A Wedding...

I had been to my cousin's wedding today, attending one after 2.5yrs. I simply loved the amount of people, chaos of volunteers and chirping of kids. It was an exci-exhausting experience.

I personally feel that marriages are not made in heaven by god, but he made them for video shooting. Right from the groom's entry till the crying ceremony of the bride, camera follows you everywhere. The bride and the bride groom is the star cast of the wedding movie. It's like a mini Big Brother(UK/US) Big Boss(India). A million people are in a queue waiting to greet and wish the couple. It's the only place I've seen where people follow a queue system in India. The couple, later on, suffers from facial muscle tears due to continuous smiling for 2 days at a stretch. The groom seems to be preparing for a fashion show changing attires at intervals while the rituals performed by the priests are expressionless, extremely similar to the stubborn government employees we see these days.

There's ample of scope for singles to meet their opposites at weddings. This time, after attending a few marriages, I could see some nice girls on the bride's side. Going for a family wedding and not seeing any good girls around is like heavy rain on a sunny tourist spot. It's more heartbreaking than an actual break-up. But apart from that, approaching those nice girls is a tremendous skill in itself.

The worst part of a wedding I experienced is meeting relatives, you meet extremely long distant, martial, relatives who tend to ask each and every detail of you, sometimes extending to your height, weight and marital status. Me going back home after a couple of years and meeting so many people had made me actually think of having my professional and personal details tattooed on my forehead. Apart from that, it was a long feet-touching exercise.

Along with the main rituals there's an add-on for the young generation to perform. It's the shoe stealing ritual. This time instead of the bride's side stealing the shoes there was a deal. They asked us to steal them and share the amount in half. Everything worked according to the deal apart from the money. Thanks to my younger brother who believed in the other side and handed over the shoes without taking hold of the money. This reliance emerged as to put an impression on the young girls in the opposite team.

One noticeable thing: the crowd increases as the lunch hour nears and vice-versa. I've seen hundreds of families stranded at the dining area during the peak lunch hour and a very handful of them for the actual wedding rituals. In some weddings I've seen people standing behind the diner, sometimes in a queue.

In all this mess the most tensed person was the girl's father, making sure everything was working fine and the aunties around were making sure to point out the flaws and corrections in the wedding preparations. A few old uncles were asking me to sit beside to consult them the scope of education abroad. The old aunties on the other hand were confirming if I had any white girlfriend. The younger cousins on the other hand thought being abroad meant to have a Porche with ease. Though many of my distant relatives are or have been abroad, I am the only one abroad in our close ones and I sometimes feel I'd have been grounded if I wasn't there.

Late in the evening, the food wasn't yet started to digest and the crying ceremony started. I was full of gasses and the girl's side with tears. The flowered car was resting at the door, waiting for the couple to arrive. Everything seemed fine until the girl was about to open the door and she exploded with tears, landing on her mother's shoulder. Dads usually don't tend to cry and even if they do they hide it. Sometimes they fake it rolling a hanky over their eyes. I suppose that's just for socialising. I did make a sad face to look amongst the crowd but that wasn't for the girl, it was for the explosive material gathering inside my stomach. Finally it was over, the car moved and me too.

In the loo, I thought of the entire day, got relaxed, and emptied my mind. It's the only place where you get the most innovating thoughts and relaxed feelings. I got the idea to write this blog there and I did.