Times and Tastes are Changing

   This is a chronicle of yesterday's key events in connection with my family's Search-a-Groom-for-the Daughter mission.
   After having lunch in bed (thanks to a lower back injury) I dialed the mobile number given to me earlier by the prospective groom's elder brother, with whom the 'boy' lives in Paryavaran Complex, Saket.
   The boy answered.
   I said, "Shall we meet at the Baristas at the Select City Mall complex?"
   The boy suggested the PVR Saket instead.
   "That would be fine," I agreed, and asked next, "What time?"
   "For that I'll talk to Bhaiyya and let you know," replied the boy. I once again agreed.
   Later it was my wife who picked up the phone when the boy dialed in and gave the time as between 7:30 and 8 pm, which was also okay by us.
   So off we went to meet a prospective son-in-law and his elder brother at PVR Saket. And guess what? We waited and waited for up to 8:15 pm but there was neither any phone call nor any sign of the gentlemen.
   Finally, I thought we'd had enough, and sent an sms to the boy's mobile stating that we were leaving as maybe he couldn't keep his appointment for some pressing reasons, and went to the car park to go back home. There was no response even as we started the car and moved out of the car parking lot. But when we'd moved out to the main road, there was a call and the boy said he'd reach in a few minutes, could we wait?
   My wife felt we could wait some more, and we did. Finally, however, the meeting turned out to be unproductive as we felt the children were not likely to make a happy pair.
   How I wish we also followed the western system is, where such decisions are taken by the concerned children and the parents may remain out of the loop except at the wedding.