become a bad thing?’
He paused to have a glass of water and continued. ‘Yes, the Tamilian in me is a
little disappointed. But the Indian in me is quite happy. And more then anything,
the human being in me is happy. After all, we’ve decided to use this opportunity
to create more loved ones for ourselves.’
When he kept the mike down, Ananya hugged him hard. The crowd burst into
applause. Ananya and I cut the cake through the resounding claps. We fed each
other and our respective in-laws a piece. The cameraman gathered both sets of
parents for a picture.
‘Ananya, see, both our parents. They are smiling,’ I said.
Rajji mama stood up and came to the mike for his speech.
‘Stop Minti’s daddy, he has had six pegs,’ Kamla aunty said.
Rajji mama took the mike and raised his hands. ‘ladies and gentleman,’ he
said.
I went up to him.
‘Rajji mama, enough. You are too cool to make boring speeches,’ I whispered
in his ear.
‘Really? We should answer them, no?’ he said.
‘It’s not a competition,’ I said.
He said into the mike, ‘Ladies and gentlemen of Tamil Nadu, thank you very
much. Now we invite you to some Punjabi-style dancing with the DJ at the
backside.’
My cousins flew off their chairs and surged towards the dance floor.
The song collection was a mixture of Tamil and Hindi film music. They had one
Punjabi music CD, which Rajji mama had instructed to play in a loop. My family
dominated the dance floor, but Ananya urged her aunts and uncles to join in as
well. I guess they were my family too now.
nora
(Nora)
#1