CHAPTER 20 - Parents
It was time to invite my mom and dad and take them on a holiday. They have been to Dubai and Singapore before, but never come over to this side of the planet. So I organised a tour across the important destinations around Europe. It covered Paris, Vienna, Prague, Venice, Brussels and finally, we ended up in Switzerland.
It was the first time for me to bring over my mom and dad and they enjoyed a lot. My apartment had two bedrooms so I allocated the guest bedroom for them. They felt it was very cold even though the temperature hit 17 degrees, so the house heating was constantly on. Well the average temperature in Hyderabad is about 30 degrees year round, so UK felt very cold for them.
First I took them on a tour of London and showed all the popular destinations. They wanted to go to a temple so I took them to Iskon in Watford and the huge temple in Neasden. Even though they left India, they still wanted to dine mostly on Indian food. My mom even cooked Indian meals and she preferred that over any other cuisine.
I introduced both Katy and Grace and my mom invited them over for dinner one night. Obviously, intimate sessions with Katy and Grace were completely banned at my apartment. I had to go over to their place and returned back home for the night.
If my parents know that I am having casual relationships with two girls, they will have a heart-attack! If I said one of them was my girlfriend and I am quite serious about her, there will be a brief period of adjustment, but thankfully, my parents are open-minded and they would accept my decision. But that doesn’t mean I can sleep with her every night, I will have to wait to get married to do that!
I mentioned about the no-sex-at-my-apartment rule to both Katy and Grace and they respected my request and obliged to it.
My mom liked both Katy and Grace but she felt Grace was more emotional towards me and asked me if I was having a relationship with her. I told her that she was just my friend and that’s when she brought up the topic of wedding. Now, everyone in my family and extended family know that I am quite successful and settled in the UK, so naturally marriage proposals kept on coming. My mom showed me pictures of four different girls on her iPhone and they wanted me to come to India and meet all of them and then decide. How strange is this, it's like I am shopping for a car or something, I get to choose between Merc, Audi, BMW or Jaguar!
Well, it's not like the girl has no say in this matter, after meeting, if she dislikes me for some reason, she gets to turn it down as well. But, strange process, at least, we get a little time to know the girl before deciding.
I had to get her off my back and say I want to concentrate on my work and want to be single for few more years. It wasn’t easy to do that as she kept on saying that once I reach certain age, there will no be marriage proposals as I will be too old!!?? I told her that I will think about it next year for sure.
Time for our holiday, we headed for Paris in the Eurostar first. It was really a romantic place but felt very crowded and street vendors were everywhere, trying to sell us something at every step. The Eiffel Tower looked amazing and so did the Louvre.
The same theme continued with Vienna and Prague, which had brilliant architecture and loads of history.
Venice was totally unique with the city floating on canals. I haven’t seen a place like that and we stayed in a hotel directly overlooking the Grand Canal.
Brussels was very nice place with streets filled with the aroma of these awesome Belgian chocolates.
For most here in the UK, Switzerland is a ski resort. But we Indians have a different view towards it. Our old Indian movies, especially those from my parent’s generation, glorified Switzerland soo much that for them, it was the ultimate destination. One Indian filmmaker shot so many blockbuster movies and songs in Switzerland that the Swiss government honoured him by naming a lake after him (Chopra Lake).
So naturally, the best place for my parents out of the lot was Switzerland. To be honest, it really was beautiful and clean, and the cosiness made it even romantic. It really is something which I need to visit with one of my girls!
My folks were here for a month and time just flew by. I really loved having my parents here, especially when they took care of me and cooked for me everyday. It was nice being cared for and reminded me of my growing up years.
I took them to shopping at Blue waters and got them several gifts. My mom was totally in tears when I went to see them off at the airport and thanked me for providing with such a wonderful experience. I really felt sad and it took a few weeks for me to get back to normal.