Family And Friends

You've dropped the bomb. Now take cover from the moral police. Everyone around you will want to know 'why'. And very few of them will actually care. For a lot of people, it will be one more exciting gossip titbit. The easiest thing to do is to clear away the debris and reach the few people you actually want to explain things to. For Nishant, 29, who broke off his engagement two months after, there were two gruelling sessions with two elder uncles of the family. He says, "I answered all their questions patiently and the best I could. But frankly, as long as my parents were okay with my decision, I didn't really care about the rest."

For Anushka, the decision wasn't so easy. She was worried that her decision would harm her father, a heart patient. "I should've given him more credit," she says. "He took care of every detail so calmly." The guilt of hurting your parents makes all this more difficult. It's true that society is much more accepting of engagement break-ups but even so, for parents, somewhere beneath the calm façade, there is some amount of worry and unhappiness for their child, and discomfiture, no matter how little, of what people will say. Which is one of the main reasons why Aparna Sheth, 29, can never forgive her ex-fiancé for cheating on her, days before the wedding. After she called it off, her father had to personally go and inform each invitee. "My mother broke down and had to be put on medication. Those memories are difficult to forget," she says. Nishant says, "Watching my mild-mannered father try and explain to the girl's dad was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," he recalls.