Mera Dosth Marriage at Pune - Final Part

Basant woke up either because of my snore or piyush was ready to go to aaromi for rituals before the marriage. Since piyush and basant planned to go early in the morning. Later basant told me that he woke up without alarm because of me. Me and rohit were dropped by piyush relative brother to the hostel around 9AM. I decided to stay back in room for few hours. As it is, rohit and basant gone to aromi to take care of piyush needs.

My mobile still not showing any light of display even after multiple hot pull battery removing method. I have Piyush number in my backup mobile, when i called his number someone answered in hindi. I didn’t have Rohit and Basant number in my backup mobile. Decided to walk half kilo metre to reach Aaromi. Few metres ahead three or four old guys walking towards the same direction. Later i observed they are also coming to piyush marriage only. When i am entering the gate, security asked “kither jaara???” i replied “marriage ka party hai..” Then only he allowed me to go inside the Aromi.

When reached there piyush father asked me to have food. I asked him “Basant  kha number hai”. He said something like “Piu di first floor basant ka number”. I understand correctly that piyush sister is in first floor will have Basant number. In first floor i asked piyush mom piu dhi??. But she said “piyush ither hey”. Oh my goodness!! piyush himself available. Later i come to know rohit and basant gone to bride home to see her. I didnt seen her before even i don’t remember piyush shown bride photo or not to me. Just i waited for the marriage hour to see my friend’s best half.

I had the Lunch with Rasgulla, fish curry and fish fries. Fish is at the best where Rasagullas are best of Bengali ishtyle. Atleast three rasagullas i had before rice and after rice like any doctor prescription. By the time Basant and Rohit where back giving feeback to piyush how they find about his bride. But i didnt eager hear the comments to maintain the surprise. Piyush need to go to the parlour again for filling the face with another set of makeup. I stayed with piyush in the parlour decided to go for facial before piyush finishes up, basant and rohit gone to car parlour to have full makeup for basant car.

           Piyush finished his facial before my facial gets started. I thought of stopping but he said car would come late so asked me to complete the facial. He will wait at the outside. Any how i thought he will time pass at the parlour because a good looking girl is managing the parlour, when i finished and came out he was not there and left already. He left message for me to wait for ten minutes. I gone down waited for piyush but pritam and rohit came to pickup me. Since its getting late for his precious moment he left without waiting. After all its his big day.

Rohit and Basant actually waiting for the room key from me. When we reached hostel in fifteen minutes we need to get ready with our newly bought dresses. Now the real difficulty started, the pants of kurtas was tight below the knees. Basant and rohit said thats the way kurta pants were designed. But i am not able to wear my socks as it’s very tight. Basant helped me putting the socks. I was taken aback a while for his helping tendency. He impresses me in his every move. As i said before this is the first time i am spending time with him personally. For Rohit we spent two occasions in EMC outing and annual day.

Me and rohit were perfect in kurta. Basant was like gentleman at the best. He was in Brasier. We are groom’s friend so we presenting ourselves to sarkar family. We took the car and started to Aaromi to surprise piyush with our attire. Piyush came outside in his groom dress. We never told him that we are going to come in kurta requested pritam not to tell him that we bought kurta’s previous day. He had shown the surprise and happiness in his face after seeing us.

After seeing piyush in his groom dress i have to explain this even though he studied at UK and worked in bangalore for long time. On marriage day every groom glitters because of the forth coming happiness and also the family,friends everyone focus is on one guy. In the groom dress with the crown in his head. He is just like lord krishna, only flute is missing. Of course he can act as krishna in my stories.

In fact i dont want to tell him the name Krishna, in tamil we call him as “mayakkannan”(magical krishna) so as "mayakannan" piyush is standing in front of us. In the room lot of pooja items were scattered from the morning till evening piyush family performed rituals for their mayakannan marriage.

One by one in the family and friends took their photos with mayakannan. From bride’s family, car has come to pickup mayakannan to the marriage hall. Due to space problem in Basant’s car, as it is family members were important so i didn’t join. I know there was a bus arranged to go to hotel Hyatt’s marriage hall for all family members. So Basant, Rohit left along with mayakannan to marriage hall with his sisters in the car.

After about 45 mins, All the family members and me started to Hyatt in bus. Before that i had chance to talk to his mamaji, we talked just about the IT industry. And one guy from his family actually sat next to me but when i told him after he started to talk in hindi. “Hindi nahi malum hai”. He suddenly gone to driver seat but didn’t come to my place till we reach Hyatt.

          A Dream marriage at Hyatt, a royal entry at Hyatt in my kurta. When i entered the marriage hall, I could see the dinner buffet is ready to serve. And a service guy gave me a motiladdu. I searched for piyush finally found him in the first room which is given for Groom and Second room for Bride. In fact in hyatt, its big hall two room was partitioned in between to form room. When i am crossing the second room i see lot of people doing some pooja and photographers bugging around. But still i couldn’t see the bride.

