Arranged Love: An Indian Boy's Search in Amrika To Find A Suitable Girl

by Ajay Patel

“See!” Megha said.

  “And guys! No trying to get other guys to sign your sheets. The whole point is that you go and try to find girls to talk to. You too, ladies! Go up to those guys and take charge if they can’t!”

  “All right Megha. Watch an old pro in action,” Vijay boasted, and he walked away from the safety of her towards the female unknown.

  Vijay spotted Red, White, and Blue hanging out together with their sheets in hand and he walked up to them. “Hello ladies,” he greeted them. Vijay wished at least one other guy was there with him to act as his wingman. Doing this alone was much more of a challenge.

  “Hi,” they said in unison.

  “I was hoping you could help me fill in my bingo sheet.” They agreed with smiles and pleasant conversations back to him. Vijay began to feel a sense of confidence of unparalleled heights. Red, White and Blue and the other women he met were all very approachable, laughing at even his stupid jokes. Evidently most of the guys at the convention had not been approaching the women so any guy, including him, received a very hospitable welcome if they took the time and had the nerve to talk to them.

  After collecting several signatures, Vijay caught sight of Megha. She had just spoken to some guy who had promptly signed her sheet, and then separated from her. Megha, somehow feeling his gaze, looked over to him, raised her eyebrows and flashed a grin, waving her bingo sheet, and taunting him that she was going to finish before him. Vijay couldn’t help but laugh inside at her antics and walked up to her to compare notes.

  “Hey! Did you come over to scare the guys away so I wouldn’t win?” she looked at him with feigned suspicion.

  “I’m coming over as a favor to you,” Vijay said, smiling.

  “Oh really?” she asked, full of sarcasm.

  “Yeah. I noticed how you’re just a machine at this, going from one guy to another, getting signatures. But you’re approaching this thing all wrong. It’s not about the ten dollar bingo prize. The real reason we’re doing this is to meet people. The way you’re going about it now, it’s almost like a ‘wham, bam, thank you sir!’ Take your time and get to know the guys you’re meeting,” he counseled her.

  “Normally, I would agree with you. But the truth is that most of the guys here are just not my type and like I said, they’re mostly younger than me. I can tell from the badges. So if you’ll excuse me,” she said playfully, “it is all about the bingo prize for me!”

  Vijay just shrugged with a grin and walked away, running into Milan who was coming through the front door.

  “Hey!” Vijay greeted him. “How’s it going? I didn’t see you last night.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got some family things going on that I needed to work on. How’s this ice breaker thing working?” Milan asked somewhat distractedly.

  “It’s not bad. But it’s tough doing it on my own.”

  “Do you want some company for a bit?” Milan offered, focusing on Vijay.

  “Sure!” Vijay agreed. “Let’s take another look around. There are so many people here, it’s tough to know where to even start.” After making a half lap around the room, Milan asked, “Anyone you want to meet in particular?”

  “No. Not really,” Vijay said. “What about you?” They were on the periphery looking at all the human bingo action taking place in the center.

  “To be honest with you, I wasn’t really planning to meet a lot of women here,” Milan said, although continuing to look intently at the people in the room.

  Vijay stopped for a moment to focus on Milan. “Why are you even here then?” he asked. “Did you’re parents force you to come?”

  “No,” Milan laughed. “It’s just that there’s this one woman that I kinda arranged to meet here. She and I met at my med school roommate’s wedding a year ago and we really got along great. We’ve been keeping in touch since, keeping it casual, and it’s nice. There were no parents chomping on the bit for progress. No having to make immediate commitments. Just time to get to know each other. Even Komal didn’t know about her until yesterday night.”

  “Sounds interesting. But why of all places would you pick here to meet her again?” asked Vijay.

  Milan stopped walking and faced Vijay, who because of the crowds, often trailed behind Milan. “We felt like we should meet each other’s parents, and this was an easy way to arrange that on neutral ground without raising their suspicions,” explained Milan. “I guess I still wasn’t sure if this was serious, but after being here for a while, I’m realizing how lucky I am that I’ve found her. So I told her yesterday night that we should just tell our parents everything and have our families meet. I know this will make her happy, but the thought of doing it is making me totally nervous.”

