All of us are North Indians, working in far-away states. The chance of finding a soul-mate, in this case, is quite slim. Moreover, the kinds of jobs we have don’t give us the time to interact with different people. And above all, none of us would like to marry a girl chosen by our parents, if I am not wrong,’ Lucky said. ‘I don’t know if your last statement is valid or not, but the rest is in your hands,’ sannu replied. ‘But lucky has a point. In my case, I would like to marry a girl of my choice, but for the last one year I was abroad, and I don’t know if, in the next couple of years, I will be in India. Given this fact, it is quite hard for me to work on my marriage plan. And for a person like me, it’s impossible to settle down with any boy who is not Indian. Forget Indian, and he has to be a Punjabi first of all,’ I said. ‘How did you apply for your job at Infosys?’ sannu asked, straying from the topic. I answered, ‘Through some job website.’ ‘And Happy, how did you transfer money from London to your parents?’ ‘Through my Internet banking account. It’s quite fast,’ he answered. ‘See? The world is becoming Internet-savvy. And, given the fact that we all are IT, graduates who are on the net almost every day, why can’t we use this for the marriage thing?’ ‘Are you talking about matrimonial websites like Shaadi.com?’ Happy asked. ‘Yes.’ ‘Are they beneficial? I don’t think so,’ Lucky put forward his view. ‘To know if a dish is sweet or salty, you have to taste it first. That’s the only way to know things for sure,’
sannu answered. ‘Or better yet, ask a person who has already tasted it. Why take a chance?’ Happy said, trying to make us laugh. ‘So lucky, are you on any such website?’ I asked. ‘Not yet. But I’m thinking of it.’ When we did not say anything, he explained, ‘The best thing about this service is that you can go through so many profiles without leaving your desk. The filters are good enough to provide you suitable matches. And you can interact with the persons who interest you everything is so systematic. Above all, you don’t need to worry about your physical location …’ sannu made some valid points, which is why we didn’t have much to debate. ‘Hmm, Well, I don’t know if this thing is going to work, but it is worth giving a try. Who knows …?’ Even Lucky was convinced. It was 1.30 a.m. Our empty stomachs reminded our brains of their existence. Sannu said, ‘It’s quite late, and I’m damn hungry. Let’s get home.’ And he stood up stretching his back. ‘So who’s the first one?’ Lucky asked while we all were dusting our clothes. ‘The first one to marry? Or the first one to make his profile on the website?’ Happy asked, laughing. ‘Both.’ ‘I think this guy,’ Happy pointed his finger at me, I don’t know why. It was probably 4 a.m. by the time we had dinner and slept. And, after a long time, we enjoyed the kind of sleep we used to enjoy in our hostel. That day became one of the most memorable days in our lives. We spent the next day visiting some of the best hangouts in Kolkata. And we went again to the Launch Ghat in the evening to ride the ferry to the other side of the city. And being on the boat was no less surprising than boarding the Titanic in 1912. Ruby was silent throughout the conversation, which means that she wasn’t well satisfied with his idea. And it was that weird for all of us because we knew that sannu and Ruby’s thoughts were apparent. Being with your best friends is merely incredible. We ate, drank, talked, and enjoyed to the fullest at a pub called Same Place Else. That was the last night of the reunion trip. Leaving them was my worst nightmare I wasn’t sure that when i’ll see them again. I guess in my marriage because my mom was constantly showing pictures of some Punjabi boys to me. All of them looked stupid in the photographs. How can I know someone looking at his pictures? And meeting someone I can’t imagine because I was a shy girl for strangers. Though I worked in multinational companies but getting married is tougher then presently any presentation in front of the owner of the company.