Movies & Weddings !

The last movie we watched in Bangalore was.. Oh My God.. MNIK !

Phew.. what a shame

:-D

But the most recent memories of a movie in theatre happens to be "In Ghost-house Inn"

How we landed up in the theatre is another interesting story. Let's start from the beginning...

The place is Gasper's house. The day is Labor Day. Also happens to be the eve of Gasper's wedding. Rat, Jim and Mridul creep into an almost deserted house. A typical Malabar wedding would have the house thronged with neighbors, relatives, strangers, friends, enemies and all categories of people. But this was one peaceful house, against all our expectations. Alright, there were 12 red color plastic chairs in front of the house (But then, they were piled up one on top of the other, making it slightly difficult for you to rest your bottom, unless you are quite good at rock climbing, cliff hanging and the likes...)

So it is late in the evening.. the sun had already bid tata bye bye.. there was slight drizzle - just the right amount to make the Bangalore expeditors feel like at home (as far as the weather goes).

All was well till we barged into the 'palace' at level 1. Seeing absolutely no soul at level1, we climbed up to level2. There was a small crowd (read 5 ppl) sitting around a table and engaged in small talk. Lucky were we to spot our hero, stealing himself into one room (perhaps he saw us coming? :-S ). We chased him down, and we got a comfortable seating in front of the TV. Some stupid cricket match was going on (was it the ever so stupid IPL?). Finding it odd to be looking like 'having come all the way from Bangalore to watch a cricket match being played in some other continent', we shifted base to the sit-out. We were succesful in dispositioning the elderly people already seated it. That gave us a seating option..

So far so good... And then....

An army of tiny toddlers, out of nowhere. The eldest of them, probably 6 yrs old. But absolutely 'flamboyant' and energetic gang. They got straight into action, when we played 'friendly bros' to them. Jim was beaten up the most. Mridul managed to save himself by keeping safe distance from all the 'riots'. Rat enjoyed Jim getting man-handled (even though Rat himself was getting his share of bash onto the head, when the 'protesters' got bored of Jim).

Juice came from inside. There was a small lull.. The army went inside.. And we got a breather.. Not for long ! They had perhaps gone to 'energize' themselves with a drink or two. The attack gained more strength and vigor. And there was no Gasper to save us from being massacred. Jim threw this (brilliant) idea to the fellow-sufferers. Why dont we go for a movie ? Not thinking for a second, we waved tata bye bye to the folks and carried us on our feet. Phew! We missed the dinner, but we saved ourselves !

The theatre is an odd one. It happens to be a theatre complex, and the only parking space available is the narrow road beside the KSRTC bus stand that leads to the complex. The smarter lots sacrifice the first 15 minutes of the movie and park at the extreme back. They are the ones who get to leave first. You can also read this as "Nobody goes home, unless that fellow gets out of his show!". Interesting !

We admired the fact that we came walking and not by car(As if we had our S-class getting dry-washed while parked in the hotel)

The movie was nice. Mridul and Jim had already watched the movie once in Bangalore (150 bucks per tkt.. eekz!). And here we are, for 150 bucks, we had our 3 tkts, interval-time popcorn, ice-cream and coffee for Jim :-)

For the record, the wedding next day was smooth (but a lil lengthy proceedings at the church). It was a nice gathering of our gang - most of 'em into the knot already.. We packed back by the evening train. A/C compartment , you see ;-)

Tail:

1. A few other good movies to watch - Loudspeaker, Neelathamara. Loudspeaker is a very homely movie.. And also boasts about "live" dubbing to the credit of our own Pookuti :)

2. Our Day2 breakfast was awesome at Kottayam. Some 'bhavan' near the place we stayed - Arya Bhavan ? I think so..

3. Not breaking the tradition, we got our 'special' gift carefully wrapped up for the couple. It was a mixed bag with Balarama, Balabhoomi, Balamangalam, Kalikkudukka all in one pack. Boy, they would have enjoyed a lot :-D

You Have Changed A Lot

You dont have time for us...

How is life treating you these days ?

These are just a few of the 'write-able' lines I get to hear these days.

But why all of a sudden ?

B'caz I'm married !

Its not the first time that a sub-30 average looking fella got married. But then, perhaps an engineer-doctor combination would have amused a few. Yesterday a fella caught me on gtalk.

