In Palakkad, my native place, one’s profession gets appended to his name: Enna Kadai (Oil Merchant) Chuppamani, Pohela kadai (Tobacco merchant) Mani or Marundu Kadai (Medicine shop) Chellappa.
By this token my father should perhaps have been posthumously hailed “Pan-India love-marriage family” Samikutty. Yes, we have a boy or girl in marriage from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, or even the United States of America. And those to join the bandwagon include brides or grooms from…. I might as well wait till the status upgrades itself from ‘going steady to ‘taken the plunge’. There can always be a slip between the cup and the lip.
In our family the trend of selecting a partner by oneself was begun - you guessed it right – by me. I found my life partner (from within the extended family) on my way to Dhaka on an assignment when the then East Pakistan liberated itself to emerge as Bangladesh.
Years later my elder brother’s son picked up the thread; he selected a girl from UP to lead a blissful life. My sister’s son followed suit to marry a girl from Maharashtra. His sister selected a boy from Karnataka. And three or four from the next generation are all set to formally announce their decisions – again belonging various States in India.
Today we had the pleasure of attending in Sri Sri Ashram the Tamil-Maharastrian couple’s son tying the knot to an American girl; the charming couple, both doctors from a top-notch US University.
You get to interact with various people on such occasions. I got to chat with the guy who was arranging transport for the guests from one venue to the other. It was a vast area – one place for breakfast, another for lunch, yet another for dinner. It transpired that as a baby he had acted in a few Hindi films. One such was in BR Chopra’s Baagban. Some of you might recollect the scene where the couple Amitabh Bachhan and Hema Malini by mistake break Amitab’s glasses. When they ask his son whom they had brought up so fondly, he declines for lack of funds. Next day his son loses or spoils his shoes, and the parents lose no time to buy a new pair…
“How come you didn’t continue”? That was not my cup of tea. My parents were eager. He is well settled in the hospitality industry in Vancouver.
One takeaway from these functions these days is that nearly 65% of the guests will be seniors with walking sticks, walkers… It would not be surprising if an outsider mistakes it for someone’s 60th or 80th birthday ceremony.
Most of the guests are likely to cherish, more than the attendance at the marriage, their good luck to meet Guruji, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji on not just one, but two occasions when he came to bless the couple. Yes, everything is preordained.
As we returned home happy at the stay in the Ashram for nearly three days, there was another co-resident couple alighting from a cab. They rushed to us: “Mama we are happy to announce that my son is marrying a Spanish girl. Our long-time hunt for a suitable girl is over.” They were thrilled.
It’s a small world. And small is beautiful.
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