One more wicket down!

So finally the shaadi that all of us, cousins, were so excited about, which we made our Di from US stay back for [much against our Jiju's wishes ;) ]- Devla weds Amritesh "sampann hui" (Had to write this in Hindi for the desired effect).One more wicket down!

All the excitement which the very first day of Feb had heralded with it, reached its peak, when I boarded the train for Chennai on 7th,so full of enthusiasm, that my heart already was flying to the destination of all the ceremonies,much before the train-flight-flight journey could carry me there physically.A good night-out in Chennai on the 7th notwithstanding, I felt very fresh, when I saw my cousin Abhra at the Calcutta airport in the wee hours of 8th, while we together covered the last lap of our journey from Cal to Patna. How amazing it was to see the entire "kutumb" especially all the cousins together, someone busy with her Mehndi, someone chatting away to glory, others trying to remember a befitting "Mehndi" song- Ah! I felt I am back to "humanity" and "society". The next 48 hours (almost exact) were a blast, needless to say. I had all the "shaadi ka fun", what with all the dressing up, singing, dancing(The Major draw for me was the Sangeet Ceremony, especially as I finally fulfilled one of my long pending wishes to wear an Anarkali Suit and look tolerably presentable in it),ceremonies' knowledge induction(I am still very ignorant about all of them) and meeting Jijaji.

But amidst all the fun and frolic, I couldnt help but feel a sense of being a misfit,and the realisation was very unsettling. How much can I ever accept all the traditions involved, without genuinely being surprised at how dated,impractical and patriarchal they are.And of course, the entire gamut of all the ceremonies and celebrations that look very inviting and enjoyable,but involve so much of thankless event management by the bride's family, especially parents, not to forget the vulgar amount of money that gets spent in the process (and I cannot for the life of me understand or rather accept why it has to be borne by the bride/her family only, when it is both the sides that are party to the institution of marriage). As I kept "tea-coffee"ing my halucinated and completely sleep induced mind to remain awake through my 20 hour journey back to my solitary base, these thoughts kept coming back to me to jolt me into what now scarily looks to be quite an interesting and rocky future for me :P

B'Day 09

My Birthday 2009 was a mix of one of the most horrendous and difficult 24hours and as far as I can remember one of the few days where I have been made to feel so special.
However, for both, and f0r the completely unexpected but very touching and sweet gestures of all the people,directly and indirectly responsible, this birthday will always go down as a very special one.