After breakfast dishes were cleared away, Arun’s mother
brought out a binder and sat next to him on the living room sofa. He flipped open the cover and a wide eyed
young girl stared back at him. The
girl’s eyeballs seemed to pop out of the picture and he turned the page
over. A sweet looking girl with a rather
large beauty spot on her upper lip greeted him.
He observed this picture a while, and leafed the sheet over and over and
over for several pages. Before reaching
the end of the binder, he had narrowed down about ten girls based on just their
looks.
After lunch, as his parents took in their afternoon siesta,
Arun scanned through the resumes of the selected girls. He narrowed down his choices to seven girls
and later as they drank the evening tea, he handed the chosen names to his
parents. This proved to be too many
since his time was very limited, so his parents got to work, making
appointments.
Some families were comfortable letting their daughters meet
the stranger alone, in a coffee shop or restaurant, others insisted having Arun
and his parents over for dinner or tea. Before
the day was over, Arun’s calendar filled up for the rest of the week, with
lunch or dinner or evening tea, and one even insisted on meeting for breakfast
at a newly opened crepes and omelet place.
As his eyelids became heavier before dinner was served, Arun
also was aware of the slight flutter in his heart. He couldn’t quite discern whether it was
excitement or anxiety or just plain fatigue from the 24 hour long journey. His sleep was deep at first, gradually
forging into restlessness as images of dark eyes, black beauty spots, round
high cheeks, a shy sly smile flew around him as if tiny robotic birds,
fluttering their little wings, and buzzing up and over his head. He woke with a start, beads of sweat settling
on his forehead like little jewels. Re-orienting
himself and remembering the yoga woman from the park, he began to take steady
breaths as he inhaled deeply and exhaled completely. Calmed down enough he slowly reclined back and
eventually fell into a deep, peaceful slumber.
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