thou art fair, O my beloved !

 Poet, Author and Lawyer

The three words above – Poet, Author and Lawyer sound like a lethal combination! Well, I happened to meet one such guy. We were made to meet through a family friend. Back then, I was smitten by people (men) who spoke the Queen’s English, went to schools which were a dream to study in. So here we were meeting for the first time, he was 10 years older than me (I was in the “age is just a number” kind of phase). We met at a local restaurant near our workplace and it being winters I wanted to have something nice and warm so I ordered for Dimsums. The moment I picked up one piece with my hand, he said “lady, why don’t you use a fork and a knife”? I gave him a look and said ,"I like it like this". His next comment was, “lady I will refine you, don’t worry”. I did not know how to react? Whether to laugh or to ignore the comment so I just smiled.

I reached home and he called me to say that it’s a yes for him and he wanted to know my answer. I was amazed at him. I said, we have just met for thirty minutes and I can’t decide so soon. So I told him lets plan to meet again. While planning the next meeting I suggested a coffee shop in one of the malls where he did not want to go. I suggested another, and then he said, “lady, the decision should be bilateral and not unilateral”. I was stumped with this statement and I couldn’t believe that this is how I will be spoken to every single day, hour or minute if I married him. Each day would feel like as if I were vetting a contract. I said, “Can you speak normal English? Who talks like this?”

I don’t think he got the sarcasm as next morning I had a good morning message which was nothing less than a poem from Shakespeare which read - thou art fair, O my beloved . It started with thou and ended with thou and had thou and thou in every possible line.

I, as always, decided against the proposal.