          It was arranged nicely, a wedding area and reception area for this occasion. Rohit was like repeating me that i came here to see customs of Bengali marriage so he will take care of piyush’s need. But personally i feel that i came for my beloved friend. I have to show my feel about that to Rohit, finally i asked him stop saying like that. Well sometimes i get moodout without any reasons. Because i watch around to memorize the surroundings. But that was not intentional to talk to him like that.

I seen a group of photographers from Yash Photo studios were taking the snaps around the area with and without the persons knowing. Thats what the nowadays style of wedding candid camera. As everyone was gearing up for the function to be held. Shastri started chanting mantras only with piyush first.

Later sometime, Real marriage rituals started. Piyush was standing in a wooden board group of women with fire torch rounded piyush along with sound of conch shell. Mayakkannan getting the real honour of fire by their family members. Once they finished rounding, Piu di asked us to lift the piyush once the girl enters the wedding area. Hmm i know this game seen in some Brahmin marriages. But here this game performed in the starting itself.

With the conch shell sounds “Puvvvvvvvvvvaaaahaaaaaaan” Bride was carried by four or five people from bride side. My eagerness to see her face had grown up but Bride closing the face with betal leaf is sitting on the wooden board carried by their family members. Just imagine the scene like this Mayakkannan's Radha entering the scene with Red Dress and Covered with Greeness of Betal Leaf. Absolute treat to watch the entry of Bride. Atleast now i should tell the name of her, She is Radha of our mayakkannan but named Nisha in this life.

Nisha family members rounded Piyush for atleast 9 times. The crowd surrounded were giving wrong counts that they didn’t complete the rounds and laughing to make the moment more joyous. After finishing the rounds they are still carrying her infront of piyush. And the job come to us to carry piyush to the height where the girls family cannot reach to put the garland to piyush. Group of members along with us carried piyush to new height of his marriage. Due to crown’s height also Nisha is not able to reach him to put the garland on his neck. Well game was over Nisha was lowered to a height and asked piyush to come down. After we brought down Piyush, Garland was put on his neck by Nisha. What a happy moment that was.

After this they sat on the wedding place where the agni kunda and shastri, the pooja started for their marriage. This is the first time i am seeing a shastri carrying the book of mantra’s. He started to read from first page to last page. In between piu di was asked to sit with them and asked to round the agni kunda. Finally the shastri comes to the page where the final rituals to be performed. When Piyush was asked to keep the sindhoor to Nisha i was singing “Mangalyam Tantunanena Mama jeevana hetuna”.  So i understand from the marriage as like south Indian there is no mangalasutra in their custom. By completing all the rituals together in front of agni they promise to live happily together for more than hundred years.

        

                  

       After everyone congratulated the couples thousand flashes on both their faces was noted and its not because of the cameras. Because of the bond established between them. And the couple started live their life happily from the moment without been noticing around.

         

And at last i sang a song to piyush to wish him

"Nalam vaazha yennalum vaazthukkal

Thamizh koorum pallandu yen vaazthukkal!"

(My Wishes are always with you for your good health..

wishing you live like this many years as said in tamil language)

After sending off the sweet couples Mayakkannan and Radha. We the friends drove back to piyush place to drop his mother and father. Mother told me that i should come someother time to stay in the place as piyush told about me many a times.

With all said memories and final happy moments we slept nicely in the hostel to wakeup next day to go back to our routine life.

Mera Dosth Marriage at Pune ends.....

Behind the scenes:

My mobile didn’t show the display till the morning. Basant and Rohit came to airport to drop me suddenly the flash on my mobile shown for one reboot. I believed i can the show ticket at entrance using my mobile, otherwise Basant and Rohit have to come inside show the ticket from their mobile. When i reached Chennai, i seen a north Indian guy in fasttrack queue asking “Anna... Nungambakkam???” which reminds me the first part of this series.

Yours Lovingly,

Rasal

Mera Dosth Marriage at Pune - Part 4

          To my surprise, Rohit picked up the call from Basant by waking up from his sleep. Basant have ordered us breakfast already to his room. (Yes it’s a compliment one from the hotel). After some freshn’up, we gone to Basant room, two plates of sambar idly and upma waiting for us(is it upma or pongal? questioned myself). But its upma, a different one i had so far. Upma?? is it a specially made in pune  not sure but i liked it. Me and Basant felt that Tiffin is not enough for us but Rohit may be maintaining diet had only few. Basant and me had extra breakfast by ordering one more plate of vada and upma.

          

Piyush and Pritam came to pickup us to the new place where we are going to stay rest of our trip. Piyush said we are going to army place where we all going to stay. At first i thought we mean Rohit, Basant and me. But it’s the place where all Piyush’s family going to stay before going to marriage hall. Oh man! In our custom, a groom is not allowed to go outside from home on last day of marriage. But here every one in the family is going to stay in same place.

