grouchy

I’ve written a few posts about a cousin in the US who’s getting married to a Californian. Elder brother probably felt the pressure, and popped the question to his then-girlfriend, who said yes and so is now fiancé.

Like the good TamBrahm boy that he is (whether he/we like it or not), he promptly told his parents, who told their parents (my grandparents) and my parents, and from thereon in proliferated like a badly fonted (is that a word?) chain mail. Apt, given the number of people they’ve been sent to (I’ve received independent intimations from father, mother and grandmother).

For starters, my mother sent a congratulatory note to him, also CCed to a couple of other people – which I’d think could be a slight invasion of privacy for the cousin, having his emails to his aunt being promptly forwarded to other people in the family. But it’s probably par for the course in my family, and nothing unexpected.

My grandmother is currently in the US, helping (overseeing? Controlling?) with the wedding preparations for the sister of this one. She hasn’t met his fiancé yet, but heard from him, and is at her son’s (my uncle) place, and they’ve met her before – I would think that they’d provide a description of what she was like, and most definitely would have provided pictures of her.

She sends an email to dozen-odd family members, informing them of the news, saying blah blah blah, he proposed, she said yes, they’re both very happy.

Now, I should admit here that I’m being mean.

With that out of the way…

She provides one line of description. To be honest, I don’t know what I would’ve said.

‘Great news! X is now engaged. His fiancé is…’

Fiancé is… pretty? Is a woman? (hey, how dare you insinuate that anyone in this family be gay?!) She’s white? She’s tall? She’s blonde? She’s… qualified as whatever she’s qualified as, with schooling at wherever?

One line of description in the email, after mentioning that she’s his classmate at the University:

‘She is a Jew.’

Oh, how I love my family.