He: You got married ?

I : Yes, I did.. I had sent a group invitation..

He: What is she doing ?

I : She is a doctor at ABC hospital

He: Doctor ? Isnt it difficult to manage...blahblah..

Whats the big fuss ? IPC has no section that makes it difficult to live with a doc (for her, with an engr)

All said and done, here is another very popular question:

So how is life after marriage ? (this qn is not always as decent as is typed here :D)

After having evaded witfully from the first 17 instances of this question, I gave it a thought.

So, how really is life after marriage ? What has changed ? Let me try to bullet some things down

=> A constant (consistent) pillion rider

=> Familiar lines narrated by a new voice - "Lunch?" , "Dinner?", "Walk?", "How ws the day?"..

=> No through-ventilation in the night - the door ought to be locked, by all means

=> Not avid shoppers, both of us (good for me and my pocket :P)

=> Lesser time at work-from-home in front of the lapie

=> Suggestions, advices, gyaan ! (I make sure I'm seldom at the receiving end :D)

=> Better dressing sense (from NIL to some sense!)

=> The one-point-stop for all the household engineering needs

(read, tightening the cooker screw, re-filling mineral water can and all such similar "extreme" engineering activities)

=> A few envious bachelor faces (the frown on their face tells - ivanum pennu kitto ? athum oru doctor pennu! )

=> And not to forget, FREE treatments! (medical, i meant :D)

Tail:

1. After outlining a hi-fi mega super duper honeymoon trip abroad, we finally managed to pay a visit to Ooty. (Which abroad country hosts Ooty in it? :-S )

2. If you thought stretching a few hours, seated in a cozy cushion chair in AC room is the toughest thing to do, then there are somethings to learn from docs. No sitting, no proper food-timings and lot of hopeful eyes on you... A bug in code is better by miles.

So go code bugs ;-))

I'm Wedding !

What a stupid title ?!

Forget the grammar, and watch this video:

All Lines In This Route....

Taking cue from Soo , I thought I'll touch upon another interesting aspect of weddings. To be specific, the "journey between engagement and wedding". Apologies, if that sounded like the punch line of a Suraj Barjatya movie :-S

New age weddings have this "forced" social drama, that typically starts post engagement - Phone calls ! You dont follow this 'ritual', and you will be tagged unexcited and disinterested in the whole proceedings...

I know a friend. He is more of an average human being till his marriage was fixed. Even a few days into the engagement, he was pretty much norma. That is when he got a call from his fiance in a low shy complaining tone "Why dont you call me?". The last I heard about this pair is that their calls end at 3AM in the night. I have no clue, what time it starts !

People who commute to office/home on foot are highly benefited. They have the so-called "privacy" while being on the phone. Of course, the unfamiliar passer-by who doesnt know the word "bluetooth" may wonder if this fellow has lost his senses talking all by himself..

Now, the most interesting question...
What do they talk for so long ?!!!!!

These are the typical topics:
How was the day ? What color do you like ? blah blah blah...

After initial days of blah blah, they run of topics, and this is what happens:
So.... ? What else... ? You say something....

The most commonly dragged-into subject for conversations would be friends. And the fun-aspects take the centre-stage. The speaker makes sure that he/she is depicted as the hero in the story and the rest of the crowd has that clown attire.

Then movies, news, cricket(?), preparations, invitations....

Phew! I envy the Mobile Companies.. They sure are reaping the harvest of the season.
Particularly if the pair talks across the state border....

Tail:
1. Did you know ? The call drops all by itself when the ticker hits 60mins !
(That was news to me :D )
2. Ever heard of a 27second call ? :-P
3. Think of a doc-engr pair. The parties will have a lot of "variety" topics to talk. The words, ASIC, router, backbone doesnt make any sense to the doc. The words pathology, duty hardly makes any sense to the engr :-S
4. How do friends react ? If you dont call him/her, they say "What an idiot you are". If your phone is busy, they say "Give some rest to that mobile". Friends....!!! sigh... :P

Of Wedding Bells & More...

