Kaise we met..

Here in my blog, I have written several posts (4 including this one) about the first time Sri and I met. Well, today is the D-day, so as you have started to expect from me, I had to write a post. But this time I wanted to tell you how we met (I realized only now that I haven't really talked about that :-p).

We actually met through the internet! Those who are familiar with the previous posts will disbelieve me, accusing me of lying saying "You said it was an arranged marriage". Yes it is, but it was arranged through the internet :-D. Well, as the modern searching for a guy method, we registered in Kannadamatrimony.com. The point is that though we registered under dad's name, it was usually me and mom who did the checking and contacting. This is not a story about how many profiles we contacted and how many we heard back from, but let me tell you they were many in number :-\.

And so we contacted this profile (the profiles didn't have names, only numbers) and since it didn't have a photo associated, we asked for a photo, all under my dad's name of course ;-). And we got a photo. To this day I don't know why he sent that photo, it was not a very good one (he says it was the only one handy). He looked very thin in it and you couldn't really make out his face that properly. Lets just say it was not flattering in any way at all. But we didn't want to decide without meeting the guy, so we gave further details to go ahead in the process.

His father even called dad and talked for quite sometime. But later we didn't hear from them at all, so we thought that he must have agreed to marry somebody else and to be frank, it wasn't really surprising. This kind of a thing keeps happening. But what was actually happening at his end was that his maternal grandfather passed away and obviously it wasn't really the right time for them to proceed. Moreover, Sri was on one of his innumerable short trips to the US, so they had decided to continue only once he came back to India. And yes, in his side, though he had registered under his dad's name, it was him and later his mom that was doing all the mailing ;-).

So suddenly in November, we got this call saying "the boy" was in India in Hyderabad, but they'd be coming to Bangalore and would we be okay to meet. We decided on Saturday, Nov 13th 2004 which was also the 3rd day of Deepawali that year. We planned to meet them and then be off to Ramnagar to my Chikkappa's place for Deepawali celebrations. They were delayed since they were coming from Rajajinagar (I really hated it when the boys' family would make us wait :-p) and they finally arrived at around 6 PM, I think. Well then we talked and I didn't decide, but he said "Yes" immediately and all that :-p (I remember him talking and talking and me thinking "We are getting late, c'mon enough already" :-D, hehehehehe).

And so we met and you know the rest. Or do you? ;-) >:-) :-D.

Some "facts":

• Sri "saw" 2 girls before meeting me (thats all!). I must have "seen" minimum 20 guys (if not guys atleast their parents)! The common factor is that we didn't like anyone before seeing each other. Looks like we were meant to be together ;-).


• After they left, mom actually said that the boy is very thin and dark and might not be suitable for me :-D. We tease her about it to this day :-D. On the same note, dad and Darsh agreed that he was alright ;-) :).


• Have to mention this - Puttanna chikkappa, without even seeing the guy, said that this was the guy I'd marry. We have a thing in Udupi side called manE-bhootha (meaning house-ghost) who is supposed to safeguard the people of a family. Each family will have this ghost. There was a big festival organized (called kOla - those who know this will know what I'm talking about) for our bootha, just around weeks back before I met Sri which Puttanna chikkappa attended and was told that soon a match will come for me and that I'd get married :-\. So he was extremely happy when Sri's dad called up the next day and said the big "Yes". He was surprised that I wanted to "think" about it :-D. Still don't know whether to believe the kOla thing or not :-\.


• Last but certainly not the least, I later during different occasions asked Sri what made him say "Yes" and got many answers - that he liked my front cut (hair cut), that he liked my so-he-called-perfect teeth, that he liked the fact that I trekked (so basically I'd not pester him for an auto if I was asked to walk even for a while) and that I was ready for marriage. Well, to this day I tease him about whether he was looking for a girl or a horse? Recognize the similarities? :-p :-D.

Its still difficult to believe that its been 4 years since I first met him! The journey so far has had its share of ups and downs, lefts and rights, norths and souths and easts and wests and what not :-D. But I wouldn't want anyone else as my co-traveller and thats the truth :).

Happy "first-meet" anniversary Sri :)