Pennu Kanal

I had completed my education. I had gotten myself a job. I was nearly quarter of a century old. I had reached that penultimate point of my life. I had to get married.

Now, if you belong to a middle class South Indian family, you would know what would ensue. From the time a girl crosses the legal marriable age, parents go through the beginning of the most tension-filled part of their lives. No parent who has gone through the experience of getting their daughters married would disagree that the entire experience is harrowing at the least.

If it’s tough on the parents, it need not be so for the “brides to be”. It can be the worst time of your life if your flinch on every rejection and it can also be the most enjoyable part of your pre marital life. For me so far, it’s been a roller coaster with my heart soaring with expectations each time only to be shown that this is not it yet.

A friend of mine coined a phrase that I like a lot “licensed display”. That’s what she calls the traditional ceremony of “Pennu kannal” or “Ladki dekhna”, meaning the process where the guy comes with his family and inspects the girl. After the ceremony begins the wait for the girls’ family for the phone to ring to hear the good news.

I have been through 4 of these ceremonies and the phone rang only once and I’m still single. You are right; I was rejected all the 4 times. Not too good for your self esteem but have faith that something better is in store for you and more over you can enjoy your freedom for some more time….

Guy no 1: It was actually not the guy, but his family. His mom, his dad, his sister, his brother in law… all but him. It was in our home in Trichur. Everything went superfluously well. Decent family. We never heard from them. Guess I didn’t fit their mould of a fair, slim, beautiful, homely wife for their son. By the way, I really don’t remember his name or what he did.

Guy no 2: Rank holder CA, got an appointment letter from HLL on the night of the CA final results declaration, has been with them for 5 years, lives in Bangalore, originally from Dombivili, Mumbai. He came with an attitude. I almost thought HLL was his fathers’ property; at least he acted that way. He had an accent – mildly American or so he thought. I had lived in Dombivili for 4 of my infant years. To the uninitiated, Dombivili is a part of Thane district where property prices being low, most of the influx of Malayalee immigrants to Mumbai settle, same as my parents. Most people work hard, earn money and shift to suburbs like Mulund, Chembur, Matunga as a sign of progress. As you would have understood, its miles away from the US of A. So I was left wondering where he got that delightfully false accent from. His mom, dad, aunt and he. My mom, dad, aunt, niece and me. I had never though so many people could fit into that small living room of our apartment in Mumbai and all of us could still breathe. We moved to the balcony with a glass of litchi juice. We talked for 10 minutes about the juice, it was really tasty. He asked me what I was looking for. Reality check – was I in a marriage interview or a job interview? Didn’t seem to be too different. Told him my standard line, “I am looking for a decent non-smoking, non drinking guy”. Oh Oh…I had done myself in. Non-smoking, non-drinking..no wonder I wasn’t getting married. I was asking for an extinct species “non smoking, non drinking malayalee guy” was I crazzzy? By the way, he didn’t say all that. He just said, “Oh! I don’t smoke , but I am a light social drinker (whatever that means)”. I knew that moment that we had no future. And I had just spent 12 grand on a round trip to Mumbai from Coimbatore. At least job interviews reimburse the travel expenses, here no such luck. They never “reverted”.

Guy no 3: This is close to heart. I might not have ended up marrying the guy, but I did find a good friend in him. His family as small as mine came all the way to Coimbatore. He traveled down from Bangalore and his folks came down from Chennai where they are settled. I did not even have to take leave from office. I just took an hour’s break and came home. We walked for about an hour. I showed him the RTO, my office, the walking track behind my house. We talked about all and sundry and it was time for him to go. I really thought it may click. I was almost afraid it might click. I did not know if I was ready for that kind of commitment yet. But we had talked a lot before the actual meeting, so we were comfortable. But things were not to work out, I guess. He and his parents did call me and my folks up and apologize. That was thoughtful of them.

Guy no 4: A doctor from one of the most famous Nair families of Kerala. His family comes to our home in Trichur. His face looks like the surface of the moon. I guess that unfair to the moon, even the moon has lesser number of crates on its surface. His mom and my dad got along famously. Its only after the families were comfortable with each other that I had agreed to the meeting. We talked for a total of 10 minutes, infact he talked for a total of 9 and a half minutes of them and I punctuated the remaining 30 seconds with Oh, I see, good, nice etc. I hope he does realize that he is not the only doctor to have walked the surface of planet earth. We did not hear from them either.

Anyways my parents are still trying to hook me up with some decent guy. May God aid them in their quest! I, for my part don’t think it is such a bad idea. You end up learning a lot about people and their attitudes and if you are as lucky as me you end up making a friend in the process.