Chapter 1: Jhalak
All my life, I have been a journey man. My life has been that of a moving train. With people coming on board and getting off board constantly. People, whom I would like to call friends. So many friends at different stages of my life, all I loved, respected and couldn’t imagine my days without them. But then the routes changed, distance set us apart, we got busy and the best friends became just another contact on phone. Perhaps it’s down to my own doing, changing schools constantly, taking drop In between education or perhaps it’s down to my friendly nature, getting along with everyone who became part of my routine. Some of them are still a whatsapp “hi” away or a call away, but we are just too damn busy.
And then there are some like you, someone who never left me even though the distance set us apart. To think of it, we were just together for a little over 3 months of software testing course and yet the bonding remained too strong even until today is testament to your commitment towards our friendship.
It seems just like yesterday that I met you, on the first day of our course, searching for the classroom.
After that we met daily, making fun of professors, answering exams together, being the most mischievous of the lot. Those meetings in the night outside cummings college, that trip to Lonavala, the walks after classes and the phone calls with numerous Hindi accent jokes. Truly, it seems just like yesterday.
And then one fine day, I remember you telling me and Nikhil, that you will be soon leaving for Hyderabad, after growing tired of searching jobs in Pune. Capgemini being the last interview call you were going to answer before leaving for Hyderabad, and poof, you got it. And next thing we know, you were onto it, off to Mumbai, we were sad, the only friend of us in Pune, was going to move out of city, but we were happy for you.
Over the three years which followed since, you made a point to always keep in touch, calling us for numerous outings with your Mumbai friends, introducing us to Vinay and many other awesome people, coming to Goa twice, meeting us in Pune often, somehow amidst all this, you kind of became a family.
Well, it all seems just like yesterday, and yes, the time flies, really flies.
And now, you are married and going to have kids and I will be that old fellow whom your kids will call “Uncle Gautam”, (thanks for making me feel old :P)
The next subsequent chapters, is more about our journey through your marriage rather than your marriage itself, so let me take this space to wish you a very happy married life, for the countless time.
Chapter 2: The journey.
“I know you not going to make it, you always say this and that, you always make plans only to cancel it” Her voice still rings in my ears, she meant it, she seemed sad, she seemed angry and had every right to be so, “I will make it, I promise” I said. And she just sighed. For me who never made an effort to go to Mumbai even once, how could someone expect me to be in Rajasthan for her wedding? The concern was valid.
After we cut the call, I sat down and thought about it, realizing my process in the mistake. All the hackathons, all the sessions, all the busy life, what was I doing? I had already missed two weddings, I couldn’t afford to miss more, not of you, next thing I know, I was booking ticket already.
“I will make it, trust me, even if you decide to get married in Antarctica or in Space, I will be there” I sent her a text and she replied with a smiley. That was 4 months before the marriage.
A lot happened since then, groups were created, gifts were discussed, people joined, people left, and finally just 5 remained. Me, Nikhil, Vinay , Prachi and Nikhita.
She was overly concerned with our travelling and our stay, constantly checking on us in the group. She had arranged everything.
The day we left from Mumbai, I messaged her “Tu shaadi pe concentrate kar, hum aarahe” it was as casual as the scene from the movie Munnabhai MBBS where circuit asks Munnabhai to concentrate on studies. But as the days would go by, we would realize how casual and fun this marriage was.
So we were off to Mumbai, me and Nikhil, I hadn’t been to Mumbai for a long-long time, as our cab drove through the busy streets and through the “Galli’s”, watching the small houses and shops surrounding us, was startling, it was the glimpse of Mumbai they show in movies.
As we reached the Mumbai Central and waited for Vinay and co to reach station, we found ourselves sitting behind a Punjabi family. The two girls in front, constantly checking behind. Nikhil , whose eyes and brain works faster than the flash in such matters noticed it “Man, she’s checking you out” he whispered.
“No, she doesn’t” I smirked. There were eye contacts, she was indeed gorgeous, both of them were.
“They are checking out that fair guy with golden watch who’s sitting in the row behind” I told him and got up to buy some medicines.
When I returned, He was already beaming with excitement “Dude, she’s totally checking you out, she was turning and twisting and looking towards the mini pharmacy stall where you were at”
I laughed “why would she possibly check me out?” I was wearing a track pant and oversized sweater, I looked like a loafer. And then I actually started noticing her, while she constantly looked behind, cramming her neck, playing with her hair, and taking her eyes off me when mine made contact. It was weird and funny at the same time. I sat there reading the novel which I had bought for the journey taking pauses in between to stare. But just when the stare game was taking up speed, the sardar guy next to her started looking behind while she scratched her neck and played with her curls, he glared at me straight with fiery eye, touching his moustache in the process.