  They had almost walked a full circle around the room. To Vijay, their course appeared without purpose, but it soon became apparent that this was not the case. Milan had caught sight of who he wanted to meet and was making his way towards her, taking Vijay along with him. Vijay followed his gaze for a second and saw a woman standing by herself near the stage. She was petite, but although slight of figure, she had a strong presence about her. While many people by themselves at a party would seem to be ill at ease, feeling out of place, her appearance was anything but that. It was almost as if she was choosing who could come up to her.

  Where had she been? Why hadn’t Vijay run into her before? All Vijay could think was that if she wasn’t the one that Milan had been talking about, Vijay was hoping that she might be the one that he would be talking about.

  Luck was not with Vijay. As soon as the woman’s eyes matched Milan’s gaze, they warmed up in recognition, and the barrier that was around her opened to allow them to approach.

  “Hi,” she greeted Milan softly. He responded in kind. Vijay felt awkwardly in the way.

  She looked at Vijay and then turned her gaze back to Milan. With a laugh she said, “So I see you’ve been hanging out with the guys again leaving me here all alone. You’d better be careful, I can only fend off the other men for so long!”

  “Vijay,” he said with a laugh. “I’d like to introduce you to the person who has taken up so much of my time at this convention.”

  “Hi,” Vijay took the woman’s hand. Her hand was small but her grip was warm and firm. “I’m Vijay.”

  “Hello, Vijay,” she said sweetly, “I’m Tejal.”

  As soon as she introduced herself, Vijay noticed her beauty mark and the alarm bells that Vijay had heard ominously earlier the night before began to ring again. Only this time they were incessant and unforgiving loud. There appeared to be little doubt after talking to her more that this was the same Tejal as Rocky’s Tejal. And although there was a polite conversation that took place, all Vijay could think to himself was he had finally met Rocky’s latest love. Unfortunately, Rocky, like Vijay, seemed to have met her too late after she had already fallen in love with someone else.

  Vijay left Tejal and Milan and their happiness behind. He wanted to find Rocky because if Rocky didn’t know yet, he needed to know now about Milan and Tejal. Later that afternoon, after going back to the hotel room and searching the convention grounds, he found Rocky outside by a fountain, sitting on one of the benches, alone.

  Vijay quietly sat down next to him. Neither of them said a word but just stared ahead at the fountain, listening to the sounds of the water as it cascaded over rocks to the center of the pool. One look at Rocky’s face and Vijay knew he wouldn’t have to tell Rocky anything. Rocky already knew about Tejal.

  “We talked again today, and she told me…there’s someone else,” Rocky started slowly and painfully.

  “I’m sorry,” Vijay said consolingly.

  The noise from the fountain seemed to have drowned out any noise from the outside world. They sat a few more minutes in silence, neither one of them wanting to break the wave of loud quietness. “I’m telling you, this is getting too tough,” groaned Rocky.

  “I know. And it might even get tougher still. But remember, you can’t stop.”

&nbs
p; Rocky interrupted him. “I know all the things you’re going to say! I’ve said them to you and to a million other people going through what we are going through. But it’s just that she was so right for me! And what kills me is that I feel like she could have liked me.”

  “So then why are we having this conversation?” Vijay asked, although he knew the answer to this question.

  “Because I got to her a little too late. She had met a guy before she had met me. Tejal said that she hoped she didn’t lead me on, but that her parents made her call me and when she did, she enjoyed our conversations. At the time, she didn’t know where things were going with this other guy. But now she feels like she knows.”

  “Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be today. But like you told me when I had met Sonia, at least now you know. There is someone out there who can make you feel that special way. Your perfect person does exist. It’s not like you’ve set up some idealistic mirage.”

  “I know,” he said tiredly. “But when is it supposed to happen? I’m tired of waiting!”

