Arranged Dating

Most of Indian youth is worried about arranged marriages. But I beg to differ as always. I am worried about arranged dating. Sounds crazy!! It is.

My manager is in early thirties and is interested in knowing different culture. When he took me to a welcome lunch back in Feb, all his questions were around my college life. Questions like do you date someone? Do your friends date girls? ( I had to tell him that in India we date only girls. ) It has yet to become law like MA in India and may take hundreds of years.

He visited in first half of this year and took many snaps of our team at offshore. When I asked him for those so that I can pass on to my colleagues in India, he said he will cut a CD and give it to me. When I went to collect it, I had a session of half an hour waiting for him. Knowing him, I went when it was just 5 minutes before he takes his lunch daily. But then he is a smart fellow. He knew I would do that and he has postponed his lunch for half an hour. So for half an hour, he showed me photographs and kept asking "Isn't she cute? Did you dated her? Why not?" Man! She is cute that does not mean I need to date her. I am sure the day I tell him I have never dated anyone till now, he gonna jump from his seat.

Then he would say" C'mon, you are 24 and you want me to digest stuff like you have not dated someone till now, no way!"

I do not really know what to do. The other day we were traveling with one of my colleague. Once again he started the same topic. How people in India can go for a arranged marriage? It is hard to convince him that it is not actually that bad as he thinks.

Suddenly he changed gears and started asking me, will you date someone out here? Then the questions started like" Will you date a Italian, French girl and so on... Till he ran out with all countries he knew" . To change the topic I asked him what he is going to do for long weekend. He said he gonna wait for his daughter who was -8 days old right now. The other fellow described him what a wonderful felling being a father is. "Wow! It actually works", I was saying to myself. Well, it did not. He asked the other fellow how old his kids are. He said grown ups. When he said they are in their early twenties we were about to fell off from our seats. Thanks to the seat belts. He does not look like even 40. Then the question pendulum swung back to me again. "How old your kids, Bhushan?. -10, -8", He asked. I said it is upto me but it will take another 5-6 yrs for me to marry and so on. He was surprised to hear that my parents are actually ready for that and I had a choice to marry a girl of my choice. I had really started hating the conversation till now. Then he asked me a question. I was like Saurav Ganguly being stuck by bloody blow from Shoaib Akthar. He asked me will you date the other fellow's daughter. I gathered shattered pieces of my guard and answered that " I hate doctors, so it would be hard." "My girl is nice doc." The other fellow quipped. I was like man I cannot score and you want to come down and hit a six. What? I told him still I would be reluctant since my interest was killed by the fact they always advice on your diet. ( My sis is doc and she does it always.). Then they laughed it out saying I was late and his girl is already married. I thought myself being a hero who has saved himself from most deadliest attack. But I was down with a bomber which my manger dropped. He asked me

"Will you date a married woman?"

I am sure by the time I fly back to India, he will ensure that he will throw me in a surprise date.
Why me? Why arranged dating? Am I worried or am I shy of it?
Please! Give me a break.