There have
been a spate of English serials- popularly called sitcoms in the past few
years-classified into multi-genres- comedy/ sci-fi/ hospital/ murder/ family
etc.etc.The building unit of each of them is termed a ‘season’ and it’s always
intrigued the glued mind to discover each of them- discuss which provided the
kick and deliberate on the eventuality of those to unfold. Popularized
widely by the much acclaimed “Friends” sitcom, the ‘season’ jargon has formed a
part of my (ok-our :) ) vocabulary post marriage! In retrospect, the
pre-marriage phase too was a season of its own, marked by its own milestones.
So, our sitcom i christen as Cocktail. Yeah...yeah..the cliched meaning holds!
It signifies a melange of events, thought-provoking highlights, effusive
demonstrations of care, ego-clashes, clarifications and
momentary-resolute stances for way-forward. It's just my conjecture that all of
this would sound a bit too alien to anyone reading....hopefully sans my
husband! If he does too, then it's 'Tough Racket' to me ;)
I have often been apprehended for "talking in
frameworks".Well, that's what i get bread & butter for doing 5 days a
week; so it's befriended my vocabulary as well ! Hence, each season i approach
under 3 broad heads of "Current Affairs" "Weather Update"
and "Head-lines". Not wholly self-explanatory- so to elaborate
Current affairs - Gives the gist of the season. The
highlights transcendental landmarks reached if any
Disclaimer: All characters in this are purely real. Resemblance to.......blah blah......do i need to complete this?
Actors: C & R -to simplify life have termed the protagonists as mere alphabets- the guy-C, the girl-R (oh it has some-cheesy, lovey-dovey, sweet-nothings reason behind it )
Pre-Courtship season/ Season 0:
Current affairs:
A heady start even before the cocktail is consumed; a swift cadence of
mood-alleviating hormones; making everything seem perfect!
C couldn't possibly get anything wrong at all, ( neither could
R ? :). Every whatsapp ping, checking "last seen at" ( at an interval
of almost every 5 min) , every sms beep, "oh- just a sec, getting a
call from C" ( R tries her best to conceal the complimentary smile that
comes along with it)- it's all about connecting, trying (not
hard really) to be the quintessential "cool couple" who
have honestly truly found the right match in each other. C'mon-only the
'love-marriage" category types needn't "feel" these
privileges! R is all drooling about her catch...the tall handsome C, smart,
sophisticated in his approach; a charmer-mingles well with family and friends
alike. His voice sounds grown-up, mature and most professional- very suited for
those cosy evening tete-a-tete's over a cuppa tea watching the sun set, talking
about life, career, future et al. C on his part has diagnosed R rather well!
Kudos..all in a short span of time. Doesn't make the atypical guy
moves- fast/ desperate/ chauvinistic / trying & buying to please- (in
retrospection ) has been himself ! ( a good supposition that R fell into
the trap of believing that this was C's tactic to take on Pre-courtship).
R is intrigued at his dispassionate- yet-an sms every single day/a call every
evening- approach :). Trips are planned to meet each other's folks and the
icing on the cake is C swooping in to meet R in her terrain. Not once- but
thrice! A 'planned' surgeon meeting' , 'need to meet a friend before she leaves
for US", and a third 'i really don't recall" excuse to spend some cosy
fleeting time together. To R, each visit was like a celebrity coming over to
her soil. The preparations that went into the visit were aplenty- ranging from
a previous sleepless night, to buying a teddy bear worth 200/- albeit aware of
its future residence behind a curtain on a dust-laden window sill, to reaching
the airport a good 1 hr. prior to his arrival. C on his part ( as mentioned
earlier) continued to 'act' detached from these trivialities.
However couldn't put on this garb for long and played wonderful host
to R's visit to his homeland...a candlelit wine & dine in a restaurant
followed by abetting in some impetuous spending in a hotel. The major affair of
this season was marriage and the run up to it. ( not to forget the subtle
mentions of a honeymoon. If R mentioned it- it caused serious 'stress' in the
system and if C did it was 'preparation time' , he 'taking the lead' to plan for
some fun ahead !! )
- A realistic, yet cautious, demonstration of a spectrum of mood hues. 'Sudden' happiness at the thought of 'its finally happening' ; Restlessness driven by job search/ R's urgency to sort it all out immediately;
- 1st time kicks with the transformation of a vanilla 'good night', to a 'good night sweet dreams', to a [ Do i need to think through a bit more on this before sending..after all he's gonna be my husband] 'good night sweet dreams...hugs and kisses'. No response to R's girl-like illustrations; C instead choosing to see the messages, revert next morning with a pretentiously irrelevant 'hehe' or a 'hey' as if to say , he did not get the intent or couldn't unravel the complicated language used
- A constant check on if the other person has got miffed/ pisssssed with a remark made. If so, to implement some damage-mitigation techniques of a quick-call to check voice quality & other parameters; sending a funny joke/ forward on whatsapp with the expectations of receiving a genuine laughter response ( if not, then other damage mitigation measures to be called for); providing some wedding related updates and checking the pulse
Headlines:
An ebullient usage of 'strangulation' and 'let's call it off' ( in the context of C
feeling stifled at the very thought of signing up for 'that which
must not be named' (alias-marriage) , a sauve pronunciation of 'wayykayyshons'
and ( what would be an increasingly vexatious usage of) 'in a bit' - to
signify a time frame from now to anytime in infinity
.................Courtship Season 1 continues same time next week
Till then.....adios