  Vijay said nothing. He couldn’t, because he had no answers to provide. But as they sat there, in front of the fountain, Vijay felt suddenly old himself. Here was his close friend, who for so long had helped him through this whole ordeal. His guide. And now, his guide was lost, asking him for directions. And Vijay had none to give. For he too was still equally lost.

  Evening came and after an hour of cajoling in the room, Vijay persuaded Rocky to go to dinner at the convention. The thought of, for once, being the first person to meet the perfect woman before anyone else, convinced Rocky that he still had to try.

  “So what’s the plan for tonight?” Vijay asked as they got off the shuttle.

  “Same thing as last night. There’s dinner and then a party afterwards,” Rocky said without much emotion. Although his flesh was willing, the spirit still needed to catch up before he would be able to recover from Tejal.

  “I want to meet some new people. You’ve been promising me an introduction to the California crowd, and I still don’t even know who they are,” Vijay said to Rocky. Evidently, there was a contingent of people from California that came to the convention every year but generally hung out amongst themselves. It was convention opinion that they were of the more attractive and hip crowd. Everyone wanted to be a part of the California clique, although their insular behavior made it difficult to break into the ranks.

  “I can do that,” Rocky agreed.

  And so they walked in. A number of people had already arrived. Like the first night, not many people had sat down at a table yet, because doing so meant committing to the decision, and nobody wanted to be stuck making a bad one.

  “There’s our crowd!” Rocky said, suddenly invigorated at the sight of them, leading the way across the room with Vijay following. Standing near an empty table was a small group of men and women with their backs to everyone but the inside of the circle. They had positioned themselves near a table closest to the bar, no doubt to make the commute as short as possible.

  Rocky and Vijay approached the group. They were all drinking shots of a cranberry colored drink, already loud in comparison to everyone else in the room.

  “Rocky!” one of the guys called out his name loudly. “You’re finally here! Get him a drink!”

  “Hey Neal! Look’s like you guys have already started without me!” Rocky said. His tone had automatically taken on that of a partyer’s. “Everyone! I want you to meet a friend of mine who’s also from California. This is Vijay. My roommate for this weekend.” Everyone in the group let out a collective “Hey, what’s going on?” and greeted him by raising their glasses and bowing their heads ever so slightly before continuing with their drinking.

  Rocky quickly went to the bar and returned with two blue colored drinks in martini glasses. It was almost as if having a drink in hand and a California driver’s license constituted an admission ticket to the

  group.

  “Vijay, this is Malu,” Rocky started with the introductions.

  “Hello Vijay,” she said, offering her hand. Vijay accepted the welcome gesture and shook her hand a hello in reply. While he had met his share of cute and nice women at the convention, Malu was nothing of the sort. She quite simply was glamorous. She wore a crushed velvet form fitting dress that Vijay could only imagine would feel wonderful to his touch. A slit in the skirt gave the slightest hint of shapely legs that were sure to exist underneath in a form courtesy of hours on a stairmaster machine.

  “Hello,” Vijay said, too busy trying to control his stimulus overload to say anything more.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” she looked at him with a smile, no doubt used to having such an effect on men and enjoying it. Before Vijay could speak any further, Rocky moved him forward to meet the others in the group. Rocky next introduced him to two guys, Sunil and Neal. Both were about Vijay’s height and build. Sunil had a short hair cut that was heavily gelled and looked like he had walked out of a Calvin Klein advertisement wearing a linen suit with a tightly fitting plain front pair of slacks and a crisp white shirt. Neal, on the other hand, wore an earring, had grown a goatee, and sported black slacks with a grey wool sweater.

  Rocky then introduced Vijay to Ratna, but everyone called her Rats. She was slightly on the shorter side and although very attractive, one could always qualify it as a “cute in a Rosie O’Donnell way.” Next to her was Tanvi. She was funny, brash and attractive, but Vijay guessed that nobody would say in a “Rosie O’Donnell way” simply because she was even more attractive than Rats, and well, one Rosie O’Donnell was plenty. Vijay could tell that Tanvi was a partyer. He didn’t credit that assessment to his internal evaluation of character but rather more to the fact that she had encouraged and led the group in downing shots of alcohol, with those persons not finishing their shots being subjected to her loud beratement.

