Monday, November 25, 2013

Naina’s Wedding

Kats and Naveen invited all of us for their daughter Naina’s wedding with Anuj in an offbeat manner.






So, all of us went for the big event. The wedding was conducted in DSOI Gurgaon. The Sangeet was on the 19th and the wedding on the 20th of October 2013. They had invited a limited number of very close friends and relatives. Their yard stick for the invite was – “Those who know Naina well and matter”. This stringent criterion added a different dimension to the wedding – making it very special and personal. It had some of the trappings of any normal wedding – music, dance, food, people dressed in their finery and so on. What made it special was the bonhomie that prevailed on both the days. Everyone knew everyone else, which made things simpler – no pretences – no small talk – it was one big party.

In sharp contrast, we recently attended an extremely boring wedding in Bangalore. Very large number of invitees gathered together for the reception. Nobody knew anybody. There was an overall sense of disconnect and the motley crowd wandered aimlessly in the lawn. Our entire evening was spent standing in a queue to wish the couple and hand over the gift followed by standing in the second queue to partake of dinner. To add fuel to the fire, it started to rain heavily, rendering the only fitting suit from my wardrobe wet and soggy. We finally stood in the third queue for the car to arrive and returned home uncomfortably wet and bedraggled. It was thereafter left to the healing powers of a snifter of ‘Remy Martin’ to restore my battered soul back into mint condition. As I sat in the patio sipping my RM, I seriously wondered how anyone could conduct a happy event without generating fun and frolic.


Naina On her wedding day
Naina looked divine in her wedding get up. She was radiant, relaxed, and ready to embrace marriage with confidence. She was literally the soul of the ‘Sangeet’- dancing in gay abandon, coaxing people to come on the floor and setting the tone for the evening. Without exception, everyone – old and young alike, joined her to make merry and enjoy. We took serious cognizance of the ‘Kataria Chronicles’ reporting that once the wedding was done everyone would “take Tequila shots and celebrate”.

On the day of Sangeet all the male members were summoned to the first floor for getting the ‘Haryanvi Pagdi’ tied. The local expert who was specially hired by Kats went about systematically tying the Pagdi on all of us. With the majestic headgear in place we proceeded to attend all the functions.

Having fully participated in all the religious ceremonies we were at liberty to proceed to the pond to quench our thirst. The tipple was stored in the Pagdi room. On reaching the site, we were in for a very rude shock. The room was locked and the key safe with Pagdi master. Very precious time was wasted in locating the master. Once inside, we were in for yet another rude shock. The bag purportedly containing the nectar had various unmentionables stored in it. With disappointment written all over our face, we had to approach the ‘father of the bride’ to solve the mystery of the missing urn. FOB was deeply engrossed in the marriage ceremony along with the Pandit. My friend  Nair hesitatingly approached the FOB and very succinctly broke the terrible news and impeached him to save all of us with utmost haste. Kats gave one stern look in the direction of his nephew – which was enough for the young boy to leap ahead to the Pagdi room and produce the correct bag. With our favourite tipple in hand we joined the celebrations in right earnest and danced away into the wee hours of the night.

Both the Sangeet and the wedding were great success. We wished Naina and Anuj a very happy married life and retired for the night.
Bravo Zulu to Naveen and Kats.

You may want to know what is a “normal Indian wedding” – for that you need to visit my earlier blog - http://samundarbaba.blogspot.in/2012/02/the-big-fat-indian-wedding.html

Visit http://samundarbaba.blogspot.in/2012/12/events-and-stray-thoughts-chitras.html to get a glimpse of another wedding full of fun.



Sangeet - Naina leading the way.Snitch making waves



Self striking a pose with Naina





I will miss you mama



Papa dear is thrilled. The green halo ?????



With my son Vivek - old friends


Anuj striking a pose


Totally pleased with the proceedings


Agni sakshi

Smile of a life time



Sister Tripti and BiL Sameer


Snitch, Nair, Rags, Kats, Self, Ashok - The Pagdi Brigade

Jai, Meera, Sudhi, Girija, Pushpa with the couple and Navin



  Tripti's children - Tanisha and Sharanya 



Finally with us

All Photographs - Courtesy Vivek Prabhakar

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