D for ... Dilemma!

‘Weddings are tough, man. I’m in such a dilemma right now, what am I gonna do? My old man will kill me, roast me alive!’ Vivek said, running his fingers through his hair, an exasperated look on his face.

‘Whoa! Backup a little bro’, what happened? All okay? You still like Nisha right?’ Rohit, Vivek’s best buddy from their school days, asked. Rohit had moved away when he had landed a job with a multinational drug pharmaceutical company and had returned to his home, his roots after fourteen years. But it was as if time stood still, nothing had changed. Even today, standing next to Vivek near the neighbourhood pond, it felt like he had never left. Vivek was always the one to get into trouble and Rohit had always been the one to bail him out. It seemed like déjà vu all over again.

‘I like Nisha, I really do ...’ Vivek started.

‘Well that’s an assurance, considering you’re gonna be marrying her in two days. Everything else can be handled.’ Rohit said, relieved that his friend’s penchant for getting into trouble concerning matters of the heart were not the problem here.

‘Yeah ... I still remember the first day I met Nisha. I had called her over to the pizza place, newly opened then. She came, right on time, with her sister in tow.’ He said, with a grin.

‘Yeah well, it was the first time she was meeting you. I doubt her folks would have let her go alone’.

‘Yeah. True that. We met several times after that. But every time her sister came along.’

‘That’s what’s worrying you? You think her sister will be an interference post marriage?’

‘Na. That’s not it. All those times she came, the three of us bonded really well.’ Vivek remarked.

Rohit was silent, listening, wondering what could be the problem then.

‘I talk to her a lot. The sister, I mean. Discussing the wedding, planning things around it, about Nisha, her folks … and … and throughout it all …’ Vivek paused, swallowing.

‘Vivek, No.’ Rohit said, the lightbulb in his head finally turning on, as he figured out what Vivek was going to spring on him.

‘Umm, yes. I know I know but … what was I supposed to do? I couldn't stop myself. Help me man. If not you, who else? ’ Vivek said, a sheepish look on his face.

‘You’re right. Your old man will kill you. If not him, Nisha will. And if they both happen to miss, I’ll help finish you off. How do you get yourself into such situations man?’ Rohit remarked, shaking his head, unsure of whether to get furious with Rohit or to laugh at yet another conundrum he had managed to get pulled into.

Vivek was silent, waiting for Rohit to complete his monologue, silently praying that Rohit would figure out a way to extricate him from this mess he had gotten himself into.

Rohit took a deep breath. It was going to be messy whichever way he went. No second guessing that.

‘So, let me get this straight. You start meeting Nisha in the hopes of getting married to her and you end up falling in love with her sister? And you wait till what, two days? Two days before the goddamn wedding?’ Rohit asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

Vivek just met his eye, silently pleading with his best friend to help him out. And Rohit couldn’t help but smile at the craziness of it all.

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