We got up, had dinner and soon were off to Chittor. The night went in introducing ourselves and putting statuses on Facebook, amidst the excitement, Prachi forgot to add the place we were travelling to and the status remained “feeling excited at Mumbai central”. The night we chatted for a bit and dozed off.
We changed the train at Ratlam and from Ratlam to chittor we played different card games. Train was mostly empty and it was amazing seeing the views of MP and Rajsthan border, the yellow fields and the old stations we crossed gave it all a total ethnic Indian feel. Something not so common in Pune or Goa.
The games we played were mostly funny and idiotic and self-invented. The one where we had to hold card over our forehead was the least idiotic of all. Few policemen who got into a train and sat next to us enjoyed watching us make fool of ourselves, especially one senior officer. I could see the smile on his face, probably remembering the good old days of his own, when he was 20 something energetic beaming personal.
Chapter 3: The reception and Sangeet.
Chittor Fort welcomed us at the station, it was a huge mountain, a humongous fortification. At the station we had an Innova to pick us up. We were allocated a spacious room in which we crashed. The Whole hotel and its lawns were booked, there was a Mandap, a temporary porch, raised just in front of hotel. After we freshened up and came down for lunch we saw Jhalak sitting there, surrounded by all her aunts, enjoying the girl time.
We chatted for a while, admittedly didn’t want to disturb her amongst the relatives , came back to the hotel room and crashed. We were damn tired owing to the Journey.
On the Whatsapp group Jhalak kept messaging, “wake up guys, you’ll need to dance at my sangeet”
“Wake up people, you are going to sing at my sangeet”
She seemed overly concerned. And by the time we were dressed up and out for sangeet, the stage was already set.
The lawn was transformed entirely. There were lights everywhere, lights in all color. The stage was designed in white and Blue. The chairs were dressed in silky white, with a red linen like a cherry on top of cake. Everyone seemed so well dressed that I had to check and recheck my kurta jeans avatar was fitting to the occasion. The flashy saaris and the dresses were beaming in all the effervescent colors. The food stalls were in line at one side of the lawn. The road in between was full of lights too. It was a grand event full of lights and colors and happiness. Everyone around seemed in jovial mood.
As the dances began I could see each and every one enjoying to their fullest. Jhalak was given a Queen’s seat where she sat and watched dances, like a judge from reality Show, like how they make Siddhu sit on a sinhasan in comedy nights with Kapil. It was a ladies sangeet but there were few duet dances too. And one Punjabi boy sang in full flow. Few dances were well choreographed while other seemed too amateurish. The beauty of it all was though that everyone bravely put up the performance and everyone relished their time on the stage.
The orchestra guy who sang at the start and at the end of the function was immensely talented, he could sing in both male and female voice and nobody could tell the difference.
The anchor though was very funny with her accent and words; we did have a lot of fun imitating her word “performens”. As we ate we found her standing and eating next to us and Vinay imitated in her voice “waaj, khaane ka kya performens diya hain” we hoped she didn’t hear, but I’m sure she did cause then when I was in the line of thandai, she put her hand in between and stole one cup from the tray I was carrying for 5 of us, without even asking.
The Dance by Palak , Aunty and Jhalak were so well rehearsed and practiced, all three got a standing ovation from massive crowd which filled the lawn.
Chapter 4: Pre wedding
It was a night before wedding. Jhalak was in our room, we sat there playing cards, and discussing about all the fun they had in their Capgemini days and the fun we had during our course time. It was a night of chatting, of discussions. We were joined by her Cousins, notably Bobby. He was a thin lean guy with a polite nature and caring heart. He genuinely took care of us along with everyone asking us what we need and guiding us through the event. The hospitality of Jhalak’s family, not only Uncle and Aunt but even all her cousins amazed us. Few cousins wanted to us to hop over another room and join the drinking/ partying session but we were over all that. This time, we just wanted to spend some time with Jhalak playing boring card games and just talking and discussing things, recollecting all the memories, for 5 years down the lane, if we don’t replay and recollect the memories, they wither away like ashes.
As it became 1 am, Vinay and Prachi sang songs for Jhalak, both are immensely talented singers and their version of “kabira” was electrifying, the way both synced was amazing, if the dances hadn’t taken so long, we would have forced them onto stage that evening.
