Some people say the passage of time is a relative thing. At times it slows down so much that the very seconds seem like hours, at times weeks flash by in the blink of an eye and you go "whoa dude...where did the time go?"

The last 3 weeks ... they zipped by in blur.

Three weeks ago, I attended my colleague, Prasendjit's wedding. His was a Hindu traditional wedding in every sense of the word, and in the fashion of the most traditional of traditional weddings, this one was arranged. Which meant before now, neither groom nor bride had seen hide or hair of the person whom he/she was to live with for the rest of his/her life. Ahh...and they say life is like box of chocolates.

Prasendjit was quivering alittle when I greeted him with the rest of the TCS invitees outside a three storey Ceremonial house specially rented for this occasion.
Poor sod. Yeah, I wouldn't trust my mother to pick my nose...much less my bride.

I had a sudden mental picture of Prasendjit completing the ceremony by unveiling his new bride to reveal Jack Neo staring back at him. (or worse, the slovenly shaven guy in Jack Neo's comedy shows, you know the one who picks his nose with his pinkie?) At least this time I didn't have to resort to the Orange Bag Technique. Yeah yeah, I know...I can be a bit of a bastard sometimes.

Unlike so very often in real life, this story actually has a happy ending. To Prasendjit's visible relief, unlike my mother, his mother has excellent taste. The blushing bride was Indian princess barbie and Indian Ken rode off with her into the starlit night.

They wish...

What actually went on was the traditional greeting of the elders on the second floor. Since this is India, the number of elders and assorted relatives one had to greet was well nigh intolerable. Anyhoo...to cut a long story short, we adjourned...finally downstairs to take dinner.

Dinner was excellent. Normally, Indian meals were almost always too salty by half and too spicy by far.
This time though, half the meal was dessert. Death by sugar comes closer to describing the last half of the wedding dinner. At one point I had to grit my teeth to swallow a pancake like item which was dripping in some syrup.

The last item of the night was some kind of leaf folded neatly into a triangular shape. There was something suspiciously insecty about the whole affair. Previous contact with the Indian culinary arts gifts you with a highly sharpened sense of paranoia, coupled with a natural tendency towards pessimism, you must forgive me if I was looking rather slightly askance at this rather innocuous item.
(Having half the room giggling at me in amusement, like I was about to be the butt of an enormous practical joke didn't help either)

I'd half expected something to crawl out of the leaf.

Not wishing to offend my guests I took the leaf. Crunchy...but I didn't want to think about that. It wasn't too bad. After having managed to convince myself there wasn't anything remotely resembling a bug within the leaf, the net result of a few minutes of vigorous mastication was a taste akin to swallowing half a tube of colgate. Wierd....but good. (I happen to like the taste of colgate)

Outside, the rain was starting to fall...again. The gentle pitter-patter of rain-drops hitting the roof coupled with a nice stiff breeze brought this monsoon wedding to a rather satisfactory conclusion. It was quite romantic really, if only I didn't have to share a cab with 5 men who had rather Indian ideas about what was acceptable for physical contact between men. ( I will elaborate further in a future post so stay tuned)