Love's Strange Ways *COMPLETED*

Chapter 3

TWO YEARS LATER

That night, Vishal and his grandmother were having dinner in his apartment in Bangalore.

"Keerthi is the 26th girl I've met already for you," sighed his grandmother, after narrating about her meeting with the girl to Vishal, "I'm tired. None of these girls are ready to marry you without knowing or meeting you. This girl I met today, Keerthi, she said she'll discuss with her family first, but she didn't sound keen. If this doesn't work out, I'm telling you, you better find your own girl. I'm tired of meeting one girl after the other like this for you."

Vishal remained silent. After the first girl his Grandma had met, which had proceeded till the day of the wedding, no other girl had agreed to his concept of arranged marriage without meeting till the day of the wedding. Vishal reminisced how everything had been going so perfectly when his Grandma had met the first girl until the bride, Shreya, disappeared. Correction, until she ran away. I could not forget the first girl I had met with marriage on my mind. Shreya; there had been something really enchanting about her. But she would be happily married already by now. There was no point thinking about her.

***

The next day morning, Vishal left for work as usual. While he was busy working at his laptop, Rhea arrived late for work. As she slipped into her seat in the table adjacent to his, she whispered, "Hey! I'm late."

"Hey," muttered Vishal as he flashed a smile at Rhea and turned back to his laptop.

They worked in silence for a long while before Rhea asked, "What happened? You seem very dull today."

"Nothing much, just usual," answered Vishal.

"Another prospective bride turned you down?" Rhea grinned as she sorted through some files.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Just guessed.... You know, I was telling Nivin about you. And he was surprised too. Even he was saying that it's rare to find a guy with a mind-set of arranged marriage like you in this tech age." Nivin was Rhea's current boyfriend.

"Yeah, but it looks like I'll have to ditch all my plans on having an arranged marriage."

"Oh, why?"

"Granz is tired. Even the last girl she met isn't ready to marry me without meeting me in person."

"Oh... I have a suggestion. Actually, it was Nivin's suggestion. Why don't you give your phone number or email address or something like that to the girl so if there's anything she wants to know about you, she can ask you via chatting or phone calls? You know, nowadays, people meet on social media, fall in love and then meet in person. Maybe you could do that except you could just meet in person on the day of the wedding. What do you say?"

Vishal turned to face Rhea, speechless for a moment by her suggestion. "Thanks, that's an interesting idea. I'll tell my Grandma later to give my mobile number and email address to the girl she met yesterday."

***

The next day evening, Vishal entered his apartment and smelled the delicious aroma of his favourite fried snacks coming from the kitchen. He smiled and strolled over to the kitchen after leaving his laptop bag in the living room. His grandmother was standing at the stove, frying the snacks.

Vishal's hand reached for the hot snacks that his grandmother had just finished frying.

His grandmother smacked his hand before he could grab a piece as she said, "It's hot, don't touch it."