Kathmandu:

If everything had gone according to my parents’ plans, I would not have remained a bachelor.

My father said, “You’ve completed your univeristy, are working for a reputed firm, already pushing 27, so it is the right time for you to tie the knot.”

I dilly-dallied, but I’m 29 and can no longer put him off. No excuse that I cooked up could deter him from his vision of seeing his son married. “I don’t earn enough to pay the cost for a wife’s hair perming or mascara or skin toner...,” I uttered as one feeble excuse after another.

My father said, “Do you think 21st Century wives are like your mother who depend on their hubbies for everything?”

He’s right, but this is not the way I had envisioned welcoming matrimony. However, like a dutiful I prepared myself mentally for my upcoming nuptials.

In a daughter-in-law parents look for six things — caste, nobility, social status, ability for household affairs, behaviour and looks. What does a man look for in a wife? Aptitude, attitude, education and beauty.

I asked my father, “Do you want a daughter-in-law for yourself or a wife for your son?” His comeback was, “I’ll try to find a daughter-in-law in your spouse.”

I said to my self — life is a compromise. Looking at my parents’ lives I find that at ever turn they had reached a kind of compromise.

My father, an orphan, was raised by a widowed aunt. He wanted to marry a graduate. However, he bowed to my aunt’s wishes and married my mother, who had wanted to study and have a career of her own, but was married after SLC. Raised by a single mother, my mum didn’t want to cause her mother heartache.

Even my conception was a compromise on my mother’s part — she was 17, trying to carry on with her education privately, and I was conceived to appease her mother, and my father’s aunt who was on her deathbed. They had insisted that playing with a grandchild was their last wish.

Thirty-one years and three children on, my parents lives moved on — two of their offsprings (my sisters) were already married. They wanted their first born to walk that road too.

I know life is a compromise, but I am sure I will be pleased with whoever my wife will be cause I know she will be a perfect match.