The Wedding Season

The wedding season got over here on 17th Feb. It had been a tough week for me - working the whole day and then going out at night to attend the functions (Not that I don't love them). Lot of couples get married in Feb - something to do with the uttam muhrat and tinge of winter chill. With people commuting from one wedding to another, traffic was left in God's hands. What was surprising was the increase in the number of cars in Udaipur over the years (and why not? People are prosperous here and cars do come at affordable prices now) I attended nine weddings in the whole week with four weddings on the same day.

Weddings are place to meet & greet, drink & think, eat & seat. You have a wonderful aura of being social, lively and cheerful. Some grand decorations, enough of gathering, uncountable number of food items, aunties high on jewellery (real and artificial - yes yes I notice that!! ), uncles in suits (tailored and readymade). Being a small city, you already know most of the people coming to the wedding and in our case, since I was going in four weddings, I kept seeing the same set of people over and over and over again.

The conversation/per uncle-aunty/per wedding/per day would start and end like this:

Papa, "Namaskar Jain Sahab, Namaste Mrs. Jain"

Uncle & Aunty, "Namaste Dugar Sahab, Namaste Lata Ji (Mummy)"

Papa (bringing me forward), "He is Arihant, my son"

Uncle,"He doesn't need an introduction. He looks exactly like you" - I don't know how to react to this - but I guess my father and myself both would be proud to hear that :) But the funny part here is when you meet the same Uncle Aunty daily in another wedding and they say the same thing (He don't need no introduction, he looks like you)- I won't get a plastic surgery done in a day man!! I don't understand why is this question repeated at first place? We have so many other things to talk about.

Arihant (with an outlasting smile and hands joining each other in unison making a NAMASTE pose), "Namaste Uncle! Namaste Aunty, kaise hain?"

Uncle, "Namaste Beta, kab aaye?"

Arihant, "Buss uncle thode din hue hain" - Here I could have also answered ki aaye hue 25 saal ho gaye but seriousness dude seriousness :P

Uncle,"Kahan par ho aajkal?"

Arihant,"Udaipur hi hun Uncle"

Uncle,"Accha!!! Tum Udaipur shift ho gaye kya? Yeh tumne bahut accha kiya. Akele ladke ko, parents ke paas aa gaye"

Arihant,"Jee Uncle, thank you, abhi ek mahina hi hua hai"

Aunty,"Tabhi bete ke aane se Lata Ji ka chehra khila hua hai, ghar mein ronak aa gayi hai"

Laughter.. hahaha.. giggles.... hehehe.... smile... :)

Uncle,"Kya kar rahe ho yahan?"

Arihant,"Abhi to Papa ke saath hi hun family business mein - marbles ka. Learning things here"

Aunty,"Ab iske liye ladki dekhiye Lata Ji"

Mummy,"Haan wohi chal raha hai, aap bataiye koi ho to"

Laughter.. hahaha.. giggles.... hehehe.... smile... :)

Uncle," Accha Beta, aana ghar par. Ab to yahin ho!"

Arihant,"Sure Uncle"

Apart from all this that happens, I noticed a common menu across the weddings. Some of the items are:

• Tomato Soup
• Paneer Chilla
• Aloo Tikki Chat
• Pani Patashas or Golgappas or Pani Puchkas
• Makki Ki Raab
• Fruit Salad
• Pasta
• Dal Fry
• Tandoori Roti/Phulka/Laccha Parantha

Anyways, anything free is good as long as it is hygenic :P (I already say sorry to myself before sleeping every night that I won't go to the gym tomorrow)