Love. Cheat. Say Sorry. Rinse. Repeat, writes Sajid Khan

I recently attended the engagement ceremony of a dear friend in Nagpur. It was more like a school reunion as other friends of mine were present there with their wives and girlfriends. Harish  getting engaged to Gayatri made me the last bachelor there. Woh kya hai na, Harish aur maine kasam khayi thi ki, we will always be single. Shaadi kabhi nahi karenge, ladki se ya ek doosre se! I thought the ceremony would be boring, but it really wasn’t, as Gayatri and her friends were very chilled out and cool. So during lunch, on public demand, they made me play my famous Why, What, Who game with them.

I asked the two of them: Why an engagement ceremony, why not directly shaadi? After all, Harish is in his 40s and Gayatri in her mid-30s and they have been dating three years now. His reply was “One step at a time, yaar”. Her reply was “Better late than never”. Now, both are very well off financially. So, money is not the problem and it’s not like they’ve gone in for an arranged relationship. What if, after six months or a year, their engagement breaks up?

After all, it’s easier and cheaper to end a mangni than a shaadi. Gayatri said, “Saj, shubh shubh bol yaar. I’m never breaking up with Harish. The only way I would leave him is if he cheats behind my back.” To which Harish slyly murmured, “If I ever cheated behind her back, it would mean that my relationship with her was almost over.”

Angrily, she shouted, “Oh, so you would cheat behind my back?” He retorted, “Only if you brought me to that point.” She replied, “Which low-life dirty guy speaks about cheating on the day of his engagement ceremony?” Her elder sister was quite tipsy and joined in by saying, “I told you this was a mistake. All men are the same.” Gayatri replied, “Calm down, Chhaya. Just because your ex-husband, even after attending marriage counselling classes ran away doesn’t mean every man is the same.” Chhaya took a large swig from the bottle and said, “That bastard cheated with the marriage counsellor.” Ouch! I thought. That must have hurt. Gautam ka toh pata nahi, lekin maamla yahan pe bahut Gambhir ho raha tha. We all calmed down and came to the conclusion: mangni, marriage, relationship, live-ins, love, promises — they are all just empty words unless and until there’s faith and trust attached to all of them. More times than ever, a woman wants to have faith in a guy, but also leaves it up to fate. And there is no deniability that two of 10 men cheat, four out of 10 would like to, but don’t get an opportunity to, six out of 10 have cheated successfully, not got caught and are becoming bolder by the day, eight out of 10 would like to cheat, but cannot afford it financially. And 10 out of 10 men have cheated, got caught, paid the price, moved on, started all over and cheated again. But the very few couples who pulled it off are truly the blessed ones. And it is because of these handful of people on this planet, love and trust exist.