The engagement!!!!So, my cousin got engaged on the 23rd of this month, in my city . It was after a long long time that I was able to enjoy a family function.No upcoming exams to worry about, no PIs to appear for!! Waah! Waah!
[Are huzoor, waah taj boliye! …err..okay, that was a bad one! ]
My cousin, lets call her S and Mamijee came to my city on the 20th itself, it was R [S’s fiancé] ‘s budday on the 20th you see, and the love birds wanted to be together for the special day.
But, being the traditional arranged marriage that this is going to be, S was slightly reluctant to go out with her would be husband alone so I had to tag along!
*sigh*
Ever heard of something called ‘
kebab mein haddi’??I was, sadly a living example of that unfortunate situation. The lunch at Pizza Hut was good, the movie [Bheja Fry, highly recommended, btw! ]was also okay , coz like I was bijee with the movie [There were about 20 ppl in the hall which had a capacity of not less that 200] but after that the situation got worse.
We started roaming around the mall.
*dramatic pause, the discernin reader makes a correct guess*
So, there were the two soon to be married people, totally oblivious of the world around them and of me with them ! Poor moi could be spotted walking a few feet behind them trying to not get bored by window shopping. I even stopped to sticking out my tongue at little kids when their parents were not watching to cut the boredom!! Inside the shops the two of them and I could be found in different ends of the show rooms.
Dukh mein I even bought stuff for myself that I did not even need to buy:|
Then they started sharing ice creams.
:| :|
And then there was the ride back home during which S and R [R dropped us home ] continuously whispered sweet nothings to one another and I bijeed myself this time by counting the number of stray street dogs I could spot.
[spotted 17 , for your information! ]
But it was good fun nevertheless, I felt happy seeing S and R behaving like a couple…R would pick out dresses for my sister and ask her to try them out for he wanted her to buy something! Anything!
‘Kutch toh please please leh lo!’ that was what he kept saying! It was sweet, you know..
I personally feel this is the best time ..as in everything is new for both of them, the attention that each gets from the other, the average of 15 calls a day, how when the tiniest of things happens to S, R has to be called and given a detailed synopsis , how her fiancé calls her as soon as he gets up in the morning, the half smile on my cousins’s face when R would call back a mere 15 minutes after having ended an hour long chat on the phone , how she would grumble and say ,’
Abhi toh fone parr baat hui thi, firr kyu karra hai!’,how she would try to look annoyed but the smile would betray it all.
Anyways, the engagement happened on the 23rd, 15 of my relatives from different parts of the country had assembled in my house by that day, and my house meant for 4 people did all it could to handle the 19 people that lived in it for 2 days!
It was sooo much fun, watching the DVD of the Sangeet, cracking random jokes about random people, dissecting everything/ anyone from the ladake waalon ki side had said/ done,pulling S’s leg about R..The extra beds that were put up wherever there was enough space, the 20 cups of tea which had to be made,getting up at 5 in the morning to see sooooooooo many people everywhere, sleeping.
Priceless.
I had , being the innocent gaon ki gori that I am, envisioned a royal evening for myself where in I would start getting ready at about 5 for the function that was to begin at 7:30 , spend 2 hours getting dressed, make my hair look nice, wear my dress real nice…but.
[Ahh, the word ‘but’, it can be sucha pain in the butt!!!, okay, that was a bad one again , I apologize! ]
At around 5 I decide to saunter royally into the bathroom and have an hour long shower, I open the door and before I know it I have been shoved aside, 16yr old cousin needs to have a bath , a cheeky voice shouts from the other side of the closed door!
Hmmphhhh.
By 5:30 , cousin has still not finished with her bath.. and Mum takes this opportunity to have an epiphany of sorts. The sari that has to be worn in two hours does not have a matching petticoat.So, I am summoned and told to take the car to the market 5 kms away and get a matching petticoat for my Mum’s newest saree which she obvio wants to wear for the evening’s function., So I rush out at top speed , drive to the market at 20k kms/hr , match 10,000000000 petticoats to get that right shade of green , drive back home at break neck speed only to see another cousin waiting at the main gate for me!
‘Di!!!!! All out chahiye!!!’And there , like a woman possessed , I again rush to the same market to get the precious All outs! And then drive back home only to see S waiting at the door, ‘
Ruchh!! Parlour chor de mujhe yaar! ‘
*sigh*
So, I pile her into my car and again drive us to the beauty parlour. It is 6:30 by now.So much for the royal hour long bath.
