Puspraindu

"He is such a nice guy, why do you need time?"My mother said to me. I am Shona, a 25-year-old Bengali girl. My maa is worried about my marriage like any other mother. She is more worried because my father is retired and above all a diabetic. If anything goes wrong how will things happen, this scares her a lot. Unfortunately, he had a poor health line.

It was the time of Durga puja. In Kolkata during Durga puja, it rains. The raindrops spoil the fun of puja pandal hopping. I never liked the rain. My makeup, new dress everything becomes messy because of this rain.

I don't know why people find it romantic? Its good for the environment agreed but maa Durga can definitely do without rain during this four-day visit. Its time for fun, food, fashion, which Indra dev spoils. Another thing which I love the most is' bijaya'. In our family, we all visit each other's home for bijaya and enjoy delicious food.

But this year it's different. Somebody came to see me. Like every year this year also it's raining. He was late as it was raining. My parents and big brother liked him very much. In his white shirt, rain wetted spots were clearly visible. The creases said a few hours before it was a crispy shirt, the hairs said I am not gel, I am a raindrop. He came with his friends to my home. This thing impressed my brother a lot. My parents were completely clean bold with his innocence. But I was not impressed with anything. I failed to understand what's so special which makes him the best choice for me.

The whole day my mother was talking about him. My baba realised my feelings and said we will go to Rishra in the evening. My aunt lives there. It's a beautiful place, near the river Ganga. While coming back we were waiting for the ferry. The weather was wonderful, cold breeze, the music of waves, chirping of birds, I felt so light and refreshed. I hugged my baba tightly, I felt relaxed. Baba asked gently feeling better now? How come parents come to know everything without saying anything."Puspendu is a good boy, his parents are also simple people. I have spoken to him and think he can be a good life partner." Your mother is not forcing you, you know she wants your happiness. Baba asked me to meet him again to clear my doubts.

So we met again. It was second October, our first date and individually also it was the first date of our life. Heavy rain was in the forecast, so I took an umbrella with me. We met at Dunlop. He asked me where do you want to go and I told him with my suspicious eyes somewhere nearby. He saw an umbrella in my hand and to make me comfortable said: "Miss Geographer, don't worry about rain, let's take a taxi and go to Tollygunj". Public transport reduces pollution, the metro train is a better option, I said, actually I was very nervous.

He agreed in one go!!!, we got inside the metro. I was thinking about how to call at the time of getting down, but what a coincidence we both turned back at the same time and got down. We came out of the metro station and saw it was drizzling. We walked to Nandan (without opening an umbrella). He took me to a food court there, ordered ginger tea and pakoras. This a common point, later we chatted about food, cinema, job. He asked me" what confusion you have, you can ask me ?" Is he a mind reader?

Then he asked me, are you ready to shift Delhi? I was not ready for this question. There was a pin drop silence. I was completely blank. We didn't speak for a few minutes, there was the only sound of raindrops, it started raining heavily. The waiter came with the bill. We decided to leave. He said taxi will be a better option now, I just nodded my head. It was raining so heavily I was not able to manage my umbrella, he helped me to hold me till the cab. Inside the cab also we didn't speak. I was feeling guilty as I knew my silence and body language doesn't indicate any positive thing. There was nothing wrong with him, it was me who was jealous of him. My mother praising someone else so much made me mad. My house came, he left the cab and came with me till the main gate and yes he was holding the umbrella. He handed me my umbrella and said bye. I asked him to take the umbrella, "I love rain."He smiled and left.

I entered home and my maa was about to ask me how was everything but baba looked at maa, then maa just said change and have tea. How baba and maa understand each other by looking at their eyes?

The whole night I just kept on thinking, he is polite, sophisticated, has a good sense of humour also, in short, a perfect gentleman. Then why I am so tensed, not able to take any decisions.

Next morning my brother came and asked me, whether your doubts are clear or not? I told him about my dilemma. About the guy and his family parents have done all the research. Now it's your turn, if you feel safe and secure then you can go ahead. Its yes from all of us. Maa came with the phone in her and whispered Puspendu's mother has called, she wants to talk to you, I ran to the washroom as I didn't know the answer. I heard from there my maa said 'Yes'.

After one month we met for the ring ceremony, it rained again. After that, I named him 'Puspraindu'. Now we are married with two kids and we all love rain.