IMAGINE THIS ROMANCE

 What if Etiben and Jina were alive in the 21^st century?

Obviously! Etiben was a beautiful daughter of a wealthy father, but, imagine Etiben as a girl of high fashion; who wore designer clothes and spoke English with a refined accent. Imagine that she got 100 Facebook friend requests per day, drove BMW and Justin Timberlake was the favourite in her stereo. But, she was lonely and was in search of true love and wished the shooting star to make her meet the man who had a heart of gold.

Obviously! Jina was not good looking and was miserably poor, but, imagine Jina rode his best friend’s bike, wore a secondhand leather jacket and was a chain smoker. Imagine Jina as a popular guy among the bad lasses of the street; imagine him as a man about whom the fathers had often warned their daughters. But, he was lonely and was in search of true love and wished the shooting star to make him meet the woman who would whistle his pain away.

Imagine they met in a club @ 9.00pm. Imagine that Etiben was dressed in white and wore platinum jewellery. Imagine Jina was in his dirty casual, imagine they were introduced, imagine it was love at first sight for Jina, imagine the feeling was not the same for Etiben. Imagine that Jina took Etiben’s number but his call was never received by her, imagine days passed into weeks and weeks into months and imagine that he finally got a call from her friend stating that she would be willing to help him. Imagine that Jina, Etiben and her friend met in a food joint, and one bite of pizza made Etiben fall for Jina, imagine that they began dating. Imagine that Etiben and Jina went out for movies and shopping and bike rides; imagine Etiben never got tired of spending money on Jina. Until one day, her father got shocked from the unceasing expenditures of Etiben; imagine he hired a detective agency to keep him informed about all of Etiben’s moves. Imagine that her father got to know about the blooming romance and decided to part the lovers for good, imagine that Etiben was grounded and  her profile was sent to all the matrimonial sites, imagine that she suffered from depression, insomnia and an eating disorder. Imagine Jina borrowed a guitar and night after night sang the sad songs of Eric Martin; imagine the suitors parking their cars at Etiben’s lawns, and imagine Etiben learning ‘Make-up to look weirdly ugly’ through you-tube tutorials to scare off her suitors.

Imagine Jina and Etiben’s friends were not sitting ducks, imagine they started, ‘Save the Romance’ campaign through social networking sites, imagine that it got the support of 1.5 billion people; imagine that the campaign was a global phenomenon. Imagine that Etiben’s father’s inbox was loaded with hate emails, imagine that he realized that his daughter’s love story was not a tragedy and indeed it had a happy ending. Imagine that Etiben and Jina had romanced for seven years and their wedding is set to be held this year, imagine you are one of the thousand guests. Happy Imagining.

They lived, they loved.

ON THE WEDDING DAY

Love marriages or arrange marriages, high budget wedding or modest weddings, Christian weddings or Hindi weddings or any weddings for that matter. Trust me, you can miss these out:

1. The Bride is always lost either in tears or in smiles.

2. The Bridegroom can never achieve a balanced look, either he is too happy or too sad. 

3. There will be at least one guest in red lipstick.

4. There will be an unfamiliar guest who is neither from the bride nor the groom side. Indeed, that guest is there for free food.

5. There will be a restless photographer. One time that photographer will be in 45°, then 60°, then 90°, then 180°, then 360°.

6. A pervert middle-aged man, say ‘Creepy Uncle’ who will be having gala time checking out the asses of the lasses.

7. A middle age woman, say ‘Business News Aunty’, who will have an informative time asking the price of all the beautiful jewellery, shoes, bags, dress and the list goes on.

8. Someone who will say, “I love this song.” Followed by chanting of the lyrics.

9. Someone bitching about the food menu.

10. Someone determining in their mind, “My wedding will be better than this.”