Family At First Sight

Chapter Ten

It's been two days since I fainted at the mall, on seeing someone whom I was trying to forget. The last I saw him, he left me in the hospital room and turned his back on me. And before that, he left me in pain and went faraway, forever. Despite being completely ignored by him, why was I even thinking about him? I should have forgotten him long back, would have succeeded in it too, if he had not barged into my life again. Now I went through all those feelings of getting rejected, all over again. And the worst part was, I still held him in my heart, someway or the other. It was like, he took control over my mind and heart and refused to leave at once, as if he owned my soul. And I pitied myself for being affected by him this way. A smart and mature person would have thrown away such feelings and would have moved on. Not me. Perhaps I was a fool or maybe I didn't want him to fade away from my memories. But there was no use of pondering over these things, since there was nowhere to go further. So I had to decide. To either let myself drown in the misery or act like a big girl and forget that this ever happened. Oh, this is why I never wanted to grow up! Why do I have to make such life altering decisions by myself? Being an adult is really excruciating.

The next day, I was getting ready for work when my dad received a call from someone. I didn't bother listening to him until a familiar name was uttered. He was talking about Aditya. Wow, now I was all ears to what he was speaking and was trying to guess whom he was talking with. He spoke for a few more minutes, something about meeting someone. It all came in bits and pieces, since I was in the other room and didn't want to make it obvious that I was listening. After a minute or so, he hung up the call. I got ready, came out of the room and sat in the sofa, waiting for him to say something. My mom joined us too and she was eager to know what was spoken as well. My dad said, "It was Aditya's father,  the family we met regarding Ananya's marriage a few months back. He said he wanted to discuss something important". My mom was a bit angry regarding this whole thing, for the way they met with us and then rejected me with the reason of astrology. So when she heard my father say that they wanted to discuss something, her anger was even more visible now. "What could they possibly have to discuss with us? Is it not enough for them to break my child's heart one time that they want to come and break it again? Call them right away and say that we don't have anything to discuss with them anymore". I've never seen my mom getting tensed up like this on someone before. She was always kind to everyone. But she can't be blamed either. The way things took around, it was expected of her to get raged up like this. My dad tried to convince her, "Let us meet first and see what they have to say. It might be of importance and unless we listen to them, we wouldn't possibly know. But again, it's up to you Anu, to decide if you want them to come here and talk with us or not. We will let them know whatever you decide. I've told them that I'll let them know by tomorrow, if we want to meet them or not, so take your time and think about it".

Easy for him to let me decide it. He didn't have to make the toughest choice ever. A lot of questions kept churning inside my head. What could they possible have to discuss with us? Why were they interested to talk with us now, after seeing Aditya for not more than three days back? What should I do now? I couldn't decide it for myself, I was totally exhausted of this whole situation. I needed to talk with someone and that's when I decided to meet up with my two best buddies, Shivani and Sameera. I called them, planned to meet up at our usual place, at the back of a public library. The library was a secluded building, probably a century old and was near to my home. Since the world started to become digitized, there were not much people left to explore the wonders hidden within all those books that adorned the tall, vintage racks of the library. I spent most of my free time inside that very library, getting intimate with those books, loving them one by one. My friends accompany me there sometimes, only because there was an ice cream parlor nearby the library, that sold some lip- smacking gelato and when we had something important and private to discuss about. Behind the library building, there was a small patch of space and a big banyan tree was located in the center of that free space. Under the tree were two benches, that were movable and squeaked every time they were moved. We found this place and started using it since I became friends with the librarian, an elderly lady, around two years back. Since we visited the library often, she liked us a lot and so she'd let us use this place to spend time with each other, gossiping about things. And so, that place became the spot for our top- secret meetings.

