the day that was....

today at last i have decided to sit and pen down things i wuld like to remember about my wedding!!! high time too, actually not, it's been just 14 days, 2 weeks to be precise!!! hmm.. i must remind R, i just might me able to get a 2 week anniversary present!! do u think that will work? i very much doubt it, lol ;)

*date:19 n 20 april, 2007
*place: bangalore
*was on the auspicious akshaya tritiya day. so mayb that will help eh?gud stars and all...
*the day arrived after 6 months of frenzy anticipation, tension, nerves, planning,work, and of course shopping till the last minute!!!i never thought that shopping could get to me!
*19th was pretty much fun in the morning, apart from an extremely nervous bride,from not finding my exact matching jewellry to fighting with my to be husband in a few hours!! so ok, it was not the most auspicious start.... then we had the good lunch with my fav bele holige, so that kinda made up for the weird morning!!
*things got bad with the rains in the evening, just in time for the arrival of the groom n family. i was not in the chatra so din't see all the drama unfold, but we had it all, people getting wet, stuck in the notorious b'lore traffic, the heavy rain, tree falling right in front of the chatra. i came back after resting the afternoon at a friends', to all this chaos. i was like, what the ....!!! but luckily all things went on better later in the evening and everyone settled down.
*oh i forgot, the funniest were the poojaries. the assistant who came in the mornin, he had such a monotonous tone, my sis n i kept having giggling bouts and got really dirty looks from my BIL!!
the best was the guy who came for the varapooje(the main, head poojari). well, he was really hilarious!!! he was like a spittle fountain. he was giving me this really nice, or rather a very interesting n informative lecture on all the ceremonies and their significance but made it humanly impossible for me to concentrate for long, cos man the rain was now inside.only, it wasn't harvestable rain water but rather loads of spittle!! he reminded me of Satish Shah in Main Hoon Na!!,ok, so he was oldish n wore dentures,but it was still quite miserable.i was sure i would have spittle stains on my silk sarees, cos they really did travel the distance!! :)anyway, will never forget this guy!!
*20th The D-day had arrived. i would like to remember myself as the demurely dressed bride. i think this was the most traditionally dressed me, ever!! with all appendages, false jadde, wrapped in mallige and kanakamra hua, a long bindi, mati on my head, bangles, i even wore anklets!!actually it was nice, that yellow-gold saree, the colour which made the silk look so rich(i believe people told my MIL, that my saree was too simple, and that i should have worn something much grander, ugghh...i don't even want to think of it:)).it was fun!!
*then the jeerge-bella ritual during anthrapata, i won hands down, so guess who is the boss in the marriage??? R will never agree that i won.... but really, who cares rite? ;) i do i do!!!!
*then was the dhare time. i had such mixed feelings. nobody cried in the family, except my sister had tears in her eyes(understandable,she was doing the kanya daana) n this real sweetheart,emotional cousin of mine!! but i guess i felt a twinge when i saw my sis n mom.
* the saptapadi, which is essentially the 7 vows of 'to love n cherish', kinda zipped by!! i only remember R trying to desperately twist the toe rings into place, n me directing him to turn it this way n that. at the end the ghee did the trick!!
*i remember this funny thing, we r supposed to be the shy bride who doesn't take her husband's name, so all these oldies around kept coming n asking me, and i had to blush n softly n slowly say his name!! i was so fed up with the whole drill. so when this older couple came n asked me this for the nth time, i lost it and thought, well time for some fun!! so i looked at R n very seriously said, "hmm... i seem to have forgotten, what was it again?" well, u should have seen the look on their faces...but worse than that were the looks i got "what's wrong with her" kinda looks!! but my wicked double had fun!! so it was ok i guess ;)
*some of the other rituals we had were fun too, don't remember the entire chain of events. oh, the gowri puja in the morning was ummm....what will be the word i would use i wonder? how abt if we say interesting. this was the first time i was doing it, n had no clue how o. bless my MIL, she patiently taught me the entire thing. the exchange of the 'maraas' and the other stuff. the worst part was when everybody left me in the room to continue the puja and pushed off for the all important kashi yaatre. i was told by at least 5 people not to talk, but to sit like a gud child and do the puja. now people who know me will vouch n bet that i did not keep mumm but rather went on chatting. well....they wouldn't be very far from the truth. it was tough ok, not to talk for like 15 mins, and my friends were tottering in one by one. common, i wanted to be a gud hostess at my wedding ;). i hope this din't affect the sanctity of my prayers, since i was praying that R would b a gud husband, and more importantly(acc. to Mr. poojari) would be faithful to me!!! lol...
*All this done, i was starving.... i had supposedly not eaten anything from the morning(except the idlis and halwa my mom had smuggled in for me in the wee hours, before the gowri pooja ;)), so lunch was welcome. it was time for the elaborate "bhoomada oota".there is this one huge plate made of a no. of banana leaves made for the bride n groom, silver plates, glasses....well lets say we were pampered. but that's not all. this is pretty silly actually, all these people sit around u, make u feed eachother, big huge chaklies and laddoos!!i don't from whr they get such thrills....but ofcourse R n I played our part to the hilt!smiled, blushed n said noooo at the right moments, so in the end it was fun!!!!!
*reception time, almost 3 hrs of nonstop, smiling, pictures and posing for the camera!! but u know what, i realised something,how much ever we crib, it's worth it!! all these people, some u don't know, others u know from sometime and still others who are an integral part of your life, take the time to come n wish u...and when that sinks in, u realise that it was a moment to be cherished... it's not that tough to get your smile going!!!
*the colours, rich and resplendent, all silks, i mean i can surely say we see this only in a south indian wedding, thanks to all the kaanchivaram sarees that every single lady dons and the men not left far behind in their silk dhothis n shalyas, or kurta-pyjamas. well, it was really awsome!!

at this point, i can remember only these few things, but surely these would be some of the moments i want to remember for the rest of my life!!!
and of course, one thing that stood out right through the two days was this wish n need that my father could have been there.... that was always at the back of my mind. but i do know that he was there in my heart and from somewhere up there he was watching and i had his blessings!!!
Love you Papa, miss u loads n loads....