We have moved on and How!

Some days back I saw the wedding pics of a college mate of mine. I was kind of close to her at one point of time, but over the years our alignments and affiliations changed, and we formed our own distinctive circle of friends. Thanks to orkut, we kept getting updates on whats happening in the other person's life. When I saw her wedding pics 2 days back, I felt 2 things - first nostalgic - yea this was the way I had wedded some 15 months back and secondly - I thought how much we have moved on.

Most of my friends are married. Some nearly for half decades now, some in the seven year itch state :). Some are mothers! And most on the lookout for alliances or waiting for their turn to tie the knot. Some of my friends had improbable demands - and I saw them acquiesce real timidly to the charms of the guy and the whims of destiny. Some had long time sweethearts turned into soul mates. Some had difficult conditions and heavy baggage to carry but ended up getting the perfect person to share the burden. Some are still on the hunt for the perfect one - and I hope they get the partner of their dreams..

Today as I look my one year old neice and hear her mom say, I have to start saving for her wedding - I feel thats how maybe my mom would have said for me. And see now I am married, my parents are done with probably one of the greatest responsibilities. They still are waiting to do a lot more for me, but I am sure, getting a child marriage was something they will always feel proud of. When I see wedding pics of my friends, the thing that wows me most, is the expressions on the parents. I think its unfathomable the physical strain they would have underwent while arranging all the stuff and the less said of the mental anxiety the better. So on the wedding day, the eyes filled with love and concern for their wards yet a strange satisfaction is what makes me feel - we are blessed. We are blessed to have such parents.

And life does go on post wedding. Many things change, many for the better, some remain the same and some we struggle to keep the same. But the flux is really interesting. I was talking to my dear friend A yesterday who has lately gotten into full blown domesticity. And I was asking her hows life treating her now and all. Topics veered and we were reminiscent, how dark a picture we had of marriage. So unsure, so frightening. What if we ended up with the wrongest man on earth!! How might we go on? Touchwood - till now nothing that untoward has happened. (Hope our spouses have the same to say ;) ) During our student life, we saw married folks, but that was just passe. Today we are leading those lives and sometimes I think - hows married life for a particular person, how do so and so spend their time together, how do they manage to run the house. Nothing voyeuristic. But just like when we look at a house from outside and think about the people inside or hear about a profession and are curious as to what people actually do sitting in those place, similarly, I feel how others lives are. ( I am not sure how many people "look at a house from outside and think about the people inside" - but I do :S )

And then I feel how much I myself have transitioned. Today my answer to "hows married life?" would be different from what I would have answered in Feb 2008. And it will be so different in Feb 2010.