Starting from yesterday, I am officially “off” for the next three weeks. A week long conference, followed by a half month trip that’ll take me to the most rural of rural India. Yeah, I’ve stocked up on lotsa Multivitamins and Calcium, thank you.

Can't believe that the first month of 2006 has already whizzed by. Whoosh! How fast is fast, anyways? The year has been splendid for me so far.

For one, it seems to have come with a large, very large traveling bag! I haven’t really been visiting awesome places or anything like that, but the thing about traveling is…somehow, when you get back, you feel that you aren’t the same person who went on that journey.

Hyderabad for instance, showed me just how nice people can be. I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I said that it’s the first time I felt so accepted among strangers. Course the friends I went with weren’t strangers but their families were. But I never felt that way ever.

People were so warm and accepting. They (my friends) knew everybody from every church in Hyderabad and since it was a Christian concert, it meant that they knew practically everybody. So I kept shaking hands with a whole load of people and managed to make friends with at least 10 new people in the course of just 5 days.

Also managed to get myself a stalker. Don’t ask me how I managed that. They said he was a “simple” (their polite way of saying “simple minded”) guy but he had such a funny name. Also, I’d never be able to like someone who stalked me! When we went to Pal-sing and Pings in-laws place, the in-laws were desperately trying to hook me up with the second son.

“Just watch, they’ll want to take pics,” T joked. “And then, uncle will keep R in the middle and focus on her. Then, he’ll casually mention that he wants to mail S (the son).” It happened exactly as he predicted and it was all we could do to keep a straight face and not giggle.

Saw the second son’s pic. He seemed kinda cute but came with a funny name as well. Why the HECK do Mallus keep such RIDICULOUS names anyways?!?!??! And why are they so partial to names that end with an U???

But the most memorable person on the trip was P’s grand-dad. He must be 87 or thereabouts, and is a wizened, eccentric old man. He scolded everybody from the minute they got in to the minute they left :) Including me. He scolded me most of all. They were very apologetic and spent some time convincing me that he was the kind who picked on people he liked.

But I didn’t take offense. Would have felt strange if he scolded everybody else but was polite only to me! Made me feel more like the family, to be a part of the target.

Then came Bangalore when I finally met a ‘boy’. The boy was a nice boy but just not my type. Struggling to explain to my folks, the only thing I could come up with was “He’s too nice.”

I think they knew what I meant cos strangely, my mom didn’t accuse me of being picky/choosy/fastidious. And since that trip, they’ve been leaving me alone. My mom did tell me that if I turned down this fellow as well, she’d wash her hands off me. I think she actually meant it :)

He seemed like someone who’d led a protected and sheltered life. Like he’d been mollycoddled every step of the way. That might not have been necessarily true, but then again, in an arranged marriage, impressions are all one has to go by.

“I want a self-made man,” I told my folks and to pacify my dad, I added, “Like Appa.” That kinda won me Appa’s favour as well. So, on the whole, it was a good trip. My parents were nice to me and they haven’t nagged me even once since then. Also, they haven’t been “suggesting” newer boys. That kinda leaves me with a huge sense of relief.

I feel like I’ve just ended a huge marathon race and I’ve won and the sense of freedom at the end of it is awesome. Never mind that I haven’t found ‘the one’. Right now, I couldn’t care less.

S says she’s suspicious about the fact that I am saying that so often. I’ve told her that every single day since I returned! :p She thinks maybe I am trying to convince myself that I am happy. But actually, it’s just that I can’t help exulting at having reached this point of absolute freedom.

After the last few months of extreme stress, it’s suddenly like I am a kite that’s escaped from somebody’s hands and I have the whole wide sky to romp in!

P.S. But in spite of the nice things on the surface, there’s been one things that’s been worrying me. My secret parallel life? Yeah well…something like that.

The thing is…things happen. And when things happen, we build walls. Then, things happen again. And we learn to let down them walls. But then, why were we asked to build walls if we were gonna be asked to let them down again? Why let them down, when you know you’ll have to build them again? Beats me.