Marry Me, Please!

on Posted by Rajesh J Advani
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The first time I asked her to marry me was when we were six years old.

"I'll be the husband," I said, "and you can be the wife."
"No," she replied simply.
"Yes," I said.
"No," she replied again and walked off.
After a few moments, I walked off too. It’s no fun playing house alone.

The second time I asked her to marry me, was when we were fourteen. We were partners in a dance for the annual school program and I was waiting for her to come out of the dressing room. I was dressed in a black suit and bowtie. As she stepped out of the dressing room in a pink dress that came down to her knees, I took a deep breath. She looked like an angel that had just stepped down from the heavens. As we waited for the teachers to give the signal for us to get on stage, I stared at her and tried to find my voice. She caught me looking and smiled as she asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Will you marry me?" I blurted out.
Her smile turned into a grin, and a second later she burst out laughing. I didn't mind. I could see stars in her eyes. Still laughing, she took my hand and led me onto the stage.

The third time I asked her to marry me was on her sixteenth birthday. We were at a picnic with friends and the two of us were sitting by ourselves under a tree as the rest argued about which game to play next. She laughed at something someone was talking about in the distance. I heard the tinkling of bells in her voice. I plucked a daisy that was growing nearby and gave it to her as I said, "Will you be my wife?"
She blushed as she looked at the flower, and then burst out laughing again. She took the flower and ran to join the rest of the group. I followed.

The fourth time, we were eighteen. We were sitting in the cafeteria in college as she sat sipping on a glass of orange juice and telling me how beautiful the last poem she read had been. After speaking continuously for a few minutes, she stopped and said, "What happened? Why aren't you saying anything?"
I looked into her eyes and said, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"
As before, she burst out laughing again and said, "You're not old enough to get married yet." And then she started talking about another poem.

The fifth time I asked her to marry me was the day of our graduation. We were both twenty-one. I got down on one knee with a red rose in my hand and said to her, "Will you, now, take me to be your husband?"
She grinned this time, and replied, "You're always in a hurry. You wanted to do your post-graduation, right?"
I shrugged, got back on my feet, and walked with her to the convocation hall.

Four years later, I had finished my post-graduation and had a job in a multinational company. We were sitting in an ice cream shop when she brought it up. "You haven't asked me to marry you in four years," she said. "What happened? Did you change your mind?" She was smiling widely.
"What do you think?" I teased.
"I think you're afraid I’ll reject you again."
"You haven't really rejected me even once, till now," I countered. "You never really said 'No'."
"I did when we were six," she pointed out.
"She remembers", I thought to myself, as I smiled at the memory.
I held out a spoon of ice cream for her to taste, and said, "Alright, so you rejected me once."
"So?" she asked as she tasted my ice cream.
"So nothing," I replied.
She rolled her eyes in silence. She was no longer smiling.
"Well?" I asked. "Do you think I've changed my mind?"
She frowned as she said, "I don't know." She looked beautiful even when she frowned.
I watched her for a few seconds and said, "Why don't you ask me to marry you this time?"
"Me?" she replied, eyes wide in surprise.
"Why?" I asked. "What's wrong with that?"
She blushed. "No," she said.
"Are you rejecting me again?" I asked.
"No, no!" she said quickly.
"So then you are saying 'Yes'?"
She stuck her tongue out at me as she realized what I was trying to do, and went back to eating her ice cream.
"Hey," I said, as I took her hand in mine. "Marry me."
She scrunched up her nose as she replied, "Are you sure?"
I'd been sure since I was six. "Yes," I said simply.
And she just smiled and nodded.

38 comments:

Nimbus said...

*sighhh* :)

Anonymous said...

Sweet and short! How I wish your stories are true :)

reNUka said...

Hello there!! u have a new visitor. you have got a good narrative style. keep it up!!!

SK said...

Hey, Its hard to believe you are still single. I mean, the story sounds so much real and touching.
Again, very nice story, wonderfully written. I wish your real life were as sweet as this one. And really hope it would be one day.
(You made my feel nice after the gloomy V-day)

Le conteur said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Le conteur said...

"I'll be the husband," I said, "and you can be the wife."
"No," she replied simply.
"Yes," I said.
"No," she replied again and walked off.
After a few moments, I walked off too. It’s no fun playing house alone.
Awwwwww! *Three gold stars for Rajesh*

I want to be her. Or maybe just meet him. Introduce us? :)

AM said...

Great story!!

Anonymous said...

Just found your page, and thought I'd say I like it.

Rajesh J Advani said...

Megha: *beaming* :)

TII: Thanks! But I think the truth is a lot more difficult to write about :)

Renuka: Thanks for visiting! If you hang around, I'll be out with the juice (no caffeine here) and biscuits in a minute :)

suneet: Well, I have been told that "The guy in the story is so you!" but no, the story is definitely fiction :)
And hey, glad to be of service! But why gloomy? You should have spent the day dancing in the rain (or the shower if the rain failed to present itself).

a-hem: He he! The poor kid is only six years old. *chuckle* But maybe you can serenade him with Elmo's song, eh? :D

avinash modi: Thanks! I expect to post a couple more here in the next few days. Hope to see you again. :)

dumbs: LOL! You know, I really hope no one actually tries to answer that question! :D

pete: Thanks for coming by and for the kind words!

thelearner said...

