I was on a class tour to CA last week and got to befriend quite a few nice people, who thankfully will be my classmates. As you know, to become a good friend, you need to get a little personal, talk about family, origins and as for us desis, have to answer a few curious questions too...you know the drill!

Anyway, during one such dinner talk, I was asked how I met Bala. For a moment, I was tempted to lie like many I have seen do;

'Oh, we met at a party' or 'It was love at first sight at a friend's wedding' etc...

Instead, I braved the consequences and the need to explain something unexplainable and said....we had an 'Arranged marriage'

Suddenly.....
'Boom,pow, stars, eyebrows, Oh's, wow's and many other hard to perceive expressions'

I decided to cool the scene, bring down the air and said it was more like a dating service that paired us ( hard to say that B's dad was a colleague of my dad's brother or we found him on 'The Hindu' where unsuspecting B's parents put his name up....lol)

It was only when I said that we spoke for 6 months, met personally, decided patiently & carefully agreed upon each other
that they realized the arrangement wasn't all that 'Arranged' after all!

I swear I heard heaves of relief when I answered 'yes' to their final question
"So you could have said 'NO'"

I went on to make my stand clear by proclaiming 'I did say 'NO' to a couple of guys I so called dated for a couple of months' and vice versa....

Man was I uncomfortable the whole time!
But then, I at least feel true to the beautiful bond I share with B and more importantly, don't have to worry about stories that do not match!