Aug 2022
Easwar and his wife, Padma were always disturbed nowadays. Their younger son, who lives abroad had found a girl of his choice and married her. However, the elder son, Prateek who lives in Singapore was very reluctant to either accept an arranged alliance or find a girl of his choice. Inspite of repeated attempts by Padma to convince Prateek, she had failed. The chap was adamant and did not heed his mother's entreaties, emotional blackmail, or advice on why marrying is beneficial. Easwar was nonchalant, at least outwardly. What went on in his mind, no one would know since he rarely if ever shared his deepest thoughts.
Easwar woke up from his sleep with a start. Though his dreams rarely if ever disturbed him or excited him, today he was thinking about that long after he had woken up. In fact while he brushed his teeth and while having his morning dose of coffee, the last part of his dream did come up in his thoughts. Padma enquired about it, but Easwar shrugged it off as nothing of concern. Padma knew Easwar enough not to probe further and that her husband would inform her in his own time.
In the dream Easwar was with his friends while someone informed him to contact a certain mobile number. He tried noting down the number on the newspaper lying nearby, but somehow he couldn't write down the numbers. He remembered the number, but mysteriously he didn't realize that he could have as well noted down that number directly onto his mobile! Dreams are distinctly different from reality and many things that we do logically while awake, desert us in our dreams.
Anyway, back to reality. Easwar decided that he would try and call the number to see if someone answered the phone. It was a spur of the moment thought and though he didn't believe in doing things at the spur of the moment, today he did call! Not from his mobile number though. Prateek had an India number that he often used when he visited India. Easwar decided to take that phone and dialled the number from memory (hoping that the number wouldn't be answered, or that he wouldn't be dismissed by the recipient of the call as a spammer).
"Hello! Is this Prateek?" A lady's voice.
"Hello". Easwar had to respond. How did the lady know that the number was Prateek's? What was the probability that the phone number that came to him in his dream was actually that of a person and that Easwar, after waking up, would use Prateek's phone to call the number and a lady would recognise the number to be Prateek's? This baffled Easwar. "No, I am Easwar, Prateek's father here."
"Hello uncle! How are you doing? I am Anusha, Prateek's classmate from RV College. I remember you from the time you came for our annual day about 10 years ago. Prateek introduced me and a few others to you and aunty. How are you and aunty doing? I hope all is well at your end and Prateek is fine too." The concern in Anusha's voice was genuine and Easwar realized that probably she was also a bit worried about Prateek.
"All is well Anusha. Nothing to worry." Now for some face-saving exercise. Needed since he was calling from Prateek's phone and the number that came to him in his dream was an actual number and the girl on the other side happened to be Prateek's classmate also! "I think I have a 'wrong number' here. I wanted to call someone, but not from my phone. I think I have mis-dialled one or more digits here. Coincidentally, the call went to you and you seem to know Prateek also! How are you doing? Are you in touch with Prateek?" It was obvious that Prateek hadn't saved Anusha's number on his phone and Easwar realized that Anusha would have known that immediately.
"Coincidence? Yes, uncle it is. I am not in touch with Prateek. We did keep in touch briefly after graduating, but that was very brief. I do not even know where he was till I got this call and checked his profile on LinkedIn. He lives in Singapore, I see."
What a quick search by her while she was on a call with Easwar. These young generation people know and do things so fast. Though he had seen Prateek and his younger son do similar things, it never ceased to amaze Easwar that kids nowadays seemed to have ten hands and as many eyes and brains!! What is that called? Time sharing? No, time sharing is something else. Ha yes! Multi-tasking.
"Ok Anusha. Sorry if I have disturbed you. I will let Prateek know about you and about this call."
"Thanks uncle."
Sep 2023
Padma was excited. There was a call from Prateek from the airport saying that he was about to board a flight to Chennai and would be home for lunch. Padma got busy preparing dishes that she knew Prateek liked. Further attempts over the last year to convince Prateek to marry were met with cold stares, disconnection of calls, or just plain old fashioned disdain. He always said he would let us know when he was ready. Easwar felt that certain prospective girls would be a suitable match for Prateek, but that chap was elusive.
"Hi pa! How are you?" Brief hug. He went to the kitchen where Padma was busy and hugged her tightly and for about 2 minutes. Easwar realized the bonds between children and their mother was much stronger than the bonds between children and father. Would daughters be different? He couldn't know since he had two sons only!
Padma asked the obvious question once lunch was over. "Enna da? When are you going to tell us about your readiness for marriage?"
"Wait ma."
The door bell rang. "Who could be at the door", thought Easwar. He went and opened the door. There was a well dressed lady there.
"Hello uncle! I am Anusha."
