"Its time we started looking..."

"Its time we started looking..." I heard my Mom say as we(me, mom and dad) were sitting in the drawing room doing our daily morning ritual of reading newspapers. I looked up from my paper and waited for her to finish her sentence. Its time we started looking for what? a new place to live in? a new flat? a good car? What??
"You know its not so easy to find one". I thought she was reffering to some job she expected me to find so that I can get out of Pune. Considering that I am pretty dumb to get a job off-campus, the "not so easy to find one" phrase seemed quite plausible.
"and finding a vegetarian one is going to be tougher". There you go again. These parents and their love for beating around the bush I tell ya. Now only after her 3rd hint did I realize what they wanted to look for. For a minute I tried to make sure that I wasnt dreaming and when I was sure I wasnt, I thought of suing my parents for child marriage.

"You are kidding.. you do know I am 22 right??" I tried to fight.
"No one is going to get you married off at this age. You dont realize how tough it is find a perfect match. Plus I want a vegetarian guy from our caste. I am telling you, a vegetarian in our caste is very rare. I bet it will take more than 3-4 years to find one" She tried to fight back.
"I dont care if I find one in 3 years or 30 years.. I hate to shop for my own clothes...how did you even get the idea that I would be ok with shopping for guys" Well.. the whole concept of arranged marriage is very similar to shopping, isnt it! similar?.. I should have said exactly the same..
"Okay... then tell me if you like somebody already?" she shocked me with that question. Wow I couldnt believe my mom, who for the past 22 years had been in the we-hate-love-marriages league, said this. I even thought she secretly joined the sainiks in vandalizing the greeting cards shops on Valentine's day. May be she was ready with a gun or something so that she could shoot me at the slightest sound of 'yes'. I took this chance to portray myself as the "good-homely-girl" and said "How did you even think that I could be roaming out with a so-called boyfriend behind your backs"
I decided to end the topic then and there and said firmly "I dont want anyone taking this topic out from now on. One more word and I am never coming back to this house" I am very good at throwing such dialogues dramatically I tell ya.

Man!! It is as if just yesterday I said to myself "Thank god I still have many years left before I can get married" and even before I know it I am already in my "marriagable age" as people call it. Just the thought of forcibly staying with some stranger and compromising half the things in your life and cooking and taking care of the house is so scary. I dont understand why people get married to strangers and to make it worse spend all their life's savings on it too. I can rather buy two Honda city ZXs with that money and save myself all that trouble at the same time. I dont fear staying single for the rest of my life coz somehow I am pretty sure that the 'love bug' will never bite me. If you want "Companionship" just get a dog and if you want a kid you can always adopt one. Keeping a dog is 100 times better than keeping a husband. I dont think I need to explain why. I will live my life my way and not go with the flow where people get married just bcoz they think they have to within that age. I will continue saying "I still have many years left before I get married".