A punjabi wedding : Part 3

And finally we got ready for the wedding.

We were asked be ready by around 5 p.m . Off went the three off us dressed sharply in our suits to the Karnal community hall. The groom and his party arrived there around 6, they were greeted with a quite delightful array of sweets and hot snacks inside. Groom's side all dressed in traditional dhoti-turban attire, except for groom who looked sharp in a shiny black suit.

I must say the three of us felt a bit over-dressed for the occasion. It looked exactly as if an Oriya, a tamilian and a malayali had gone for a Punjabi wedding :-)))

Then there was some function involving the groom, bride's family and groom's family. Did not quite understand what the purpose of the function was, it was called "Sagaayi", looked more like a mutual hand-over of gifts to me !!

While the groom's side were having snacks, we decided to rest for a while and sat on some chairs. Immediately we were surrounded by videographers with all sorts of equipment and bright lights. I guess we were looking pretty impressive in our suits. Then the realization dawned that we weren't really supposed to sit there, those seats were meant for the groom side folks :)

We did a quick protocol check with bride's family before we ate anything, did not want to spark of riots just because we ate when weren't supposed to !! Customs and nature of people are quite different from South to north. [I am not implying one is better over the other]

In case you are wondering where the bride is, she is not present for this function. She was packed for the beauty parlor to get ready a while earlier. And knowing her, I was a touch surprised she had not gone there to get ready the previous night itself . It takes that long usually .... :-))

From there we proceeded to the ESS-ESS farm house [ yes, it is spelt that way, don't ask me why !! ]   where the actual reception and wedding was going to take place. A walk through into the farmhouse can be seen below as can be the Stage and some lighting arrangements. The entire place looked awesome!!

ESS ESS Farms- Walk in

And here is a shot of the stage

Stage view

According to the standard misinformation we were fed, wedding was supposed start around 8-8.30. Again the three idiots reached there at 8.15 only to be welcomed by waiters and photographers. Not a guest or family member in sight, let alone the bride and groom !!

We walked around for a while and sampled some of the food. Food was just amongst the best I've ever had, hats off to North-Indians for that :-).

It was getting pretty cold outside. Rather disastrously, we had not anticipated that the function would be held outdoors. Though we were dressed in suits, we had no head or throat protection. This would really come back to bite us later on in the night.

Finally around 9.30 some of the bride and groom's family started to turn up. People had already started to stream in and there was quite a big crowd by then.

But where are the two most important people ? 10 pm and still no sign of them !!!

And it is 11.55 pm while I am writing all this and I am sleepy. So you can meet the bride and groom tomorrow :-)

A punjabi wedding : Part-2

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.

Cycle Rickshaw ride in Karnal

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 :)

Travel log : A punjabi wedding part-1

So off to Karnal I went to attend a close friend's wedding. Have to add couple of things before I start.

• This is probably only the second friend's wedding that I am attending
• I understand hindi, I can't speak it very well. In fact I rarely speak it other than to say save my own life
• The marriage is an inter-caste marriage, so any misplaced comment made by the hindi-challenged yours truly could spark of riots and honor killings
• I have never been to North India other than for a visa interview 2 years back

So naturally I was a bit tense. Journey started off on the wrong note with the Friday ( 21st November) morning flight to delhi being delayed by an hour. Had only a skimpy breakfast before I started from home ( around 7 am) , so had to have one more round at the airport. Boy, don't they rip you off with the food prices there. After eating one of the costliest idly-vadas ( 90 Rs !! ) , I proceeded to board the aircraft. Flight was un-eventful and I reached Delhi at around 2 pm.

From there my friend had asked me take a cab to ISBT and then catch a bus to Karnal. The cab ride was quite interesting. First my driver had a pure female voice, which I found quite hilarious. Second , the car ( Maruti Omni) was so run down that it would shake violently at lower speeds !! After about an hour of intense tossing around , I managed to reach ISBT. Couple of Sardar's greeted me as soon as I stepped out of the cab, they wanted to whisk me away to their cab which was going to Chandigarh !! :) I politely declined their offer and went inside the bus terminal.

Scandalous is the only way to describe ISBT. Rarely have I seen a more filthy and run down place in my life !! According to my friend (who is the same as the on-shore consultant and new driver described earlier :) ) , buses depart from there to Karnal every 5 minutes. Well, I stood there for 40 minutes waiting for another friend to arrive and I saw only one bus depart from there. Little was I to know that this was just one in the long series of mis-informations we would be fed over the next couple of days .........

