Tuesday 1 November 2022

Title Open For Audience


Despite the fact that romantic love is "wholly celebrated" in both Indian mass media (such as Bollywood) and folklore, arranged marriage continues to account for an overwhelming majority in India. If you have seen the Bollywood Movie, "Vivah", each one of us has enjoyed the feeling of an arranged marriage. I am sharing a small incident from the romantic story of Raj and Meera who are in a courtship period. Like every other couple of arrange marriage, they both are unsure about their decision of choosing each other as partners. In other words, I can say they have just started dating each other. Er. Raj belongs to an upper-middle-class family and he works in an MNC as a software engineer. On the other hand, Dr. Meera is working as an intern (as per the criteria of the final year of college) in a hospital.

So one fine evening, after office hours, Raj offered Meera a Pani-Puri date. She responded affirmatively but with one condition that she will come along with her sister and her friends. Raj thought its okay if it is not a date, he will be happy just to see her. 


 

Raj, Meera, her sister, and her friends met at the Pani-Puri stall in the evening. Since Raj was new to the group, he was trying to make himself fit in the group. Raj was listening and enjoying the conversations of others as it made him nostalgic of his college days, plus he was getting a bonus to see the smiling face of her beautiful Meera. While they were waiting for their turn for Pani-Puri, suddenly a voice of slipping of activa was heard and within a minute many people started to run towards the accident. Some of the group members also started running toward the accident. Generally, Raj avoids going to such places. It's not like he doesn't want to help. He feels that whenever such accidents happen, many people gather around it, one person says something and another something else, and it becomes chaos. And he does believe that among them there is already one person present who can do the needful. If nobody is there to help, then he goes forward. But this time, the first person running towards the incident was no other than his fiancée Meera. Raj and the others started walking towards the place and thankfully nobody was injured severely. There was a lady along with a small girl nearly about 5 years who was sitting behind her mother. The cause of the imbalanced vehicle was due to a cow and a calf.

Meera was trying to console the child by holding her in her lap. Others were looking after the mother and helping her to stand up and look after the vehicle. Some were asking whether the child suffered any injury. Meera was trying to get entangled in the talk to ask the child where she was in pain, but she was crying continuously. The public gradually reduced, Raj did not like to stand there, so he went somewhere.

Now, at the accident place, Meera, her sister, and their group were present. After some time, the child stopped crying and Meera helps her to come out of her shock. Her sister helped the mother and assured her that her daughter is medically fine. The child stopped crying, but she was still sad which made Meera feel pity for her. The next moment, Meera's sister called Meera and passed a bar of chocolate. As soon as Meera gave the child chocolate, the girl has a very big smile on her face. After seeing the happiness of the child, everyone standing around, smiled and was satisfied. Even the mother felt relieved. She thanked Meera and her friends. 

Meera replied, "Your daughter is very lovely." She kissed the cheeks of the child. Finally, the mother-daughter duo went back home and they all went back to the Pani puri stall.


 

Meera sighed, "How scared was the child?"

One of her friends said, "And didi, since so long you have been trying to make her calm but if it weren't for you, how would we do it? Hearing her cries, we were all blank."

Meera said, "And look how easy it was to make her laugh, everyone knows how happy children are with chocolate, but it didn't click to anyone at that time."

Everyone replied affirmatively.

That was the time when Meera asked her sister, "Who brought that chocolate? Her mother?"
Her sister turned her hand towards Raj. 
That was the moment, or we can say it was the spark for both of them. Sometimes small and silly moments help people to make them feel good vibes about their choices.
Meera turned her face towards him and automatically she has a big smile on her face with little tears in her eyes. That tears were because she was happy that what she wasn't able to think about at the moment, her fiancée was able to do that. On the other side, Raj was happy because he was not feeling good as he didn't reach the accident place along with Meera due to his introverted nature, but sooner he realized that everyone has their own role. Maybe it was his role, how to make Meera happy maturely. Like if it was any Bollywood hero, he would have reached the place much before Meera, then he might have rushed the baby to the hospital or something like that, but here Raj realized what was needed at the moment (or we can say after the situation) and went to the chocolate shop and bought it for the child. Raj and Meera both felt that they both are actually on the right path of choosing each other as per God's wish. They both have some roles in life, and when they do it, together they make the people around them happy. 
This incident makes the arranged marriage decision toll to plus one for Meera towards Raj. She started respecting him more.

As a writer, I want to say one line for Raj-Meera,
"You have something, I have something, and together we complete each other."

 




Everybody in their life, for a moment they might have such silly but cute feelings for their partner. So I openly welcome the title from the audience as per their situation and what name you can give to share such moments. I will finalize it as per the audience's choice.

 

 

3 comments:

Title Open For Audience

Despite the fact that romantic love is "wholly celebrated" in both Indian mass media (such as Bollywood) and folklore, arranged m...