He was at a charitable function when he spotted two young men. My dad felt that they looked interesting, and inquired about the older one. Turned out he was divorced but his younger brother (the second young man my dad was eyeing) was available. (having seen a picture of both on Facebook, I was partial to the older brother, but it was really 6 one way, half a dozen the other)
I was finally set up with someone who I actually thought "now here's a guy I could get along well with"!
He was into the outdoors, he read real books (as opposed to many who I have met who consider Sports Illustrated a book), he was successful, smart, funny... he seems to just love life! Bonus, he's 6'2"!!
Rishi wrote the first email. It was a general 'first email' introduction, except I sensed some level of excitement or genuineness in it, which was a change from most introductory emails I had received. Intrigued, I replied. Within a few emails, we had briefly touched on the fact that both of us had lived abroad, traveled extensively, had similar values in staying healthy and keeping fit, and intellectual stimulation. It was a really nice change from everyone I had been set up with to date...by far the best parental setup I'd had in ten years.
Clearly, I went wrong somewhere. I'm not sure if it's because I probably came off as too keen, replying to his emails (and everyone else's for that matter) within 24 hours (new resolution that quickly failed) or because I ended one our last 'real' emails (real meaning that it was more than three lines long) with
"I have to admit, that you are the first Indian person that I have met who is into the outdoors, plays sports, reads, travels and lives abroad - all of those experiences/interests are relatively normal in my books...just not for an Indian person!!"
Hmm. I was being honest - the majority of Indian people I'd met didn't do most of the things I did, hence the difficulty in finding the right suitor. This was a first, and perhaps I scared him away with the reality, because that's when the emails died down.
I don't know if it's what I said, or if he just became really busy after that, or just jumped to the random conclusion that by me being open with my observation, I wanted to get married the next day, which meant he was scared off.
Who knows. He went quiet for awhile - at best, I received one or two line responses to emails (if anything at all). I backed away yet hoped for the best.
Normally, I would move on and say "his loss", but I actually, finally, liked this guy. Besides his lack of communication, there was really nothing I could see. I admired that he went off the beaten path and traveled, worked abroad and does things away from the cultural norm. Needless to say, I was a bit gutted by his lack of interest.
After the excitement of actually finally liking someone who had so much of what I look for, it was a very hard pill to swallow - he just wasn't that into me.
Sigh.
