Confusion abounds

Reams have been written about how two people completely disconnected from each other suddenly happen to meet one fine day and things change for them..... fast. As a guy I strictly kept away from these candy floss stories about a guy and a girl meeting and then suddenly accompanied by many more strangers they run around trees and bushes, scale unnecessary heights and find the most beautiful fields that one could ever hope to find by chance to express their love for each other.

All this is very farcical - until it happens to you. Ok fine I never did the chasing in the presence of the flora and fauna, nor did I scale any heights, nor come across any beautiful fields.... but what I did come across would be cause for the authors of this genre to lick their lips in appreciation of a good story.

Enter the protagonists.... A boy who had just gotten used to living by himself whose only loves in life was his tennis, work, parents and house. A girl who was single-mindedly focused on completing her architecture degree and partying with her friends as much as was possible in infrastructurally challenged Bangalore, and, the parents who were spending much of their time online; sifting through horoscopes of potential grooms and brides for their wards.
Now it's not that the neither boy nor girl had anything against their parents doing the whole matchmaking thing. It was only that the two of them expected the entire process to take at least a couple of years for anything to happen. Both expected to be introduced to potential matches soon, but then they had both expected to say a firm no to anyone that had the misfortune to meet them.

So the boy goes back to traffic challenged B'lore after a looooooooooooooooong time all charged up to make visits to some old temples he had seen on a discovery channel show. After all who knew when he would have the time to do such things again? After taking the first couple of days to get over the mind-numbing jetlag he is asked to dress up for the evening. Further enquiries result in him being told that someone interested in me as a potential groom was paying us a visit. Smirking the boy dresses up pitying the parents. The potential in-laws pay a visit and confuse the boy. Apparently they liked their potential in-laws a lot (the boy's parents). He thought they had come to see him.... instead they seemed more interested in knowing about his parents.

Nonetheless another rendezvous is made where the boy gets to talk to the girl. The very confused potential groom pays a visit at the assigned time and location in the company of his parents where he talks to the girl. And talk they did.... for about 4 hrs continuously. Now the boy is very, very confused. He had come to politely decline the interest being shown in him and yet here he was talking to this immensely likable girl who seemed to share a lot of common interests which included a desire to go skydiving and loving insane roller coasters.
Nonetheless... deciding to play it safe the boy and girl (much to the disappointment of their parents) decide to ask for another week to make up their minds. So a third rendezvous is decided on, and this time around the very confused girl (who went through similar emotions to the boy until now) pays a visit to the confused boy's house.

Suddenly all the confusion disappears and both boy and girl decide that they can't do without each other and that they should get married. There was no confetti, no dancing angels, no harps and violins (or veenas and tamburas for the Indian version).... only a distinct feeling of completeness for both boy and girl.

Over the next two weeks the formerly confused boy and girl discover that they had wasted a whole week trying to decide whether they actually liked each other, and proceeded to make the Airtel phone company, assorted restaurateurs in Bangalore, and, taxi companies bless their impending union courtesy of the windfall that was put their way.

However all good things must come to an end. So the boy departs to his abode after a whirlwind engagement with a heavy heart knowing that it will be a few months before he can see the girl again.

The boy and girl are getting married in Feb 2007 and are hoping that the rest of their lives can be even one half as exciting and amazing as the past two weeks have been for the two of them.