The cocktail party and others….

Day 2 Jammu: the cocktail party. Hosted by jiju, and he was the perfect host!! Except for the DJ everyone was lively :P The party started with a few old ghazals…who listens to ghazals these days?? But apparently they found a huge following amongst the crowd. Like the previous day the drinks available were Scotch and Vodka…much to my utter dismay!! The lively bubbly (read beer) was nowhere to be seen. But the starters were awesome and completely filling. It was another day for the dancers in us to show our dancing prowess. The high of the evening was the dance contest between Bala and Jiju. But Jiju inspite of his 10 years handicap beat Bala convincingly. The saving grace for Bala was the fact that he was able to beat a trained dancer, who happened to be the bride’s cousin, convincingly. This dancing session was followed by the dinner and a walk back home with uncle (Groom’s father). The discussion that followed at home was the high of the day. With everyone around, pulling the leg of the groom no end, it was anybody’s guess, who ended up being talking almost nothing!
Day 3: The Muhurat. Another late morning rise, and I did manage to go for a walk in the morning. The breakfast was bread and egg bhurjee!! Something I totally love!! Another cards session followed….then we were called down to apply haldi to the guy!! And guess who was the most enthusiastic?? Jiju again!! The groom’s clothes were literally ripped of his bodyby the savages (read us) when we had to apply mehndi. Followed by another fest of making the groom eat some kind of Jammu uthappam!!
The best part was the afternoon!! :) Went to Pahalwan Di Hatti…to have lassi!! To our utter dismay the lassi was out of stock!! Had badam milk instead and went back home…. The good thing about the journey was the tea we had under the willow tree!!
The evening again was a gala affair….dinner and dhol!! And good enough the bubbly made its appearance!! :)
Day 4: The wedding!!
Preparations began early morning. Went to the railway station to pick up King Kong and another friend of Kapai. Slept in the car :P got home and had a royal breakfast of poori and sabji…amazing achar to go along. Then we had a game of cards. Surprisingly we had a session of cards almost every day!! Settled the bills only at the end. The lunch for a change was pure vegetarian!! Settled inside and rested. Surprisingly the room was so spacious to fit us all and so small from the outside!! In the meanwhile we were all also involved in the leg pulling of balla and bala who were to get married in the coming weeks. All this happened in the sutta breaks on the rooftop.
Uncle had arranged for the wedding headgear for all of us!! And we all made a pleasant sight in them. Bedecked and bejeweled we came downstairs, and the dulha was ready there!! with loads of currency note garlands hanging around his neck!! Dressed up we made a headway to the wedding venue. Walked the initial 1 k.m. and hopped onto a cab arranged for the same.
The venue was a centre of great drama!! The brides’ friends wanted the groom to sing a song for them, which he sulkingly did, but an effort to get the same out from the bride was quickly smothered. The food was great and I had a lot of tikkis which incidentally were made in pure ghee! That was a folly mebbe!! I was so screwed for it later!! Had a good dinner there with the guys.
The next venue was the brides house where the feras were to take place. Was a marathon 5 hours wait for the wedding to get over!! In between we were kept entertainedby balla’s photography (pics of the black night sky, a cable) and bala’s antics! And also the periodic snacks and tea that came along. Had around 5 cups of tea!! And then it rained!! Only for a while though…and we had fun trying to run for cover. But all’s well that ends well. We all headed home amongst a lot of fanfare. Reached home at 5 in the morning!! King Kong was slated to take an early morning train…Koshy, Anju and me were to stay back for the further trip to Srinagar. And also there was the reception dinner to attend the next day.
Day 5: King kong left early morning, Vishi, Bala and Balla followed in the afternoon. We all had a nice breakfast in the morning of chole-bhature and rested all day!! We had a tough time getting our stuff out of the guys room :) which was now to be converted to the nuptial room. We helped in decorating it too. The reception in the evening was amazing!! There was a fish dish, almost like grilled fish but made with a lot of ghee…was the dish of the evening!! Lost count of how many fish I devoured!! Another nice thing on the offer was fresh lime soda!! The groom and the bride cut a huge cake and the cake made amazing dessert!
Headed home and slept in the hall downstairs coz the erstwhile guy room was now transformed into the nuptial room!! We slept at around two in the morning, all anxious because Srinagar beckoned us the next morning :)