         

Pune’s traffic and beauty is less since it’s a Sunday. The location was so cool with less noise and the cukoo’s chanting every now and then. In Pashan,  Aromi is the place where family members staying. And for us new scientist research hostel 500mts near Aromi was arranged. A typical hostel room but with big hall and one bed room with kitchen separate and balcony. A scientist can be formed if he stays there for long time since it’s calm and cool.

         

So far it’s just happening but now time to explore since Basant will be visiting friends in Pune. Me and Rohit really didnt have nothing but roam. For me i wish to attend in south indian tradition wear for marriage. Since i started from chennai i didnt have veshti or dothi. So thought of purchasing one along with Rohit. Piyush dropped us in Jai hind store and he said “you will defenitley get dhoti here”. Asked us to call after roaming around.

          

At Jai Hind second floor, we asked for dhoti to a salesman. After some thinking the salesman picked up some dhotis from a room, i felt purchase was simply over. But Rohit said “Bhai, this is old man dhoti type not south indian style its north indian style”. That’s disappointing then i need to go in formal wear to the marriage. Rohit and me didnt have any option of going to some mall or cinema after purchase plan didnt worked well.

         

Piyush already told us to go to E-Square. We took an auto with meter reading to go to Esquare. On the way, we saw some crowd standing at the platform. Driver stopped the auto after some meters away from the location and asked someone about the crowd. When Rohit questioned the autowale, he said it was an accident; a girl was hit down or fell down from the bus. Group of people carried her to the platform and just watching her. I didn’t understand what kind of humanity to watch blood of accident victim without contacting emergency. But Rohit gave me a answer but it’s still not convincing to me. And to add, i am too not helping due to new location and language. Rohit said “bhai, it’s not humanity problem. It’s the police interrogation will turn against the person who helps the victim”. But i believed someone would help her soon. By the time we reached Esquare.

         

Esquare is not a mall which i thought of. It’s a theatre with food court inside. When I seen the list of movies which I can watch is just not available. How can I expect Tamil or Malayalam movies in pune? Finally Rohit said will watch “Gunday” it should be good. We have Priyanka chopra and Ranveer singh in the lead. As it is Rohit is there if I need any clarification if I couldn’t understand the dialogues. Hindi movie without English subtitle believe me this is my second experience after “3 idiots”.

          

We got the tickets in the front row. In Tamilnadu front row ticket is 10₹ but in Esquare it’s same as first class tickets. Gunday means goondahs and they are top gun of the state. Initially I didn’t understand what ranveer and arjun kapoor were talking but could sense the flow of the Movie. Once Priyanka Chopra came in I was glued to the screen since recently i became fan of her because of “xotic” album song that too introduced by Piyush bhai only. During the second half we heard some shouting from backside. A girl is shouting at some guys may be they misbehaved in the theatre. They stopped quarelling after some time as its disturbing others. Because of front row and not having lunch i got headache to the core. Even the movie was also not interesting due to old wine in new bottle masala sequences.

           

After movie ended when we came out we searched for food shops to have something lighter but thrilled to the see the scene of two persons of that girl (theatre victim) side beating up four persons on the road asked to them to touch the feet of the girl. I have seen another face of pune is good and ethical.

         

Finally we found a shop nearby Esquare. Rohit got me “mixer pav”. Mixer pav is kind of pani puri and masala puri’s masala’s in it with mixture and Bread. yeah! I know thats not bread its the pav. But i should admit its different taste which i had in bangalore once. I ate it like just cutting pav at center and add the masala like how the burger is. Tasting burger with ketchup i dipped the pav for every bite to masala. My hunger is not subsided ordered few more pav to finish out pune’s hunger strike after the heavy breakfast.

         

After some bargaining we got an auto to go to sunshine apartment, Piyush’s place. Only one sentence i could understand from group of autowala’s is “hey marathi nahi hey”. Rohit talked to driver about that marathi comment but i could’nt understand anything.

In piyush’s home, Pritam was trying out the reception dress which he thought of, but Basant is not convinced with the combination he is trying out. Basant suggested a black color pants with shinning for the shirt combination.

          

And now discussion turned to us on our plan on marriage dress. I said Piyush the truth that i am going to come in formals. But he said “Bugger! you come in your tradition for all crap crap functions held at EMC office,  but to my marriage you come in formals”. Hmmm, he is really upset with my choice. But i have company for formals, that is Rohit. He didnt have option for dress upto that time. Piyush said to Rohit that he can wear his kurta and for me Basant planned to give his suit if it fits. Come on! I am 38 waist, i can’t fit his suit.

