The Root 3 Syndrome

    Any Indian girl would know that one of the toughest things for us to do is escape marriage. You get a certain age, and all people want to hear from you is- when are you settling down. They don’t care about how well you are doing in life or if you are doing well at all. When you try to evade the question politely then the next question you get asked is if you have someone special in tow? If you don’t have any exciting info then people think that you are being sly....its quite an ordeal believe u me.

       So I generally have been dealing with this whole gang of uncles and aunts who get all quizzical every time I visit my folks. It doesn’t matter that you are doing well for yourself (one of them was mortified to hear of my promotion last year. In her view the more i earned the more difficult it would be for my folks to find a right guy for me!). Don’t even ask me how they reacted to the news of me taking a year off for studies. All I can say is that i love my folks for understanding what I want despite the dissenters that they have to suffer back home.

        What irritates me is that these are the persona non grata, who are not even remotely connected with my life. Yet their loud and opinionated self is hard to ignore, especially for my parents who have to deal with them socially. I am so glad that i can escape the torture of their presence for months at a stretch.

       The irony is that I do want to settle down. I miss not having a company, or someone to share my thoughts and life with. But i don’t want to settle into marriage out of pressure from some rogue elements. We are each a unique person (pretty much a Square Root of 3, in our own ways). We have our weaknesses, and our imperfections.  We wish we were different, a square or an integer. But we clearly are not....just when we come to accept ourselves the way we are, the hunt to find someone like us begins (for conjugal bliss). The beauty lies in finding another Square Root of 3, who will make us a whole number. Someone who will make our rough edges smooth....someone who will accept our ‘irrationality’ and make it rational. I call it the Root 3 Syndrome...someone who will complete us(sigh).

But what if i make a wrong choice and end up with a 3 or a 9? Then i will just be longing to become an integer all my life.....scary scary thought. To say ‘yes’ or not to say ‘yes’, thats the million dollar question, my friend.

Ps: Root 3, concept is obviously not mine. Its inspired from a poem by David Feinberg, and featured in the movie Harold and Kumar-Escape from G’bay. Here’s what the poem goes like...
...........................................................................................................................................
 I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three
The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine
For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic
I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality
When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three
As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer
We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed