Three decades ago, when the subject of his marriage came up, a doctor friend of mine approached the deciding authority — his sagacious and disciplinarian mother. He sought her consent to briefly interview the girl in private when he and his family went to her house to ‘see’ her.
Though initially reluctant, his mom granted him permission. She advised her son that if he was satisfied with the girl’s responses, he should touch the sweet served to him on his plate. If he was not, he should touch a non-sweet dish (bajji or mixture). The purpose of this signalling system was that if her son dabbled with a sweet, she would take the matter further with the girl’s parents and seal the ‘deal’.
In the first match-making interview that followed, the girl my friend ‘saw’ baffled him with a list of impossible-to-comply-with demands from her family, acceptance of which was a prerequisite for the marriage. As per the pre-arranged signal system, my friend touched the onion bajji on his plate and out walked the mother-son duo.
The second girl he saw too rattled him during the interview. She said, “I’m a qualified doctor, yet a very sick one with a host of ailments. I realise you’re also a doctor. Everyday, you have to administer me multiple injections. Tell me now itself, ‘is that okay with you?’”Shaken by this pre-condition, my friend touched the plantain bajji this time.
The trend continued and even the third girl he saw said that she was suffering from a heartbreak because the the boy she loved had deserted her. “We can get married but I can’t forget him. I believe that some day he might come back in my life.” So my friend voted for the crisp and spicy mixture served on his plate, inviting a stern look of disapproval from his mother, who thought that her son was becoming too demanding. Refusing to buy his explanation, she declared, “Henceforth, you have to see a girl and decide. No more private interviews.”
In the fourth instance, my friend saw the girl and was impressed at once. As he was about to grab the sweet on his plate, the girl’s father intervened, “Just a minute, young man, before you gulp the sweet! My daughter wants to ask you some questions.”‘Oh, my god!’ blabbered the boy, looking at the charming girl in exasperation. But as destiny would have it, he came out victorious from the interview and married that girl. Both have been living a sweet life for over thirty years!
Email: vishyvaidya@gmail.com