Part
3.
As the evening set in, we three got dressed in
our finest and went out to the Mandapam first to make sure that everything was ready
before the groom (and his brother, Karthick who had gone with him) arrived straight
from the beauty parlour where they had gone a couple of hours earlier itself to
get ready for the festive occasion. A big board greeted us at the entrance- “DR.Nitin
Rajsekar, MS Ortho” getting betrothed to “ER.Ramya Rani BE ECE” in big flowered
letters, worthwhile for the amount Nitin’s dad had spent to get him that
degree.
Once
inside the Mandapam we got caught in the festive atmosphere and at the sight of
all the good looking girls from the brides’ side, for she worked as a software
engineer at Oracle Labs or something and had attracted a hep crowd of
hanger-ons and besties- each girl worth looking at for atleast 5 mins. One girl in particular caught everyone’s attention- a
fantastic looking beauty of a girl who was running around inviting everyone
personally and generally making a big scene. Pradeep took one look at her and
immediately fell in love with her, or so he claimed. He took me aside and said
“Machan, I am going for her” and this from a man who had spent all afternoon
praising that other beauty, our friends sister Nithya and how it was all heaven
foretold that they should be linked in marriage and how friends should turn relatives
and how I should not try anything on her but look on her as a bhabi and within
five minutes of catching a glimpse at this new girl, Pradeep was proposing me
enthusiastically as the right person to become the brother in law to Karthick
and Nitin and to leave the field open for him here.. Oh! How fickle are friends...
He
didn’t even give me the option to decide for myself which one I wanted- he
merely told me “you take that one and I will take this one” and he wanted me to
agree to a gentleman’s bargain to share and share alike. I demurred at first,
for I felt I was being taken advantage of, but Mama had a few words with me
about how I had fought all afternoon for the right to date Nithya and here I
was getting a chance to do it and what was I objecting for and with those profound
words of the leader of our party- I gave up my right to put an application for
this newest angel on the horizon. Besides, I had my own doubts about this new
girl- she clearly was looking out of our range and an expensive piece to
maintain on a limited budget.
By
judicious enquiry among the older relatives hanging around we established the
fact that the knock-out girl was in fact the younger sister of the bride, but
what was she doing her? Why hadn’t she gone to the beauty parlour too, as we
were sure her sister would have gone to get dressed? As we learnt later the
reason that Renuka, which was the girls name, had not gone to the parlour was,
her elder sister - the bride Ramya had also not gone there- they were too sure
of their beauty to require expert assistance. Either that or the two sisters were
too kanjoos.
With
the groom still missing from the action, the engagement party was yet to pick
up speed or tempo and consequently there were lots of empty spots and time gaps
for anyone to indulge in – for a little romance if they had the inclination and
guts to. Guts I have never lacked. My friends would vouch for me about the time,
I had stood up on the podium in class and proposed to the entire class of 50
girls that I loved them all (for a truth or dare bet) and asked if anyone love
me back? When no one volunteered I informed them that they had all broken my
heart, I was now officially in Devdas mode and the least that they could do
for me- after the damage they have done to my heart- was to vote for me in the
upcoming class rep elections..And you know what? I won in a landslide based on
the female vote- especially as my opponent was Pakki Bhaskar..a misogynist who
never even talked to girls in class as opposed to your's truly who gifted a rose
to every girl (who voted) on election day…to remember him by.
So I was pretty much looking
out for my chance to start my own romantic engagement during the course of this
engagement.
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