I am happy to be using the Diary feature of MS for the right purpose - to record 'an event'-ful 25-05-2008. This post if the First Information Report(FIR) of the wedding of fellow MSian - Shalini (angel25). Its not everyday that an MSian gets married, also its not everyday that an MSians has wedding in your city, so the moment the invite came I confirmed my attendance.
The Planning: Abha, Mayunk , Kabir & Myself confirmed as soon as the mail came. When the rockstar of MS (Vivek) & latest Heartthrob of MS (Gautam) also were part of planning, we made sure that this is going to be a encounter of MSians, this time at a wedding. & history is witness that everytime MSians encountered MSians there have been shots, shootouts..this time they did it with Mobile cameras. They shot many pics :-)
Wedding: I reached there by 10am & saw the religious rituals were alredy going on. From a distance I saw shalini & groom seated in front of a havan-kund. My first reaction on seeing her was 'She is Very Useful' err i mean 'she is very beautiful' .. see some MS habits never die ;-). Shalini looked very resplendent & she was everything a typical south indian bride wud be made of. I am used to seeing brides who sit grim & complain of aching jaws after giving fake smiles to 600+ ppl that attend weddings but none of them for shalini. She was smiling all the time, as priest was saying the mantras, in between she waved to her friends whom she recognised in the crowd.
I sat there watching the rituals. All ladies downstairs were busy talking, while the men folk were busy discussing the outcoming legislative election results ..since neither was my cup of tea, i sat there sipping a glass of nimbu sharbat & watched the happenings on stage. The priest made the couple, sit, stand many times from place to place, i wondered if he was doing re-takes. The groom was serious, but shalini's teeth cud be counted from the last rows in audience. At one time the priest stood in between them & was seen explaining somethings, that instanly reminded me of refreee explaining rules of engagment before a fighting! it wasnt for boxing, as it turned out, i saw the guy touching bride's feet! Shalini surely seemed to be enjoying! please note that I am saying this with pinch of humor, as i saw it - the technical, ritual, religious aspects of it will be explained by Shanthi /Daya in comments section.
Soon Abha & family joined. Soon the couple took a break from ritual & came to the front edge of stage to accept greetings from the wellwishers. We went last in Q & suddenly the bride screams 'ABHA' & leans on to abha for hug, we wish the couple. Shalini asks us to enjoy the lunch assuring she will come down to meet us.In fact shalini introduced us to her father-in-law in tamil saying 'these are my friends from a site where we write reviews & we are seeing each other first time' ! I waited there thinking she will add that we were 'star writers like her'. she didnt add that sentence ..chalo koyi baat nahin ;-)
We go back waiting for Vivek & Gautam to join. Soon enough the 2 happening guys arrive in style making a million female heads turn in unision! ;-) Another round of introductions, meeting the bride, shooting & we head to dining hall for a many course lunch, but pure vegetarian! On return we again meet shalini & bid her goodbye & then disperse promising to meet again.
It was a special event bcos we were meeting someone whom we only knew through RRC & why miss a chance to 'Be There' on perhaps the greatest day in their life. If I recall right there has been only one instance before this when MSian wedding was attended by fellow MSians. Generations to come will also mention of this MS-meet. Ask me how ? ;-) read next para ..
25 saal baad: Imagine 25 years from now Paul's son organising a wedding-pics-taken-with-mobile contest & these photos being entries there. How nostalgic it will be for Kabir to comment saying 'I was there' or Shalini's daughter commenting 'Hey thats amma & appa' or Vivek's Son saying 'Mera baap, photography ka baap' or Gautam's daughter countering that saying 'My fathers big resultions pics' ..add to it FE's son saying "this is nothing, my dad shud have been there to do out-of-focus photography" ;-) .. dont stop here, let ur imaginations go wild ;-)
P.S: 1) Vivke's tattoo is real, not chipkaya hua ;-)
2)Gautam sounds like Vivek on phone, but on land they sound different !
3)Kabir beat all of us in ogling at women - he was even found eyeing the bride!! finally I told him 'Abey apna umr ka toh khayal rakh' !! He also tried 'snatching' the bride's golden chain -wonderd if aage jaake yeh chain-snatcher banega ;-)
4)Pics by Vivek & Gautam -check albums!