yesterday i made an offhand comment to my mother - something like "who says i'm going to marry an indian?" and apparently she was very disturbed by it and told my dad. and i think they began to half-suspect that i had a non-indian boyfriend. so today in the car my dad decides to have a Talk with me, and asks if i'm planning to marry a non-indian. i was quite taken aback at his seriousness about the whole thing, and was rather upset that he expected me to be so traditional about everything. i mean, seriously. i hardly know any indian guys. the guys in my class are all chinese, they're the guys i currently spend the most time with. it's not that i'm planning to marry any of them, but basically race has never made a difference to me. indian or chinese or malay or half-brit, they're just people. and i'm glad that growing up in singapore has given me such an attitude towards race, or rather, lack of an attitude. in terms of the type of guy i'd marry, the most important thing would really be comfort and being able to carry on a decent conversation or two. i get bored easily. actually i don't think i've only once in my life been attracted to a nice brahmin boy. ok actually twice. but only once was the guy tamil. ok thankfully i doubt my parents will go so far as wanting me to marry only a tamil guy, but you never know. (anyway both were cases of physical attraction more than anything else. i don't think either one would have been compatible personality-wise, althouhg one of them i'd known since i was about three years old. but he was too old for me. pity.) and then there was a discussion about arranged marriage vs love marriage, and my dad obviously believes in the merits of arranged marriage, although my parents know very well that i'm very anti.

so i got quite pissed off and silent after the conversation, so my dad asked if i was tired and i told him that i was still disturbed by the thing. then he was like "oh no i shouldn't have started it! i didn't mean to freak you out!" and i said that i wasn't freaked out, merely a little disturbed that we had such a strong conflict of opinion on the matter and worried that sometime in the future when i'm of marriageable age, this conflict will lead to one of those bollywood movie-style confrontations about Guys and Marriage. and then my dad laughed and said that he's pretty sure that won't happen, but that both of us have to keep open minds about the issue. i guess that's true, but i believe that i'll marry whoever makes me happy, and i'll seek parental approval because i don't want to disown/be disowned by my parents, but i guess i'll just hope things work out. who knows, i might find a Nice Indian Boy who suits my standards as well as my parents' standards. ugh what a depressing topic. thank god i have another few years before having to add Marriage to the list of worries.

anyway, today after teacher's day and math test and everything i watched 13 Going On 30 with the 1b people - sorry soph, i know, again! and ras came with nasty as well. it's such a SWEET movie! and jen garner is GORGEOUS. she doesn't really make me gay, but she makes me elated! i think i quite freaked ras out, and zx as well, with the squeeing. the rest of course, just dismissed it as typical aparna-ness. oh and the clothes were fantastic. new york fashion mag editor, duh. hahaha. very niceeee. and mark ruffalo's cute, although a sort of squashed version of benjamin bratt. but bratt's annoying, ruffalo's endearing. oh and andy serkis! SO adorable! he almost went gollum at some points.

after that went to suntec to meet dad and buy new sneakers, but didn't have much time to find anything i particularly liked, because my dad had to get back home and drop my brother at ri. he's going for some camp at sentosa, where they're going to sleep on the conveyor belt at the underwater world, and study marine life. i'm sure studying the marine creatures in their terribly artificial habitat there is really going to be a lot of use. anyway, whatever. it's ri. hahhaha and rosie smith's my brother's debate teacher. heehee how fun.

anyway it was on the way back from suntec that i had The Conversation with dad. after that, decided to go with to drop my brother off, because we decided to go to orchard on the way back and continue the shoe-shopping. so i got my new sneakers, and in a fit of generosity my dad bought me really pretty teva sandals. i've wanted a pair forever, but they're disgustingly expensive at 100+ a pair. yay! dad said that the shoes come with a promise to pull my grades up. my mom was surprisingly ok about spending so much on shoes today as well, but she said that i shouldn't need shoes to be an incentive to pull my grades up for promos. which is true. studying starts today. heavy-duty. oh and on the way back after that, the marriage topic came up again, because my dad mentioned that my mom had gone ahead and bought her kaasi maalai today, which she wanted for my wedding or something because whereas most people wear fake kaasi maalais she decided that no child of hers will wear a fake necklace at her wedding or some shit like that (ok it's quite a nice thought, but seriously... a coin necklace?) anyway so then i said something like "oh yeah THAT's when the marriage thing started, and i just randomly asked who said i was going to have an indian marriage and she got so disturbed by that....?" and then my dad said that he couldn't believe i've grown up so much that he's discussing marriage with me, and it seems like just yesterday that he was carrying me around in his arms or something. awwww. daddies are so cute.

ugh i was planning to go home after the movie and sleep! instead i got heavy-duty marriage discussions and shoe-shopping. ok i'm not really complaining about the shoes. but i'm sleepyyyyyy. and it's almost 7 and who takes an afternoon nap at 7. ok actually aparna is just about to. sweet dreams to me =)