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The Wedding and a Re-union

For the last 5 days, I have been wanting to write something about the wedding of Saurabh and Rashmi in Delhi. Fortunately for us, this also led to a welcome reunion between us Sandies and one Pandita. But each time I sat to write, I dove so deep into nostalgia that I couldn’t think in words.

 Very recently, I was watching the movie: ‘Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” I shall withhold my natural instinct and not talk about the movie, but shall mention the tagline of this Brad Pitt film. The tagline read: “Life is not measured in minutes, but in moments.”

 Taking inspiration from this line, I have decided to list out 7 moments, which stand out the most. And all the Sandies in from our batch would know, why I have insisted in listing SE7EN moments.

 So here they are, in no particular order:

  

1. The Wedding Ceremony: Let’s start with the very event, which brought us together, the wedding ceremony. Delhi winters are known to be notoriously cold and 16^th of February 2009 was no different. As the temperatures dropped, we huddled around mandap to witness our first friend losing his bachelorhood. 

Rashmi looked gorgeous in her lehnga-chohli. Her jewelry matched her outfit. Unlike other Indian brides, her make-up wasn’t too loud which just enhanced her simple beauty. Saurabh Thakur on the other hand had a princely air about him, with his army officer walk and the sherwani. The sehra (which was bought a day before) completed his attire, though he seemed to be slightly uncomfortable under it. Though both of them looked good in their respective attires, the most important thing was that they looked good together. 

After that fashion statement, I shall get back to the main topic, the ceremony. Normally a north Indian wedding ceremony would last for almost 4 hours. But due to the cold, very considerately the ceremony was performed in about 2 hours. But these 2 hours were filled with wonderful moments, courtesy Saurabh Thakur. 

The groom seemed least interested in what was happening around him. He kept on yawning and fidgeting and straightening his sehra and smiling for the camera. And Saurabh took it to the next level by doing a small dance step when he stood up for the pheras. Rashmi on the other hand, was composed and more on the serious side. We learnt later that she was given strict orders to be serious and not smile. 

As for us, his friends, we kept passing the odd joke, especially when the priest read out the vows. Plus the thing we enjoyed most was to throw…no wait…aim flowers at Saurabh during the pheras. We armed ourselves with the flowers from the garlands and decorative items. 

And after 2 hours and some umpteen rituals, Lt. Saurabh Thakur officially became Lt. Saurabh Pathak. 

2. Khalil Mulla: Most of you will wonder how is it that Khalil Mulla made it to this list of memorable moments. Well, the fact is that every now and again, Khalil used to commit some incredible blunders, which used to send us into fits of laughter. Hence I decided to include Khalil, the man himself in the list, for the countless moments he gave us. 

Whether it being in the train while ordering egg biryani or while bathing in hot water, unconsciously Khalil gave us amazingly funny moments. He even underwent a torture, which according to him the most painful thing. As girls will be reading this entry of mine as well, I shall not get into the detail. So if you are curious, then ask from the horse himself. 

Also, Khalil’s comments were too wired and seemed as if we were conversing with E.T. He had health problem as well. Apparently his stomach was imbalanced and the level wasn’t right. And to top it all, he went to Sidharth Bhat for medical advice, who didn’t understand a single word Khalil said. Finally after visiting the toilet 6 times in the space of 7 hours, the imbalanced levels of Khalil’s stomach evened out. 

3. Bachelor Party: No wedding is complete without a bachelor party. Wait! Let me rephrase that. No wedding can begin without a bachelor party. It is normally held on the night before the wedding to celebrate the last night of bachelorhood. We stuck to the tradition. 

We sat and we drank. We spoke about Saurabh’s fiascos with girls from college. His course mates spoke about how Saurabh used go the extra mile in the academy and in the process get screwed by his seniors. 

Saurabh also shared his Siachen stories. Finally, before midnight, I passed out after throwing up in some plastic bag. The only thing I remember witnessing after that was the popping of the champagne and Saurabh pouring it all over me. 

Next morning I learnt that Jaysheel Dixit, our dear junior, was back to his old antics as he fought with Sidharth Bhat and Abhishek Saha to make him drink. I guess some things should never change. 

4. Chaat Stall: In whole of the wedding, there were 2 things that really broke my heart. Firstly, there was no DJ and dancing. Secondly, there was no non-vegetarian on the menu. But still, we ate. Not so much from the main course, but from the Chaat Stall. 

We had gol-gappa, papdi chaat, tikki chaat, katori chaat and everything else that was there which I cannot recall right now. Each of us must have had at least 2-3 of each of them barring Khalil Mulla who must have had around 7 of each which ended up causing the imbalance in his stomach. 

5. Vinu Koshy Verghese: The 2^nd individual who made it to the list. His visit was more than a pleasant surprise. We met him after almost 3 years. Apparently, he had arrived in Kerala on February 7^th. But it was kept a secret all along, till he arrived on 16^th morning. 

His arrival drew reactions from everyone. From being speechless to plain joy, everyone was excited to see Vinu back. In fact for a bit, we forgot that we had come together for Saurabh’s wedding. 

As always, along with the arrival of Koshy, there is always the arrival of a new gadget. And true to himself, Koshy brought along a 10 mega-pixel digital camera, which became everyone’s darling. Everyone wanted to click a photo with it and everyone wanted to be clicked on a photo with it. We ended up clicking over 500 snaps in those 2 days. And as always, as the shutters went on and off, the eternal words, KOSHY, were said to bring the smiles on our faces. 

6. Posing for pictures: With the arrival of a new advanced camera, we had made sure that we made the most of it. Most people (including me) decided on a photo shoot which would ensure that each one of us would have enough portfolio pictures for till the next wedding. 

Not only that, we also ended up clicking snaps of almost everything including our butts (with pants of course), shoes, fingers, food, etc. You will probably notice that over the next few weeks, most people who attended the wedding would have new profile pictures. As of now, only Sidharth and I have done so. 

7. Smelly farts: This is probably the grossest part of the entire list and probably the only thing which makes us think that the wedding got over. Abhishek Saha excelled in this. His releases were subtle but long lasting which made the air around us go green. Sidharth Bhat quite seriously ended up giving a break down about why he was in that condition.

    Thank God Khalil Mulla managed to digest all he took in, otherwise if we saw the how much      has input was, we would have been massacred.

There are quite a few other things that narrowly missed the list. ‘Candyman’, ‘The Priest’ and ‘Protection of the shoes’ were very close to being in the top 7.

And finally, as  I have ended up writing this entry, my nostalgia can take a rest.

So in toto I would like to address the newly weds by saying:

 We wish both of you a happy and prosperous married life. May this journey which you have set off together be full of fun, quarrels, silliness and most importantly, neverending LOVE.

 

CHEERS