This year’s trip to London was
memorable for many reasons. For starters, unlike the previous time, the weather
for most days was supportive. Those who have travelled to London will agree
that the weather there is as unpredictable as our cricket team these days! My
meetings went well and the client appeared appreciative of our efforts. I now
hope we are able to deliver a solution to their expectations.During the trip, my boss and I met an old colleague and her husband for dinner.
We have known her for many years now; she and I having started our careers
together in 2010 as Trainee(s) in the same firm that I am currently employed
with. She relocated to London somewhere around 2013 and currently stays there
with her husband.
We met on a Friday
evening and decided to go to a nearby Chinese Restaurant – Ping Pong Dim Sum at
St. Katherine’s Dock for dinner. It is a
casual dining restaurant that serves a variety of Chinese dishes (apart from
Dim Sums) and some innovative cocktails. Being a Friday evening, the place was
bustling with people and inspite of not having a reservation we still were able to
get a table fairly quickly. Just as we were getting started, we saw another
Indian family walking in. There was a mid-aged gentleman, a beautiful lady
(looked like his wife) and four young girls: two of them seemed as if they were
in high school and the other two looked like in their twenties. They were an
extremely good looking family; one that immediately reminded me of the
attractive faces one often gets to see in the chic Sindhian magazine. One of
the elder girls in particular (who was sitting opposite me at some distance)
wearing an off-shoulder top looked splendid.
As the evening progressed, the topic that all
of us came back to every now and then was my wedding. It almost seemed to be a
million dollar question that the other three wanted to know about. I find it amazing that as soon as you touch the magical “30” years mark how closely your identity gets linked to
your marital status!. In order to wriggle out of the situation I jokingly said
that if I could, I would happily marry the chic babe wearing the off-shoulder
top. We all laughed and my boss (knowing my love for Sindhis) even commented
that if left to me, I would also wish that she turns out to be Sindhi as well! (Well,
I have to confess he is right; no harm in wishing!). The remainder of the meal
was uneventful where we were busy with general chit-chat. We decided to have
desserts and coffee at the next door Café Rouge as the couple wanted to
have Tiramisu. We sat out, under a heater at Café ,as the weather was quite
pleasant with a slight chill in the air. (Very much like Delhi without the
pollution in Mid-November). Each time the conversation veered towards my
marriage, i mentioned about the family and my interest in beautiful daughter
which meant we reached a dead end in no time.
While we were having our deserts, the “family” stepped out of the restaurant and walked in our
direction passing us. As soon as they passed us, my friend got up and started
walking towards them. I did sense that she was up-to something but wasn’t sure
what. She wasn’t in our sight when she was walking towards them (as they had
reached some distance) so we were not aware about what was going on. After a
couple of minutes, she started walking towards us with the “family”. As soon as
she reached us, she calmly looked at me and said – Dear Milind, please meet uncle, aunty and
their lovely daughters. They are here to attend (Pointing towards the stylish
daughter) her college function and are fellow Sindhis from Mumbai. Her
mother (the beautiful aunty who resembled a prominent Page 3 Mumbaikar) smiled
and said hello as did her husband. The chic girl couldn’t stop giggling and the
father looked at me and politely said “she is too young to
get married” and then they started walking away.
The entire chain of events
seemed quite surreal including my
friend’s guts to walk up-to a stranger and present a matrimonial proposal on my
behalf as well (It reaffirms my belief
that women usually can get away with most things (hahaha!). The four of then
sat down and continued with our desserts and coffee. I did ask my friend about
the family’s details but she said she spoke more about me than find out about
them and doesn’t remember her family name which she thought was fairly
complicated but did end with an “-ani”.
Oh!, what a wonderful dreamy
sequence of events it was! I wish my friend remembered their names as well as
it would have helped me find out more about them (hahahah!). On a hopeful note,
they do know my name, just in case!
As my mother says “Maalik dise pe tho” (God is watching).
Hiranandani, may be? :)
I end with this wonderful link to
Saeen Mithu Tahir’s wonderful rendition of a contemporary version of “Pere
Pavandi Saan”. Don’t forget to click on Subtitle icon in the lower end of the
frame for English translation of the lines.
Jai Jhulelal!
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