This being my last Friday night as a bachelor, I couldn’t help but write my last post as a bachelor.

Dhi Only One will soon be joined by Mrs. Dhi Only One (or Dhi better half – or make it worse with Dhi Only Two). Alright, humor hasn’t really been the forte of this blog nor do I attempt to cover up for it.

Ladies and gentlemen, within the span of this weekend I shall enter the next stage of life in which I shall have to do things hitherto unthought of. These include not ogling at a pretty girl next to my coffee table – at least not blatantly. Not being able to get drunk on a wild Saturday night on pure whiskey and ice (Not that I ever did that, but still the point remains that I can’t do it now). Tobacco was unknown to me anyway (yes, Mrs. Dhi Only One does read this blog).

So, all in all, I think it looks quite a good phase to move into (like I said, the blog is read). The wedding is one thing I look apprehensively at while marriage is another thing I look….well, apprehensively at. But for different reasons of course.

Like most Indian weddings, this one promises to be a fun affair. People all over the place, lot of pomp, lot of colors and the groom figuring out where to go next and where to smile next. Fun shall arrive.
Mrs. Dhi Only One has been shopping and arranging things ever since the date was decided half a year ago, so that should tell you about the scale of the wedding. Me, I am blogging two days before the wedding, so that should tell you something…I guess.

Getting back to the topic, I have been getting unsolicited advice from all quarters regarding marriage and its long-term impact on life (I thought marriage was long-term anyway). Relatives whom I have met only once in my lifetime feel its their duty to slap my back, congratulate me and smile away until I open my mouth to thank them. There are people who tell me its now going to be all about sacrifice and compromise, and then there are those who tell me its going to be great to have someone to share all your experiences with. Leaves me confused? Nah, far from it.
I remain convinced that this is one of the better things to happen in my life (and I don’t say this because the blog is read…but of course). It is indeed a wonderful feeling to be able to comprehend the world around you with another person who shares similar lines of thought as yours. It is an even more wonderful a feeling when the world around you itself becomes better solely because you are able to share.

So, on that great and promising note, Dhi Only One bids adieu to bachelorhood.
Married life, here I come. And oh yes, hey Devil, remember the carols singing girls at Java City? Good for you if you do remember, cos I have now forgotten. (But a quick Jack Daniels with Coke, I am sure, can fix that memory lapse).

Enjoy.

“You know why I came here?”, she asked.

“Because I wanted to escape marriage”, she said before I could chip in with a “Why?”

Suddenly, that made me wind back in time. Why had I come here? Was it for the proverbial learning? Or was it to escape from something?

The answer looks blurred now. Was I happy about having secured an admission or was I happy that I was getting out of the town for a brief period? It was a cocktailish-mix of both, probably that is why I never quite figured out what I was doing here during the first few terms.

What I did escape from was the inability to be my self back home, the inability to browse books at Landmark and Blossoms, the inability to walk up and down Church Street, the inability to watch a play…..
(An aside – I hate ending sentences with those dots signifying nothing…..)

While all these thoughts poured into the more active part of my brain, the laptop in front of me kept staring with a grim face.

“Sounds silly doesn’t it?”, she asked (or it was something to that effect) and smiled.

I smiled to myself. I wasn’t the only one who had a silly reason for coming here. Silly isn’t quite the word. But it helps to use it to make the whole thing laughable. Hopefully.

In other news, the mothers of the members of the gang met up a couple of days ago. This was quite eventful. All mothers got together, I suspect, to keep a tab on the doings of their sons. Everyone poured their heart out, I believe, about how their sons didn’t adhere to norms.

Not surprisingly, marriage was the topic discussed at length. With each son categorically refusing to do anything with that social institution, I think the mothers were exasperated and eager to devise a new plan to make these bunch of boys be more civil in the spousal sense.

I am sure the Devil must have smoked it all off and Chilli must have burst into another Rehman song with a slightly higher volume. The topic lies low for now. Until the next meeting, which as far as my secret intelligence tells me, is only a few days away.

Brave the storm, brothers. This too shall pass. One way or the other