Things were warming up as early as high school. Working on my love letter writing skills, heading for the movies, taking girls out for dates - had to wait till college tough. All thanks to the newly found freedom of movement that residential college brought with it. Private coaching a few local high school students towards competitive exams was a good source of income in my college days - so money was never a problem. Looking back, I had a lot of fun and very little luck. The dates ended in movies and dinner - things never matured into anything more interesting or rewarding. Having a steady girl-friend was hard to come by leave aside getting into a relationship.
Four years of college just whisked by and there I was - hopelessly single, virgin to the extent of never having touched a girl romantically. Professional life was no different and this time I could not be so explicit with my romantic advances - it was no longer college! All the pretty hotties I knew were either taken or married. Soon I was 30 and the situation was very grim. The sands of time had run out from the 'fun' side into the 'get serious' side of the hour-glass. I had to give in to my parents' wish of getting me married. I was then in Canada on an assignment and my parents believed technology could bridge the gap of distance.
What followed was torture. Every week-end I was glued to my laptop, sifting through profiles and photos of prospective alliances, short-listed by my parents over the week. It was nerve-wrenching to say the least. Nothing seemed to work - most of the profiles were lame. This went in for 8-9 weeks. I could not take it anymore. On the verge of a mental breakdown, I backed out from the bride hunting marathon which clearly was not going anywhere. Having given up the responsibility of finding an alliance to my parents entirely, I started parting even harder as I had realized that soon my fate would be written off with an 'average', 'down-market' girl - profiles of whose were swarming across all the matrimony sites.
Later I was told, when my parents realized the hopelessness of looking at profiles over the matrimonial sites online, they decided to post an advertisement in the local newspaper's matrimonial section. Alliances poured in and this time a few of them caught the imagination of my parents. Horoscopes were tallied with the short-listed candidates and lines of communication were established. One Sunday, during a Skype call with my parents, I was enlightened about the movements that had happened over the weeks. Photos along with the profiles of three short-listed girls were emailed to me soon after. And this time I found one of them worth taking a look at. Emails went out and numbers exchanged between guardians - eventually passed on to me with a Skype video-conferencing set up between the prospect and me.
It was an awkward mix of nervousness and excitement. I knew this was the real deal, decision taken now would change the course of my entire life. The week went by in a flash and it was Saturday, the day I was to Skype Piali and I had no clue of what I was supposed to ask her or even talk about! The call came in and I took it. What followed was a conversation unprecedented in my entire life. We were an hour into the conversation and it seemed like minutes. I was very comfortable talking to her - on my preferences, hobbies, profession, short and long term goals - pretty much everything under the sun was talked that day! After the call, parents were given the 'go codes' - things were moving at a crazy pace. I took an unlimited India calling plan. We Skyped every week-end, talked over the phone for hours. It seemed as if I were a call center employee - with the microphone ever attached and I talking away to glory.
It was during these days that I stumbled upon a discovery - Piali was an amazing singer! One day she sang to me over the phone and it seemed as if I had transcended to another dimension of eternal peace and poise. I was mesmerized, swept off my feet and hooked on to her singing. Everyday she used to sing to me over the phone before hanging up. But the song she sang to me the first day ever remains close to my heart! And after our marriage (this post is a tribute to our 1st marriage anniversary) I have convinced her into recording that song - 'Main Tainu Samjhawa Ki'. So here is a toast to my 'Love Story', our marriage and her song!
