A Shitty Day — That Made Me Take The Plunge To Get Married!
Shit happens. But sometimes, it leads to serendipitous encounters.
I had dressed up real cute in a pink tee shirt and shorts. I even put on makeup. My boyfriend and I were traveling to Madiwala Lake together. (I love lakes and their exceptional ability to soothe me)
The lake shuts at 6 pm — we were already getting late and had booked an auto-rickshaw.
The auto dropped us off, but not at the main gate. So, I quickly hopped out (in an attempt to look around for the main entrance to the lake), while Boyfriend was taking his own, slow time. I wanted to make sure we got in as soon as possible — I didn’t want to miss the beautiful, orange-hued sunset.
There was some sewage work going on at the time and the entire place was muddy. I hopped onto a stone to get near the entrance.
Only that it wasn’t a stone.
It was a pile of sewage sludge (residual waste — kind of semi-solid). My entire right foot, up to my knees, got stuck and fully immersed in that sludge.
In my defense, I’m myopic and I was wearing neither spectacles nor lenses that day — so I mistook that pile of sewage for stone — honest mistake, right?
My Boyfriend asked me to come toward him in another direction.
“I can’t. I’m stuck.” — I said.
He glanced and then walked toward me. Instead of cribbing on how it was getting late or making fun of me, he gave me his hand and helped me come out of the sludge. Then, he said — “Let’s walk around and get a water bottle.”
I protested, “No, let’s see the sunset first. The gates of the lake will close. Where will we find a store anyway?”.
He smiled — his usual gorgeous smile. “We will. Don’t worry.”
“Okay,” I said, trustingly.
On the walk to the store, people kept staring at me and making faces at the bad stench coming from my sewage-covered foot.
But he held my hand all through, never once flinching.
The bad smell even got to my head, but he patiently walked us to a store, calming me down. He bought a water bottle to get the sewage off my foot. But even 1 liter wasn’t enough. So we had to buy another bottle and wash my foot properly to get rid of the sludge.
His patience, his warmth, his love — were unmatched. They still are.
We walked back to the lake. We did miss the sunset, of course.
But that day, I had a feeling. I just knew in the pit of my stomach —
I’m gonna marry this wonderful man.
The man who held my hand when I was stinking, and everyone was judging. The man who didn’t once make an insensitive remark because he knew I just wasn’t ready to make or hear jokes about it. Now, we laugh our butts off while reminiscing on that incident. The man who could come up with a practical solution, while I was almost on the verge of tears.
That incident made me feel like he’s THE man in my life.
