You’ve Received an Interest!
September 14, 2019
Readers, have I got a story for you this week! As you know, one reason I refuse to use real names is how small the Malayalee community is. It seems like everyone knows everybody and their mothers. You would think that with 38 million Malayalees around the world, the chances of two strangers being connected are something like one in a million. Well, you would be surprised at how common one in a million can actually be.
My profile on m4marry has been active for a couple of weeks now and things have been going slowly. I will be honest, the main problem is that I am too picky with my expectations for a potential suitor. Like, is it too much to ask they do not use CAPS LOCK when writing about themselves? And in the majority of profiles I come across, the guy is “God-fearing,” or alternatively, “looking for someone who is God-fearing.” And apparently, everyone is “jovial!” Personally, I do not want someone who compares themselves to Zeus, who is a notorious philanderer. If you did not get the reference, the adjective “jovial” comes to us from Latin (through iterations in Italian and French) meaning jolly, good-natured, and cheerful because these are characteristics of those influenced and born under Jupiter. Jove was another name for Jupiter, whose Greek counterpart was Zeus. And Zeus had plenty of consorts, so no thank you, I’ll pass.
Fast forward to last Tuesday, I am sitting at work and my phone buzzes with a new text, “Dear Member, You have received a new interest on m4marry.com." At the time, I did not think too much of it, all the texts say that. I casually click on the notification and the app takes its time to load up. Oh yea, m4marry has an app. I am not going to lie, this whole thing is a bit exciting. I kinda feel like Charlie opening up a candy bar to see if there is a golden ticket in there. You never know where love will find you; maybe mine is on a website. A part of me gets giddy like Anna, from frozen, thinking, what if I meet THE one? It is a rollercoaster of emotions that I ride out in a matter of 3 seconds.
When the profile loads, I am stunned and amused. Immediately I think, there is no way he knows about this. I go through his profile and check out his photos to make sure I have not mistaken him for someone else. Nope, the Tommy on this profile is the same Tommy I was talking to a couple of weeks ago on Dil Mil. We had talked for a couple of weeks, but the conversation just fell by the roadside. It was not anything he said or did, at least for me it was not anything he said or did, just that life got busy and I felt like he would not be interested in the mundane happenings of my day to day life. How many different ways can you say you went to work, came home, and repeated the next day? Neither of us had much to say to each other…which is fine, it just did not work out. But then why did he send me an interest?
I waited until after lunch to message Tommy, partly because I wanted to give my logical side some time to reason this situation out and partly because he is three hours behind me and I did not want my message to be one of the first things he sees in the morning. I mean, how strange is it to get a text from a girl you stopped messaging, randomly asking if you are on a marriage website? I would think it is strange; and yet that is exactly what I did.
Turns out, his sisters are on the hunt to find him a bride. They (his family) made a profile for him and were searching through the recommendations when they came across my profile. So it was, according to Tommy, his sisters that sent the interest. It is a good thing I messaged him privately, because I do not want to have to explain to his family, or mine for that matter, how I already know a seemingly random stranger. I never asked him if he told his family about me. We texted for a couple more days, mainly about our luck on dating/marriage websites. At one point, and I still do not know how this happened, I accidentally called him on whatsapp. Imagine my utter shock when I hear the unmistakable outgoing ring of whatsapp as I am getting coffee in my office kitchen! I quickly hang up, but not quick enough, because he calls me back! I explain what happened and we both just awkwardly laughed about it and continued our days. Eventually both of us ran out of things to say or life got busy or a myriad of things I do not know about, and again we went silent. Maybe this is a sign from the universe that Tommy is not the guy meant for me. If the universe is so keenly interested in my love life, it will happen one way or another. In the meantime, I just have to enjoy the ride and take it one surprise at a time, and I hope you will join me.
- Aemi
