Wedding Blog: An Appointed Hour

It was three days before the end of the Fall semester, with 2 major exams still to go, and a project due the next day. I was overworked and completely frazzled, and that, no doubt, was the reason why I forgot to take my cell phone with me that day when I left for school.

I got back home at around 6 pm, hungry and dizzy from having dashed off a project report in 3 hours flat. There was a voice message waiting for me on my phone.

"Hi Nanda..."

Ah. My mum's voice. (I will kill anyone who laughs at my nickname.)

"We met his parents with a purohit yesterday, and fixed your wedding date. It's the 18th of May. I'll call you later. Bye."

*SPROIIINNNNNG*

(Which, as you may have guessed, was the sound of my mattress springs revolting against the sudden, sharp descent of my butt onto it.)

I tried to make coherent sounds from my mouth for a while, and then I tried to remember the boyfriend's work phone extension number, and failed at both.

When my roommate came in a minute later, she found me sitting at my desk and staring at nothing. So she said, "What's up?"

I told her I was getting married on May 18th, yes, May 18th, it's all fixed, my mom just left a message in my voice mail saying so. Then, all of a sudden, I was crying, and my roomie was perpetrating her own assault on the mattress springs.

About 10 raving minutes later, I pulled the strings of my sanity together a bit, and, having recalled the boyfriend's extension number at work, I called him and told him the news. He took it really well. "Oh, really? That's nice."

Which started me crying again.

***

(4 hours later, on the phone)

"Oh, #@$#, I can't believe my mom just left a message like that. So coolly. Oh my God, we're getting freakin' married!"

"...*Groooaaan*..."

"What, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Aah... nothing... just..."

"WHAT?"

"Umm... do we really have to do this in summer?"

"...."

"Summer in India sucks. Summer here is great. People all over the world are going to be coming here for summer, and I'm going to-"

"...."

"No, no - it's not like that! I don't not want to marry you... it's just... Can't we get married in December?"

And that was when I telephonically killed the boyfriend, thereby removing the necessity for a wedding at all.