Nice one. If you're interested in a girl make sure she gets to read all your stories.. she'll surely fall for you ;).

Just wondering: how are you going to prevent your new stories from being copied elsewhere? Maybe you could put up a copyright message under each of these stories (not under the regular posts). Just a suggestion.

Rajesh J Advani said...

thelearner: Glad you asked! Specially considering I haven't had a chance to write that post about copyrights.
You will notice that my blog now has a copyright notice that says "All rights reserved". Which means that I don't give away my rights like some users of the Creative Commons license do.
Internationally agreed upon copyright law says that even without this notice, I have full ownership of everything I write. But putting the notice on my blog means people who copy anything off my site without my permission (post, story, poem, anything) inspite of the notice cannot say that they didn't know it was copyright protected.
That said, no, there's no way to surely prevent my work from being copied, just like no author can prevent his book from being pirated or photo-copied.
But this way, it's a little clearer to the world out there.

I promise, there's a post coming about this, soon!

And thanks for the words about my story! Always nice to know people like reading it as much as I liked writing it. :)

Rajesh J Advani said...

dumbs: I got that. :) And thanks for the kind words about my story!

Rohit said...

Good one, Rajesh.Sometimes one doesn't have to be voluminous to express themselves, eh?

Rohit said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rohit said...

Hey again Rajesh.I have used the basic theme of your single guy post and have linked to your post.I must thank you for that post because it helped me out to tell it my way.And tell me what you make of it.

Jesse said...

Great job; Seemed all too real *sigh*

Rajesh J Advani said...

Rohit: Yeah, sometimes short is sweet! :)
And about your blog, read and commented too!

Jack: Thanks! Glad you think so :) Hope to have some more of my fiction posted on this blog in the near future!

i.ph: Thank you for your words about my story! Worth sharing or not, I decided to do so by putting it up here. :) Do come back!

Syed Siddique Sharaf said...

Simply Superb!!!!

its evening now n abt to leave ... my daily habit of random browsing brought me here...
again , its lovely ,too touching!!! :)

Stray Angel said...

oh wow tht ws absolutely wonderful.u write very beautifully.take care.

Rajesh J Advani said...

cykedelyk: read your Just Another Love Story at Sulekha. Amidst whole of chaos.
:) It was written amidst a whole lot of chaos too - alongside work.
Sorry for the trouble my story caused your laptop. It's never done that before. Adolescence maybe? ;) And I know what you mean about typos :)

syed: Thanks! Glad you liked it. :)

wild1: Thank you! Nice of you to say so. :)

Kumari said...

If words were water, i would give you the ocean...to weave more beautiful tapestries that adorn my mind's eye!

Thank you:)

Rajesh J Advani said...

kumari: Wow! That must be the most beautiful compliment I've ever got! Left me almost speechless :)
But a weaver I'm not, nor am I a painter. I just attempt to put words together to make stories, and sometimes I'm lucky. Even the million monkeys have their day :)

cykedelyk: Woah! I must have done something good today. It's raining compliments :D
*sigh* :) Yes. It's good enough.

Aekta said...

Now THAT is the stuff dreams are made of... which is also why it is confined mainly to books and movies, and sometimes, blogs :-)

Rajesh J Advani said...

Liz: Thanks! :) I haven't read him yet, but that was a wonderful compliment. I shall try my best to continue to impress :)

Aekta: Aw, come on. Give life a chance, will you? ;)
Thanks for the words! Do come back again. Hope to have some more dreams printed here soon! :)

M said...

Sighhh....sighhh....sighhhh! What more can I say? The story is really cute.

Gary said...

Hey Pal,
Start a Mills and Boon kinda book, you will mint money...:)

Gary

Visithra said...

Sigh so beautiful - :)))

Krishna said...

Cute story.

Anonymous said...

too bacd this is a PLAGERIZED STORY! YOU STOLE IT FROM THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR>>> YOU CHEATER LIAR AND THEIF!

Rajesh J Advani said...

Sowmya: I know :) Thanks!

Manjusha: Thank you! Glad you liked it!

Gaurang: Mills and Boons, eh? :) Thanks for the compliment :)

Visithra: Happy to know you think so :)

Krishna: Thanks!

Hannah: Ooh, aah, ouch! Sorry for the weird response, but you've really left me speechless! I'm more used to complaining to people about them stealing my stories!
I'll refer you to Plagiarism.
I didn't know this story of mine had been copied too. So I'll ignore the name-calling, and thank you for the info instead :) Now if only you'd also tell me who it is that stole my story :)

Anonymous said...

i am 13 years old and engaged he is 15 !!this kinda of remind me of how he asked me

Anonymous said...

very romantic!!

Anonymous said...

This is sooo cuteee* :) I wish My Bunty propose me soon someday too!!

Unknown said...

Hey im sure im reading a very old blog but it is really really gud..
ur stories makes me feel fresh after a hectic day :)
Get going!!

Anonymous said...

I stumbled upon this post-- and it was lovely. Thank you.

--Carmen

Akira said...

Cute! and w/ a happy ending! :)

Anonymous said...

Hi
i was searching for a poem "why me"
becoz i proposed soem one and she said why me
and finally i got this page
very smooth ,touchy,mesmirizing story.........keep it up
a and do tell me abt ur new one too

Sheraz shamim
a true lover

Anonymous said...

nice