The choice

It was Saturday evening and Anubhuti wanted to go to her friend’s house just to meet her, but her mother was forcing her to go to a beauty parlour for manicure and facial as she was of marriageable age and a family was coming to see her.Anubhuti somehow prepared herself to go to the beauty parlour.She thought that again she would have to do all the same things which she had done previously .She would have to do all the make up and she would have to wear a sari again and very politely she would be answering all the questions asked by the boy’s parents.She was now fed up of doing all these things as she got rejected five times.It was not like that she did not want to get married.Like every girl, she had also dreams about her marriage.But, somehow she always wanted to marry a known guy.No, she was not interested in love marriage, but wanted to marry a guy who knew her like a family friend’s son or a boy living next door who knew her nature and and a guy like this would have been able to see her in her original form i.e. without make up.But,she was not so lucky.She always believed in simplicity and originality.She could not understand why girls love to do make up.So, she really used to hate the procedure for the arranged marriage where a girl was treated like a non-living object kept in a show room for sale. Her mother usually tried to convince her by telling her,”kya kerogi, har ladki ko yeh kerna padta hai”.

Next morning, everybody got up early in the morning.As the boy’s family had given the time of 11 o’clock , so everybody at her home was busy doing his/her share of work.Her mother prepared many things.Her father and brother were engaged in arranging furniture and Anubhuti was busy in preparing herself.She was a bit nervous too.This time, she just wore a salwar kurta and not a sari.Everything was done around 11 o’clock and her family start waiting for the boy’s family.But they did not turn up.After 2 hours of waiting,her father called at their home.The boy’s mother picked up the phone and told him that her husband had gone outside to see some land.Her father got furious and told her that they had been waiting for them .The lady told that now they would try to come around 4 o’clock.Anubhuti just thought that these people even did not have manners to inform.She was very particular about these things.

Everybody at her home had sleepless night as all were anxiously waiting for her result.Anubhuti was worried for a different reason.She was thinking that what if they said”yes”. And her fear came true.She was finally selected.The result was out and everybody at her home was happy.Her mother asked her whether she had accepted the proposal.Anubhuti was silent and said nothing.Her mother understood that she was not willing for the proposal.Her mother told her that she would not get a better guy as she was an average looking girl and moreover she used to wear glasses and a bit overweight .She again told her that she should decide considering all these things.Her mother told her that she was lucky as she had been asked to take her own decision.Her mother continued telling her that 27 years ago when she got married,nobody bothered her to ask her about her choice.Just her father decided and fixed the marriage.He even did not ask for a single time about her choice.Anubhuti just listening to her and said nothing.After a while, she went to her room.She just wanted to decide alone what to do.But, before deciding anything she just started crying.She really did not want to marry this guy.She knew that Sanjay was not her cup of tea.But circumstances were against her.She was an intelligent girl, and she always wanted an intelligent guy.But, Sanjay did not seem to be such a guy.Moreover his pay was also less.Her parents said that in private companies as you switch over your salary would also increase, so she should not bother about that.Anubhuti had a wrong idea for many years that to attract an intelligent man, she should also be intelligent.But now she realised that to attract an intelligent man she should be beautiful.All intelligent men rejected her.She also thought that why she opted for HR in MBA.All Marketing students got placed, but in spite of being a topper, she was not yet placed.If she was doing a job ,the situation would had been different.She started blaming herself for all the things.She knew that this was the right age for her marriage but she knew that Sanjay was not the right person for her.She was unable to decide and she just wiped her tears and came out of the room as she was thirsty.While she was in the kitchen, she heard her mother talking to her Nani on phone.Her mother was telling Nani that Anubhuti’s marriage had been fixed and her Nani was asking more about the boy and his family.Anubhuti was shocked and shattered .Hurriedly she went inside her room.She decided that she would say a big NO.Her heart, mind everything was against this proposal.After 10 minutes, she came to her mother.Her mother asked about her decision.She just opened her mouth to tell her about her decision.Again her brain told her to say,”NO”.She listened to her brain and forced herself to say, ”NO”, but her voice started chocking .She somehow manged to give the answer and she said,”Yes, I am ready for the marriage”.Her mother got happy to know this answer and she immediately brought a plate full of curd and started forcing it with a spoon in her mouth and she kept saying,”Ladki ne hana ker di”.But Anubhuti was thinking that she was so lucky that her mother asked about her choice and decision.