When life is stranger than fiction

Once a writer, always a writer. This is literally true in the case of Rajbir Deswal who has come out with his latest compilation of middles in Bride Swap, which is his third book after Holypol (2010) and Mall Watch 2012. “The title may sound weird, avoidable and controversial, and at the same time juicy, yet the story is based on a real life incident that took place about sixty years ago in my village Anta,” informs the author.  Here goes the story. Two cousins set foot in a baraat for their wedding, to their respective brides’ village, at the same wedding venue. The brides too were cousins and while leaving their parental home, since they were almost wrapped in veils and clothes, and were bundled in the carts, they got mixed up, or exchanged, or swapped, going by the writer’s naughty take on the situation. The brother of the brides invariably accompanied his sister to her in-laws’ place in Haryana. So, when the next day, one brother confronted his sister, it was the other cousin. The secret of the swap was known, but by this time ‘the damage had been done’.  He adds, “Bride Swap has a pastoral setting with the simple mores and manners of the rural society.” —TNS