Finally we managed to scramble into a bus. Seating was pretty cramped, though not as cramped as you would find in a flight !! Bus driver drove fast and we reached Karnal by around 7 pm in night. Roads were very wide and in excellent condition for most parts. We were picked up from the bus stop and deposited in her house by her brother. The bride-to-be was bubbling with enthusiasm and showed no signs of nervousness. Please note this point, I will come back to refer this in a later blog :).

Unfortunately that is all I have time for today, will continue tomorrow ....

Dilbert

Here is another one that I like. Source :http://dilbert.com/fast/2008-11-01/

More cooking tips

It is advisable not to rub your eyes after chopping green chillies :-)

Now why was I chopping them ? Nope, not for an omlette. Turned out yesterday that I had incorrectly assumed I had some eggs in my fridge. All I had was a cracked one, which looked suspiciously  empty, almost as if a chick had hatched and escaped Quick survey of my fridge and house did not reveal the chick though :)

As usual I am digressing from the matter in hand of green chillies. I like to add finely chopped green chillies to Dal, gives it a bit of punch. I have no clue if this is a standard practice or not :). Will be trying Rice-dal-pappad-pickle combo for  a couple of days now.

Had a topsy turvy night yesterday because my inhaler got over and I got some mild wheezing. By the time I noticed, medical stores had downed shutters. So had to spend the night with mild poly phonic sounds while breathing :). I was ironing my shirt in the morning  when I noticed my spare inhaler right behind the pile of un-ironed clothes. Guess there is more than one benefit in keeping things neat and tidy at home :-))

I am off to Karnal, Haryana in couple of days to attend a close friend's wedding. Never been to the north apart from a visa interview couple of years back in Delhi. I guess my hindi skills ( or lack of it ) will be severely tested. As long as they don't mistake my hindi for abuse, I guess I should be fine ...

Stay tuned to see if I survive :-))

Christmas gift

The ideal Christmas  gift for me, the picture says it all :-)

Friendship ...

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend - Albert Camus

But what if the friend tells you I do not trust you to even walk near you , let alone beside you ?

Today I have realized that one such friendship has reached the point of no return. IMO A friendship which completely erodes your self-worth is not worth pursuing.

So here is wishing good luck to the un-named friend. Maybe our paths will cross in the future. Will I will look the other way if that happens ? Today I might say yes, who knows what tomorrow holds in store ...

Catch them young

First start with the un-borns. Eat them whichever way you want. They are un-borns, they can't speak. Then graduate slowly to parents, kill them one by one. Use your experience in cooking the un-borns to good use here.

I am just talking about cooking Egg and Chicken, what were you thinking ? :-)

My attempts at chicken curry are still continuing. Unable to get small quantities of chicken. I tried buying the Real Good chicken, somehow the stores are stocking only the 1 kg ones now, they used to have a boneless 300 gms version earlier.

What makes you happy ?

Albert Schweitzer says : 'Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory'

Then there is this line from the song Affirmation by Savage Garden :'I believe that forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness'.

Which one of the above two would you pick ? :)

I prefer the first quote. Partly because I have had pretty bad health problems growing up and partly because I have experienced that way too much hurt and pain is suffered because you cannot let go or forgive someone. I'm not implying I am going to be more forgiving ;-), just an observation.

Speaking of happiness, what are some of the small things that really make you happy ? Ever tried putting together a list ? Here are some that come to my mind

• Chatting with friends and family,face to face or over phone
• Reading a nice book
• Hearing a nice joke or cracking a nice one. I can be quite a pain with jokes once I am in the mood :)
• Playing with my daughter, especially tickling her and listening to her burst out in peals of laughter.
• Seeing the sun shine on wet greenery immediately after a rain
• Eating good food with good friends . Actually good friends is the important part, food can be average too :)
• A call from any one of my past students
• Watching a good sports match on TV , preferably football, pool or F1. Not too crazy about cricket these days
• Experimenting with cooking and actually coming out with something that is edible :)

I guess there could be lots more , refer my favorite happiness quote above to understand why I cant remember those :-))

Indian wedding cost

I was reading some articles on the net when I stumbled across this. "Average cost of Indian wedding is as high as $34,000"[Link].In today's exchange rates, that is almost 17 lakhs !!You know, you can buy a Honda Civic and a top end Suzuki Swift in the same amount of money .

Now why is this a tough choice to make ? :)

Driving ..

Driving on Bangalore roads is at times a dangerous thing to do. What if you are in a car with someone who is just learning to drive ? Well, need I say more ? :-)

I had promised one of my closest friends that I would let her drive my car. The wonders of the Indian driving system has ensured that she already has a valid 4 wheeler driving license, without ever having driven one :)

She was very confident. Perhaps a touch misplaced confidence  ........

