape in my life over the last several weeks. I thank Him for gifting me not just with a wonderful person in Shilpa, but an equally wonderful family in her's.


Shilpa,

I don't think I need to tell you how lucky we all feel to have found you, especially Dad & Mom who had only one thing in their mind over the last one year or so, and that was to find their daughter-in-law...I am sorry...their daughter.

I also don't think I need to tell you what I feel about you and how precious you are to me. Even if I were to put all that into words, a post in my blog won’t be enough for that. It would have to be in my book, which I now dream of writing someday with you by my side.

This is it. This is my story. This is our story. This is how I met my love. This is how I met you.

-AV