He wanted to flee from the grasp of the beast that is marriage but when he caught a gaze at his mother, the the one who assumed airs, he changed his foolish idea. He was wondering why his mother did not look at all drained from the entire exhausting task of organizing the eventful day.



The groom may may lament the fact that he has to face all the anxiety of the marriage ceremony. At this point he will be sensitive to what others do or say in front of him.

It was not that I was against the institution of marriage. It was not that I was not attracted to my wife-to-be, albeit ours was an arranged match. I did. I just felt as a young energetic thirty year old, I still wanted my freedom. Needless to say, I did not suffer from any Bridget Jones-like complex. My fiancée and I have discussed extensively and we agreed to remain unattached as long as possible. But Mother changed her mind with the all powerful warning, “Time and tide wait for no one". Honestly, the truth be told, I was not a little apprehensive of major changes.

Sometimes I did ask myself why I gave in to Mother. But I knew I wanted her to be happy. And she would not be happy until she saw me married and settled down, preferably with a few grandchildren on the way.

Having a wedding require a lot of cautious and cash. Waiting the last minute to back off would be a complete waste. Even when the bits and pieces does not seem important to him, they are the one he ended up exhausting his energy on. He never imagined that shopping for wedding would parallel shopping for a whole decade. Even deciding about the details on the wedding cake alone took ages. He could not even comprehend the point of having a wedding cake with complicated designs and things never mind deciding for a mere topping. The photo-taking session which was supposed to be fun in any other events was extremely tiresome. In this whole wedding business, even a cake can get on his nerve.

His mother in reply to his question as he remembered, although nobody would notice the small things that they had put effort into, people tend to note it more in their absence.

He could no longer disagree with his mother.

What a woman will do to look fabulous on her big day he could not believe. He thought that she must be out of her mind when he saw the bill from the bridal boutique.

Could clothes actually cost so much? She would not be wearing it for long anyway!

The sound of the organ woke him from his thoughts.

The bride stood at the entrance of the church, everything he had thought about vanished from his mind. His heart started to beat high-speed.

A man is usually awed by the beauty of his bride. Only at that moment do they realize why the real reason why they had agreed to the whole thing.

Three steps away, she lifted her gaze to me. I saw the uncertainty and doubt in her shining eyes replaced by calm tranquility. That singular moment transformed my entire life. In a flash of understanding, I saw that she was giving her life, her trust, her love to me…. and how could I return any less?

The bride and the groom joins hand as signifying their eternal pledge.

As they turned to the priest, he secretly made a promise that he would never let her down. Although they may have their bad days, this would not shake him. This is because he now knows that the most important thing for them is to keep together and try to raise a family.

It was all as if he was dreaming. He knew that they loved each other and that is all they need.

"I do" was what he finally said, now with full confidence.