Its been more than 4 years we passed out from our graduation college and the wedding season has come. All of us are turning 25 or 26 and it is the time for us to enter the wed lock. Though one of our dearest friends Bhawna fell victim to this social activity and went far far away from us to Nagpur from Delhi. Now she is a mother to a very beautiful and pretty baby girl who is darling to all the BACSians (Electronics) batch. Infact they say, she is even healthier than me.. :-P.. She is very happy in her family with her husband and her kid and is quite busy with them and hardly calls me up.. But whenever I call her up, she remembers to say sorry for not calling me for long.. but then i understand, I am still the same, single, that I used to be in my college days so call up my friends now and then.

 Okie.. I was talking about the wedding season. Sumit, the most handsome guy of our batch, is the second to fall prey to the wedding locks. Mr. Zumi has married his bestest friend's cousin sister Niti. She is no less pretty and stood tall and beautiful beside Sumit on the wedding day. Since Sumit's in-laws are form Ludhiana (Punjab), the wedding was to take place in Ludhiana on 7th September. Initially 8 of us had planned to join Sumit on his wedding to bless him and give him strength to go through very ritual but only 3 of us could make -- me, HeShe (Himanshi) and Chirkut (Shikar). 5 long hours of train journey and then finally at Ludhiana the place where we were to stay for 2 days during his wedding. We all were hungry so after we freshened up, we all had some gobi ke pakode.. yumz.. Before the lunch we had some time so we made ourselves familiar with Sumit's family members. His 3 paternal cousin sistes were of the same age group as us (though they were younger to us but chalta he).. So many small niece and nephews he had, i think i even forgot the count.. but his niece Iti was so cute and pretty that we all loved to talk to her (though she was too young to even talk properly).. It was lunch time and we all were again hungry.. The lunch had some nice Dal (i don't know which) with rice and chapati with Gobi ki sabaji (again).. guess Gobi is Ludhiana's fav vegetable.

 After lunch, it was the time to hang out, sleep, rest and chat.. we decided to go the market and feed ourselves with some golgappas.. only 3 of us agreed to go to the market..rest were too lazy to get up.. anyways.. we strolled for sometime in the market.. had golgappas and came back well in time before the rush for the washroom would begin for everyone would want to get ready for the evening engagement ceremony. As usual I was so humble to allow everyone use the washroom before me and by the time it was my turn, it was already 5:30pm. (we had to leave at 7pm for the function). anyways.. i gave my hair a wash and started getting ready for the ceremony. I couldn't get myself ready even till 7pm. I was amongst the last few peeps getting out of the dressing room. Thanks to HeShe.. she helped me alot by lending me her pocket sized mirror for the makeup stuff..

At the venue, the groom's party reached so mcuh well in time that the stage where the groom and the bride were to sit was still being decorated. I was like "hum log to decorate ho kar aa gaye but ye stage abhi tak decorate ho raha he". We recieved the girl's family (which is supposed to be the other way round) but it doesn't matter much when the boy's family is so sweet. Since the groom hadn't come yet, HeShe and I decided to keep ourselves busy with starters (food). Though she wasn't much interested but I kept feeding myself with manchurian and spring rolls. Finally the groom came and it was time for some rituals. In order to keep ourselves occupied, I decided to hit the dance floor with Zumi's cousin sisters. We all hit the dance floor. We were so occupied with the dance that we didn't realize that the bride had entered the hall and taken her hot seat. Well, we were called from the dance floor to participate in the engagement ceremony (exchange of wedding rings between the girl and boy). We didn't spare Zumi there and asked the DJ guy to play --

Ek kunwaara, phir gaya maara
Phas gaya dekho, ye bechaara
Do din ki hai ye chaandni
Phir kaari kaari raat hai
Tu maan jaa dulhe raaja
Tak ser khaaji, tak ser khaaja
Kal teri shaadi tera baj gaya baaja

he played it and we sang on top of our melody-less coarse voices.

The two exchanged the rings and we got ourselves clicked with them and back we hit the DJ floor. I hardly remember doing anything after that. I not even had food. off course why would I have, the machurian and spring rolls were still playing there part.