  Finally, standing beside Tanvi was Sanjiv. Sanjiv was slightly taller than Vijay and his hair was styled in a Caesar cut. He wore jeans, a white t-shirt, a black three button jacket with black laced shoes to match. Simple clothes as a concept, but the discerning eye could tell that the t-shirt was Banana Republic, the jacket was Kenneth Cole, the jeans were Armani, and the shoes were Bruno Magli.

  “Rocky,” Vijay asked when they were slightly apart from the others for talking purposes after a round of shots, “what’s the story on these people? They seem pretty cool and the girls are cute.”

  “Yeah.” Rocky agreed, “But sometimes, as much as I love them, they’re a little too much.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Vijay asked.

  Rocky turned his back from the group so that their conversation wasn’t easily overheard. “I guess an example will help. Malu used to go out with Sanjiv when she was in school down in L.A., and then Neal from up north started going out with her when she came back to San Jose after she graduated,” Rocky explained.

  “You mean the Neal right there?” Vijay discretely pointed to the Neal he was introduced to in the group.

  “Yeah,” said Rocky.

  “So?” Vijay said.

  “Well, I guess two things. First, as far as I could tell, she hadn’t broken up with Sanjiv when she started going out with Neal, which normally, is bad enough. But what was even worse was that Neal and Sanjiv are best friends. They had grown up together and their families are close friends too. To have your best friend steal your girlfriend away typifies how they can act sometimes.”

  “So I’m guessing Sanjiv and Neal are no longer best friends,” Vijay said.

  “That’s the even crazier part! Malu broke up with Neal and then they all forgave each other. And if anything, something in me tells me that Sanjiv would like to get back together with Malu again, but from

  the last I had heard, she’s not up for it.”

  “That is kind of weird!” Vijay agreed.

  “Yeah. They get drunk and then who knows what’s bound to happen. In some way or another, everyone has hooked up with each other. I’ve gotten
used to it so that it doesn’t shock me too much. Most of them are up in Northern California so I’m immune from a lot of it in

  L.A. But I try and keep a little distance from all that even when we’re all together.”

  Volunteers were coming around instructing people sitting at their tables to wait in line for food in an orderly fashion. After being escorted to another Indian dinner the group sat down. Through some skillful maneuvering, Vijay was able to sit next to Malu. As an added bonus, Tanvi chose to sit next to Vijay on the other side. Evidently, being a new face in a crowd had its benefits.

  Vijay took a sip of what was his third drink now. He could already feel the effects of the alcohol. He leaned over to Malu and before he could control himself, offered her a standard bar line, although he didn’t mean it to be. “So, come here often?”

  She looked at him and said with a smile, “Actually, this is my second convention.” After saying that she went back to picking at her food.

  Vijay looked at her and nodded, and took a bite of food just for the sake of taking a bite of food. He then looked up at her again after a moment and said, “I apologize.”

  Malu took another sip of her drink and looked at him puzzled. Thinking she hadn’t heard him correctly, she said, “Excuse me?”

  “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” Vijay repeated himself.

  “For what?”

  “For that stupid pick up line,” Vijay was getting flustered. He

  shouldn’t have admitted that it was a pick-up line or that it was stupid. Damned alcohol, Vijay thought to himself crossly as he tried to collect himself. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I feel like I totally shortchanged you with such a stupid line. Let me make it up to you.”

  Malu laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I get stupid pick up lines used on me all the time!”

  “Well, I didn’t mean to use it as a pick up line,” Vijay defended himself again. “More importantly, if I were trying to pick up on you, I’m hurt you’d think I would use a line as lame as that one!”

  “Really?” Malu raised her left eyebrow in amusement. “I never thought Indian guys had any good lines, let alone the courage to use them. I’ve only ever gotten the standard, ‘Would you like to study together sometime?’, but not much more than that,” she laughed.