Shivani was just any other happy-go-lucky girl of her age. Cool, peppy, bindaas and carrying loads of energy and life within her 5’5” lean and lanky frame. Shivani represented the young, techno-savvy breed of wannabe independent youth circuit who had seen-it-all and done-it-all at the age of 25. She had everything what a person of her age would aspire for. A happy family comprising of her mom and dad, lovely adorable friends who would be at her beck and call whenever she needed them, a plush flat bought from Tara Homes, one of the exclusive construction firms in Bangalore, a cool swanky car – Honda city, her vroom baby and only aid to speed off from the burgeoning city stress whenever she felt like taking off. Popularly known as “Shee”, certainly Shee had lived her life at her age.

Shee sought support from her cool bunch of school friends all of them who were friends from secondary school days. What begun as a pure fun school reunion activity held at one of the Coffee Day outlet’s in Southern Bangalore, culminated into a wonderful life long bond forged between the school friends branded as “D-10”. D being the division they all studied in and 10 for the number of cats which they were by all intents and purposes. D-10 had this unique sense of camaraderie, quite rarely evident is our times where people prefer own taller buildings but shallower hearts. Every month D-10 took off beyond the city limits for mini trips which were stress busters for these young, enterprising individuals who had craved a niche for themselves in various areas of Medicine, Accountancy, BPO, IT, Graphics, Media, etc. Her old school friends gang had all friends in 25+ age group and surprisingly all of them were either hooked, cooked or booked.

Shee always felt a choke-in-the-throat feeling wherein she used to drown herself in her solitary space wondering why on the earth she could not find a soulmate for herself considering all the zillion young and handsome, not-so-handsome, geeky, boring, dull, bright, savvy, ragamuffin kind of guys she had met thus far in her life. She always believed its important to know or love or like someone before you get wedded to the person. She hated the concept of arranged marriage and wondered how individuals could settle for such a pre determined institution which came with lot of extra baggage of knowing the person, exploring the person, and a whole lifetime adjusting with the “stranger” who at times comes close to a husband. Am I being negative? May be I am not worth it? May be they do not deserve me? May be “HE” is not the one made for me? Or may be I am not meant to be married as of now. Or may be I should just get married for the heck of it? God! Am in turning into a recluse she wondered? And laughed it off. Thoughts used to evaporate on and off for the moment but it still lingered in a teeny-weeny form, somewhere deep within her psyche.

Time passed by. D-10 ‘s last eligible lady Madhu was proposed by her secret beau and she chose to break the news this weekend to her folks. Considering all the after-effects this event would bring about for her family Shee decided to seriously consider the prospects for her future life. She devoured 2 kgs of ice-cream, one of her fav things to do. Wore her favorite dress to kill the feeling. Spoke with her old friend Chinnu, one of the D-10 prankmasters for 3 hrs, 45 minutes, yet the feeling did not cease her. Shopped like she had all the money in the world at the newly opened Levis outlet in Koramangala, yet the thought haunted her like a ghost. Adding fuel to the fire was the constant gyaan she received from her mom and dad on marriage and its repercussions if considered late, the fact she would never be able to conceive and have her own child if its beyond the “right” age, the fact that Lulu’s aunty’s fat, dumb witted but geeky daughter Krittika who was born before her was already packed off to a smart Software Engineer working in Kansas, USA. Shee was feeling choked by now. She felt as though she was entrapped in a cage with alien creatures attacking her with a sign-board titled, “PLEASE MARRY!!”

Shee decided this is it. She promptly dialed her best friend Chinnu’s number. Lakshmi a.k.a Chinnu was adventure freak, creative Pediatrician who was recently married to Srini, a Project Manager who worked for a plush MNC. Srini was a globe trottler, always busy discussing project life cycle, but never had one minute to have a quality conversation with his wife, Chinnu. Chinnu still bore everything with a smiling face hoping that some day she would find happiness at the end of the tunnel.

“Chinnu! Its Sunday today. Meet me at CCD, Forum Mall”

“Hey Shee! What happened Kano? All well?” exclaimed Chinnu.

“No” snapped Shee

“Ok. Fine. What time?” said Chinnu

“Five” snapped Shee again

“Difficult at Five dear. MIL’s (Mother-in-law’s) cousin is coming for evening tea” quipped Chinnu

“Ok. Six. CCD. Forum. You are meeting me” said Shee and slammed the phone

Chinnu promptly fulfilled her hi-how are you-small talk duties with her Mil’s cousin, served them tea and snacks and zoomed off to CCD, Forum.

There she spotted her friend fiddling with her curled tresses sipping steaming hot Café Latte.

“God! You look devastated woman!” said Chinnu

“How did you know?” asked Shee

“Ah! Simple! First, your phone call! Second the way you are dressed today!” smiled Chinnu.

Shee had a quick look at herself and both burst into peals of laughter and gave each other a smacking hi-five.

Shee was one tomboy cum tapori kind of a girl who preferred Jeans and Tee to exquisite salwars, preferred fast moving bikes to swift bike rides offered by her male friends, drooled over rugged cargos as opposed to long hours of mindless shopping and mall crawl.

“You know me so well Chinnu” said Shee sipping the last sip of her coffee and all set to gorge on the Chocolate Excess Truffle.

“Shut up now! Don’t act so formal! Tell me what happened Shee!” snapped Chinnu

“I think this is the TIME!” said Shee with a stern voice

“Ok. Time for what?” asked Chinnu casually

“Time to take a decision which I always dreaded to!” said Shee with cold silence and colder aura enveloping her from all sides

“Hmm. Tell me” said Chinnu feasting on the Chocolate Excess Truffle

No sooner Shee blurted the words, the truffle pieces exploded out of Chinnu’s mouth. Chinnu was surprised and shocked at the same time.

(To be continued…)