Mutual Rejection – A Short Story
Gunjan was over with her graduation and she was looking to pursue some professional course. She was also preparing for competitive exams esp. banking as that is one of the best options for commerce students. She was reluctant to do M. Comm but decided that if she fails to get through the competitive exams this year, she will do her Masters in commerce as well – she did not like to waste time at all.
Her mother told her about a marriage proposal recommended by a very close friend of hers. In this era of social networking, exchanging marriage alliances were working out pretty smoothly!
Mother: Gunjan, just check out this profile – Vineet…he is a Financial Analyst and right now in Bangalore. Isn’t he good…
Gunjan: How will I know whether he is good, bad or ugly by just looking at his snap…..and with several photo edit filters available – you never know how does one actually look like..
Mother: oof! I just asked you to take a look at his profile – read through his details…check his timeline….I think you will find him on LinkedIn as well..
Gunjan: But why should I take the troubles of checking out his profile?
Mother: He is Prerna aunty’s nephew…..she is looking for a suitable bride for him and asked me whether you would be interested to get married.
Gunjan: Prerna aunty…..your friend from college days…who changes her DP every hour wearing atrocious dresses…..she certainly does not believe in aging gracefully…..but how come she liked me? I am surprised …she is a very high flying kind of a lady…why would she want her nephew to marry someone like me……. Like we are pretty much simple people….we don’t even like the kind of lifestyle she leads – she is a party animal – almost every other day she updates her Facebook page talking about how many pegs went down her gut last evening….
Mother: She is not going to marry you Gunju….I am talking about her nephew.
Gunjan: So…isn’t it so evident – the kind of people they must be?! If an aged aunty in her 50s has still not gotten over ‘fun and adventure’ with late night parties and talking about hangover every morning…what must be her nephew like?….char bottle vodka kaam mera rojka…..(a famous Hindi song from Bollywood)
Mother: Don’t be so judgemental Gunjan…without even meeting a person you have already formed an image about him! That is not fair at all…..why – what about your aunty….my cousin sister – she is suffering from mental disorder – she is schizophrenic – how would you like if someone rejects you by saying that you must be a mental patient as well since it is in the family?
Gunjan: Ok fine! When do I have to meet him…is he here in town?
Mother : Yes…..let me call Prerna up and tell her that you have agreed to meet him..
Gunjan met Vineet at the mall that was very close to her house. They sat at a coffee shop and started chatting.
Vineet: This mall is pretty close to your house – you must be coming here often!
Gunjan: Yes! Almost everyday in fact – I love watching films so either with my friends or with my parents…I come to watch films.
Vineet: With your parents?! Are you kidding me? Who comes to watch films with parents?
Gunjan: why…what’s wrong with coming to watch films with parents?
Vineet: Come on! I mean I will never watch films with parents…..I am not a child anymore that I need to be with parents…
Gunjan: Watching a film together is family time I think…nothing wrong in it – we all are enjoying togetherness too…
Vineet; Family time? In a dark hall you are looking at the screen – not talking to each other – how does it become family time!?
Gunjan: We are sitting together and enjoying a common factor – we all are together in it..
Vineet: Oh ok – we can continue arguing about it….anyway I would never be caught with my parents in a mall – it is too embarrassing man!
Gunjan clearly saw that his family togetherness and values were totally lacking …..with a party animal aunty like Prerna who tells around that she hates to stay at home and only is at home for sleeping…what else was expected from her nephew…
Suddenly Vineet changed the topic.
Vineet: So you have any boyfriend…rather boyfriends? (he chuckled)
Gunjan: Friends to happen to be boys – I have many….have been in a co-ed school since childhood but if you are asking about someone special…I don’t have any.
Vineet: Really? How come?…you can tell me – I won’t tell around – promise!
Gunjan was speedily getting irritated by this idiotic conversation but she carried on somehow – she could not get up abruptly and leave!
Gunjan: If I had a boyfriend – I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right?
Vineet: I mean some ex-boyfriend…jilted love story – we all have….
Gunjan: No I don’t have any such lovelorn story to tell. You tell me – how about your affairs?
Vineet: Oh! I fall in and out of love anytime, everytime….too much romantic you see (he winked)
Gunjan: : Then how come you are having to go for arranged marriage…you should go for a love marriage ..
Vineet: Nothing stays for more than a month! The maximum an affair stayed was for 3 months – when I was in 1st year – in college….after that females just come and go!