The population of single's in the group is gradually diminishing. And the latest trend of this happening, is all but interesting. Of the 5 knots that happened in a little less than 2 years, all but 1 are "conveniently" arranged ones :-)

The shift in trend is evident. The literate high intellect Kerala crowd is finding it no difficult to embrace it and make no fuss about it. Or blame it on the high self-reliance of the marrying crowd which really gives the parents no choice at all ? But the ones that have happened do not fall in this category. That is a pleasant thing in itself.

The latest in the gang to get 'wedded' is our Ahuja Speaker fame KK :-) And such a lovely pair they make. Thanks to the wedding, got to catch up with a bulk of oldie friends under one roof. Also got a chance to barge into familiar territories and enjoy the hospitality and food alike :)

On the pretext of the wedding trip, we made a slight alternate plan and landed up in Vagamon! A small trio gang of Rat,Sow & Bin. It was nice to see a mini, lesser-commercialized tourist destination, at such a close vicinity. Hardly 70 odd km's from Kottayam town. And Thekkadi is just 76km from Vagamon. Had we got more days to spare, it would have been better !

Thanks to the shooting of the Jeyam Ravi starrer Tamil movie, with Arnold Schwarzenegger doing the villain's role, the decent resorts of the locality were booked out. And we had to spend the night in a luxurious 5-star , single-room, single-bed facility :P

A few pics of the trip:

Is that a screw ? A latch ? A question mark ??

Tea time, in a stylish traditional tea stall

Ota-kaalil thapas :)

And up comes the hero

Sow n Rat on Air !

Travelogue: MUA Kannur Day II

Saturday night ended with a splendid planning of going to Kadirur Sri Surya Narayana Kshetram (Temple) in the morning at 6. Well, you know what would have happened on Sunday morning. Yes, you guessed it right - Nothing happened :-)
No one even bothered to prove the myth "There is no 6AM in the day - particularly on a weekend" wrong!

Well, the marriage party starts from home by 9.30-10. Muhurat is from 11 to 12. And its a one-hr trip from the groom's house @ Pinarayi to Sadhu Kalyana Mandapam @ Kannur town. We opted to skip going to the groom's house, and hit the Wedding Hall directly. Having ensured that the kitchen is emptied to the fullest extent, we left the house by 10.20. Safe driver Gasper in the driving seat. So nobody expected to reach the venue, any time on that day. He is still in the Avenger 40kmph mode :D But thanks to minimal Sunday traffic, and thanks to my vast "knowledge of shortcuts", we reached the hall, just in time, when the groom and bride got up to the stage.


Guys with camera hav the exclusive privilege of watching the wedding proceedings at one-hand distance from the bride-groom :) I ws one of 'em :D

Post wedding, handed over the gift to the couple. And I wished 'em "Happy Birthday". And the bride was shocked and surprised altogether. Ente oru kaaryam :-S

For quite a while, the camera was in Gasper's custody. And he filled the memory stick with all sortsa colors - orange, blue, violet and the sorts.. There is an interesting anecdote to this episode, when we get back to Aishwarya :-)))

Sadya was super. Payasam was good too.


All the while we were talking about orange and blue. Soo dint seem to appreciate all this, very much. And she remarked "orange um apple um. kekanda enikku" :-S

Now that the most important activity of the whole wedding function is over, we called it quits, and got into the wagonR and left for the next venue. BTW, the 'orange' was at the entrance of the hall, and seemed to wave 'tata' with her eyelashes :D (atho enikku thonniyathaano?) :-S

Straight to Papinishery Snake Centre - the only anti-venom centre in Kerala. Among the different animals on display there, the Goose and the Peacock grabbed our attention. Goose, coz we had a similar version with us:



Peacock, coz he performed a dance show for us :-)




There used to be a snake demo at Papinishery at every hour. We were there at the wrong time, and we were told, it will be 45 mins before the next demo. Since the day's schedule was tightly packed, we left for the next place - Parassini Muthappan Temple. As is the fact, techies usually dont spend much time in divine spots. So we could quit soon from here.

Next is Mridul's house. Boy! Nothing short of a palace! Traditional construction with a 'nadumutam in the centre. When it rains, the nadumutam gets filled with clean bubbly rain water. Amazing!


