Love to See You Cry

The other day, I got a forwarded message on WhatsApp. I had a good laugh going through this image. I do not know about the authenticity of this news but Google came up with a few links related to this crash course on crying. You can check too (This New Crash Course will Now Teach Brides How to Cry on Their 'Vidaai') and thank me later for a ROFL moment!

While I am marveling at the entrepreneurship skills of that lady who came up with such an innovative course, I am recollecting the events during my 'Vidaai'. Yours truly got married in the year 2015. Let me tell you about the years before my marriage. I started staying on my own since I was twenty-two. The first time when I left my sweet home to go to the humble college hostel, I cried my heart out. Being the only child of my parents, I was a pampered and overprotected kid. Staying on my own was a liberating yet frightening thought. My parents were unhappy too. How was their kid going to survive on the hostel mess food? I still remember my mother requesting the hostel warden to keep an eye on me as I was going to stay away from home for the first time. In many ways, I guess that was my real Vidaai, back in August 2009.

November 26, 2015. In the midst of various rituals and hordes of relatives, I was being ushered into a decorated car. As a newlywed bride leaving her home, I was expected to shed tears. My father was busy ensuring that the ceremony went off smoothly and was nowhere in sight. I could see my mother's moist eyes. And I could feel a dozen pairs of eyes searching my face for a tinge of sadness. Well, I have never been great at displaying my emotions in front of others. After six years of staying on my own, this moment felt like one of those innumerable times when my parents saw me off at the airport or the railway station. Only this time, there were too many faces waving goodbyes and I was decked in a bridal wear. I was sad because my mother became sad at that moment. "I will see you tomorrow during the wedding reception," I whispered to her with dry eyes. She nodded.

While that intimate moment was between a mother and her daughter, it got scrutinized by many.

"I heard that you didn't cry during the Vidaai? It seems that you are so happy to get away from your parents," I was being judged by a neighborhood aunt during one of my visits to my parents.

"I cried a lot during my first Vidaai in 2009, had no more tears left for this one," I winked, trying not to laugh at her expression.

P.S.: This post would be incomplete without listening to Enrique's song Love to See You Cry. I am imagining my neighborhood aunt singing the first few lines of this song at someone else's Vidaai!

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