My tryst with marriage: Part Five - Checkmate

Previous Parts: Introduction | Foreword | Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Just when I thought everything was going smoothly as planned, my mother dropped a WMD. [Weapon of Mass destruction]. She is not the one to be blamed though. If I could hatch a Bollywood filmy plan to avoid all this marriage banters she also can come up with an equal filmy plan as a counter attack. After all what are genes? Till last week she was all hale and hearty, basking in all the attention her daughter was getting in the community. Overnight she had become a celebrity sorts, as she was being choosy about a perfect groom for her so-called perfect daughter. She would flaunt her newly found status with a lot of panache. Her every move was somehow associated with my marriage. 

If she had to attend a wedding she would ensure we all are impeccably dressed. Her reason: What if someone sees my daughter there and likes her? They should know we are a decent family to be associated with. In the beginning she was not very conscious about our mode of transport for any social functions but off late she insisted we go in our car as a matter of status symbol. She would force me to attend all such gatherings dressed up to be put up for display among the other guests there. I was also glad about the sudden interest that was being taken into my clothes, likes and dislikes. But as always there was a flip side to it. Overnight my skin care regime was the talk of the town with everyone chipping in their expert advice on what is best for a glowing skin. I was banned from having any more haircuts. 

My style of walking, dressing, talking and tone were under tight scrutiny as I was constantly asked to mellow down. I was being pushed into kitchen also, which till now was strictly “her” domain. It was an eerie feeling as I was expected to grow up all of a sudden and behave in coy, lady like manner. So much for marriage – was the first thought that came to my mind. However much I detested all this I had no option but to go through all this with a smiling face. My mother was definitely enjoying every moment of all this. She was all gung ho about everything when suddenly one fine day she fainted and the family physician was called for. 

We were told that she has severe high blood pressure as a result of some stress she was taking since past few days. We were asked to ease things for her and ensure that she doesn’t take any more stress. My darling mother took it to another level altogether. When we sat by her side, she held my hand and started sobbing very badly. She said,” I know I am going to die.” I said,” Mom, just relax. It’s just high blood pressure and nothing else. If you take proper medication and rest you will be fine very soon.” But she was in no mood to relent.

She went on,” You do not understand anything. If the blood pressure rises beyond a certain barrier then the nerves will burst leading to immediate death. I don’t want to force you for anything and please don’t think I am blaming you for my condition. It’s just that I am very worried about you. You will not understand it now. You will understand it once you have your own children.” 

Now this was an oft used line by her to which I never had an answer. Whatever was this supposed to mean, I was being blamed and not blamed all in one breath. I was dumbstruck and continued to sit there like a zombie holding her hand listening to all that she was saying. Well what could I expect from my own mother when I had mastered the art of nautanki, somewhere the genes had come from her right? To cut a long story short the moral of the entire discussion was: Enough of rejecting proposals. Take this marriage thing seriously and catch hold of the first decent groom you can lay hands on. Checkmate anyone?