Reality Check 101

The world and its uncles are getting married. Designer weddings. Choreographed sangeets. Fancy Destinations. Pre-wed shoots. Photoshopped memories. Everything made to look glossy, classy and Instagrammed.

The world and its uncles are also building their first homes. Brick by brick. EMI by EMI.  Not a house. A home. Playing hosts. Throwing parties. Cleaning the mess after everyone's left. The first Holi, Diwali, Rangoli. Straight out of an Asian Paints ad.

The world and its uncles are also getting pregnant. And having babies!! Creating actually living beings. Of flesh and blood. Of pee and poop. Gurgling laughter and late-night cries. Something about motherhood and being complete...now that they have delivered out a part of themselves.

And in the meanwhile. Here I am. Fretting about where my career's headed and when will I add more stamps on my passport. Hmm.

So on a day like today, when my life pauses for a tiny little moment, and I finally get some time to  ponder and wonder, all those seldom-pushed-back thoughts run amok.

'Go ahead...take the leap!' the silly heart prods. 

'Wait a minute here...are you sure about this?' the mind double-checks.

They say its the most important decision I would ever make. Then how come no one ever prepared me for this? After pouring over textbooks and truckloads of photocopied notes (Mumbai University style. Oh yeah!) I thought I was ready for the death by power-point. And I endured...hours of excel, jargons and frameworks. Not just endured...survived. I even gave in and made peace with the system! So you see, I spent a majority of my life prepping for the career while no one bothered to inform me that this was only the second most important thing in my life? Hmmph.

So spare me your raised eyebrows while I google for relationship advice or better still...for a crash course on Coursera. Heck, I have even taken to exclusively listening to romantic music, you know...just to get into the groove. Oh! And I am also reading threads on Quora such as this one here, on friend's recommendations. (One a separate note - Don't we love friends like these who help us a day before exam? Stay up all night just so we don't fall asleep? Making us maggi and coffee and bearing all our last-minute hysteria?) 

And so, my dear readership of 23, I hope that in some time from now - I would have done my research, collated enough data points and drawn insights *sniggers* to finally be able to finally take the most important decision of my life. *insert prayers here*

Phew. Getting married seems like a critical life project with a stringent deadline and no scope for mistakes. Unraveling the mysteries of life with a partner after the dating niceties are done and dusted! *shivers*. So on that upbeat note, just one question to all married folks out there. How long into the dating process did you decide to tie the knot? Before or after you got comfortable enough to burp/fart in front of each other? :D