(Love etc., Mom-Dad, and Marriage – My Happy Story)
Uncertainty mars the promise of my each new love.
Will it remain a secret treasure forever buried in my heart?
Or will it transform me into a man full of regret?
Perhaps it will build me a home where I’ll live happily after.
Mom and Dad don’t understand love.
They disagree on almost everything, but they agree on one. They believe that a love-marriage is an abomination, and that marriage is a social contract to be entered in by the parents of the bride and groom. They firmly believe that the bride and groom should have nothing to do with each other until they have gone around the fire seven times and said “yes, I agree” to the incomprehensible Vedic verses chanted by the priest.
According to them, love-shove is that crappy stuff that youngsters engage in, because these days they have nothing better to do.
- According to Dad, in their time, boys would be busy helping their parents with the chores. They would feed and bathe the cows, chop the firewood, then get into over-sized knickers and an under-sized threadbare shirt, a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down, and then trudge to school, some six miles away.
- According to Mom, in those nice days of the yore, young girls would spend their afternoons and evenings helping their mothers in the kitchen, or changing the nappies of their newest brother or sister, five siblings down the line. They didn’t have time to do nayn-mattakka with boys.
This is why they never learned about my school-crush – the girl who sat in the front row of our class, whose laughter was music to my ears, and who always got more marks than I did, in every subject, every year. I didn’t dare to even talk to her, because mom knew some teachers at my school, and if she learned about it, she’d go tattle to dad, and dad would spank me with a hanger and hang me to dry on the clothesline in my backyard. She got married to the neighborhood grocer’s son, who now is the neighborhood grocer. She still occupies a small corner in my heart.
Then I fell for a girl in my college. I shouldn’t have. I should’ve seen the signs, but I didn’t. I guess I just wanted to find some love, and when she looked at me with her beautiful green eyes and that come-hither look, I just fell. And I fell hard. It was a whirlwind affair – actually, more of a tornado affair. When it flung me down, I crashed into reality – my heart bleeding. Then I looked up and saw her on another guy’s bike – the bikes changed into cars – I kept seeing her. And I kept regretting.
I was a tad broken-hearted, when I met the girl who would build a home in my heart and live there forever. I met her at the place of my work. The shroud of pain and unhappiness slipped off my shoulders and disappeared. I was almost happy once again – but uncertainty marred my happiness and stopped it from reaching its full potential.
I wanted to marry her, but I knew my parents too. And yet, I knew in my heart that it was either now or never. I had to be the bad boy in the family. I had to be the guy who married for love – this would mean that I’d spend the rest of my life trying to balance things – trying to be Sumit of Sumit Sambhal Lega. And I knew that I’d suck at it. Yet, I had to do it, because I knew that it was my only chance.
My first love still remains a secret treasure buried in my heart.
My second transformed me into a man full of regret.
My third, final, and forever love has built me a home in which I hope to live happily until the day I die.
The Uncertainty has ended.
And now the translations:
Love-shove: In Punjabi, adding “sh” after removing the first letter of a word, trivializes it.
Shaadi: Marriage
Meri Happy Kahani: My Happy Story
Nain-mattakka: Something that mom picked up from one of her friends. It translates to exchanging glances or flirting.
If you enjoyed this post, find more of my Quirky, Snarky, Malarkey in The QSM Magazine. |
Oh, I love that four-liner introduction! This is great!
You may want to read mine: http://wp.me/p4ZhSl-d3. 🙂
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Thanks Rosema. Hopping over to your blog now.
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Thank you!
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love this post. 🙂 it kept me reading from the first line to the last! two thumbs up!! 🙂
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Double thanks Kat 😀 I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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Love this post Anand, especially your quote “Home is the place where you want to return every evening.” So true ☺
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Thanks for noticing. I just wanted to say it in a special way, so I disguised it as a quote. Feel free to use the image if you want to.
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Thank you Anand ☺ And I wanted to add, great use of the prompts too.
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Superb, Anand! Both the poems add charm to the post. Analogy with Sumit made me laugh the most.
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Thanks Sandeep. Especially for calling the result of my feeble attempt at stringing words together, a poem. I wish I could write two lines that would rhyme. But not everyone has that gift. And thanks for the laugh 😀
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It’s not true that all poems rhyme. You are a wonderful writer of humour, anyway.
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Thanks Sandeep. You keep my confidence afloat.
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You’re welcome, Anand.
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Just loved this account!
