Writings / Fiction: Nirushan Sivagnanasuntharam

Sungitha

I met Sungitha the way I never want to meet a girl – through a friend of my mother’s. The idea of meeting a girl to marry through family connections is a long held tradition amongst South Asian families, but one I never before wanted any part of. But as I was now over thirty, unattached and without romantic prospects, thought the time was right to give my family a chance. Within days of my consent, I was shown two photographs of Sungitha by my mother’s friend known to me as Shanthi Aunty. The photo’s showed Sungitha as having a somewhat plump figure, round face and straight black hair. In one photo she is wrapped in a purple sari etched with gold brocade print, a distinct red putoo on her forehead, hair braided with white lilies and several bangles of various colors swinging on her wrists. In the other photo she’s wearing a white short-sleeved blouse, knee length beige skirt, a gold rimmed watch with leather band round her left wrist and hair unadorned and long down her back.

I was told by my mother and Shanthi Aunty that I had seen Sungitha in my younger years, before I started university. I highly doubt that we had spoken before or been part of the same conversation, but think it’s certainly very possible that we had been part of the same audience at a Tamil cultural show or sat three or four tables away at a charity event or wedding.

When I expressed interest in Sungitha, Shanthi Aunty passed along Sungitha’s phone number and email address to me. My first call to Sungitha became a half hour long chat. I learned that she had two older brothers, both of whom were engineers and married, that she herself had recently finished teachers college and had been hired on by the public school board for a contract position as a Math teacher. The fact that she had a career of her own was a positive thing in my eyes and increased the odds that I would want to marry her. It didn’t hurt her case either when I found out that we both preferred independent dramas that relied on character development rather than special effects, enjoyed traveling particularly to European locales and loved good food of all kinds whether ethnic or good old north American pub fare.

We exchanged emails and text messages over the next two weeks before speaking on the phone again. During this call we decided we should plan a meeting before our families arranged one for us.

Our first meeting was to be at a coffee shop located in her part of the city. I’d offered to pick her up at her house, but she insisted that she would meet me at the coffee shop. When I arrived I found her sitting at a table for two dressed in black knee length skirt and striped collared shirt. I was relieved to find that she looked very close to the photos of her that I’d been shown. Although it wasn’t a huge inconvenience for me to be here – only a half hour drive – I would never have forgiven my mother or Shanthi aunty if I’d been deceived.

There was a lot to like about Sungitha. She laughed whenever I made a joke, appeared to be genuinely curious in learning all about me including my work, my interests, my ambitions, my family, my friends and had a really nice look and smell about her which excited me more than I would care to admit to my mother or Ranjana Aunty. I think she liked the fact that I had a master’s degree and was ambitious in my career, that I owned real estate and lived an active lifestyle. The one thing she seemed to disapprove of was my passion for video games and comic books.

“Have you heard of the Doom Fighter series?” I said.

“I’ve heard,” she said.

“Are you a fan?”

“Not really. Are you?”

“I’m a huge fan! I own all nine games in the series and all the comics in the series. I will never forget the time my dad bought me that first comic. I have it displayed in my room in a glass case.”

“Oh I see. How often do you play video games?”

“All the time, every day if I can. Particularly on weekends. ”

“That much?”

“Well yeah. I love video games. Friday night is the big night. All my friends come over then to my condo and we order pizza or fried chicken or something and play video games all night. The turnout has been getting smaller over the years, but the core group is still there.”

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