         

By the way i forgot to mention that Piyush was wearing a long kurta. You should see it to praise. That was a perfect matching kurta for his color. After few conversations, Pritam accepted to go and purchase black pant as Basant said. Me, Pritam, Basant, Rohit and Piyush started to go out. On the way we dropped Piyush to kaya health care for his facial work for marriage and we four gone to “Jai hind” again.

         

At first Pritam was selecting his black shining pant. And Rohit started to select kurta’s and tried one. Basant was giving the exact comments whether to select or not. Finally Rohit tried a white one with design in it. Well, i too was impressed with white kurta. Basant said it was the perfect one. When you look at the rate of the kurta, you won’t say thats the best one. Now the turn comes to me. I selected one and tried it but didnt look nice. During the time some one of my size rejected one kurta and kept near to me. I felt i should try that piece first. For this one i didn’t go to trial room. Just worn it over by T’s. At the back of that place, a stage with big mirror and lighting was there. I stood up there to see myself in the mirror.  Oh my god! Is that me! I said no just because of the rate. But Basant was really impressed with that one. He insisted me for few mins but i was looking at other one i tried. He left the conversation, when i seen rohit he was going to buy the costliest one which suited him. I have to take decision now since i am the one without a choice. Finally i thought piyush will be happy in seeing me like that and choosen the costliest one.

“Costlier one always fits you“ that remind me for my brother marriage i bought a coat which is also near costlier with this kurta. Basant advised me to buy a traditional shoe with designs on. They were cheaper than expected. Before the billing Basant again asked me to buy white socks for the shoe. The Rate of socks is equal to the shoe because it’s a branded one.

          

To me before working in EMC i was not proper with my dressing sense due to Piyush and Mahesh in EMC i was changed more. But i learnt from Basant, how we should select the dress for the occassion. He even told me once for a occassion he gone for purchase with his wife and ended up selecting costlier gagra choli and not worried about budget he thought of. He is the one perfectionist i would say.

          

After our purchase we gone to pickup piyush and eagerly awaiting for night get together. But piyush facial work may take some more time. Me and Rohit decided to shave in the parlour during the time. Rohit had arabia shave i.e Arab shaik style shave. I dont want to say that as french beard its Rohit Shaik Style. Even pritam had facial during the time. Finally piyush came after his facial. Piyush asked us buy a Cake for his sister Piu birthday. Due to marriage busy schedule they didn’t celebrate it seems. In Aromi, Our dinner was ready with the sweet Gajar Halwa. Hmm Gajar Halwa and me were having lot of connections since the only sweet i can make my own is Gajar Halwa. And for Piyush i surprised him by giving Gajar Halwa on his last birthday. He even commented that he was feeling like staying home. And coming back here in the dinner i even asked Piyush about the Gajar Halwa. He recalled it exactly. After dinner We celebrated Piu sister Birthday. At first after seeing the cake piu sister reaction is “finally my birthday cake” because its already 10:30PM. Piyush asked me sing a song but i couldn’t get any tamil immediately. After cake cutting celebration we all gone back to hostel where we stayed. But Basant and Piyush drove back to his colony.

        

Later half an hour piyush called us back to colony for the get together. When we reached colony, Pritam took us(me and Rohit) to  another flat which is ready for our hangout. Along with us Piyush sisters(Poly,Rosy and Romy) also joined the party. I am not sure why one of the sister is pulling my leg with some witty witty sentences like “Yenna Rascala Mind it”. I am still adjusting to the environment. And i am a silent listener.

With some wiffy waffy talks and hangouts hour progresses. With Basant’s awesomatic preparations everyone talked about themselves and work. Piyush was questioning to the sisters are they wondered how come tamil, mallu and hindi guy were close friends to him. Yeah! We are still searching answers friendship doesn’t have language, when its mutual even its not mutual. Few scenes which i need to explain here,  when basant showed his wife in mobile. I just said “okay” but romy asked me “whats that reaction? come on!!!”.  I am not sure how to react when someone showing a photo, if they were opposite i would have said vanakkam in tamilnadu style. Next was when romy was talking about business rosy interrupted to explain how they meet during office hours. And to note i didn’t talked upto that time but romy sister asked to me “why i am not talking as everyone is talking about thier work”.  What should i talk? i still feel uncomfortable with new persons even though they consider me as their family member. I asked her “what her role as a theatre artist is?”. While she was explaining the theatre work i noticed that was the second time she is repeating “after her father died she was forced to quit theatre work”. To change the mind and situation i asked a question to her “whats your name!” Isn’t that funny if someone talking seriously opposite person asking their name? But now after reading this everyone will accept what i asked is correct.

Finally we all slept finishing respective enjoy responsibly things before sleeping, i dropped my mobile on the floor and it stopped display. I slept nicely in bed. In the next bed basant is sleeping.

After few hours ...... Suddenly basant woke up from his sleep after hearing big noise... To be Continued.... 

Yours Lovingly,

Rasal