Love has a way of finding you!!!
As every little girl, I was always wary of going through the ordeal of arranged marriages and torturous in-laws. I was scared that I will be allowed to communicate with a total stranger for just 10-15 minutes and then will be asked....." So!!! did you like him? Is it a yes or a no from your side".I always used to tell my mom that I will never go in for an arranged marriage. I will search for my hubby and my in-laws myself. I even went to the extent of saying that I will choose a boy so that I have a "dhoop-batti wali mother-in-law, so that I can just get up every morning and fold my hands in front of her garlanded photo....lol. My mom used to scold me that she is your husband's mother too, aren’t you ashamed to talk about her like this.
I also used to ask my elder cousins, their friends (those who had to do go through an arranged marriage), what did you talk about when you guys first met. No concrete answers, actually nobody has any list of questions to be asked when you first meet him/her, how sad.
When I was shown the bio-data, I refused point blank saying I don't want a Finance and Marketing guy. But as luck would have it, the day came when I myself was to go and meet the prospective groom. In our households, we set up a meeting in some Gurudwara. So when I was introduced to the boy he smiled, I smiled back and at that instant I knew, He is the one!!! I know this might sound clichéd, but this was it. When we started talking, it felt like we have known each other since ages. One thing led to another and we were into the conversation for over 45 minutes. Our parents had to literally pull us away from each other. ;-).
That night I could not sleep. I was reminded of the scene from the mushy, romantic hit Dil To Pagal hai:-
Rahul: "Mujhe kaise pata chalega ki yeh mere liye banayi gayi hai. Badal garjenege, ya bijli chamkegi.".
Maya(pointing towards the heavens): Woh....woh ek isshaara dikayega aur tum samajh jaoge".
Actually for a 24 year old girl who had never believed in arranged marriage, what had transpired that day was really hard to believe. Since I was being forced to meet him, I had planned to reject the guy, but ended up liking him so much that I said "yes" after I slept on all that we had talked about. So it was, "LOVE AT FIRST SMILE" for us. That day was 21st September 2004 and 6 months later we got arrange-cum-love-married and visited the same Gurudwara to take God's blessings. Thankfully my in-laws are also best and the sweetest in-laws one could pray for. Touchwood!
So I learnt one thing in life: Never say never!!! You might end up doing just that :-).
Payal
