“Mumbo Jumbo!” That was my teen nickname. It’s not like I didn’t try to do something about it; I’ve spent most of my life trying some new diet, weight-loss programme and even fat camp. I would start every year weighing around 125 kg with tummy and thighs packed full of holiday biryani and all sorts of year-end goodies. New Years’ resolutions would help me get to 100 kgs and disastrous Deepavali-Christmas binge-fests would bring me back to square one.
I wasn’t a sad fatty; I was a true BBW – Big Beautiful Woman. In sports like shot-put, discus and javelin, I had few rivals. My student years were spent as protector of the weak and my aggressive ambition set the stage for a fabulous career.
Then, I hit the dramatic age of 30, and my ever-loving and supportive parents had their first breakdown at my state of singlehood. The drama began with my mother’s panic attack when younger cousins were getting married one after another and when my younger sister hinted at having ‘found someone’. Mother’s panic became father’s worry, which translated into me being dragged to every possible wedding, family gathering and religious event. I was stuffed into grotesque clothes that made me look like a giant, sparkling potato. In anger and despair, I turned to God and asked, “What is so terrible about me that a man wouldn’t like me as I am? You made me. I am not a mistake. You put in my heart and in my parent’s heart, the desire to find a soul-mate. Where is he?”
You would think that a modern, educated woman would have surpassed all thoughts of soulmates and divine intervention. Unfortunately, I am a romantic who believes that God made people in pairs but sent them to earth at different times. Some people find their perfect match and some people don’t. So, I started praying that God would bring the person who was custom-made for me, as I certainly didn’t have the skill to go scouting for my soul mate. I wrote a prayer with a list of all the qualities that I wanted in a man and then, I waited.
A year later, I got an email out of the blue. It was the ultimate Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks moment. A confident successful man, who had decided to grab life by its collar, was sending an email to a woman whom he felt was his match. He had the most gorgeous voice I’ve ever heard over the phone: deep, smoldering and smooth like dark chocolate. He checked all the boxes in my prayer list and best of all, he thought I was perfect. Exactly one year after ‘I got mail’, I married the man who sent me that email and as we celebrate our first wedding anniversary, I am grateful for answered prayers and grateful that I didn’t have to change who I was to find my soul mate.
