Gamophobia

Vijay Anand had accomplished everything in his life. A profit generating large scale business, own house, an Suv and a reasonably good bank balance. He was proud of the fact that he hadn’t inherited his business or property from his forefathers but he had earned it through his own hard work. Almost on the verge of retirement, he had nothing to worry about except getting his only daughter Lavanya married and settled with an educated and respectable man. Lavanya was beautiful, independent, intelligent and humble. She was headstrong and never believed in mincing her words. She spoke the facts as they were, just the way he had taught her to be. But that never made Vijay worried. What worried him was the fact that his daughter was gamophobic.

A few failed relationships in the past had pushed her to this extent. She wasn’t exactly against the concept of marriage but whenever the topic of her own came up, she would create a ruckus. Vijay tried his best to convince Lavanya for an arranged marriage. But she rejected all the proposals which came her way due to her fear of commitment. No matter how good looking, qualified or rich the prospective groom was. Dating was something she had avoided since the last four years. Whenever the father-daughter duo discussed, every discussion turned into an argument. Had his wife been alive today, maybe the situation would have been different. Maybe she wouldn’t be as stubborn as she was now. Since the last few years, she had become a workaholic and had no social life whatsoever. She avoided meeting new people and going to new places. Most of the times, she kept herself busy with some or the other work and on weekends, she mostly stayed in her room.

At the age of 28, she was a depressed and lonely soul who had lost her way, with somewhat no purpose to live. Vijay was dearly worried about Lavanya. Yes, he still wanted her to get married. But her happiness was of primary concern to him, irrespective of her marital status. All he wanted was to see her smile. The first thing he did was to stop searching an alliance for her. He tried his best to make her understand that all men aren’t the same. He too was a man who had always been faithful to his wife. Even though Lavanya was hesitant in the beginning, Vijay somehow convinced her to visit a doctor and attend some psychotherapy sessions. The therapies used were Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure therapy and Family therapy. She was also advised anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medicines. Along with the sessions, she also enrolled for a happiness course.

It took her time to garner some positivity within herself and Vijay knew he couldn’t rush matters with Lavanya. One day, while he was taking a stroll in a near by park, he heard a young man call out his name.

“ Vijay Uncle!!! Vijay uncle!!!” He turned around and had a good look. The man in front of him was tall, muscular and handsome. His smile was radiant. By the looks of it, he seemed to be in his early thirties. Vijay felt he looked pretty familiar but couldn’t come to a definite conclusion about his identity.

“ What a pleasant surprise! It’s been days I’ve been looking for you and this is the way I find you here. Taking a walk in a park.” The man continued further while Vijay just stared at him, confused.

“ I’m sorry, young man. But I fail to recognise you. Who are you?” He asked him politely. The man smiled again, this time in a devilish way.

“ I find it really strange that you have forgotten your only son-in law so soon. I’ve been searching you desperately on social media and everywhere. I even went to your old home. But you left without any traces…………” Vijay grabbed the man’s t-shirt collar, without allowing him to complete. He didn’t hear the rest of the words. He only heard ‘ Your only son-in-law.’

“ How dare you? My daughter isn’t even married.” And that’s when it struck him. In the past, his late best friend Kishor’ son mostly teased him with those words. As a kid, whenever Vijay asked the boy what he wanted to be as a grown up, he would always say, “ I want to be your son-in-law.” As the memories started flashing back, Vijay couldn’t control his tears.

“ Oh my God!!! It’s you!!! Rahulllll!!!” Rahul nodded his head and gave him a bear hug.

Both the men had a long chat for almost an hour while taking a walk. Vijay even invited Rahul for dinner the following Sunday. When Lavanya came to know about it, she too was happy as Rahul had always been her childhood family friend. She eagerly waited to meet him after almost more than a decade. After his parents’ death in a car accident, he had moved into another city with his relatives and they had lost touch. While Lavanya’s intentions were pure, Vijay being the father of a daughter; had selfish intentions of his own. From the time he had met Rahul, the idea had crossed his mind more than a million times. From their conversation, he had just discovered that he was still unmarried. The big question was if he had a girlfriend or not. And even if he didn’t have one, would he be interested in his daughter? Sure, he had referred himself as his son-in-law but that didn’t imply. He might be still joking just as he was as a kid. And will his daughter get over her fear and agree to this union? Eventually, he decided to just wait and watch.

On Sunday, when Rahul visited them, Vijay observed him like a hawk. His joy on meeting Lavanya knew no bounds. Lavanya too seemed chirpy in his presence and both got along really well. For starters, it didn’t look like they had met after a decade or so. Vijay felt as if the two friends had never been separated at all. They spoke for hours on end about everything under the sun. Even though it was too early to predict anything, this was a good sign.

Rahul and Lavanya grew closer and closer as the months flew by. Vijay felt that Rahul was someone Lavanya had wanted her entire life. A true friend who listened to her without being judgemental. He understood her without her uttering a single word. Within a short span, she had bared her heart to him. Something that hadn’t happened in a long time. He knew of her weaknesses and fears and helped her overcome them. Rahul’s wittiness and sharp sense of humor brought out another personality of Lavanya in front of the world. The one which she never knew existed. Now, she smiled, laughed and even cracked some jokes of her own.

One day, when Lavanya wasn’t around, Rahul casually asked Vijay a question Vijay was hoping he would ask one day. “ Do you mind if I date your daughter?” Vijay laughed at his frankness and assured him that he wouldn’t mind anything if his daughter readily agreed to it. In fact, he had always wanted it. The hesitant Lavanya took around 2 months to agree to date him. Once Rahul and Lavanya started dating, there was no looking back for them. They were like a house on fire; constantly making fun of each other with each other. They weren’t the typical mushy lovebirds type, but the more practical ones. A year later, they decided to get hitched. Unexpectedly, it was Lavanya who popped the big question.

At their engagement venue, Vijay sneaked Rahul into a corner before the ceremony started. One question was killing Vijay from the inside for a very long time and he had to ask his future son-in-law, no matter what.

“ Did you always want to be my son-in-law since the time you were a kid? Since I’m 100% sure, at the age of 5, you might not have known even the meaning of it.” Rahul laughed hysterically for a good two minutes, annoying the old man even further. As his laughter came to a halt, a tear streamed down his eyes.

He wiped the tear from his eye and smiled at an impatient Vijay.

“ You can’t blame me for that one. It was entirely Dad’s idea. I was just following his instructions.” Vijay was even more confused than before.

“ What do you mean?”

“ Since you had a habit of asking every kid about his or her ambition, Dad had trained me to say those words. He didn’t know that they eventually would turn out to be true.”

Vijay looked up at the sky above as he remembered his best friend and his antics. Rahul was just like him. As a punishment, he pulled his son-in-law’s right ear. Both laughed at each other as a puzzled Lavanya approached them.

“ So, what’s the joke I don’t know about?” Their laughter grew even more louder as she looked at them with anticipation.