As stated in the earlier post, there is nothing bigger for an Indian family than a wedding, suffice to say Chintoo's family quite rightly feel the same way, especially when the marriage is of an elder sister.
Tension and nerves are on the max since they were on the female side of the marriage, Chintoo however was always of the belief that everything and everyone should be cool and calm rather than freak out about the smallest and most minor hiccups.
The wedding was not just big in terms of us being from the bride's side but rather it felt like a proper family wedding, "You guys have to work" said chintoo, yeah right.
To be truthful weddings are boring and quite stressful for both families, this one was not going to be that, with the retardness of the Babla, Nagu and myself, plus the fact that bhabhiji was to come to meet chintoo, it was going to be one hell of a marriage.
the first day I went over to chintoo's place, I met his sister for the first time, the only other time I think she got a glimpse of me was when I blatantly showed the middle finger to Rohit on his terrace while we played football and his sister and mom were looking at us from an adjoining terrace, thank God she did not recognize me. That day was the first time I would get to meet the groom's family as well, since we decided to go to their "sangeet".
The one fear I had was they were Kashmiri Pandits and well one thing everyone knows is that they beat the shit out of Kashmiri muslims and vice versa, plus it does not make it any better when you are known to make racist comments and that your friends are constantly pulling your leg and reminding you of that.
Nagu, Chintoo and I got into the back of a sumo with a few of his relatives and this one girl who seemed to be the typical hoity toity that one expects to find in every wedding, while she is blabbering away about how life in Italy is and how it is not affected by the credit crisis as much as the other nations and how she is a student there and how they have a 3 hour lunch break, Nagu looks at me, makes a stupid face and shakes his head like he is trying to tell me something, that something was that miss hoity toity was a long time back a crush of Rohit's, as Nagu kept on saying
"Life comes full circle,man"
We reach the place, which was somewhere in salt lake, Kashmir house it was called, just to scare me off as well. We get off and are welcomed, Rohit, la familia minus the bride, All of us were wearing something fitting the occasion, be it a suit or a kurta, yes even I was in a kurta, Nagu however seemed like he came from some crazy literary meet and that his soul has been hounded by the dead poets society or some shit, unshaven, hair a mess, crazy half jacket and a half arsed sense of style does not help either.
Calling him a fucking "porter" the entire journey would affect every normal person but Nagu takes it in his stride, as said we reach "Kashmir house" and are warmly greeted, then they start serving us tea, the dick that I am always refuses tea, so I politely say
"Am sorry I don't drink tea"
Somehow , someone seems to get offended, pop comes a lady and forces me literally to take the cup and drink the tea in front of her
"Its Kashmiri chai, its not normal tea, do try, you must try, you have to"
I can't say no now, since half the bloody place is looking at me, like I have sinned massively and am going to spend the rest of eternity in hell. The other ceremonies now start taking place, which means, I get the same lady coming over to me and explaining every single detail of every single custom there is. I know she means well but come on, me , customs? really?
Babla arrives in all his grandeur ,like a star, late and right from a show. Enters and is specifically told not to abuse much and also about the presence of Rohit's wanna be ex.
Anyways, they start the singing bit and oh dear lord can they sing and play, apart from being hot kashmiri women, they can sing and belt out songs like a jukebox, constantly going on and on and on, like there is not stopping a class 5 hurricane.
When its time for food as usual I get a little shock since there is no chicken but a brilliant substitute is there, lotus stem, yes, lotus fucking stem, and its not just one preparation , its like the main course there. The kashmiri potato was brilliant and so were the papads but the star of the show was the fried lotus stem. Of course we must have a substitute for the tight bengali preparation of mutton in which we need teeth like a lion's to eat, here we had some lotus curry which Nagu seemed to enjoy and eat like well he is a lion eating a dead rabbit, ripping stuff out with his teeth, our constant whining about his dress sense brought the beast out in him.
Food done, groom met and all done, we head back to the car, 4 fat arses in the back of a Tata sumo and a few relatives and miss hoity toity in the same car. Babla starts singing out random songs and all, then we start the crazy business of singing
"Phooolo ka taaaaro ko sabka kehna hai, ek lakhon mein meri behna hai
saari umaar humme sang rehna hai"
for the southies and mallus out there who don't know hindi
"Flowers and stars all say that my sister is one in a 100000
we shall stay forever together"
We all were directing it , not at Rohit's sister but rather his wanna be ex for an absolute legendary dialogue that was spoken around 10-12 years ago when love first starts to hit our hearts. Crushed back then not anymore cos move over hoity bitch, Bhabhiji is here and thank God for that.
PS: rohit's mom understood the entire context of the song.
Part 2 coming up
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