As it became 2 am, Jhalak realized it was her wedding day after all “arey mujhe sone do, kal shaadi hain meri” she recited that as casually as someone says “let me sleep , I have an exam tomorrow”. It was the most important day of her life and yet, it was such a casual way to go about it. That’s what I mentioned earlier and that’s what we discussed later on, this wedding was as fun as it would get, no tensions, no worries, just relishing the happy moments casually and it was evident in everyone around, they just seemed to stroll, to enjoy as if it was a walk in the park, and that’s what made this event such a grand happy memory.
She slept in our room, we were treated like a family, we were family. In the morning, she got up and left to carry on some rasams , but soon she was into our room, waking the girls “arey yaar, mujhe mehndi lagao, koi nahi laga raha, everyone is busy in their own tayyari” she cribbed like a little girl and we laughed at the startling irony. While Nikhita and Prachi applied mehndi to jhalak, me and Vinay searched boxes of wine and vodka. Well there were too many.
Chapter 5: Wedding.
The wedding itself was a grandeur. The previous night’s stage was enhanced even more, the approach road designed and designated all colors possible in the universe. Flowers; there were flowers everywhere. Huge heart carvings at the entrance, glittered with lights. That day even the lawn at the other side of the road was decorated. Food units were everywhere, in the middle of the lawn there were ice creams and sweet stalls. There was special arrangement for the men in the house, Mandap had a shady lighting with alcohol being served along with non veg food.
It took us a lot of time to dress up, Vinay’s pajama nada was entangled and we had to take external help to resolve the issue. All the wedding shopping was finally about to be put on display. We came out and clicked numerous snaps/selfies in the lobby itself while the baraat already entered the complex. As we reached the grand stage, warmala session was ongoing. The stage looked magnificent. The people on it, even more so. The smile on their faces said it all. It was freezing outside though, with a temperature below 5 degrees and heavily falling dew; we were frozen but the moments were worth enjoying.
On the way to the stage, me, vinay and Nikhil had our eyes on the mandap, a place where even Bobby wanted to enter, but he couldn’t as he was minor amongst all the cousins. He told us he will arrange some “drinks” in the night, we readily agreed.
After the warmala session was over we three sneaked into mandap, for some non veg and drinks session, yes, men will be men. We ate starters but soon felt bad leaving the girls alone in the stage complex. We sneaked out non veg food in some plates and came out, there was a table at the lawn across the road, we kept food on the table and called Prachi and Nikhita there, the whole table was filled with food, lots of it. And behind us we had an ice cream stall, we were in the food heaven. Bobby came and did his trademark feeding, he was used to it, being a good brother to Jhalak and feeding her when she had mehndi applied to her hands. Nikhil however had a mini heart attack when he realized it was already past 12 am and Monday had started. “Dude, why are you calling mom now, you are anyway going to eat” I told him, it was obvious, after carrying this much food from non veg stall, he was going to eat it, still he called his mom and told her just for formality sake and then relished the delicacies. Food was delicious, as it had been every day that we were there.
For the Feres and other wedding rituals a mini stage was set up inside the hotel. Thanks heaven for that, it was 4 am and nobody would have sustained the cold night outside. We were still dressed in our traditional attires. We sat there and watched every ritual and heard every mantras by pandit. Aunt asked us to sleep since it was already late, but we didn’t want to, it was once in a lifetime moment and we wanted to cherish all of it. And it was fun too, specially the part where pandit reads mantras of vachans and then translates it. Even more fun were antics of Mama who was a little over tipsy still and having a blast commenting in between and joking here and there, it was a laugh riot throughout the ending session of wedding.
At 6 am, when we were back in the room, Jhalak was in with us again, in her red shaadi ka joda she looked gorgeous. The rings on her toe and other fingers needed to be tightened which we did. We had lots to talk again before sleeping off tired, it was 7 am by the time we slept.
Chapter 6- Chittor and Bidayin
The day after wedding, we woke up at 12 and directly went for brunch, again, the food was already available and tastier as always. I especially loved the traditional Rajasthani besan gatti ki sabji. The cab driver who was about to take us site-seeing had already arrived.
We were off to chittor fort. The driver seemed friendly but overly blabbering. Although once atop the fort, he gave us a nice introduction about fort and its history
We clicked a lot of pictures, in SRK poses and weirdly awkward poses. It was really nice walking through the ruins, the place where once these kings walked. The fort itself was largest and still only 1/3rd of it was available for tourist viewing. The towers and the place where jauhar was performed were of historical importance and well preserved. The gomukh water supply had an amazing view of it, while the view from atop- of the chittor city, was splendid.