Ahem.
I am almost home when I get this frantic call from S ,”
Ruchh!!!! Mehendi!!! I cannot put mehendi, I need the mehendi waala tattoo!! Buy it for me and give it to me, ABHI!!”So, there again I make another trip to the same market and get the stupid 30 rupees ka mehendi waala tattoo, drive to ‘Rays beauty parlour ‘ and hand over the 30 rupees ka mehendi waala tattoo to the bride to be.
Being the intelligent girl that I am , I do not linger in the parlour for another second , knowing fully well that if I stay, some work will be produced and I would be expected to do it!
By this time it is 7 :00 pm.
Ahem.
And I am still in jeans and a sweaty shirt.
Double ahem.
Anyways… by a miraculous positioning of the stars / my good karma finding its way back to me,I reach home to not one but two absolutely empty bathrooms.
By 7:15 , I am half way to wearing the occur and red colour sari, and am delicately balancing the half made pleats in one hand and the samane ka anchal in the other , when from my cell bellows some arbit tune .
Another franctic call from the bride to be.
“ oye!!!! Pick me , I am almost done !! and haan, pick up my frnd also, she is waiting at blah blah place and go pick her ASAP”So 10 minutes later, this time in a sari, very nicely draped but hair still very wet from the bath and piled on top of my pretty lil head with a pink colored clutcher, I drive to pick up random friend, and then go pick up the bride to be from the beauty parlor!.
And, oh boy! Didn’t she look amazing in her blue lehenga!
Anyways, drove back home, announced that no one who wants to live will dare to disturb me , I plant myself firmly in front of the mirror and start with making my face look thoda sa presentable.
Finally S and I reach the venue at 8:30 , by which time the boys’ family had already arrived and had been waiting for the bride . S and I did the slow , coy , shy walk from the door to the place where she was supposed to sit, with all the eyes present in the room staring at the two of us. I dunno why, but I was actually holding S ‘s elbow as if I were helping her walk…ummm I dunno why I did that mebbe coz movies mein aese hi hota hai!!!
Now, there was this huge room with loads of chairs and all and it was basically very quiet, most of us did not know what exactly could be done. It was getting uncomfortable waala silent, so Mum called me and asked me to organize a ladake waaley vs ladaki waaley ‘antakshari match’
1.I went to the would be MIL and asked for her permission, being the sweetheart that she is, she immediately agreed.
2.Then I got up and announced to all present there about the game. Having seen enough of Ekta Kapoor’s serials and Karan Johar’s movies I knew what had to be said.
“
Abb ek antakshari match hoga..usmein 3 rounds honge, and aap ka ladaka humari behen koh angoothi tabhi pehna payega jab ladake waale yeh match jeetnege, nahi jeete toh hum ladaki koh wapis leh jayenge! Huh!”Sheesh.
Double sheesh.
And if that was not sickeningly filmy this is what I said next!
Shuru karo antakshari,
Leh karr hari ka naam,
R, S ki sagai mein,
karma hai kutch dhamal,
la, la se aap gaiyye!Sheesh. Double sheesh. Ughhhh!
And so began the match, I was the referee, the host and the camera girl [ I had been handed the cam corder and was doing most of the filming! ] The next hour was spent with lots of shor sharaba, lots of clapping, singing, cheating et al.
I occasionally added comments to make it more fun for all and I think all of us had good fun!
Thankfully the boys’ side won the match [ nahi jeetate toh kya hota !!!:O, behen wapis!! :O :P] Really if they would have lost it , it would have put me in a tight spot!
The antakshari was followed by a little bit of dance wherein both R and S were dragged on the floor for a few minutes. And then the actual ring ceremony happened which was followed by dinner and the final farewells for the night.
And to give that final filmy touch to the entire drama , when R’s bhabhi was about to leave I said to her ,” Bhabhi shaadi mein joote sambhal karr rakhiyega , hum poori taiyyari se ayenge!!”
*sigh*
So, with that an interesting day came to end.
The shaadi is on the 1st of May.
A picture for the bloggers :)
Moi in the yellow sari, bride to be in the blue lehenga, and mamiz and cujjz behind us. Moi laso holding khane ki pilate for the bride to be who is bijee jabbing with umreecah waaley bhaiyya!
Pic taken about 10 minutes after the engagement.
