Wedding woes in Gurgaon!

It’s nice to be home in Gurgaon. It also brings excitement to the lives of my nephew and niece, though anything alive visiting home brings them much excitement (my visit being no exception).

This time the focus has been on their missing mami. The last time I visited home, dad asked my niece to inquire about when I plan to get married, and ever since this has been on her mind. She wants a clear time-plan for this now, no more ‘soon’ will do. Her best friend has a mamu and a mami too, and that somehow makes her mamu a lot less accomplished. So this time Mihika (my niece) got this best friend and her elder brother also to ask me about the missing mami.

I was happy with all the attention I got, and was forced to give out a timeline too. Mihika even insisted on fixing her dance number for the wedding right away, I suggested she wait till the planned year and pick up a more contemporary hit then. Her friend wasn’t as understanding, this is how the conversation went with her:

Vrinda: Where is the mami, mamu (I am the universal mamu now)?

Me: Mami is still not there.

Vrinda: What do you mean? A mami has to be there.

Me: There is no mami.

Vrinda: Oh, is she dead then?

Me: No, no. She is not dead, she is still to come.

Vrinda: When will she come?

Me: Soon.

Now Vrinda was a little confused, for her if there is mama, there has to be a mami as well; there cannot be any mama without a mami. Reluctantly,however, she agreed to the present scenario accepting that Mihika’ mamu’s case is rather odd. 

I wonder if it actually worries the kids that their visibly old mamu is still without a mami. Or if this is a strategy fueled by the worried elders in the household? It seems like getting old without a partner is something new, unusual and still undesirable.