Of Weddings and More…
I always hated going to any wedding right since my childhood. My mom used to drag me to weddings and force me to meet some old relatives of ours who used to always wonder how tall I have grown and each time try to embarrass me by saying the same thing. I never enjoyed weddings. I always found the food too oily and kind off out of my taste. I never knew the bride and the groom and wouldn’t even wish to mention the numerous relatives wearing some extravagant clothes and aunties wearing over the top jewelry trying to outshine each other in that department and showing of their daughter-in-laws to some of their friends saying “Meri bahu toh ghar ka saara kaam karti hain…” I always used to laugh at these types of conversations and after getting back home, used to have a good discussion with my mother regarding the same. My mother is a very sane lady and she realized my apathy for weddings very quickly and she never forced me to go for any other wedding. She used to ask me to accompany her if she knew that my cousins were coming in and I enjoy their company so she was sure I would join her.
Things changed drastically when my cousins (Purvi & Peenal) got married within a gap of 1 year. I was a part of the wedding. I actually worked on certain aspects of the wedding. I was at the helm of many things. These were the 2 weddings that I enjoyed the most. I danced the most on these weddings. I saw my sisters cry and felt choked myself. I couldn’t believe how much I used to hate attending weddings and now here I am completely involved in them, enjoying them, feeling the emotions, caring for things to go right, cringing at things going wrong… I guess this is what a wedding at your home does to you. My perspective for weddings changed completely. I actually started enjoying them…
After my engineering ended, one of my classmates (Vrushali) got engaged in May. We all attended her engagement ceremony. She was supposed to get married in December. I couldn’t attend her wedding as I was in USA that time but I made sure to call her up during on her wedding day and wish her. I actually thought I should have attended this wedding but there were many constraints. Well the major one of them being I was seven seas across (this reminds me of a Divya Bharti song). People were just recovering from Vrushali’s wedding when Bibin suddenly dropped a bomb. I get a mail from Bibin where he had invited us all for his wedding. It was a summer wedding. I was actually shocked to the core. I immediately called him up and asked him “what’s going around?” He explained me everything where he started by saying that, “please don’t laugh at me, my story is filmy.” I actually heard him out and I was just about to react when I realized it’ll sound rude. But hell we care. That was Bibin-a close friend. I had a good laugh along with him and then congratulated the couple to be. I again made it a point to call him on his wedding day and wish the couple all the best. After this, things were quiet for some time. But this summer another cousin of mine got married and later on 2 more college friends (Sahil & Maulik) of mine got married. It was like weddings are raining from heaven. Suddenly I felt that people have just turned 25 and what is the urgency for them to get married???
Recently I attended Gorden’s wedding. He is my friend from Clemson and he had invited me to his wedding long time back. I was going to meet couple of my old friends from Clemson (Maanas & Rajit) and I was pretty excited to go for this wedding. I had never been to a Christian wedding before. And boy I enjoyed this wedding. Christian Weddings are fun. No offense to anyone but i love them more than any other weddings. There was a non-veg counter, there were drinks, there was dancing… it was all fun. Though I didn’t drink at his wedding as I had to drive back home, still I can very easily say, I had my share of fun. During his wedding Maanas and Rajit bombed me out. Maanas said that he is getting engaged within a week’s time and Rajit said that he is getting married on 16th May. I was again in the world of guys, we are just 25… Why the hurry???
In between all these I went to see a couple of movies which were co-incidentally on the same theme. They were ‘Band, Baaja, Baarat’ and ‘Break ke Baad’. The movies showed different aspects of a marriage. One showed it to be practical and the other showed that it is all about love and marriage is bound by emotional feelings. Well, I would not like to discuss about this here as this will be a topic in my upcoming blogs very soon. But yes, I was highly impressed by ‘Band, Baaja, Baarat’ and saw a new perspective of marriages: The wedding planning aspect. I enjoyed that and little did I realize that I am going to get a chance to hold a small part in planning a wedding very soon…
Right on 1st Jan, I attended a big wedding. It was the wedding of the sister (Nisha) of one of my best friend (Esha). 1 week before the wedding, Nisha had called us over and asked me and Rahul if we can perform some rituals during the wedding as her brothers. We both agreed to it and didn’t know what we are getting into. She also asked us if we can help in the organizing and managing of some activities during the wedding. The Gentlemen we are, we both agreed to it. We danced like crazy during the DJ session and actively participated in the next day rituals of Mandap Setting, Mehendi and Haldi. Within no time, we were like part of the family and Me, Rahul & Nidhi were doing more work than Esha was (again sorry Esha). Nisha trusted us completely with whatever responsibilities she thrust upon us. Even on the wedding day, although I was sloshed out with alcohol on 31st night, I managed to reach the Venue by 9:30 am. We contributed in all the rituals and also helped with some organizational aspects. There was a wedding reception in the evening and again we were there on time. I am still wondering how I could attend the wedding and the reception on time even after some aggressive rounds of drinking the night before (you can ask my mom, sister, cousins for proof… ;-)). Here we worked as an awesome team. Nidhi and I took care of the food arrangements and Rahul helped us out with the same. Esha was just roaming around without even understanding what is going on in the reception and we actually thought that Esha is not interested in the wedding ;-). Nidhi arranged everyone on the dance floor and made everyone dance. The bride had a secret desire to dance during her reception and she had notified us beforehand to drag her into the dance. We obliged. Me, Nidhi and Rahul pulled her into dancing. She danced like crazy. Everyone danced like crazy that night. Then came the time for the Bidaai. I hate that part. So I went along with the Groom’s father and brother to settle the Hall Management’s bills. I felt as if I am working on another cousin’s wedding. I enjoyed the sense of responsibility and here I was mature enough to understand what is going on. Well this wedding had too many stories turning up which I can’t discuss on this blog as of now. But when the right time arrives, I’ll surely put them up. So wait patiently for that… 😉
Well these were some of the highlighting weddings I have attended in my life so far. In the near future, Aritra (Clemson Friend) is getting married on 26th Jan, one of my colleague (Savita) is getting married on 23rd Jan, Harshad (Building Friend) is getting married on 7th Feb in Satara, Rajit has his wedding coming up on 16th May, Richa (Clemson Friend) has her wedding coming up on 27th May at Benaras, Avinash Sir is planning to get married by the end of this year and I am sure there will be a few more surprises around the corner.
With so many Marriages happening around me, I am sure some of you might be wondering about, “What about my wedding???” The same question was asked to me by my relatives at a family function recently. All of my aunts and cousins started discussing the possibility of my marriage. I was sitting by the side of my mother and I realized that I was the next eligible bachelor in my family. I understood I was going to get cornered like anything. I looked at mom for help and she actually helped me out. All my aunts and cousins were gunning for me to get married in next 6-8 months’ time but my mom said, “Nothing doing before he is 28-29.” I love you Mom for this. I was relieved at that time and to cheer up all the disappointed faces I told them that in my wedding reception, I’ll have 3 counters- one for Veg Food, 2nd for Non-Veg Food & 3rd an open bar… They all were shocked but kind off excited by the idea of non-veg & an open bar at the wedding. (This idea was inspired by Gorden’s wedding). Well, I don’t deny the fact that these weddings have made me think a lot but one thing is for sure; my marriage is surely not around the corner. It’ll take time. Pehle koi achi ladki toh dhundhke do Kamino…. 😉
Keep on following this spot for more updates… Especially about my wedding (whenever it happens…)
Hiren Rathod.