Page 22 - Seniors Toady March 2020

First Person

Surviving 43

years of marriage

Well into the fifth decade of a happy
union, Kersie Gandhi reveals the
secret

I was cradle-snatched at 18 by a sweet, even that was effectively the left barrel or the
tempered and understanding older girl right, and before I could say “B.C… kahaan
who I now realise (with the benefit of 20:20 phasi giyo”, I found myself seated upon a
vision aka hindsight) had assessed, tried out humongous Ravan Chhaap wedding chair
and identified me as her zombie-for-life. where my feet couldn’t touch the floor. I

The process of zombiefication normally suspected sasurji was sending me a message
takes no more than six months to complete but it turned out my hard-nosed father
and the subject is brought to a happy, pliant hadn’t been able to resist an “all-inclusive”
state where his thinking is done by an organ package.
other than his brain. And you-know-who has The bill for five years of utter bliss had
firm charge of said organ. arrived and it was time to hand in the
This zombie-to-be was having too much fun Temporary Licence for a Permanent one.

and instinctively refused to pop the question
for a good five years until he was summoned
by the out-of-patience, prospective father-
in-law who cut straight to the chase (like the
proper Bawa he was) and grimly demanded
to know when he intended to make an honest
woman out of his daughter.
I can still see his expression change from
grim to thunderous as he came to realise

he should have started off with ‘whether’
instead of ‘when’.
Faced with the loss of his freedom, this
zombie in the making, baulked, until faced
with an offer that couldn’t be refused. No,
the old man didn’t offer a dowry, but a choice

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