The bag and its controversies

“Auntie I would like to ask you something but you should not mistake me.”

“It is regarding the snacks you send every year for the festival.”

“Oh is it regarding the snacks? May be you don’t like the repetition?”

“No…. no….. Please don’t change your menu… We actually anticipate your yearly mouth-watering nibbles…

But it is the repetition of the bags over the past 5 years in which you send those items that had created lot of guessing between me and my wife Lallu. We know that it is the bag which has coconut banana and paan and a sweet given to the wedding guests before they leave the hall.

“And how does the guessing game go?”

Lallu thinks  these are bags from a marriage stopped at the last moment. She says it  might be a dowry problem……compulsion by the parents.... a love affair etc. etc…..

“What is your idea …my dear boy?”

“ I think it should be the excess bags printed for  the wedding Knowing your penchant for non-plastic bags they should have given you those to be put into use…..

And today we decided that we would put an end to this argument that has gained an yearly permanency ……… like an yearly budget discussion….and sort it out with you once for all”

I laughed and said “you should have come along Lallu. Over a cup of green tea our discussion would have been more interesting.”

“I was wondering why no one has asked me this question for the past so many years.”

The story goes like this

“It was the wedding of the only son of a widow who with her hard work and determination educated the boy in engineering diploma and when he expressed his desire to go for a degree course it was a bit of a disappointment for her. He convinced her that with an engineering degree it would be easy to get a high paying job.  His goodness was beyond compare and his mother knew that she was not wasting money on him. She begged and borrowed to fulfil his desire. He was not a high flyer but finished his the course fairly well. Due to this and his lack of proficiency in English he couldn’t land himself in a good job. But both of them didn’t lose heart and The mother gave out his bio data to all she knew with the hope that one of them might help out her son. With a bit of luck he landed on a decent job and his mother wasted no time in fixing his  marriage.

On the day before the wedding when the bags for the return gift were delivered the boy was furious. The name printed on the bag was his dad’s younger brother and his wife. The boy knew how they were treated after his father’s demise, how jealous they were when he did his engineering and what sort of mental torture his mother underwent with them as their neighbour.

“Amma (mother) …the boy shouted …”What have you done?”

He was holding the gift bag in his hand

The mother was worried that the boy was talking about the expensive bag. She tried to pacify him.

“Dear son I know the bags are a bit expensive but they looked so beautiful…..And since you have sent your wedding invitation through the computer and relatives were invited personally I wanted your  hard earned degree to be  known to the world…and that you are marrying a degree holder too . So I printed your names with the respective degree. Is that a mistake or buying an expensive bag is a mistake?

Don’t worry …….. I can manage the expense.”

“ Amma I am neither worried about your expense nor about printing the degrees. Why their name?” the boy shouted.

“That is the way of the world,” his mother said matter of fact.

“I don’t want to abide by the tenets of the world. Why didn’t you print your name on those bags?”

“My dear boy” she said “Your father is no more and it is not auspicious to put my name on the bags.” She said

“To hell with your customs” he yelled “If you are going to distribute those bags tomorrow   I swear that my marriage is off.”

His friends who had gathered there to pack the items in the bags tried to convince him to adjust for the sake of his mother.

“I would rather go for a registered marriage than a wedding in which those printed bags would be distributed.” He firmly said

His mother called up her close family friend and poured out her heart.

“The boy is right. At some point we have to do away with our orthodox customs…… Don’t worry I will take care of everything. I will be at your place after some time and talk to the boy.”

A satisfied mother switched off the cell phone.

Straight away he proceeded to Parry’s’ Anderson street (Chennai) and bought the required number of generic bags which just said “Thank You.”

He went to the wedding house and instructed his friends to pack the items in the new bags and said to the boy “Hats off my dear son for your excellent stand… I don’t know if I would have done the same in a similar situation….. I consider these bags not as a wedding gift to you rather they are your wedding gift to me since you have taught me a lesson to stand by a principle…!”

Thus those printed bags came into my possession… and mind you those bags which were discarded for a principle would be proudly sent to you till I exhaust them. Is it ok with you?”

Manu was emotional; he smiled and nodded his head!