The Accidental Marriage

The facade

Ravi entered the office with uncertainty on his face. The problem was that he married over the weekend and did not invite anyone to his wedding. As he pressed the lift key he prayed for no familiar face in the lift. Luckily there was none in the lift. The lift started moving and before the lift reached the ninth floor his mind went overdrive as millions of scenarios played in it. He was imagining the words he was going to get from his colleagues.

"You thought we were not worth even a single dinner?"

"I planned my marriage based on your availability and you did not even invite me?" 

"I told all of you he was lying. He had a girlfriend, and they eloped and got married."

He was sure these were the lines he was going to get. But things were different in the office. As he entered the office, he saw a big banner behind his cubicle with "Congratulations on your marriage" written on it. But to his surprise, there was no one around. He was confused. With no clue, he walked like a zombie to his cubicle. He clicked the power button on his computer and there was a loud noise. He turned to the side from where the sound was coming from. That was when he saw a crowd of his colleagues. They were all singing, whistling, and hooting. They hid all this while to surprise him.

Sudha, on whom Ravi had an eye for for a long time, carried a cake which read, congratulations. Seeing her crushed him further. She congratulated him and handed him the knife to cut the cake. After a little hesitation, he cut the cake, and another girl in the group shared the pieces of cake with the group.

After finishing the cake each of the colleagues wished Ravi personally and handed gifts. There were varied gifts. A few online marketplace coupons, a few personalized gifts, and a few other cash gifts. Many of them asked for a party and he promised them one soon. After about an hour the commotion settled. Some colleagues went about their work. A few started browsing in search of new jobs. A few were playing on their phones. Others acted like they were busy by attending meetings for hours.

Ravi thought he would be happy if he had not got any probing questions from his team. Interestingly, his wish came true. He ideally should have gone on with his day, but something was eating him away. He could not concentrate on anything.

Lost in his thoughts, Ravi was browsing through and answering his emails with the minimal interest he could muster. Suresh, best friend of Ravi, came to Ravi's desk. Ravi had a little excitement back in him. He was sure Suresh was going to enquire about his marriage. But Suresh did not. Suresh came to take Ravi out for a coffee break. Ravi got up from his desk and started to walk behind Suresh.

"Yeah, he will ask me at the canteen. He does not want to ask in front of others", thought Ravi.

Suresh ordered coffee for the two and they both walked to a corner of the canteen and sat down on the empty table. Ravi was waiting for Suresh to bring up the subject of his wedding. Before he could bring it up, Naveen came to their table. Naveen came waving his mobile phone in their faces, on which it had a viral video.

The rash driver

The video was from a WhatsApp forward that was going around. It was from a media channel popular for its over-the-top dramatisation. The video with the reporter's voiceover went like this.

"The girl had dreams. The girl had a life. But that one morning changed everything. The innocent girl wore her favourite white dress and had a nice red nail polish that morning. She had something more on her face, a smile. A smile, that greeted everyone in her office with positivity." 

The video cuts out a few random people.

"She was a very joyful girl. "I cannot believe this happened to her", said one girl.

"She is a very good driver too. "She only hit the parking check post once or twice", added another girl.

The reporter asked what she meant. 

"See, the check post keeps moving when we are exiting. There are hardly a few seconds before you can exit the post. I keep hitting it in a hurry. "She is more controlled", the girl replied.

The video cut back to the road where the purple scooter was moving at a moderate speed and the anchor continued.

Seeing the speed of the girl said the anchor and zoomed to the speedometer. No one could make out anything. However, a digital pop-up came in graphics showing the audience 30KMPH. The scooter kept moving and before we could see what was happening there was a big thud. After that, we are shown the girl getting into the ambulance with a broken leg.

The anchor voice came back.

"The girl's red nail polish was mixed with a red of the blood. Can that girl again wear a red nail polish, after seeing all that blood? The white dress was all dirty. Can that girl ever wear a white dress again? You might feel, why not? But we are asking would any man come forward to marry that girl after her leg broke?" 

The video cuts to a girl crying in the bride's saree with Mehndi in her hands. She turns around to the camera. The camera zooms into her eyes. From her eyes comes a fast-driving bike. The speedometer shows a 120 MPH.

"I conclude this news with a warning to all men. Don't drive rashly and spoil a girl's life."

The video concluded.

Naveen closed the mobile and said, "Because of this video all women's organizations are calling for some action from government."

"What action?", asked Suresh.

"Don't know. "But they want to make sure something like this never happens again", said Naveen.

"Because of one idiot driving rash, we all must pay the price", exclaimed Suresh.

He added, "Did they know who caused the accident?"

Ravi responded, "I know."

The innocent victim

"How?" asked Naveen and Suresh in unison.

"Take a look at this video", said Ravi showing them what looked like a dash cam video.

It was Ravi's car. Both Naveen and Suresh made out immediately from the first frame of the video. The car was cruising at a moderate pace. There was a ringing sound and Ravi picked up the call on his Bluetooth.

