It was very strange sitting between two white women my age who seemed to be enthralled by the idea of big beautiful weddings and expensive, beautiful diamond rings. I sat between them, trying to only give mandatory input. It started with M asking A about the conspicuous ring on A's ring finger - yes it was an engagement ring. yes she was planning to get married next year at the wonderfully overpriced but "classy" banquet hall where they serve strawberries dipped in chocolate - i have had the pleasure of attending a wedding there myself, my first in this country. How grand and spectacular weddings are. They started talking about dresses (traditional white in this case was the consensus). All this while, i sat there. My own rings conspicuously missing from my fingers. I dont like wearing them because then they ask me, "how come?"; even a seemingly broad minded sikh girl once told me "i would never do it. You were probably forced". How do i explain to them? i launch into my monologue of "no-i-wanted-to" "no-we-liked-each-other" and most of them, especially the goris understand. Infact they have this dreamy look in their eyes when i lay out this rosy picture of marital bliss in front of them, conveniently deleting the brawls and ugliness that is a vital part of marriage.
As M congratulated A and i joined in, i felt devilish. M is  pretty nice. She called me up once about class notes, i did once too. I should have told her. But i just feel tired of repeating my life story and having to justify my "culture". So i conveniently take the easier route- desist from wearing the ring.
What else was strange was that we were sitting in social theory class! just a few minutes ago we had discussed conformism and just a few weeks ago, marx and consumerism. And here these women were doing exactly what this fake culture wants them to. Wanting to spend ridiculous amounts of money on weddings. sigh, the irony