Man of your dreams

“You are likely to meet the man of your dreams” is what the Astrology section for my sun sign read one morning. I am sure most of you are the kinds who go to the doorstep early in the morning to fetch the day’s newspaper to learn the happenings around. I must say I am also one of the kind, but with a little difference. I fetch the morning paper, religiously hand over the main paper to my dad and take the supplement with me to my room. The only thing I look at is the astrology section. If someone asks me “Do you believe in astrology?” I would jump up and say “Nay…all that is nonsense, and not practical”. Of course I don’t stop reading this section though. This was one such day. I parked my bike in the parking lot in my office –I call my Kinetic Honda a bike, I walked towards the door to swipe my ID card in the security zone, I felt a little vibration in my bag, my phone was ringing. I buried my hand into my bag lazily, assuming it would be one of those infuriating calls from the banks for credit cards, or my mom who generally calls me half an hour after I left home. I answered the call in a slothful tone. “Hello, am I speaking to Padma”, a strong voice spoke on the other end. I hate being called Padma; for sure the person on the other side did not know me well or would have not dared to call me Padma. “This is she, I like being called Priya”, I answered with a frown. “Oops, sorry!!! Priya; Does this sound better” the strong voice replied. I must admit that I was already impressed with the voice. “Yes, it definitely does” I blushed. “Well I am Kunal, Sharadha Aunty gave your contact number…uhhh I don’t know how to start of the conversation… are you busy …I mean can we talk now…” he went on. While I was listening to him, my short lived memory forced me to think 2 days back in the past. My mom had received a call from Sharadha aunty 2 days back, and was discussing my marriage proposals over the phone. Well Sharadha aunty was my neighbor in the earlier house we resided. Once she was done with the call she told me that Sharadha aunty had a proposal which she wanted me to check out, as the family was good, the boy was handsome and he was earning well, the usual sing song which she played earlier also for all the other proposals considered at home. I was so irritated with Sharadha aunty for not having minding her own business and doing this free of cost matrimonial service. I did not know that she had already given my contact number to apparently Mr. Kunal. “You there, hello…” the breathtaking voice got me back from my memories. “Yes, Yes …I guess we can talk” I replied without thinking as I did not want to say no to the strong personality I had started imagining behind the breath taking voice. I did not get into the office, instead took a step behind and went back to the parking lot so that I could speak properly. There was something more than the voice, something different about this proposal, I mean this was the first time the boy called me directly and discussed marriage. Otherwise, till date the introduction was taken care of in the traditional way, when I wore a sari, and served coffee to some 10 unknown people even before I got introduced to the boy. I was totally against the whole idea of posing again in front of a stranger. I probably would have said no to Sharadha auntie’s proposal too if the same style was imposed. “Oh cool…so Priya I work for…” Kunal started speaking, and told me about his whereabouts; like where he worked, his position in the company, his family and some more details which I guess are mandatory to be exchanged in a case of a typical arranged marriage. I followed the routine as well – gave him my details. We spoke for close to 20 minutes exchanging some more superficial information. He finally said “I think we should meet before our parents decide on anything further, do you have any issues with this” Did I hear that right? It looked like he just read my mind. That was such a relief to me; I really did not want to fall at his parent’s feet before even before I decided if he was the man of my dreams. I let him make the decision about when and where we would meet. It was time to say bye, “Waiting to meet you, any changes please let me know…you can call me on the same number” (the number that flashed on my cell), “was nice talking to you, bye and take care” he said. I hung up the phone after saying my part of bye and take care. “The gift of love will enter your life in the first few months of this year” is what I read today in the Yearly forecast. Let’s see what’s in store for me.