We were back home around 1am in the morning and dhum.. on the bed .. get set go.. to sleep.. Too tired to do anything after that.

Finally the D-day.

I woke up around 9am in the morning after a very sound night's sleep. Taking a shower and getting ready was the biggest challenge in the morning. Why? 30 people and 1 bathroom.. isn't it? But by the time I woke up many had taken the shower and were ready so it wasn't much of fight and I was ready by around 11am for breakfast -- Gobi ke paranthe (by now i was sure Gobi is either their fav or was probably very inexpensive ha aha ha ha) and some more rituals which were over by 12:30pm. It was then we decided to explore Ludhiana and around 20 of us set off to hit the Ludhiana roads to buy some very famous woollen stuff from the city. But by the time we reached the market, we were already tired -- because of the long walk and the pollution levels of the city that were simply unbearable. On top of it the Sunday crowd of the market that made shopping all the more difficult and I decided to come back without buying anything. But i did not miss on fresh juice in the market. By the time we were back @ 2:30pm, the lunch was ready and we stuffed our stomachs with the delicious food. 3:30pm and all set for the Garhi Gharoli function where Zumi's Bhabhi carried a pot on her head, went to the temple and filled it with the holy temple water with which Zumi would later bath. (Its considered auspicious in Hindus) We again danced to the tunes of Dholwalas and shouted and what not.

we were ready to go to the Beautician to wrap ourselves in nice dresses and hide our ugly faces under the makeup. The trip to the beautician wasn't very pleasant and frutiful. Noone was satisfied with the services but since it was the D-day we had to be our best. HeShe was dressed in wonderful brown and coca-cola flowery printed saree with designer blouse which she designed herself. I wore a greyish silver lehenga with matching jewellery. Zumis bhabhi and cousins were looking beautiful too. By too I mean, the other 2 beautiful ladies were offcourse me and HeShe. By 7:30pm, yes after 3hrs and 30min, 5 of us were ready and we went back to the place where the Sehrabandi was to take place. Shikar was looking no less handsome that day, after all his best friend was getting married. Zumi, the groom, wore a smart pinkish purplish shirt with greyish suit and as usual he looked HANDSOME. It all started, one by one baraatis took their turn and finally at 9pm, we all set off for the assembling area from where Zumi would ride horse to take away his bride.

It was cold at the wedding area but hum fashion ke maare. .no sweater.. hee hee.. Shikhar did me a favour by getting me some wafers and biscuits from a nearby departmental store. After waiting almost 30 min, Zumi came and we fed his horse with Yellow Daal (that's horse's fav). and then.. po po po po po po po po po po.. it was the band walas and us.. US means -- HeShe, me, his 3 cousins and 6 MCA friends. At the wedding hall entrance, we din't let Zumi in until the entire baraatis danced as well as Zumi's brother in laws..what after this -- dance , dance , dance and dance. We danced till about 12midnight and then we were hungry. Then we had food and chatted with each other. By the time pheras were about to start, I and HeShe left for the place where we stayed to get rid of those hefty dresses. By the time we were back, half the rituals had already finished. What then -- 7 pheres, mangalsutra and sindur and YES YES YES.. Zumi was no longer a bachelor.. he is a married man now.. Niti being his life partner.

Zumi and Niti left for Niti's placed from where the doli was scheduled. We still wanted to throw our legs in the air and dance and chat so we went to Niti's place little later. Morning 5am, Doli started from Niti's place to Zumi's makeshift place. By 6am they went back, we packed our stuff for we had to leave at 7:30 for Delhi. HeShe and I hardly selpt for an hour and then at 8am we were at the station. Unfortunately our train got delayed by almost 2 hours. So we left Ludhiana at around 10:30pm. I slept during the entire journey back home. We reached Delhi @5pm and i was home at 5:30pm.

BUT all the way long from Delhi to Ludhiana and back, we all made many friends, met many good people, visited another city(atleast me) and brought back with us many wonderful memories of this wedding.

Thanks Zumi for arranging for such a wonderful time.

May God bless you and Niti. Wish you guys a wonderful life ahead.