Don't Talk

Sometimes, words are all you have. Sometimes, they’re all one needs. Mostly, however, they’re just that, words. Empty. Mostly, that’s what you dish out.

No Pressure

“You should find someone,” they said. First it was the sundry relatives and old aunts who would get after me. Then, a few neighbours, and sometimes even some clients, started to pipe in. But, now it feels like things are reaching this crescendo of conspiracies. A couple of days ago, an uncle volunteered to “spread the word in the community” in UK, where he lives, if I tell him what kind of ‘girl’ I’m looking for. My niece called up yesterday and, during the course of the conversation, said I’d make a great husband and that I should get married. As if this wasn’t bad enough, now I have friends getting on my case about it. Some, in fact, have gone a step further.

We were talking until very late after dinner last night, when the friends I was staying with, a husband and wife, told me not only that I should get hitched but they told me exactly whom I should be with!  Right, now they’ve also identified the person for me! Strangely, I have another set of friends, also a husband and wife team, who are equally convinced about whom I ought to marry. Almost every phone conversation I have with them now, I kid you not, involves a discussion about this. Both sets of friends, of course, have different women in mind for me. Nothing I say can put them off because they think it’s time and because they believe they know better.

It does get a little frustrating arguing with them because, even though I think they’re being silly, I also understand they’re concerned and worry. In fact, these guys got a little emotional last night and said they were concerned because I haven’t had my injured arm checked for three months now. (Sure, it pains – quite badly sometimes and, at most times, I can’t lift it beyond a point – but, it’s just one of those things that I haven’t had it checked!) According to them, it’s because I don’t have an incentive to go to a doctor. Apparently, I need an anchor in my life (or, something like that.) Apparently, even my recent decision to move in a few months, and a couple of stray remarks I’ve made to them, points to this. I concede I’ve neglected my arm but I still don’t see what leaving it untreated (or, for that matter, moving out) has to do with getting hitched! And, yet, each time such a debate starts, I find I can only argue so much. Beyond a point, I don’t know what to say.

Ah, but the good thing is, one of the two sets of friends is a little more flexible in their demands. “OK, if not this one,” they say, " marry that one!”

Right.

On a Wing...

…and a thousand prayers.