Page 128 of One Indian Girl
‘How will we come if you don’t have a sofa bed?’
‘I’ll get it, I promise.’
‘Why are you so irritated?’
‘Because I know what you are going to say.’
‘What?’
‘Register your profile. See some boys. Mom, why are you obsessed with me getting married?’
‘If I don’t care what will happen? You will continue buying sofas alone. Is it even a woman’s job? To buy furniture?’
‘Don’t start, mom,’ I said. I searched for Debu. He had kept his profile private. I don’t know why, I wanted to see his profile picture. Maybe he was single again.
‘Okay, listen to just one proposal,’ she said.
‘See, I knew it. That’s the only thing you talk about!’
‘Chemists.’
‘Chemists?’
‘I know what you are thinking. But this is a family with six chemist shops in the heart of Delhi. They even have one opposite AIIMS. Do you know how much business that can do?’
‘Mom, you want my husband to sit in a chemist shop?’
‘He manages the shops. He doesn’t just sit there dishing out strips of Crocin.’
‘What’s his qualification?’ I said.
‘You have this hang-up about qualification.’
‘Mom, how is education a hang-up? I am an MBA.’
‘So he has done BPharm. He is thinking of doing an MBA,’ she lowered her volume, ‘through correspondence.’
‘Correspondence?’
‘You can even do it online these days.’
‘Mom. Bye.’
‘They have a kothi in Bengali Market. The boy’s own floor has four bedrooms.’
‘I don’t care. I am not looking for real estate.’
‘Talk to him once?’
‘Why? Mom, you know I am working abroad. Why would I quit and come for this?’
‘What do you want then? NRI? I can look.’
‘I don’t want anyone. Please leave me alone.’
‘What has happened to you today?’
‘I have to go. Bye.’
