AUNTIES AND AMMAS ARE RELENTLESS

OY! There's no escaping the rishta (rishta is Urdu for engagement) aunties! My mom and I were walking around Macy's today when we ran into an aunty and her adorable 2-year-old granddaughter. This is the same aunty who, at the mosque after Eid namaz, clasped my hand, looked into my eyes and said, so earnestly: "There is a time and a place for everyone, beyta. We have no control when it comes to these things." She married her own daughters while the family was vacationing in Pakistan. The girls were 19 at the time.
So, anyway, my mom and this aunty are talking and suddenly, her little granddaughter holds up her arms to me. I've never met the kid in my life, but clearly she wants to be held. So, we all "awwww" over this turn of events (I do, in fact, love babies), I pick her up and walk her around the home goods section, looking at dinnerware and cookware and I'm carrying on a conversation with the kid this entire time. The baby rests her head on my shoulder as I point out Rachel Ray cooking on the flat screen tv that hovers over the cookware.
As the minutes tick by, the baby gets heavier in my arms (and I've had a killer upper body workout in the gym earlier, so she's really hurting me now) but my amma and this aunty are chattng away. And so I keep on strolling around with the baby, who CLEARLY LOVES ME. Finally, after like 20 minutes (I kid you not---ammas and aunties sure can TALK), I rejoin the ladies, and they notice as I struggle to keep my bag on my shoulder AND readujust the baby on my hip. They finally get it, I return the now crying baby to her grandmother and amma and I resume shopping.
It's not until we're walking to the car that amma tells me what they were talking about. Apparently, the aunty has two prospects in mind for me: a family friend SOMEWHERE in the USA and a nephew in Pakistan.
I grumble a whatever when amma isn't looking and climb into the car.
Seriously, there is no escaping the rishta police for us girls. And now, I'm kinda convinced that the baby was in on all of it. She wanted to distract me so that amma and aunty could talk. It's a well thought out plan, I tell you!