still blogging

I had been to Bangalore and back and attended an interview. I also drank coffee and ate biscuits but in the midst of all this I had something running in the back of my dirty mind. It was about two people who seem like they are the oldest living Homo sapiens that are living on the planet and they seem sometimes to be thinking like they were fossilized in time. They also sound like they are on the verge of insolvency when I have empty pockets and they talk like they are going to have an acute cardiac arrest if I tell them that I am going to come to the restaurant in shorts. Introducing the creatures from another epoch of history, Meet the Parents. What I write here is a love story that is a triangle a love triangle where there are no losers I title this piece

Love story a tribute to my parents

We guys are from a neo conservative background if you can’t understand that, then let me explain, my dad in his teens wore flowered bell bottoms and vibrant huge collared shirts but always completed the look with a smear of vermillion and ash on his forehead. He looked like Elvis Parthasarathy. To give him due credits, he looked like a DUDE in those days with his hair that looked like it was a victim of an oil slick and his and his spectacles that hid half his face. So this handsome hunk of sorts gets a job in LIC and they have the typical Pattanathu Mappilai. The prize catch for many young girls of that era. My mom was a typical south Indian petite girl who was shy of her own shadow.
This girl was supposedly soft spoken and very submissive. The key word being supposedly. The usual story of guys mom sees girl at guys cousins sisters aunts daughters husbands brothers wedding (don’t ask me again they were actually jobless in those days) and asks her bro to check out the girl. Then the usual match making begins and the girl is decked in jewels and all that to show her off to the guy and family.
My dad saw mom in one such ceremony and he asked her if she could cook to which her dad said she could. Dad asked her about education (??) my moms mom said sslc discontinued and my Dad then asked her about any further hobbies my uncle said none in particular (if you didn’t notice my mom never said a word she was probably speechless in shock at her (mis)fortune to be married to a bell bottom lambretta riding 5 10 Hitler mustache) girls in those days had big dreams you know.
The girl was okayed by the mother and then the father then the uncle then the sisters husband and the neighbor and her sister and so on and so forth (talk about total quality management I guess the japs have a lot to learn from our marriages) if you thought that next was marriage, then think again you have forgotten the most important base of all Indian weddings, the cornerstone of a happy marriage, love who needs love when there are horrorscopes(sic) they checked the pieces of weird looking designs and some old priest who probably knew Hebrew said that it was a good couple and then the marriage was fixed.
Marriage over and I you need those details then keep watching this space cos it will be up soon once mom and dad tell me about it
Details after marriage are the usual obvious ones and if you think I am going to ask mom and dad about them then let me tell you I am not interested in suicide or murder. I can say that because the one time I asked my mom about how I was born, she said that when she was asleep in the hospital then god gave her to me so I was god’s gift to them. If you actually think I bought that story then you are perfectly right. So you can pretty much understand what I thought of my genesis till health education in school opened my eyes and made me open a few inches of clothing(oops this one is about parents so lewd later)
They tried and tried and tried real hard to commit the blunder to get me into the world and finally after 20 yrs the stork paid a visit and the love triangle started
In k2h2 ishtyle “is kahani mein mummy hain aur anil”.
Get out of time warp I am not here to write the autobiography of an established loser so coming back to the present
It has been forty long years that my dad and mom have been living together. Are they happy I don’t know are they sad I don’t think so but yes they are still madly in love with each other as always before but things do change and so did their love
Something like, ten years ago my mom must have probably kissed my dad goodbye but now she just keeps his dress and perfume in the bathroom and his shoes ready, my dad must have brought flowers from office but now he comes home early and helps mom in cooking. They might have gone to a movie in the past everyday now they are addicted to going on walks every evening in the park. They can’t define privacy anymore cos they are open books to each other and I can’t define peace anymore cos they keep teasing and fighting each other.
Whenever I see them it feels like they are in complete harmony even when they are fighting. At ten every night dad goes to bed and mom watches tv with the volume that inspires neighbors to mute their sets but dad snores peacefully. My mom develops selective deafness to my dad’s snores ever heard of perfect bed partners!
They do not remember birthdays except mine and their marriage day means a dinner outside.
Sometimes it feels that all the bull shit about girl needs to know boy and love to be the base of a relationship before marriage seems to be utter crap. After all this write up is not just about my parents but it is the life of a majority of the dads and moms in Indian families and most of them were locked into marriage just by what we call” arranged marriage” I am not advocating against love marriage but I guess I am a fan of marital love
Finally I want to wish my dad and mom a happy life for long and god bless those two dinosaurs in love

By
Oruganty