Mridul's muthamma and mom decorated the table beautifully and called us. By the time, they returned with hot tea, the table was empty :-S
Muthamma remarked "Sadya okke kazhinju varunnathu kondu valya vishaponnum kaanilla ennaa vichaarichey". Gasper was prompt "Athu pinney, ithrem saadhanangal okke snehathode kondu vechaal, enganeyaa kazhikkaathirikkunney" :-D

We got an offer of a 2nd visit plus stay when we are in that part of the state :-)
While parting, muthamma called her elder sis and said "I'm sending some kids with Appu. Take care of them" Kollaam ! Another round of tea/juice and snacks ;-) Finished the table decorations there too and set out to Payyambalam beach.

I had never seen the beach so crowded! For that matter, it was almost 8 years since I came to this beach... It was a touch and go here, coz time was running out.


Dropped Mridul at bus bay, and back to Aish.

Quickly all the photos were copied on to the system, and a pre-view show started. Gasper seated in front of the PC. Sand beside him, and I behind them. Started off with the trip pics, then to the wedding pics... and right when the 'orange,apple' pics came Pop came dad :) Dad entered saying "oh, wedding pics r ready?" Gasper started sweating.. "Yes" - but with no pic of the bride and the groom :-)) Gasper clicks next photo - apple. next one - orange! Sand started giggling.. I quit the place singing a song (Smart me). Sand managed to steal himself out, on the bahaana of taking bath and getting ready. Gasper was left all by himself, switchng between the apples and oranges. Finally he got his breath in place, when a bride-groom pic came on screen. Phew :D

I was prompt to go straight into the kitchen and share the 'news' with mom and Soo. They could see the whole happenings from there, and couldnt stop laughing :-))


Later Gasper unleashed some of his favorite words onto us, before saying "Thank God, uncle didnt ask who took the photos. If he had, I would hav said Rat" :-S

Come dinner time, another comedy.
The table was full with chapathi chicken curry and fruits. The obedient and sincere (to-food) gang finished off teh chapathi container and got up. Later I overheard from the kitchen "ithraykum njaan pratheekshichilla.. njaan vichaarichu, kuttikal kazhichu kazyinjittu achanu kodukkaam.. pinne randennam raathri Julie kkum kodukkaam.. ithilippo onnum baakki illallo!"

:-))) Mom would be better prepared next time !

Out at 8.30PM. At Kadirur Bus Stop at 8.45PM. Into bus at 9.30PM. Back at Kalasipalya at 6.10AM. At home by 7.45AM.

Post-publish-edit
Tail :
1. Soo pointed out that I missed putting a reference to the super hit movie (??!@!#$()*$) which was played during the return trip in the bus. Read it here :-)

Lee Wedding : Part V (Last Part)

And finally on Monday, April16 (2007), Lee got married.
..
..
..
Well, I wanted to write on our high-energy Hogenakkal trip. But leaving Lee midway would be unfair. Let him marry peacefully :-)

So on Monday, Sowji and I leave for Gasper's house. Picked him up and left for the wedding. On the way, picked up Jins also.. He had come straight from his house.. All of us in formals.. And Sowji, well.. check one of the pics to follow...

We were doubtful whether we had time to go to Lee's house. But we had time, and we caught him at his house. The guy was all dressed up in a royal suit and was raring to go.. He was cool until we gave him moral support "Nothing to worry, okay.. Be cool. Dont leave any tension on your mind or face.. blah blah...".
Sowji, who was hiding all this time, jumped into the middle with his share of support.. Lee almost made Sowji a sticker, seeing his outfit..

[The guyz with the Man of the day]

We all left for the church. Jesin greeted us at the church. The wedding take too much of time. Then food.
The gift was handed over during food-time.

And for the 'walk-away' guy, here's the gift that we chose ..


[Its an electronic toy, which will swing and sing. But the variant which we bought, we made sure, doesnt work :D ]
Post lunch session, we had to rush back home. Jesin wanted us to be his guests.. He stays very close by. We obliged, and paid a visit to his house.. We left soon, coz we were running short of time. What followed was an F1 race on a M-800. Sowji unleashed all his driving skills and we reached home, well ahead of time !

After freshening up and tea, left for the bus boarding point. Ours were the last and the next seats... Jins was courageous to get into the last seat..

[Just into the bus..]

It rained slightly, and Sowji was soon asleep. The F1 drive had taken its toll on him !
Gasper stayed back, coz he was on a week's leave. He will spend lip-zipped days at his house.
And for us, its just a temporary visit to Bangalore, coz the very next week, we would be here again - for Geo's wedding !

