Marriage at 24!

It was a quiet morning on a tuesday. I had settled down to a not so smooth ride to office. I had a window seat and a book to keep me occupied for the next 1 hour. It seemed to me like any other normal day which began with a rush to the bathroom, a hurried breakfast at a near by darshini and run to the bus stop to board the early bus. I was not expecting my guy to call me up at 7.00 am, late riser that he is. I was lost in my own thoughts when my vibrating cell phone pulled me out. My cel phone said my fren XX is calling me. I will be referring to my fren as XX, to be politically correct. No personal nouns also.. It has to be only XX.

Now it was an STD call and I was wondering what had made XX call me so early. Before I could start off with the usual plesantries, XX blurted out, "I am getting engaged in a month and marriage is fixed after 4 months". My jaw dropped with a THUD. My normal sized brain was teeming with a million questions and were racing to the threshold to be voiced out. I strongest thought was, "XX is just 24". I kept mum. I thot my head would explode. Then XX began after what seemed like walking through eternity in low motion. It was worse than Alice siding down. What my fren spoke next seemed hazy. I was not concentrating at all. I had more questions to ask myself than to the owner of the voice whose sound bytes were hitting my ear drums. Meanwhile the bus stopped to pick up more weary and sleepy beings. Everything was lost in the cacophony of noises. I must have blurted out, 'Congratulations'. My fren must have eventually hung up.

I do not what ensued thereafter. Was I present at the engagement? Did I attend the wedding? Am I happy for her? Is my fren happy? I can answer a blanket "Yes" to all these questions.

However the question that I ask myself repeatedly is this, What is the right age for marriage?