My wedding had been one hell of an experience for me. Though we were in love and were very serious about spending our lives together, we both were very clear on our terms of marrying only with our parents' consent. My family happily gave their nod but the trouble was from his side. With a lot of convincing and patience from our end, Shyam's family finally agreed to get us married. Even though Shyam belongs to the community where Dowry is a must, my in-laws did not ask us for anything. All that they wanted was us to marry according to their customs which my family agreed without any qualms.
My late Father had not been very responsible when he was alive which meant we had no much savings. Our wedding date was fixed just after a month which left us with very little time to arrange the monies. The whole period between our engagement and wedding was very stressful for both of us. There were no sweet talks but only arguments and discussions about how to mobilize money between us. Shyam had couple of payments from his clients and some savings which helped us to some extent. The first breather came to us from the office I was working for. Since I was with the company since 2 years, the management did not hesitate in sanctioning a reasonably huge amount as a loan for my wedding. I had a chit of about 2 Lacs which I was paying since couple of months. It was no where nearing maturity and lifting the chit at that point of time meant losing a lot of money. We both were not sure which source we should be trying to arrange the monies which left us both worried. We were filled with negativity as we weren't sure what we should be doing. The relatives did not prove to be of any help. I was in my office pantry lost in thoughts as to what to do when a colleague (now friend) asked me what's the matter. When I shared my situation with her, she immediately offered help without any second thought. I was kinda in shock as we were not exactly very close friends but still she offered to help me. It was that moment which gave me the much needed strength and optimism to get up and walk again! It did not stop there. My other friends did not back off in helping either and it made me feel lucky and blessed for having such amazing friends.
The saying, 'A friend in need is a friend indeed', is so true in my case. I cannot thank my friends enough for being there for me during the most important phase of my life. We were able to clear off 85% of the monies in 1.5 Years. The thing which makes us proud is that we bore our wedding expenses on our own without depending on our parents.
The post is written for Housing.com which believes in the inimitable power of optimism.
