Why I was reluctant to get married

A page from the personal diary of Tasneem Shaikh I met my husband (Sameer Nerurkar) in early 2003. He was my best friend’s brother. According to him I am a big chatter box. He would get irritated with my yak yak whenever I visited their house. But gradually he started liking me and so did I but never owned up to our feelings for each other. On 21st November his sister and my best friend Monica was getting married. He proposed to me on that day. When you are lonely in life and you find love in the person you love, it feels the best. We started dating and after two years we decided to get married. We informed our parents that we wanted to get married. The date was fixed and he had not even proposed to me. It was strange. So one day I told him, “Hey have you even asked me if I am ready to marry you?” He was like, “I thought you wanted to marry me. Please don’t say no. Everything is fixed from wedding cards to the date.” He went on his knees and pleaded that I marry him. “Stupid I will obviously marry you,” I responded. The fact that my husband and me belong to different faiths was never a hurdle in the way of our marriage but there was another problem. A month before my wedding I fell down and broke my jaw. My jaw was plastered for a month. After the removal of the plaster, my face looked distorted. There was a possibility that I would never look like the way I looked before. It was emotionally strenuous and I was therefore reluctant to get married. I advised Sameer to drop the idea of getting married to me but he refused to do that and even supported me in overcoming this nightmare. It has been two and a half years since we got married and everything is hunky dory and smooth sailing. Since he is in the Merchant Navy, he has to stay away from home for months and that has kept our marriage fresh. Our marriage journey so far has been beautiful. Soon we will be welcoming a new member to our family. I am six months pregnant. Sameer is not in town but he keeps calling me up as he is really excited about the baby. I put my phone on loudspeaker whenever he calls up as I want our baby to get familiar with his voice. Sameer will be at home for at least three months after the child’s birth as he wants to spend time with us. But I am sure more than me he wants to spend time with the baby and now all his attention will get shifted from me to the baby.