When King met his Princess.. (See.. Just Taggged)

It was scorching heat in Ramagundam, Andra Pradesh and I was there in the wrongest time of the year, May. Year was 1987. Heat waves from the Singareni Collieries were burning the hair on hands, I was sitting on a pipeline in the Fertilizer plant, when I received the ‘in-land’ letter from my dad. Usually, he wrote to me once a month, to know where I was and sometimes for acknowledgement of money that I sent to him. Thinking of this to be just another one of those routine ones, I opened it and started to read. After the regular Nalam, Nalam Ariya Aaval, etc., it went, ‘… we have seen and decided a girl for you to marry. She is grand daughter of Mr. Natajan and daughter of Muthu. We have all seen her and like her a lot. She is the best suitable for you. They also like you and our family. We are all only waiting for you to come back to see the girl and say Yes.”

I sat there under the Sun barb-qing my body at 55 Deg.C., trying to understand what my dad wrote to me.
So.... they have seen the girl, they find her suitable for me, both families like each other, and they are only waiting for my “Yes".!!!!
Many questions started popping up.
What if – I didn’t like her? What if he didn’t like me? What if I didn’t like her family?.
While pondering over all these questions, suddenly something came to my mind.
Like a Flash. Something told me, “this is your girl, just say Yes”.
I dashed to the office, picked up a paper, scrambled few lines, inserted in an envelope, pasted and gave to the mail boy, for posting the same day. It all happened in less than half an hour.

After the mail boy had gone, I started thinking about what I replied to my dad. I had said ‘Go ahead dad, don’t have to wait for my “Yes”.” Then I started slowly realizing, dad didn’t even write her name to me, didn’t send a picture of her. Without knowing even such basic things, why I decided to say “Yes”? Was it because of the mind-set or brought-up of my strict dad, that I subconsciously feared to say “No”? Was it presumption that ‘parents would always do good for me, which was true until that moment? Didn’t have any answers. Few days later I stopped even thinking about it.

Beginning of June, I finished with my assignment in Ramagundam and took off to go home, see parents. The girls’ family was living in another town about 100 kms from my native place. I spoke to all my relatives and everyone were reconfirming that she was the best match for me. Even then, I didn’t see her or her picture. My parents officially arranged a small ceremony to “exchange plates with goodies” as a mark of finalizing the match. Only my parents and her parents attended this ceremony along with village elders.

Then I went to Bombay, where I was stationed for my work, again without seeing the girl or her picture. Again engrossed in my work, I came back to hometown in middle of September, for the ‘engagement’ ceremony. With all the festivities, the ceremony was held and I finally saw her in person. She was in full make-over and adored in Silk saree and looking like an angel, to me (didn’t know why). She wouldn’t even lift her face during that day, leave alone talking to me.

Ceremony was over and three days later I was getting back to Bombay, and she had come to the Railway Station of the village, where she was living. She and her family were there on the platform. With sweets and fruits, they all welcomed me, chatted with me, and she was standing at a distance and looking at me. Whenever I turned to her, she was looking at me. Rather she was looking through(!) me. First time, I felt something which I never felt before! First time I saw something in her eyes, that I never seen before in anyone’s eyes! First time I felt something all over my body that never happened to me before!

And the station master blew his whistle, all passengers scrambled back into the carriage, me too hanging from the door. Trained started moving slowly and to my eyes, there was nobody on the platform, except her. I could see the slightest tears in her eyes, as she waved gently her hands, the cruel train started picking up speed, and I didn’t stop winking until the entire station became vanishing like a dot in the far. I didn’t know what happened to me, but, whatever happened, it happened to me for the first time.

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