Gunjan was surprised at his dumbness – he was clearly telling her that he was a flirt who has a weakness for the opposite sex and he will continue being so till his last breath! And he was telling all this to a girl who could be his future wife! Gunjan tried not to look disgusted by the loudmouth and continued talking calmly …she had already rejected him in her mind – she was now just trying to find how much more dumb could he be!
Vineet: So tell me about you now….how many have you had?
Gunjan: I think I already told you that I have had none!
Vineet: Cripes – unbelievable in this age….am I then getting a pure virgin huh!?
Gunjan just smiled to his dumb remark!
Vineet: So what are your hobbies? What do you do…apart from watching films with your parents….
Gunjan: I am preparing for competitive exams, I want to do my CA….
VIneet: Hang on lady – I am not asking about your future career plans – I am asking about your hobbies….how do you like to spend time? Your leisure time…
Gunjan: Well…I am into meditation, I practice..
Vineet (cutting her short): You are into what?! Meditation? At this age? Are you kidding me?
Gunjan: There is no age eligibility for doing meditation….I even know 4 or 5 years old children doing meditation and are very good at it?
Vineet: They are good at it!? Poor things must be probably forced by their dumb parents to believe in mumbo-jumbo and waste time!
Gunjan: Excuse me! There is nothing mumbo-jumbo about it! I have been practicing meditation since the age of 11…
Vineet (not listening to her): Of course it is nothing but a truck load of crap…can’t you see every other day we hear some religious babaji or even bibiji getting caught by the cops and sent behind the bars … because of duping people to believe in something that does not exist?!
Gunjan: In that case we even get to hear that doctors with degrees from abroad have been caught and sent behind the bars because of their involvement in stealing organs…organ harvesting?
Vineet : No ..I mean yes, they are criminals…every profession has criminals….that we can’t stop..
Gunjan: Similarly there are frauds and charlatans in the spiritual field….does not mean that God does not exist!
Vineet: God? How did God come in here?
Gunjan was appalled at his sheer dumbness!
Gunjan: What else is meditation done for then…it is to get connected with your divine self – to manifest your divinity…
Vineet: What nonsense are you talking about! Hello – there is nothing as God – couple of intelligent people made this concept of some hard task master up there – so that people can be motivated to work – live hygienically etc. …it is just a fear factor embedded in their psyches….
Gunjan: You mean to say all the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads…all the mantras in Sanskrit language – everything is hogwash!? The great saints and seers who have come to earth and miraculously healed people…people still experience divine miracles, they worship Gods, they..
Vineet (cutting her short): Of course – it is all hogwash – people are suffering so much – if there was God…why doesn’t he heal everything and everyone once and for all!?
Gunjan: It is our karma…our collective karmas too – we need to work out…
Vineet: Why should we work out? God should work out – if there is one that is!
Gunjan could not tolerate Vineet anymore! The beep was not just a flirtatious womaniser, but he did not even believe in God! She pitied him for his sheer ignorance! Such a piece of boisterous crap would probably never know about the subtleties of nature ….it was basically futile to even talk to such a dullard!
Gunjan: Anyways, I think it is pretty late, lets pay the bill…let’s go dutch.
Vineet; No need…I can pay the bill…it is hardly anything – 2 cups of coffee and grilled sandwich…..
Gunjan wanted to share the bill amount because she knew that she will never meet the dullard again in her life….and she also knew how guys talk about girls – having to pay the bill and the girl never showed up again….like basically the girl is so cheap and wicked and greedy that she ate happily and made the guy pay the bill and bid him goodbye – and blah blah – typical loser discussion – she had often heard her cousins and classmates talk like that about girls! Some girls were actually like that though….but then because of such girls – other girls too had to face these insulting comments!
Gunjan reached home and told her mother about how she wasted an entire evening talking to a boisterous dullard! When her mother heard that he did not believe in God, she also backed out immediately – because the entire family believed in God more than anything else! In the evening they went for collective meditation and felt the divine bliss.
Vineet told his aunt – Prerna – about how dumb Gunjan was! A God believing stupid girl who went to movies with her parents! She did not even have any boyfriend – and how would she have also – a dumb and boring girl like Gunjan will hardly attract any man towards her! His aunt then took him to a night club and asked him to choose someone of his choice – if not permanently – just for one night at least. There were several half naked girls getting drunk at the expense of men like Vineet. Vineet was also very happy.
This way, Gunjan and Vineet rejected each other. It was a mutual rejection!