Chapter I

The Chapter I

The T3 Terminal build by the Delhi Authorities is no doubt the symbol of progress done by the city of New Delhi, India’s capital. It is a symbol that portrays the advancement from the image of rope magic and snake charmers. For me though, the airport, or even railway station and bus terminals have always been a symbol of change. A change from your present state of life to something different, you tend to go through a travel portal in every change of state in your life.

Standing at the terminal, early morning in the month of December, in Delhi is an experience not everybody can say they have had. The anxiety of meeting the person you have been waiting to meet for long is clearly motivation enough for so many people. Looking around myself I could see people sipping hot cups of coffee and tea and talking animatedly through layers of protective clothing. They were really active at 7:30 in the morning. Delhi is famous for its winters especially with the fog, the flights usually get delayed due to the same, but today the weather had been benevolent on the travelers. I sat there observing people, which was my favorite hobby at airports or railway stations. Families all cooped up together in the winter, to a lad running around with his mother trailing him with a sweater in her hand, clearly the lad was not interested in the warmth of the sweater.

I was standing there with both my arms inside my pullover, waiting for the flight from Pune, it was after ten months that I would see her. Last we met was when in Feb she had been in the city, and she had been really busy at that point of time, we didn't get a lot of time together. The only issue in today’s case was that I did not know when she was to land, all I knew was that she was to reach Delhi today. If I had done my calculations correctly, her chances of landing in Delhi were the maximum in the flight which were landing before eleven in the morning, which were seven in total. She liked to travel early in the day so that the time is saved, and the whole day is not wasted. She always loved to utilize each and every hour after reaching Delhi, she always had been in love with Delhi. Until recently she fell in love with Pune. She had actually shifted to Pune for her job, after college, but then she started liking the openness of the city.

I had always wanted to shift to Pune with her, but I could not actually take that decision. To be truthful to you guys, I have had issues with her in the recent past. We had started arguing on many things, I had actually become insecure about her, not that I had any doubts on her, but I had doubts about myself. I somehow did not realize my insecurities, but she did. She would always know what was going on in my mind, she realized what was troubling me. She tried to help, but in the process burned her own hands. We crashed and burned, but after that moment of her leaving in Feb, I had been broken. With a lot of introspection I knew what I had to do, and that is the reason I am standing here today, waiting for her.

I didn’t even realize the first flight had actually landed, at 08:45 am the first batch of people started coming out of the airport. With happy faces everywhere, I could only sit and wait to see if she had taken this flight. From all that I could see, a really active Punjabi family was really happy on meeting their son after a long time. They were with a girl, who was had gone red as a tomato on the cheeks. She must be soon to be bride, because she was shy but still was trying to be confident. The magic of arranged marriages in India is that if you are going to do everything according to your parents, they are going to select a wife for you. 


They are going to choose your life partner, yes you get to meet each other, but it is rare that you get to say your say. Most of the time, you suddenly marry somebody who could be a total stranger. But the stats show that things work out in the end, if given time, patience and persistence things work out for the arranged couples, they usually have a long and happy (generally) married life. I had always been really intrigued by the whole concept of arranged marriages, what if he/she has some habits which you are not comfortable with? What if he/she has some friends that you are not comfortable with? Everybody lies. If you’re soon to be partner lies to you about himself or his habits, what can you do? And as most of these arranged marriages come from a family tie-up, breaking these marriages become really difficult in the Indian culture. As our neighbors are not-just-neighbors but an extended part of your family in India, what they think about your family in such conditions is really important.

To Be Continued...