When Dumbo met Smiley part 1

She could not have called him Dumbo yet... but he had already begun calling her Smiley
He was yet on the right side of 29 but just about; she was on the right side of 23, by really a whisker. Despite the giggles striving to lighten up the ambience, the air was stuffier than that a Thane - CST local at 7 am. It was a boy meets girl (BMG)act of the great arranged marriage drama. Kudos are due to all those Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films that manage to romanticize this act on screen; in real life as most people who have gone through the ordeal would testify, it is about as romantic as Goldman Sachs interview on IIM Lucknow placement day only saving grace being that it is much shorter. Or at least that is the impression Dumbo carried into the meeting, an impression arrived observing other peoples experiences.

And then Dumbo met Smiley...
First time he saw her, Smiley should be her name he decided. Her small round face had a perpetual cresent shaped curve, small eyes and nose resembling dots like the Smiley on a chatting tool. Her beaming smile could have been a sacrilege in an earlier age of BMG acts where she was expected to be coy and withdrawn... but Dumbo did not mind at all. Something about her smile told Dumbo that h e would remember the moments that followed.... and he remembered them for ages with a smile