Friday, October 19, 2007

Punjabi Wedding (WOWWWW...)

These are the events that happened during my visit to Kapurtala (Punjab) for the wedding of my Friend.

Day 0

The day before we left to Punjab from Bangalore.

At my friends place 5 of us including the groom planned for a bachelor party. Bought a bottle of Champaign and at around 11 in the night we made the groom pop it open and showered it over him, yoooo the last of booze over his head before someone new is goona give an angry look at him before doing the same thing again J . Well it tasted more like yeast water though but we all enjoyed it, then we were off to bed coz had to catch the flight to Delhi next day early morning.


Day 1


The Travel

All up by 4.30 in the morning and ready to leave for the big days, we had booked 2 taxi to go to the airport, we had told the taxi to arrive at 5.30 coz flight report time was 6.30, as usual 5.30 passed 5.45 passed we make a call and get the response as they are on the way, close to 6 one taxi arrives, we put all our luggage and our self into one and go to the airport, walla we are at airport in time. We check in our luggage and stand in a queue almost a Km long for the security check, make it to the departure lounge and waiting for the flight to arrive, “Tink Tong” flight delay half hour due to bad weather at bangalore.. ok lets wait and have a tea and pick up a bottle of water, we go to the tea shop pick up 4 teas and a small bottle of water, boom Rs.140 gone (ridiculous), anyways flight arrive we are on board, off we go HELLOOOO Delhi.. We arrive, another Friend arrives at Delhi too from Chennai to join us for the wedding, all arrive at almost same time, pick up our luggage and off to the pre pain taxi counter (Need to take Taxi to New Delhi Station for catching the Train to Punjab), 2 taxis 16 Km away boooomm Rs.420… let goooo, we reach station at 12.45 around well train is at 2pm, cool 1Hr15m wait no problemo lets catch on some yummy Delhi lunch, well that’s what we had in mind, went to railway canteen pick up dosa and cutlet, well lost all respect for the fooood, didn’t know whether to swallow or spit it out, another boom Rs.162 there it goes, since it was so cheap we didn’t wanna waste it so we all swallowed it.. Then we move to the platform we are suppose to catch the train, grooms relatives had also arrived who were catching another train to same place though, now they pop open some food items they got for lunch, “Now you Talking” the stuffs they brought out was FOOOODDD, really awesome samosas poories pickles etc etc, we hogged like mad pigs that was fun… well after that, relatives train arrive 15 to 20 min late and they leave and we start our long wait for the train.. 2pm passes, 3pm passes still waiting not a place to sit.. 4pm passes still waiting, now having a doubt if the train will arrive or notttt.. anyways train arrive around 4.20 and we are innnnn, yeeee off to punjabbbbb… ate all the crap that came through vendors that was fun too.. we arrive at Punjab around 10.15 in the night.. bride’s relatives waiting to receive us at the station (Jalandar City), we get into cabs and off we go to the accommodation place booked for the groom, it was a pretty nice place adjacent to a temple, called it Darmshala, well we arrive there and we see grooms Brother in Law feasting on a can of beer, oooohhh mamaaa party beginsss, we order for some more beer and before entering the place itself we begin the party, anyways didn’t have much energy to go on and on so just had a couple of sips and we go in, Dinner is served, well all are hungry and the food was AWESOME, roti dal panner something dahi jeera rice, letsss HOGGGGG, again hogged to the brim and off to the rooms, settle down for a while and we hear singing… hmmm lets go check it out, and there grooms relatives filled in a romm with many women getting their hand filled with mehndi and others hitting the dhol and singing away to glory, could make out they were teasing the bride and groom;… whatever, enjoyed it for a while and offff we went to sleeeep at around 1am. Good night…



Day 2

Shagan Day

All up by 8am around, well something I liked about the marriage, we didn’t have to get up too early for anything, all functions were late unlike the south Indian marriagesss, anyways finished up the morning routines and ready to get some calories into the body, yeee breakfast timeeee, well breakfast was Aloo Parata and meti Parata dahi and pickle, aloo parata was served with a large cube of butterrr, welll welll now that’s what I call taste, it tasted like heaven.. went on and on close to 4 paratas, one of my friend got high of the butter and went to bed and was lying down and singing songs, have seen him go on with barrels of booze but not seen him as high as that, that’s breakfast, then ready for the function scheduled at 12noon, ok all ready, groom dressed in shewani, looked really cool, and off we went to a hall booked for the function, we arrive and function begins, some exchange of gifts between the bride and groom relatives happen. Mean while booze is being served on one of the table, yooo here we come tableeee, and had some drinks and ready for some lunch, had a light lunch coz you see butter and parata takes time to digesttt heee heee, ok before that the bride arrives too, snap session in progress during lunch, ok after that time to lose some calories, how?? Well Mr. DJ play on some tracks to move our ass, yes dance time, all get on the dance floor and off all jumping in bahgra rap style, lot of fun lot of calories lost, party over and off we are back in dharmshala, well well what do we have there, lots of horses dresses up and people dressed up in costumes of RAMA SITA and all the characters of RAMAYAN, it was a function happening in the temple, and it was colorful and awesome, it was like a Parade of events from ramayan, between we had some chakkas doing a ball of dance and also some typical bangra dancers, was fun, ok all went by and we are back in the dharmshala, at around 11 pm there comes a group of people dancing into the place with a woman carrying some kind of pot on her head, they call the function as “JAGAO” (Wake Up), all of us jump into the group of dancers and dance dance, then sisters of the groom picks up the pot and keeps it on their head for a while, says it good luck or something like that.. after which the group leaves and singing in the hall begins just like the previous night but last for just sometime then wrapped up, now we take the dhol into out captivity yuuu huuuu time to wake some neighbourss, all of us get to the room and sing away to glory loud and louderrr, we sing all type of song from rock to devotional, we end the singing party at around 2.30 am and guess which song we end with… WE will WE will Rock you and guess what was the instrument we used for the music, the door to the room, and I’m sure even Bakasura would have woken up from sleep with the noise, great fun and back to bed, good night…

