Where's a paper bag when you need one?

Today, we'd gone to the temple for the monthly prayer customs (vazhipaadu) that we do from our side. And I seriously wished I had a paper bag to wear!

As many would know, arranged marriages these days happen over the internet through a few matrimonial sites. Now, for those who're thinking about sites where men try for easy pickings, these are not dating sites. These sites do the job of the erstwhile broker who matches the girl and the guy based on specifications. The only difference? This broker has really powerful computing speeds and a very exhaustive database and a secured interface. And so, getting married these days isn't exactly as difficult as it was during my parents' times. (yeah right!)

My parents had registered a profile for me with one of these sites and we'd been getting quite a few messages where the boys or their parents expressed interest in my profile and well, most of them had to be rejected because of some or the other criteria not matching - if it wasn't the height, it was the age; if it wasn't the age, it was the horoscope; if it wasn't the horoscope, it was the family and so on...

Thus today, when I saw one of those "rejected" guys standing just a few feet away from me at the temple, you can be rest assured, I did a double take and ran for my life (read: walked fast). It was quite the coincidence, actually. And so, I told my folks about the guy all the while unmindful of a black tee shirt clad guy who was giving me strange looks. After our duties at the temple were done, I turn around to find the same black tee shirt-wala and the other guy I was so earnestly trying to avoid staring at me, talking to another elderly lady, whom I assumed was his mother. This had me so flustered and I half dreaded that they'd come and try talking to me (that's plain paranoid, I know!) that I nearly bumped into another guy. And to make matters worse, I said "Oh gomen nasai!" (in japanese! I never learn!) and then openly hit myself on the head for that, completely forgetting the fact that, that guy was still there, wondering if my cranial screws were missing!

By the time we'd started back for home, I was sorely missing my handy paper bag!

It was soooooo embarrassing! >__<;;;