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Thanks Marquessa. I hope my second attempt at wooing the dove of love evoked some sympathy too. Not even wifey sympathizes with me on that account.
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😊
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I’m sure you could write two lines that rhyme
You just have to hunt for some words… and take out some time
😉
Your khichdi of a post was not the usual malarkey I’m used to… but I guess that’s what writing 101 is about… banishing pre-conceived writing notions.
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Isn’t the occasional khichadi good for the tummy. I sort of enjoyed writing it 😀 Sorry for disappointing though.
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Not disappointed. Your post was refreshing. And as long as you enjoyed writing it, you shouldn’t really worry yourself.
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Stopped worrying long ago. When you are the bottom, you aren’t scared of falling. (Edited the typo (“scare” to “scared” to please the Grammar Nazi.)
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Love your beginning and ending with the use of all six words. In fact your beginning and ending were almost as good as your middle. Hold it! I guess that means I liked it all. Yep, that’s it.
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Oneta, it’s sweet of you to say that. It’s a mashup of poetic words in comic prose, I guess. I don’t know…wasn’t myself when I wrote it. But sending a SUPERBIG THANK YOU, your way. You made my day!
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Love Shove Te Nain Mattaka! Nicely written post Anand… your wife will stop buying groceries from that shop when she reads this…
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She knows. (It helps – because she doesn’t send me to buy groceries now.)
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ah… unexpected benefits…!
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Windfall. But it’s only the paunchy grocer who I get to see.
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Love this post😊
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Thanks Adrienne. Glad you stopped by.
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“into over-sized knickers and an under-sized threadbare shirt,”
” They didn’t have time to do nayn-mattakka with boys.”
LOL 😀
“, she’d go tattle to dad, and dad would spank me with a hanger and hang me to dry on the clothesline in my backyard. ”
LOL 😀 😀
“She got married to the neighborhood grocer’s son, who now is the neighborhood grocer. She still occupies a small corner in my heart.”
I hope bhabhiji doesn’t know this 😛
“I guess I just wanted to find some love, and when she looked at me with her beautiful green eyes and that come-hither look, I just fell.”
Green eyes? You sure 😛
{ I don’t want to hurt any sentiments here 🙂 }
It’s a brilliant post by all acounts. Great cartoons and messages.
Good evening.
Love and light ❤
Anand
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Thanks Vibrant. Bhabhi ji knows me better than I know myself, or so she claims. Those green eyes – they were the reason why I’d become a basket case when I looked at her – despite the fact that she always got better marks than I did. There has to be a good green reason for liking someone who beats you at what matters most – your grades!
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Hahahah 😀
Usually fables have green eyed monsters of envy, but maybe damsels in yours!
And sush! She is not yours bhabhiji 😀
If she hears she will feel offended and maybe Ms. Chaddha is hearing our conversation, who knows?
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The “your” was silent and I thought you’d understand – but you had to pull my leg 😀
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Hahahha 😀
No, I am concerned about you as Mrs. Chaddha is hypervigilant these days 😛
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She’s away for a couple of days, and peace reigns.
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Oh, that’s a relief indeed!
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Thanks for sharing my glee!
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Now none has said it that way. 🙂
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Oh…a lot of Rajasthani, Kashmiri, and Sindhi beauties have green eyes. The girl in my class was a Sindhi.
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Oh I see 😉
I also fell in love with a Sindhi girl in college. It was platonic 😛
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Fell in love = Platonic? Really?!
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Yes, all 4 years, no talk at all 😦
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But that doesn’t mean it was platonic. Is she the reason behind your transformation?
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I understand. How do you define platonic? I know both of us had deep feelings and respect for each other. 🙂
No, quite the contrary. My transformation didn’t let me get married to her 🙂
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That must’ve broken her heart. Platonic is asexual, so if that were the case, perhaps your transformation actually helped her.
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Yes, it had no physical contact. It did break both of the hearts. She married two years later and I am happy for her 🙂
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Ok…just to clarify. Platonic refers to the feeling and the not the actual act. You are a nice guy, Vibrant. Really truly glad to have connected with you in the cyberverse.
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Thanks for your kind words Anand and have a wonderful day ahead. You are a great friend too 🙂
Anand
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Keep smiling through that beard.
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Hahahha LOL 😀
Beard is not so unknown territory to Punjabi folks 😛
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I love the poem in the begining of the post! And I really like your take on the task, you have used them all! Interesting! 🙂
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