Next we were visiting the palace of Queen which was built in the lake. The architecture design and the whole concept was marvelous, there is a story behind it of khilji wanting to view padmini and he being shown only her face in the mirror. It was well architected.
We made our inside jokes of it as driver took us to the other side of the fort, the northern gate, which used to be the main gate of Fort once.
There, we clicked a lot of selfies again, the wind there was amazing, cool and calm. We sat there for a lot of time, the evening was well spent. A couple walked in and the girl was giving weird poses, as her boyfriend was assigned the task of clicking her pictures, Vinay quipped in with a dialogue of trip “Usko bolo apne andar ki padmini na dikhaye, mere andar ka khilji jag jayega”.
On our way back we also paid a quick visit to Jain temple, I had been to churches, mosques, gurudwara, but never had I visited Jain temple before, it felt holy and great, just being there atop the hill visiting the temple of Mahavir Jain.
After taking one more pit stop at a handicraft store, we were on our way to Station. Jhalak’s train for Delhi was scheduled at 8 pm.
The scene at the station was a little less jovial, there was obvious sadness on the faces of uncle and aunt. We spoke to the groom, Anish, and he was as cool as we had expected him to be. A man’s nature is judged upon not by the way he behaves with his age people, but the way he behaves with the people younger and elders, he was sporty with kids and respectful towards the elders.
With 5 minutes remaining for the train to depart, there was an exchange of compartment, With
luggage being transferred and there was chaotic running. I know she will kill me for this, but I was hoping for some dramatic moments; like the one where train starts moving and Jhalak runs to other compartment where Anish waits , with his hand outstretched and perhaps we in the background shouting “bhaag jhalak bhaag”, but then again, this wasn’t a movie reel, this was reality, and here everything is taken care of by destiny, almost. The train started and both of them waved us goodbye, there were tears in eyes of uncle and aunt, Cousins, but back in hotel, there were tears of joy and happy partings.
Chapter 7: Udaipur and back abode
Our stay at hotel had been extended. We were scheduled to depart from chittor at 6 am, the next morning. By the time we were done with dinner, it was already past 11 pm. After that Happy, bobby and other cousins came with little “arrangements” , as we sat there talking, replaying the three days in Rajasthan, we didn’t realize it was already past 1 am. We all came to the conclusion that if we slept, we wouldn’t wake up and so we decided not to sleep at all. What the hell, it was last night in Rajasthan, probably the last time we will be together, and we just made ourselves a drink and started playing honesty games, card games. The game went on like this, whoever’s turn it was, he/she had to mention things that he/she didn’t do , and the others who had done those things had to take sip from their glass. By the end of few rounds, I was already down 2 glasses. We spent the next few hours disclosing some closest truths about our life which we hadn’t shared with many, the bonding had grown and trust levels were at all-time high. I really liked this people, Vinay, Nikhita and Prachi, they weren’t fussy type, they were cool friendly bunch of people and they had genuinely mixed up well with us. Vinay got emotional a bit about his ex GF and job but we all gave him and each other tips drinking over it and for it, towards a better future.
6 am and we were off to Udaipur, while in the car we slept off. Udaipur wasn’t really as exceptional as we hoped it will be. The entry was amazing, surrounded by hills on all sides, the lake was beautiful and the boat ride we took seemed soothing and calm. Gardens were okay, weren’t that great , I had seen better.
Same can be said of the palace museum. I had seen better one sin Mysore and Jaipur. The thing about Udaipur is, it has been turned into a lot commercial rather than preserving its history, take the palace museum for example. Ofcourse we had to rush through it as our flight was scheduled at 2 pm, but while on the way to airport we all agreed upon one thing, Chittor fort had a different feel towards it, something which Udaipur lacked.
We ate at the airport and while entering the airplane Vinay was back to his antics again. As the air hostess greeted us with a fakest smile ever, Vinay whispered one of Zakir Khan’s famous dialogue “Teri muskan ki chamkan kahi aur, baadal jyada important hain”.
The trip back home was tiring and as I dozed off, thanking and wishing Jhalak again, I remembered the time, the three days spent in Rajasthan. It was not only the best day/ important day of her life, It was the best moment for me too. Because best moment is not often only in the places that you visit, it’s a collection of all, the place, the people, and memories. And this wedding was one hell of a memory which will stay with us forever. :)