Day 3

Sehra Bandi Day

Every one up by 10am.. ya I know 10am what a sleep after a rough throat breaking night, and back to breakfast time, same stuff as previous day, Parata and butter and curd, yum, hogged well and the first function of the day starts.. its putting haldi on the groom, ohhh yaaa all his relatives starts to put haldi on his face legs etc for a while and then gives charge to us, ATTACKKKKK we all get in, take the haldi and rub rub rub kardi re hum rub rubb all over him making him look like the villain in SIN CITY the yellow guy him hee hee, was fun, but unfortunately after the function I had to wash him out too clean, well it was like playing holi where the victim was just 1 this time, had fun, ok then after that function we are ready for lunch, lunch was arranged at the bride’s place so we walked up to her place and had lunch then off we all friends went for a walk looking for LAZZI looked all over and since it was a SUNDAY we got non, though since we walked through a market place so we picked up couple of dresses and stuff and back to dharmshala. All there getting their clothes ironed so we got ours ironed too, and off we went to get dressed, all ready, some wearing jeans and shirt some with blazers etc, and best part was every one got a shall red in color looks like a dupatta to put it around our neck, indicating we belong to the groommm side, great idea… All ready and set, groom is in the temple getting himself poojaed by his relatives, they tie a turban on his head then put a plate like thing on his head with gods embossed on them, and put on some garlands made of currency, hmmmm interesting… a horse arrives fully decorated and ready to rock, dhol people arrive too along with a band, ooohh aaahhh LET THE MUSIC PLAY and it begins, groom climbs on the horse along with his nephew and the music beginsss all starts to dance, we all join in and dance away to glory totally having great fun all the way till we reach the marriage hall, once reached we dance some more.. Now begins the fun part, the bride people come over to take the groom in and we don’t let him get off the horse, all relatives of the bride comes in and convinces us and finally pulls him down from the horse, at the entrance door of the hall a ribbon is tied and groom must pay off to get the scissors to cut himself into the hall, well we knew this will happen so we had a backup scissor with us using which we cut the ribbon, they formed a wall not letting us in, we friends puched everyone in and tried to get in and they started to spay canned form all over us everywhere, it falls on grooms eye and he gets wild doom daaam baam all pissed off and bride’s relative cools everything down and welcomes him into the hall, we go make him sit on the chair and wait for the bride to arrive, there she comes all dressed up carrying more than twice her weight stuffs on her, and come to the groom where he greets her holding her hand and make her sit next to him. Not over yet, garland session on, when they exchange garland we suppose to lift the groom not letting her put the garland and her brother and others must help her put it, well they succeeded, anyways it was turn of the groom to garland the bride now and before anybody could wink their eye he had it on her, way to gooo dudeeeeee, all said and done photo session starts and we are off to the dinner table, we have our dinner and wait wait wait at around 12 in the night all are off to the bride’s house, that’s where the “Phera” they call it happens where actual marriage ceremony happens, rounding around the fire and stuff, that’s over by 4am in the morning, 2 of my friends were so tired they went back to sleep, 3 of us waited to watch what happens next, ok time to say good bye by the bride to the family, buuuu huuuu huuu all crying and crying and out of the house and into the car, zoooooom off to the dharmashala again, where grooms mom invites them and does some pooja for them and they are off for the night, we get back to the room and we are off too its almost 5am and next day we have out train at 9, we set us the drop to station with a relative of the groom and went to sleep, good night…


Day 4

Bye Bye Punjab

Woke up and all ready packed and set to leave, cab as told comes in for station drop at 7 and we are off to the station.. 5 of us and going to Delhi back, we have 2.5 days in hand more for Delhi Agra Visit, that will be my next post.

Had a GREAT time at Wedding and it was AMAZING MEMORABLE EVENTS that I will cherish for life