The Matchmakers

57 years ago, on Wednesday, the 26th June 1963, we (I and Rajani) got married. 

Ours is an arranged marriage.  And the credit for its success goes to the two Matchmakers who discovered that we were made for each other.

One of the two MMs was Kumud Annachatre, a distant sister of mine. She was a doctor, and while pursuing her studies fell in love (like what most Doctors do) with another doctor in the making. He was our second MM, Mukund Deshpande.  After getting degrees and marrying, Mukund opened his private dispensary and Kumud joined the KEM hospital.  Both of these were located near our residence, 26 Rasta Peth.   

Kumud was very fond of my parents, especially mother.  She started frequenting our place for all sorts of reasons: breakfast, lunch, dinner, or just for the sake of meeting us.  She was extremely talkative and fun loving.  I knew her from childhood. Her brother, Padmakar, was once living with us in Thane, while doing his apprenticeship in Mumbai.   It was he who introduced me to Hollywood movies and English literature.  

Mukund was a distant maternal uncle (Mama) of Rajani.  He was equally talkative and had great persuasive skills.  Had he not entered medical profession, he would have been a great HR person. He hailed from Karad but then, for Kumud’s sake, settled in Pune.  He was also a social worker, taking interest in the lives of his poor patients. He would often be found providing more counselling than medicines to them in his dispensary.

So he started visiting 26 Rasta Peth with Kumud as well.  He also fell in love with our parents and our family.

I soon became his friend and started visiting his dispensary.  We would discuss on a variety of subjects. Sometimes, my cousin brother, Madhukar also joined us. Slowly, an idea germinated in his mind: why not arrange a marriage between Rajani and me? He started sowing the seeds of this in the minds of Rajani, her mother and grandmother.  He had a good rapport with them and they slowly agreed to give it a thought.  The moment I submitted my thesis to the University and got an employment in Gokhale, he and Kumud pounced on me and my parents with this idea.  We were not very enthusiastic about it but then agreed to have a ‘kanda pohe’ session that they arranged.

I went to Rajani’s place with my father and brother.  She, typically her head bent, brought in dishes of Shira (rather than Kanda-pohe) and answered the usual questions of my father.  The mission proved a total disaster!  I said no, I am not going to marry. Mukund asked me, why not? I said haughtily, I did not like marrying just on the basis of one meeting where I could barely see the face of the girl.  The matchmaker Mukund said no problem. He arranged the meeting of two of us, of all the places, in KEM hospital.  Kumud let us in in her clinic there and left on some pretext. Then I said one meeting was not enough.  No problem, the MM replied nonchalantly.  He arranged another meeting in the Lucky restaurant at Deccan Gymkhana.  He got us seated in a ‘family room’ and went away.   Still a couple of meetings were required to take the monumental decision, I told him.  Again, no problem! He would bring Rajani on a scooter to his dispensary and keep two of us in the examination room while he saw his patients in the waiting room.

I was exasperated by all these meeting places. I knew, if I asked for more meetings, he would take us to Sassoon hospital or to an Amrutatulya hotel.

In the meanwhile, the MMs had already got our parents on their side.  Rajani too joined them. Enough of these meetings, she told me sternly.

I gave in.

Thank you, Dr. Mukund and Dr. Kumud.  Your diagnosis was correct. 

26 June 2020

 (The painting is by Archis Kulkarni. Specially drawn for the blog)