After a hour or so, our crisis management team had gathered in our war room to discuss the issue on hand. On the day I met Aditya, after he left me in the room, my friends surrounded me like a hawk rounding it's prey and started grilling me for details. I poured everything out to them, till the point where he left me alone to deal with my emotions. Shivani and Sameera were not really happy with what happened and when I informed them of this sudden development, they were more eager than me to discuss on this. Shivani was being understanding as usual, since her words seemed to make sense, "I know it's really difficult for you to meet them and endure the pain all over again, but if you meet with them once, we might know what they actually have to say. Even if it doesn't change anything that have already happened, you might get some closure, once for all and then, you can move on with your life. I think you should let them come over and hear whatever they have to say". I gave her point a thought already, only if it was easy to decide. While I was thinking about what Shivani said, it didn't take even a minute for Sameera to put forth her wonderful wisdom on this matter. "I think you should call them yourself and say that they deserve hell. No wait, you should call them home, then say this on their face, it will be more impactful". When we were grasping whatever she just said, she started again, "Why are you guys even thinking? Of course you can't meet with them. That family already hurt you once and then to top it off, our Mr. Aditya made you cry and then left you in a room, alone! That's not a thing to be forgiven so easily. You are not going to meet with them Anu. If you have a change of heart, then I have to make sure you don't meet them. If needed, I will lock you up myself in a room so you wouldn't go meet them", she completed. Sigh! My life is a living contrary! We argued some more and when nothing helped, we decided to eat some awesome Italian gelatos to cool ourselves. Later that day, I went home and informed my dad of my decision. Despite being hurt, I wanted to hear what they had to say, for it might actually give me some closure that I needed. So I asked my dad to invite them over the weekend and decided to get this done with, once and for all. I only feared of Sameera and what she might do if she comes to know about this. To be on the safer side, I didn't inform either of them about my decision.

Then came the weekend. What a great start for it! Aditya, his mom and dad were to arrive this time, not the entire family like last time. If it would have been something good, then the presence of whole family would be great. But I guess even they knew not to torment me by getting everyone here. I kept getting calls from Shivani and Sameera but I didn't pick them up, in the fright of getting grilled by them and spilling the truth. The day was normal, with my normal chores, but then came the hour I wished would never come. It was around 3 pm and they might be here any minute now. I was in my room, hearing for any noises outside, and to figure out if they have arrived. I heard footsteps outside and within a few minutes, I got the call from my parents to come outside of my cove. I came out, looked straight in their eyes while I sat down. I might be emotional and sensitive in many ways, but I was not the one to be taken lightly when it comes to my self- respect. The way Aditya left me on that day, without even turning back once to look at me, it stung me so hard. And he was not going to do the same to me again. I sat near my mom, looking past Aditya, at their parents and wished them. They might have had their reasons to reject me, but I didn't want to be disrespectful to them in any way. They smiled at me back. They were a warm set of people I've ever seen, the kind I like the most. If this all would have not happened, I might have become quite close to them. Among all of this, I didn't even look at Aditya once.

After a minute or so, Adi's dad spoke, "I know you are not happy with our sudden arrival but there is something really important that we need to talk about. Firstly, we are genuinely apologetic for whatever had happened in the past. We really liked Ananya and we wouldn't find another girl like her even if we search. I'm saying this from my heart and it's the truth my whole family believes along with me". I didn't even get a hint of where he was going with this. Then he continued, "We didn't lie to you when we said that our astrologer didn't approve of Adi's and Ananya's match. It was true and still is. But our Adi here, he is not the kind of son who does as he pleases. He have always listened to us and have been a really loving son to our family. Among all of my children, he is the only one who never asked me for anything by himself in his life. Whatever we provided him, he was happy to get it as is and never once did he oppose or despise us in any way. But for the first time in his life, he asked for only one thing to us. And it's Ananya". For a second there, I couldn't listen or think. I was still shocked by whatever he just said. I sat there numb, neither reacting to anything nor thinking about anything. "Yes, Adi literally fought with us for two days since he saw Ananya at the mall. We tried convincing him about all that had happened and the fact that their zodiac doesn't still match, but we couldn't do so. He is dead set on getting married to Ananya, despite everything. Ananya is the only one he asked us willingly in these many years and we couldn't deny him from giving our permission. There's nothing more important than the happiness of our children, is there? But it's not our permission that matters here, it's rather yours. Or more importantly, Ananya's. We want to get Aditya married to Ananya and we came here today in the hope of getting your acceptance on this", he completed.

My parents were in utter shock. They couldn't react on whatever Adi's dad said and so was I. They didn't know my meeting with Aditya at the mall earlier that week or that I went to the hospital. I didn't want them to get worried about me, so I hid this from them. After a few minutes of thinking, my dad spoke, "I know our children's happiness is the only thing that matters and for my girl, we need nothing else too. But before we could go any further on this, I wish to discuss with my wife and Anu. It's her decision that's important, after all". But I knew what I had in my mind and what I wanted to say on this. There was no doubt in my mind on what to decide. Before anyone else could speak for me like I was not even there, I voiced out my decision, "It was really great of you to come here, despite everything that had happened, and talk about this. I know it would have not been easy for you to agree to your son's wishes and ask me to marry him. And I really feel bad to disappoint you, but I can't marry Aditya ...".


*** Stay tuned for the next chapter, folks! ***