Arranging An Affair

 

He is 28, 5’8’’, stable in India, well-educated, well-groomed and well-employed. She is 24, 5’4’’, fair, slim, attractive and upper middle-class with traditional values.

He was her parents’ first choice. Eager to have their kids close to them, ready to take care of the property and wealth, they wanted a boy working in India. When they inspected his impressive CV, they could not believe their luck in finding a wonderful specimen of that rare non-migratory breed.

She came second in his rank-list. His parents had vetoed his first choice (‘Heavy top and bottom’, his mother said. His father had not liked that fair girl’s dark-complexioned father or her homemaker-mother with ‘no status in society’).

His first impression of the second choice was, as expected, rather unfavorable (‘she is flat’, he had complained).  Then, he fell for her dimpled smile.

She remained unimpressed but she was pragmatic and decided to like him despite his ‘doggy dodgy dowdy’ look. She also hated the way he loudly chewed, chomped and slurped food. She kept her head demurely lowered then.

But on a ‘date’ on the Net, as they were then, all was well. He could see her dimpled smile. She was spared his vigorous mastication.

‘Papa and Mama will kill me if they know that I am here… with you,’ she said coyly. She did not tell him that her parents had got her a high-speed internet connection just for this purpose.

‘Oh really… my parents are cool about this,’ he said. His mother had warned him not to get ‘snared’ before ‘the final deal’. He saw this as his first, and probably last, chance for an indiscretion of any sort with a girl.

They chatted and flirted. Then, they got down to business.

‘Are you sure you will get a posting in London next year?’ she asked. He was quite sure she had asked him that question at least thrice before during that chat. Before her dazzling dimpled smile, his memory wilted.

‘Definitely,’ he replied confidently. Most unlikely, he wanted to add. He did not want to make that smile fade.

‘I want to study at the LSE, you know…’ she told him excitedly.

‘Well, don’t say that to my parents, ok?’ he advised.

‘My parents will hit the roof first if that gets out,’ her smile broadened. Then, she asked him, ‘Your parents are coming home this Sunday, right?’

‘Ah yes, I wanted to talk to you about that. You see, they will fix it for Sunday evening but they plan to surprise you all on Saturday morning.’

‘Why would they do that?’ she queried.

‘They want to see your family in a natural state,’ he replied sheepishly.

‘Natural?’ she sounded incredulous.

‘You know… without being decked up or totally prepared…’ He paused. She knew that he was going to say something disagreeable. ‘Can you make idli and chutney?’

‘Idli and chutney?’ she repeated once again, quite like a parrot.

‘Just show them that you can cook traditional breakfast, will you?’ he pleaded.

‘Don’t worry… I will get it from the Udupi hotel early morning,’ she comforted him.

‘Ok, that will do…’ he gave a sigh of relief.

‘By the way…’ she said.

‘Yes…?’

‘My parents are going to offer the house in the city,’ she informed him.

‘That’s lovely,’ he replied.

‘No, it is not,’ she said firmly before continuing, ‘that house is old and there is no water supply in that area. Tell your folks to ask for the one in the suburbs, ok? That is new and bigger. I think they are keeping that better one for my younger sister.’

He nodded sagely and admired her smile. They were going to make a good team, he thought.