I hold a
new surname, a new residence address, a new email and a newer email signature.
From being 'Sayli S. Mahajan' I am now 'Sayli A. Yadav' ! Well, like any new
bride, these were some of the most simplistic things, I had to get accustomed
to. The more complicated ones, as they did in each bride's case, unfolded, as I
spent time with my new found family and more often than not, willingly
integrated them in my lifestyle. So effortlessly, that when I visited my
parents for the first time post marriage, my mother said - "Everything from
the nails of your toes to the strand of your hair is a changed Sayli!" And
I had'nt even realised that the transformation was so swift. As a mother she
could only stand back, admire and take pride in the new version of her daughter
- as flamboyant as ever, less of a rebel and god-willingly, a little
domesticated - Just the right balance of salt n sugar in a glass of lemonade!
As I
observed the run up to the marriage on both the sides, my very neutral lense,
couldn’t ever overlook one fact - it does not matter if you have a son or a
daughter. The truth is, if you are born in an Indian middle-class family,
chances are that the parents will slowly start to plan for their children's
marriage as much as they did for paying up for their education. While the mode
of funding the gold purchases was selling stocks for my parents, for my in-laws
it was in exchange of the bits they accumulated on each 'Gurupushyamrut' / the
three and a half auspicious mahurats of (Gudi Padwa, Akshaya Tritiya, Dassera,
Dhanteras).
Throughout
our courtship and the year that followed, one thing was very evident - Abhi and
Me took a liking to great clothes, exotic food, dignifying simplest of days,
wining n dining and basically spending our way to credit card bills through the
tons of shopping n pub-hopping we did. We never really discussed money
or finances. Until one day, we had an ugly discovery over our financial priorities being dramatically misplaced in each others views - Abhi wanting to buy
a brand new car and me
wanting to invest in a house! My shock only amplified, when he mentioned he
intended on buying a new 'Honda City' as his first ever car ! We had
obviously discussed his fondness and dreams of owning one, while we courted.
But I had never imagined it to be our first big purchase in the
initial year of marriage.
The
tussle was fairly evident to the extent that my mother-in-law had to get
involved. My father played it down and made it all seem so trivial stating -
it's not as if you're staying on rent, neither as if you have no roof on your
heads, so buying a house could wait. He went onto say, that for any normal man
Abhi's age, owing a car is a very identifiable dream! At this point I thought
to myself - why should his words come as a surprise, after all, here is man who
himself had changed 5 cars in a span of less than one and a half decade! Also,
one of the reasons I had fallen in love with Abhi, also had a lot to do with
the fact that my Dad took a liking to him first and I would never doubt his
choice of what "goodness" meant! So it wasn’t any surprise that I
took his word for it and was more than happy to contribute my minuscule bit
towards our first big buy !
So here
we were in the middle of 2006, looking at our sparkling new 'liability' and
making future plans of building a new 'asset' !
Life is not all Black and White. The beauty of 'Life' lies in making sense of the Grey's in the background 😉!
A
picture taken with our Silver Honda City - at the onset of Abhi's Birthday in
2007 outside the SOHO Toscana Lounge in Kalyaninagar...
No comments:
Post a Comment