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.
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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.
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Sangeet - Naina leading the way.Snitch making waves |
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Self striking a pose with Naina |
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I will miss you mama |
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Papa dear is thrilled. The green halo ????? |
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With my son Vivek - old friends |
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Anuj striking a pose |
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Totally pleased with the proceedings |
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Agni sakshi |
 |
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| Sister Tripti and BiL Sameer |
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| Snitch, Nair, Rags, Kats, Self, Ashok - The Pagdi Brigade |
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| Jai, Meera, Sudhi, Girija, Pushpa with the couple and Navin |
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| Tripti's children - Tanisha and Sharanya |
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Finally with us All Photographs - Courtesy Vivek Prabhakar |
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