So after reaching the would-be-bride's house on Friday evening, we were led to our respective rooms in houses nearby. there were 3 of us and we were put up in two rooms in two different houses. Mine had an attached bathroom , but no hot water. My other colleague had a bathroom with hot water, but it was inside the main house with no easy access . The relevance of this will be clear to you soon :)
We got back to her house for dinner and a dance party on the terrace. Apparently this is customary on the night before the wedding. Bride-to-be was undoubtedly the most enthusiastic dancer. Repeated attempts to coax yours truly into dancing was met with a stonewall response of NO. [ I don't dance, not now, not ever. No particular reason, I am just very un-comfortable about it and it is a non-negotiable item :) ]
It was pretty cold and I was beginning to get the initial rumble of asthma, so I retired to my room around 11.
Saturday morning arrived with the complex problem of how to take bath in the cold weather. My other colleague with hot water access got locked out of the room , he had to come over to our place to take bath:-) I decided to take the the first step. In an act which deserves nothing less than the national bravery award, I opened out the shower to full blast , closed my eyes and stood underneath it.
Curiously I could hear water falling, but none hitting my body . Was my body going into denial ?
A quick glance up, revealed a massive leak in the shower head which was pushing water sideways rather than down . Had to remove the shower head and stand underneath what can only be described as an icy waterfall. I guess my body went into severe thermal shock after the first 5 seconds, so rest of the bath was not such a big ordeal. In fact once I was done with the bath, I was feeling quite nice and warm :-)
We got dressed and went to her house for the morning function. At 8.00 am sharp I was at her door step. Apparently the mis-information continued here as people had not even woken up then !! I know people always call IST as Indian Stretchable Time, there seems to be and extra stretch when you are in the north !!
Anyway we hung around till the Panditji arrived and did some pooja. There was quite funny moment when Panditji was reciting something and his cell phone went off and he coolly attended the call in between the recital. No one seemed unduly bothered by this . Good for them, as I would have for sure made a racket if someone did that to me :)
We had nothing else to do whole day as the wedding was in the evening, so decided to go shopping in Karnal for some authentic north indian clothes for spouses and kids. Which is when we saw these cycle rickshaws and decided to take them to get back home from shopping.
I have never got on one and the experience was quite hairy to say the least. There was one stretch in which he had to stop and cross a highway through which vehicles were zipping past at break-neck speeds. [ And yeah, the driving is a lot rasher in the North too ]. I could see my life flash in front of my eyes right there. How he got me over the highway, I'll never know. My eyes were shut tight when he made his suicidal dash across the road. Thankfully we reached the other side in one piece !!
On to the marriage in the next episode tomorrow :)
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