It was a thrilling experience to say the least !! The kind of thrill you face when you jump out of the plane and your parachute fails. Or the kind you get when you realize the oncoming headlight which you thought belonged to a bike is really that of a tanker lorry with one light non-functional:-)

After 30 minutes of intense near misses, missed braking points for humps, stalls in mid road and abuses hurled at us by a truck driver , we were done. My cardio-vascular system was responding as if I had just finished running a marathon ( Not that I can run even 42 meters, but a nice comparison to put nonetheless )

Looking back at the half hour from the comfort of my bedroom, I have to admit that it was not all that bad ;-). Just the common mistakes all of us make when we start. I am the co-passenger described below, cop for short, pun intended ;)

• Stalling in first gear while starting, and again and again and again . cop begins to get a touch nervous.
• Popping the clutch too fast after shifting to second gear, resulting in a violent lurch forward. cop gets the impression that he is sitting on a horseback rather than in a modern car
• Not braking for the hump / taking it in the wrong gear, resulting the cop nearly hitting the roof due to the choppy helicopter like vertical lift
• Swerving suddenly to right to avoid vehicles on left rather than slowing down or even stopping causing a near heart fail condition for the cop
• Forgetting to apply full clutch while stopping in gear resulting in stall. Only minor blood pressure increase for cop on this one
• Inability to start the car without going backwards or stalling while on an up-slope. The last one resulting the famous maneuver of cop actually getting out of the passenger seat and into the drivers seat after traffic pile-ups in all directions

Did she really do all of the above or am I just listing the stuff that I did while learning ?? ;-))

Scientifically it has been proven that victims of severe trauma often have a distorted idea of what really happened. I take refuge in that study just in case the above list offends anyone :-). Also as a writer, I am allowed to take a few creative liberties.

Incredibly, I am ready for more . I guess it gives me topics to write about in my blog :-))

Defection of the taste buds

What if my cooking has been such a brutal assault on my taste-buds that they are finally beginning to die ? What if they have given up the ghost, surrendered, sold out to other less 'talented' cooks ?

God knows, my taste-buds are so happy and over the moon when I eat out. I mean it could be any Tom, Dick and Harry place and not a squeak from them, they like it all. The moment I start my cooking the protests start. "Too much chillly", "Too little salt" , "Its ok, but it lacks something" , "not quite there yet" , "if you say that is a curry, then I'll believe it". I don't believe these guys !! To think we were all part of the body called Pradeep, and now they are shameless defectors. Shame on you taste-buds, shame on you !!

Well they say Genius is rarely appreciated in his lifetime. Add one more name to that list .....

Cooking tip

Came back from office today at 11 pm and made appams. Ate them with the egg curry that I made yesterday. Now if you are wondering where the cooking tip is , here it comes

Turn off the gas burner once you are done making appams .

Rather disastrously, the humble one forgot to do this. Happily I settled in front of my TV with my late dinner. 20 minutes later I strolled back into my kitchen only to be greeted by this incredibly strong aroma of red hot metal. Quick glance at the gas confirmed my worst fear. Thankfully my non stick tawa is not damaged .

This happened nearly an hour back, still there is a strong smell in my kitchen :-)

Happy birthday to me !!

And several years back a 4.5 kg baby was born, and the world was never the same again !!

I used to look like this when I was very small. The abnormally big head is surely an indication of superior intellect :)

I guess I will sing myself a birthday song tomorrow, cut an imaginary cake and head off to work. Yet to decide what the birthday special dinner should be. It is just me who will eat it, so should not be a tough choice to make ....

Happy birthday to me , happy birthday to me !!

Random Thoughts

I suppose all of us have had moments in our life when we thought what the whole point of our existence was . What is your calling in life ? Is it to work in a certain company ? Is it to help people ? Is it teaching ? Writing ? I will turn 32 shortly and I still have not figured out what exactly I want to do.

Occasionally comes the moments of despair when everything seems hopeless, followed by moments of peace and harmony when the world seems a perfect place to live in. Is it just me, or is rest of the world also like this ?

One thing you always hear people say is Life is all about choices. Can you really tell which of those choices were really made by you, with no other incidents/persons influencing you ? None, I bet. So does that really mean that I have been just a pawn ever since my birth, with everything programmed to happen in a certain way ? I would like to think otherwise. I am getting into The Matrix territory here :-) , which happens to be a movie that I absolutely hate.

I can tell you one thing life that is absolutely precious. Taking a walk with your 4 year old daughter and just listening to her shooting questions and comments at you non-stop. The world through the eyes of a 4 year old is so refreshing. I know it sounds very cliched , but it is surprisingly true !!