The year 2000 will be a memorable year in my life. I got married in this year to my soulmate. But that’s not the only reason why it will be a memorable year.
Every couple finds themselves in seventh heaven in the days between their engagement and wedding. It is a time to get to know each other, to fall in love with each other, to plan a future together and to simply enjoy each other’s company.
My now-husband-then-fiancé actually kept a diary and wrote sweet nothings in it. Of course the diary was given early retirement soon after we were married. But the fact that it ever existed is proof of the strength of feelings that overwhelms you in that phase of life, and you simply want to pen down your most personal thoughts.
We enjoyed a whirlwind courtship right after our engagement, with both of us working crazy hours to meet several deadlines before we flew to India a couple of months later to get married. In fact we even had a very traditional engagement, one that completely reflects the Indian tradition of treating marriage as a union of families and not just two people. In the olden days, the bride and groom wouldn’t be present in their own engagements and it would be more of a family to family agreement. Out of necessity it so happened that our engagement proceeded without us!
Those days were simply woven from magic! We would finish work with an eagerness that was never felt until then, and rush to meet for dinner, or a movie, or just enjoy the sea breeze at the creek side.
This is the time I came across the movie that changed my life. The city I live in still had a drive-in cinema which was eventually replaced in a few years by a sprawling mall. A new Hindi movie had released by the name of “Pukar”, starring Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit. Prabhu Deva’s hit song urging youth not to fall in love amidst his unique dancing style was one of the hit songs of that year.
I still remember we were a few minutes later than we would have liked, and actually saw the song playing on the huge open space drive-in screen from the main road. We quickly picked up our tickets and drove into the cinema, adjusted the speakers so we could listen well, and settled down comfortably for what promised to be an ultimate entertainer.
Twenty years have passed since that day. Till date, neither me nor my husband would be able to tell you what that movie was about. You see, once we settled into the backseat, we were simply lost in each other. Those 2 hours and 56 minutes of our life are etched in my mind like it was yesterday. We spoke, we laughed, we whispered sweet nothings. It was like a world lived within that car and we were the Adam and Eve of that newly discovered world. Nothing and no one else existed in that magical space and time.
Somehow by silent consent, we have never watched the movie to find out what did happen. But it is still the most memorable movie I ever “saw”.
Because that day, I discovered that the Universe had sent me my better half. And I knew come what may, we will be okay. And we are. We are.