The Wedding Diaries

The journey begins

I was still finishing the coffee almond ice-cream from Baskin & Robins when Anish came. Strange co-incidence he the earlier time he had come…I was again having the same ice-cream!!
It had been a real long day at work…and Anish finally confirmed at 11 pm that he was starting for Mumbai. All this while, I was talking to Koshy about the timing of the train and the originating station. And Anish had got stuck at work. Once he came in, we started talking about the things that were to be expected in Jammu. Then we started on an hour long chit-chat about the people in our batch already married and the impending wedding of other friends. Gradually we dozed off.
Both of us woke up at 5:30 (an oddly-unearthly early hour) and started getting dressed after taking a shower. The journey was going to be long…so we also used deodorants in excess :P reached the station well in time where we were joined by Koshy and Rachel (hereafter referred to as Anju, she prefers her pet name)
The first day of the journey was pretty much uneventful. We were accompanied by a gujarati family also travelling to Jammu. We decided to play a movie during the day, watched “Stoneman Murders”. The others dozed off while I picked up another time pass movie. We also bought a couple of packs of cards which proved to be our undoing (wait for the undoing story). Towards the night, after having dinner all the 4 of us and the gujju family sat down to watch “Rab ne bana di Jodi”.
I woke up the next morning in Ambala to a pleasant weather (actually Anju hit me hard on my hand to wake me up). Had wanted to get down there and let Anju know about the same. But when she woke me up at Ambala I rued my decision. I could have peacefully slept another few hours. The train so far was rite on time. As we crossed Jallandhar, we started with our game of cards. Anju wanted to make good the losses she had already incurred while playing cards. And here is where our troubles started.
As we neared Chakki Bank, we were stopped in the middle of our game by 2 constables of the Punjab police. One of them asked me and Koshy to accompany him and took us inside the pantry. That was where the interrogation started. We were interrogated about what were we playing, whether we were gambling and all. I did most of the talking which the cop didn’t like :( then started a classic case of “Prisoners Dilemma”. Both of our groups (me and Koshy 1, Anish and Anju 2) were being interrogated separately and our confessions cross-checked. We were threatened with a fine of 20 K which was totally absurd. Then they tried the threatening angle, threatening to get us down at Chakki Bank. “Chittar padenge tere do”!! (You’ll get two slaps from me). After a lot of haggling he agreed to let us go wit a “Minor fine” of Rs.10000. When we expressed our inability to repay, the bargaining began. We agreed to give them whatever we had and handed over all our money. What followed can best be described as a robbery by the men in uniform. Our wallets were ceremoniously checked for any hidden notes and we were also frisked!! Finally he let us go after leaving us with only 100 Rs in our pockets. The complaint that he was writing so far was torn off and we reached our berths.
By this time the train had got late by 2 hours. We had informed Akhilesh (the guy to whose wedding we were headed) about our misfortune already and by the time we reached Jammu we were already famous!! Mikku (Akki’s cousin) had come to pick us up and we just about managed to fit into the car. Packed in and reached the house decked up like a bride to be! Was met by the rest of the guys there and was immediately sent back to the good old MBA days. After light snacks, I went jogging while the others changed and got ready. The jog took me rel far and by the time I came back it was already dark. Then began the dinner and best of all the starters. Never knew that Wazwan (Kashmiri cuisine) tasted this great!! Tapak-maans (ribs of lamb), fried chicken and nadir monji (fried lotus sticks) formed the starters and I was already full on them!! We chatted around with the family members till late in the night. But it wasn’t over yet!! Then began the dance to the stereo, and bal was at his devastating best!! We all enjoyed every moment of his performance. Wound up around 1 a.m. Had to go out in the night to drop the inebriated cooks (good they got drunk after cooking) home. Came back home very tired but still looking forward to the next day….
The kashmiri wedding….End of day one…..