So we arrive at the finale to this wonderful journey after my journey to Ludhiana and the Ring Ceremony afterwards.
Act 3: The Wedding
The morning of the wedding was arguably a lazy one. The frivolities of the previous evening had taken a toll and the weather did not help matters. It was breakfast hour at the hotel where we were staying and missing it would mean stepping out of the hotel and commencing the hunt for chow.
The hotel restaurant was just outside our room and judging by the empty look of the place at 10 am, either we were the last to arrive for breakfast or the first to do so. Past experience told us that it was the former.
The food was again of the highest quality as I feasted on some of the best Poori Chhole I have ever had. After a filling breakfast we returned to the noble act of lazing till around 1 pm when the bride called us for a chat. We hadn’t had a chance to talk to her since our action packed 1st day.
Life is full of surprises and we were privy to one the moment we went to meet the bride.
Bride: Good that you are ready. Go have breakfast. It’s set up in the hall here.
Me: Breakfast? At 1 pm?
Bangalore Friend: Breakfast? We already had breakfast
Bride: WHAAAT! Breakfast is starting now. Where did you guys eat? Outside?
Bangalore Friend: No. Inside the hotel only. At the restaurant.
Only when the bride reacted that way we realised that we had feasted on a breakfast not intended for us at all.
Bride: I don’t know what you guys did. But you go have breakfast now.
We graciously turned down the offer. That’s what gentlemen do. Plus, lunch was surely around the corner and there was no way we would fill ourselves with more sandwiches and Poori Chhole when the alternative was Naan and Paneer.
Post 3 hours of a lot of catching up, it was lunchtime in Ludhiana. We successfully located the right lunch hall and it was again empty. This time we were sure that we weren’t the last ones. This notion came to us after years of practice and reading the environment.
Plus the subtle hint given by the buffet-in-charge who bellowed ‘Lunch buffet is now open’
We were told that we would have to be at the wedding hall by 7 pm and a cab would be there to drive us there. (Screw you Google Maps)
A heavy breakfast followed by an even heavier breakfast inevitably leads to a well deserved nap.
Eventually, Zero Hour arrived. Now I had a dilemma on what I would wear for the wedding. I had bought a kurta for this occasion and the aptly named Nehru jacket along with it. I had totally not anticipated the harshness of the weather. Turns out that the Nehru jacket lived up to the reputation of the person it was named after, by looking good on the outside but serving no practical purpose in that situation.
My Bangalore friend was well prepared. Blazer, sweater and jeans. By the time he was ready, he was more likely to pass for a student in Dehradun and Ooty boarding schools. My Hyderabad friend was one step ahead than the both of us. He had armed himself with sporting thermals on the inside and he wore his kurta like a boss. So in decreasing order of how screwed we were to be in terms of coping with the weather,
Me (LOLZ…Tu gaya re) > Bangalore Friend (Hmmm….Just Pass) > Hyderabad Friend (Jahanpanah..Tussi great ho!!)
Air Force dude had managed to get himself a free pass from his base to attend the wedding and he said he would meet us there.
Our cab arrived and we were driven a good 10-12 kms away from our hotel. So walking to the venue was clearly not an option like before:-P
As we approached the venue, I noticed plenty of lights in the sky. I mean literally Bat Signal-esque. At first, the comedian (or traces of it) in me speculated that they could be landing guidance lights for my Air Force friend, who maybe to impress the chicitas, land up at the venue in a Mig 21 or a helicopter. You never know. This is India.
Turns out that the lights were indeed part of the wedding spectacle and we arrived at the venue. What I saw really caught me out of breath. It was a wedding setting like no other. Agreed, the entrance looked a lot like what I would see in an Indiana Jones movie or from the Mummy franchise.
A Dramatic Entrance quite literally
There was a stage for the couple to sit, a havan and also a dance floor (duh! Punjab bro). What captivated me more was the building behind all this which served as the dinner area.
Imagine if I told you this place could be a dinner area than a national monument
This was exactly what it was.
The temperature there was easily below 10 deg celsius. So we had to use some James Bond level skills to find a table in the vicinity of portable room heaters which were spread across the verandah. With the dexterity of a person who reserves a seat on a town bus with the time-tested handkerchief mechanism, we found ourselves a table next to a heater.
The food needless to say was lavish. The non-veg eating contingent in my group was a tad disappointed as there were to be no non-veg dishes on the menu on the wedding day. When I say tad, I really mean,
Soon it was time for the baraat. So this is the part where the groom arrives to the wedding and is usually accompanied by a lot lot lot lot lot and a whole lot more of dancing. The groom, post his dancing, joined the bride on the stage and a photo shoot was on the cards, something on the lines of reception ceremonies down here in the south.
In the midst of all these events, we even managed to ask too many questions to an extremely irritated drone cameraman who looked like he was on the verge of flying that drone right into our faces the next time we asked too many questions.
Food done. Baraat done. Dancing time. It was an outdoor version of the Ring Ceremony dance night. Only this time, I found out the DJ’s name. <drum roll> His name was DJ Nite Rockers. I leave it at that.
There was more note throwing and collection of the same. There were more of the cryptic Punjabi songs I heard the previous day. This went on till about 12 am after which I began to wonder when exactly does the wedding take place because so far whatever I witnessed was one humongous party. So when exactly does the 7 rounds around the fire and related activities take place?
So my Hyderabad friend who is originally from Bhopal explained that weddings typically take place around 3 am to 4 am. Needless to say that was a surprise. What was more concerning was the weather. The temperature dropped from bat shit cold to holy crap a snowstorm levels in no time.
Finally at around 3 am is when the business end of the wedding took place. Needless to say it was very very cold and there were roughly 30 people around the bride and groom all wrapped up in thick blankets and room heaters running on full blast. 2 days of non stop celebrations finally led to this!
If you ever do get a chance to attend a Punjabi wedding, take it with both hands. It is truly an experience!
CechAndMate 