In the year
1988, barely a few months after my wedding, my uncle in Bombay
telephoned and requested me to put up a marriage ad in a popular
Malayalam daily, seeking suitable proposals for his son, i.e. my cousin,
Satish Nair. My cousin was quite a handsome chap but had unfortunately
undergone a kidney transplant in Bombay hospital when he was studying
for CA. My uncle being an honest guy told me that I should not hide this
fact in the marriage ad. So I drafted one accordingly which read
something like this “A smart, enterprising, handsome boy, 29, charted
accountant, seeks suitable alliances from good looking Nair girls.
Family background immaterial. The boy has undergone kidney transplant
but is keeping fine health.” My uncle gave me the responsibility of
receiving the mails, screening the proposals, checking the horoscope,
getting clarifications, etc. and told me to forward only the sieved ones
to him.
Well, people
shun taking risks, especially in health matters, and as expected we got
only a handful of proposals. Out of it only three passed the preliminary
qualification tests. I forwarded them to my uncle and asked him to send
my cousin to Kerala for ‘bride seeing’ and to proceed further with the
proposals.
My cousin landed in Kerala a month later. There was a proposal from the
daughter of an Army officer stationed in Punjab and we wanted to explore
it first. The girl’s father communicated his inconvenience to come to
Kerala but assured me that he would make obligatory arrangements for our
visit to see the girl.
Our tryst with the girl was scheduled at around 11 a.m. on a Saturday.
The girl belonged to a place called Thiruvillamala near Trichur. The
place is well known for its scenic splendor and verdant topography.
Unfortunately a bus strike handicapped our initial plans and to our
further dismay it turned out to be a day of torrential, incessant rain.
Every drop was like a thick needle that could prick the skin. A
rescheduling of the trip looked bleak as the girl’s house could not be
contacted over telephone. We therefore decided to venture on our bride
hunt from Cochin. We first got into a truck going to Trichur. It took us
nearly three hours to reach Trichur. It was already 1 p.m. Being anxious
about our rendezvous, we got into a lorry going to Thiruvillamala side
and asked the driver to drop us off at the main junction. We never
imagined that the route would be so tortuous. It took another three
hours for us to reach Thiruvillamala Junction. The girl’s father had
given me some directions. We enquired about the location of the house at
a coffee shop. They told us that the place was located far interior. Due
to the nonstop rain, landslide and undulating mountainous terrain, no
taxi or auto-rickshaw was ready to take us to the girl’s house. Finally
a jeep driver yielded to our plea at an exorbitant sum. By that time, my
cousin looked drained of all his energy.
It was almost
5 pm and dusk had set in early as happens on a rainy day. It took
another forty-five minutes of nerve shattering roller coaster ride to
reach our destination. Our journey uphill resembled events from Jack and
Jill’s nursery rhyme. We had nearly broken our crowns. At a precarious
turn the jeep’s wheel got stuck in the mud and came to a wobbly halt.
The jeep now stood skewed perilously and my cousin who had bravely
occupied the front seat was by now hanging for his dear life. The driver
kept on ranting about the devastation caused along the way and rain was
the villain everywhere. He scared us with stories of many deaths during
the previous days and of an epidemic running wild in that village. Fear
gripped my soul and I wondered whether we were heading for a funeral
service or a bride seeing. The driver of the jeep knew the girl’s family
and extolled her brilliant academic record. Talking further revealed
that she was the only girl in that village who had passed matriculation
in her third attempt.
At last we reached the girl’s residence. It was a traditional
‘Nalukettu’ type house that one could often see in the Malabar region.
The humble relatives of the girl had been eagerly waiting for us since
morning. We apologized for our egregious delay and soon we were escorted
into a small dining room. I warmed up the ambience introducing my cousin
to the girl’s relatives waxing on his ebullient personality and
illustrious pedigree. My cousin and I had earlier come to an
understanding regarding certain non-verbal signals in case he did not
like the girl. We waited eagerly for the girl’s appearance. At last she
opened a door and came in with a tremor. I wondered whether there was a
minor quake as my cousin suddenly grabbed my knee beneath the dining
desk. We almost swooned at the sight of the lumbering leviathan lady who
completely eclipsed her puny relatives encircling her. My wife had given
me a preliminary checklist to test whether the girl had any handicap.
This was likely, as we had explicitly advertised that the boy had
undergone kidney transplant. So I requested her for a glass water to
assess her movement. She rocked the floor once again and convinced me
that she could not be lame. It also allowed me to observe her dark hair
that flowed like a cascade on her ebony back. I cracked a joke to see
her teeth and my cousin later told me that her ‘Close up’ smile haunted
him for several months. I then asked her something in a low voice to
test her hearing and her reply made my cousin partially deaf. Soon my
cousin gave me the signal and I quickly gobbled the banana fries and
gulped down the tea. The girl’s mother pleaded us to eat more as we had
missed our lunch. We politely declined it saying that our stomachs were
full. I told the relatives that we would convey our decision in a week’s
time.
Outside, the nature still looked sinister and was waiting to resume her
whiplash. A pregnant black cloud suddenly burst out and rain bombarded
on us like bullets. We rushed to our Jeep and asked the driver to take
us straight to Trichur. It was mid night by the time we reached Cochin.
Well, my cousin gave up the prospect of a second ‘bride seeing’ and
returned to Bombay. A week later I received a letter from him, which
said that he had a recurring nightmare after his return to Bombay. He
narrated the nightmare as follows- “The result of that particular
trekking trip is that the dame that we saw there appears in my nightmare
complete with her fat rotund body and long protruding teeth and vicious
grin. A garland in her hand and egged on by her relatives she chases us,
accompanied by the acoustics like ‘Nadaswaram’, ‘Thavil’,
‘Aarp’ and ‘Korava’ (just to give it a touch of
authenticity). She chases us until we are cornered into a jasmine
adorned wedding altar. The bride now stands facing us in a suggestive
blushing posture. The crux and climax of that nightmare is that she
lifts up the wedding garland and adorns it on your neck instead of mine.
I am still perspiring from that chase”
Well, my
cousin coolly passed on that nightmare more to my wife than to me. That
was the last time I ever accompanied any one on a ‘Bride hunt’.
Glossary
Nalukettu
– The old houses of Kerala invariably consists of four rooms joined
together in a rectangular form with a central courtyard, corridors,
massive pillars and dormer windows. These structures are called
Nalukettu (Four blocks)
Aarp –
Male Ululation made during festive occasions
Nadaswaram – It is one of the most popular classical instruments of
south India and the world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument.
It is a wind instrument similar to the Shehnai but larger with a
large flaring bell, sometimes metal
Thavil –
Thavil is a barrel shaped percussion instrument from South India. It
is used in folk music and Carnatic music, often accompanying the
nadaswaram. The thavil and the nadaswaram are essential ingredients
of traditional festivals and ceremonies in South India
Korava –
Female Ululation made during festive occasions
Boloji.com includes IndiaNest.com and PoeticNest.com Privacy Policy |
Disclaimer No part of this Internet site may
be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright holder.