Naveen jumped in before finishing the video and said, "How many times have I told you to not answer a call while driving?"

Ravi shushed Naveen and pointed to the video, meaning for him to continue watching.

Ravi answered and said, "I am reaching the office in ten minutes and was going to call once reaching the office".

The car continued moving. Ravi started the day early to attend an early meeting. So, there was little traffic around at that time. Naveen and Suresh saw very few cars or bikes around. A few seconds pass and they hear a sound. Sounded like some crackers. Ravi was eating something. Ravi had not had breakfast. So, he brought some biscuits and was eating them on the way to the office. Naveen wanted to say something but kept quiet. Ravi's car was at a halt and the dashcam caught the traffic signal, it was red. A few seconds later the light turned green. Ravi had always been a driver who pressed hard after he saw green. But this time he did not start immediately. Ravi was busy putting his biscuit pack back and did not accelerate immediately. Ravi was honking around to move. He put his car in gear to start his car moving. That was when they saw the purple scooter for the first time in the video. A second later there was a big commotion and a little while later the ambulance.

"So, you are the reason for the accident?" asked Naveen.

"No, man", said Ravi.

"Then what?", asked Suresh.

"See the video again in slow motion", said Ravi.

They watched the video in slow motion from the time they saw the purple scooter. Still, they could not make it.

"I don't see anything", said Suresh and Naveen.

This time Ravi showed it to them, starting from the point just before the accident.

"See here, the jerk. That was my car coming to a halt. In a hurry, I did not release the hand brake. See where the scooter is coming from. It came from the wrong route and hit me."

"What are you trying to say?" asked Naveen.

"That girl lost control of her scooter on top of the flyover. The steepness of the flyover made her come too fast and hit my car", said Ravi.

"You should have sent this to the news and cleared your side", said Suresh.

"I cannot", said Ravi in a mild tone.

"Why?" asked Suresh.

No answer from Ravi.

"Tell us why?" asked Suresh and Naveen in unison this time.

"Because my wife said I cannot do that", said Ravi.

"What?! Why?" exclaimed Naveen and Suresh.

"Because she was the one driving the purple scooter", Ravi replied.

The punishment

"What? You got married?", asked Naveen.

Ravi nodded to mean yes.

"Without inviting any of us", added Suresh.

Ravi kept quiet as he did not know what to tell his friends.

"So, you married this girl who caused an accident to your car and bad-named all men", asked Naveen.

Ravi nodded again.

"But, why?", asked Suresh.

"After the accident, to not get killed by the angry crowd I followed the ambulance to the hospital by the crowd. Everyone already made up their mind that I was the culprit. Very soon the girl's whole family was at hospital. Her mother started crying. Her father, a police officer, dragged me out and started to scare me. Who will marry my handicapped daughter now? He asked in a scary tone. I kept telling him it was my fault, but he did not listen", said Ravi.

"Then what happened?" asked Naveen.

"He asked me to call my family to the hospital. He said I was behaving immature, and he only was going to talk to my parents. I don't know what went on after my parents came to the hospital. There were some agreements, and a pujari was called, and I got married on the hospital bed and registered the same day."

"But you did nothing", said Naveen.

Ravi had no answer or anything to add to Naveen's comment.

"Why did your family agree to any of this? Did you not show the video?" asked Suresh.

Before Ravi could say something, Naveen started laughing.

"What? Why are you laughing?" asked Suresh.

"I know….wwww", Naveen said laughing.

"What? What?" asked Suresh.

Ravi looked to have nothing to say and looked guilty.

So, Naveen started, "Last month I went to his home. His mother said no girl is agreeing to marry Ravi. So, she told me to look for a match for him. I asked what kind of girl she was looking for. Anyone is fine, she should be a girl that is all, she said."

"What that had to do with any of this?" asked Suresh to Naveen.

"Simple, Ravi's father and mother thought anyway the girl is in trouble and won't find a groom. So, they made a deal with the girl's parents for marriage", said Naveen and kept on laughing.

Ravi nodded to confirm Naveen's story.

The anti-climax

Naveen, Suresh, and Ravi finished their tea and were heading back to work. They saw Sudha walking towards them.

She stopped Ravi and said, "Congratulations, on your marriage", once more.

"Thank you", Ravi replied. Naveen and Suresh were laughing away next to him.

"I always thought you would propose to me. All these years I rejected all proposals", said Sudha.

Suresh and Naveen looked in disbelief at each other.

"Now, I will go ahead and get married", she added and left.

Ravi turned to Naveen and Suresh who were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes.

P.S.: Something was bugging Naveen, so he smuggled out the dashcam video from Ravi's phone and sent it to the TV channel. He added a question how did you confirm it was a rash bike driver?" A few hours later Naveen got an updated video from his WhatsApp. All the content of the video remained the same except there was a Formula 1 car jumping out of the girl's eyes and the speedometer reading 300 KMPH.