An Arranged Pelli choopulu - Character 1

I am 25 years old, I have never been in a relationship,single my entire life because until I was 18, I studied in an all-girls school and a women’s college. I was never interested in making random friends, so I didn't had a chance to meet “The One.” by the time I went into co-ed space in lost interest in all the love dramas by watching my friends relationships sagas or May be my brain wanted to be loyal to the man who had not yet entered my life.

I am also fully aware that I am not a “society standard” beauty, and I have to face rejections for it (though I am always thankful for whatever I have). That is why, when I was around 21 or 22 years old, I decided that whenever I got an arranged sambandham, I would contact the person directly before they came home. I will plan to meet him outside and tell him clearly that if he wanted to reject me, he could reject me there itself, without coming home and going through the formalities. I did not want my parents to feel sad because of a rejection.

But life does not happen the way we plan.

So… THE FIRST at HOME.

On one usual week-off Friday, I was at my friend’s house, chilling with my friends, when I received a message from a woman (his sister) on WhatsApp. She said they had seen my profile on a matrimony site and were interested. I asked how she got my number, and she said she worked in the same organization as me. I told her to speak with my father.

When I showed the profile to my parents, they liked his job and the fact that they were a small family like ours. However, they were concerned about the distance between our native places.

But my concern was not the distance.it was THE PLACE 

because I have around 10–15 friends from that area and its surroundings. I know the mentality of the people there. My best friend since I was 16 is also from that place. She often visits my area because all of us belong to the same region except her. She knows our families and our friends’ families. She knows the mindset of the people here and the way people think here. She has mentioned hundreds of times how much she dislikes the mindset of the people in her place and there is vast difference in the way people from our place and her native place and how she never wanted to stay there because of society over there.

Later, his sister spoke with my father. He explained all my details, and she explained her brother’s details and some of his history. My parents told me the whole story, and we all thought, Everyone has a past, what’s wrong in that. Next Friday after I returned from an exhibition, we were talking normally when my father suddenly said, “They are visiting us on Sunday.”

I was shocked because he hadn’t told me anything in between their conversations. When I asked why he didn’t inform me earlier, he said, “okaroju elikata,okaroju Shadnagar, okaroju exhibition, okaroju chintu” intlo unnava asalu. I wasn’t at home and was roaming around visiting friends.

I had planned leave from work just to take a break and visit my friends.

I felt sad because my plan to meet HIM before he came home had failed. I had only one day left and couldn’t do anything. I searched for him on Instagram and found his profile with no bio, private account. I did nothing further.

On Saturday, I called my cousin ANU and explained all my nervousness and the questions running in my mind. She gave me all the possible prep talks, and I felt relieved.

Finally.

THE DAY

I woke up, freshened up, and had breakfast. I told my parents that this sambandham was going to reject me. One of the strongest reasons could be my skin color (I look darker in real but a bit fairer in picture) and my height that I’m 5’6”(My father measured with tape before mentioning my height), and I was sure he wouldn’t be the same height as me.

My parents said, “Let’s see.”

Around 10:30 a.m., my aunties came and told me to get ready. My pedha aunty specifically told me to wear the maroon dress I wore for Diwali nomulu. So I wore the maroon dress, looked at myself in the mirror, and felt like I had tanned more than usual because of roaming and riding scooty in sun, but whatever that's how I am right now.

Around 11:35 a.m., his family arrived. I stayed in my room, and after 10 minutes, they called me to sit in front of them. I went and sat down. In the very first glimpse, I felt like I was going to disappoint my family. I sensed 101% rejection from their family.

After about 10 minutes, my aunt suggested that he and I talk privately. We went to my room. He asked me questions, I answered them. I asked him some questions, he answered. Our conversation went on for almost 30 minutes.

At first, I was nervous. I don’t even remember half of the answers I gave but as I remember I said truth only. as we kept talking, I became a little comfortable. He was calm and he talks like he know what he was talking on other hand I am doing all the nervous talking. He had looked at my social media profile and spoke about topics I genuinely love to discussing, the kind of topics I would happily talk about with a close friend on any random day.

So many thoughts ran through my mind:

“Why did this man come as a pelli sambandham? I wish he was my classmate or colleague!”

Is he genuinely enjoying this conversation or just pretending?

Why is he asking me questions and wanting to know about me if his family is going to reject me?

Does everyone get this much time to talk during pelli choopulu?

Oh my God, there are so many random things in my room ..... what must he be thinking?

Does he think I’m crazy?

How can I tell him that the random things on my walls aren’t random? They are things my brother pasted there when he was a little boy, and I don’t want to remove them.

Does he thinking my family is loud?

I miss Chintu and Anu besides me:(

His he thinking i edited the photograph??? No didn't add any filter it's just how I look when I get ready

Am I too tall and too dark ? No, I am what I am born in a family with tall genes and dark skin.

How can I stop this conversation?

Damn!!!! I am not putting sentences correctly.

Even while answering, a hundred thoughts were running in my mind.

If the same conversation had been with same person in other situation and other place, I would have lost track of time talking. But here the place the time the situation every thing is wrong.

THEY LEFT

I got scared that he had stalked my profile and read my blogs which is publicly available but yet no one ever who I not met read my blogs or seen my entire twitter timeline so I immediately make my Twitter account private and removed my blog link from bio.

After everyone left, I was still nervous, replaying the entire conversation in my head ....because for the first time in my life, I had spoken to a stranger man for almost 30 minutes about my personal things and enjoyed the conversation.

Andddd THE DAY ended with mandatory crying session. XoXo