Lee Wedding : Part IV

Sunday was peaceful.
It was Vishu.
Sowji, the other night has promised a nice 'kani'.
But by divine grace, that dint happen :-D
(For that matter, we slept the previous night, at past 12)

My vishu-kani was an mp3 player and mobile phone - both are my usual bed mates.
This year may be a techy year !
Called mom and got an audio vishu kani...

By the time we (Sand and me) got up, Sowji had been to church, and back home.
Post-breakfast, we left in Sand's black ikon to Lee's place.
We had earlier called him up to announce that we would be joining them for lunch (smart move)

[Ikon is all geared up...]
The drive was rocket fast, with Sand behind the wheels, and Sowji complementing for the later half. (eeks... i still get confused between complement and compliment!!!)

Since all of us were first timers, we decided to stop at a strategic point and call up Lee to find out whether we are on track. Sowji "Da, njangal ivide road side il wait cheyyuvaa.. Adayaalam oru karutha kaakka" :-$
Sand grabbed the mobile and gave the actual landmark - a school, and we reached home in 5 mins.

No decoration, no bahalams, not even a generator !!
That was Lee's house..

Now that we are home, there was some movement, laughter here n there.
Lee seemed to have grown up (side ways of course..)
He seems to be competing with Sami (the singer, not the player)
BTW, the singer Sami has cut down weight by a huge number, and is these days lavishing as a choco hero. (The reason for cutting down on weight was - "Overweight was one of the reasons for his unsuccessful 2nd wedding). Leeeeeeeeee.. kekunnundooooooo ??!!

[Extra support to Lee's tummy!]

Discussions, jokes, photos ... and then the main course - Lunch :-)

Post lunch, gave some moral support and boost to Lee, and left the place tata bye bye.

[Moral support?!]
Reached the base (Sowji's home) by tea time. Sowji's mummy prepared tea.. Sand was in a hurry, coz the next day he has to travel to Coimbatore - purchasing for his ali's wedding...
Sand left soon after tea.. He wont be joining for Lee's wedding...

In the eve, Sow and I went to 'Etumaanoor Metro' for some shopping.
Well, the catch of the day -> a gift to Lee :-)
(will put a pic of the gift in the last write-up in the series...)

Lee Wedding : Part III

The agenda for the 3-day wedding trip was like this:
1. Saturday -> roam around, go places, go for movie
(this was successfully completed)
2. Sunday -> Go for Geo's engagment. Then to Lee's house to analyse and comment on the wedding arrangements.
3. Monday -> Attend the grand wedding of the Lee of the...

Everything seemed to be going fit and smooth, until a phone call from Geo, late in the evening on Saturday.. We were in car, just left Kumarakom, for a 15-minute 15km nailbiting drive... We have a movie to catch, you see !!

Geo sounded very happy, and said "Thanks for blessing the engagement with your absence". I was sure he was kidding.. I replied,
"Haha.. good joke.. How are the preparations going on ? What time are you ppl leaving for the bride's place tomorrow?"

It dint take long, to get the 'gyaan' that the engagement is already over !
And as against the common (well, not so common...) belief that the engagement was on Sunday, it turned out that the engagement is already over !! It was today - Saturday !!!!

How could we miss the date ?!
This calls for a detailed investigation.
Gmail should be included as a party - they were the official communication partner
(read "the invitation card was sent thru gmail" )
But upon a re-check, it turns out that gmail is good. The date is printed properly :-s

Well, not much of discussions and arguments followed, coz very soon, we found ourselves staring dumb at the huge white screen in front of us.. Meera Jasmine....
:-)


[ Tea to energize a hi-speed drive.. 15km in 15mins, thru traffic! ]

Lee Wedding : Part II

After the movie on day1, the dinner venue was Gasper's house. Even while travelling to the house, we decided that we should be conscious enough, not to call him 'Gasper', coz its not fair calling someone so elderly, by name ! So we practised calling him Vimal for 3 minutes. And he practised responding to the roll-call 'Vimal'

His was not a house.. Its nothing short of a resort. 3 huge gates, 2 main entrances to the house, and the house itself spread across a huge area, in 3 different levels -> both horizontally and vertically. Got reminded of the step-cultivation method. This should be code named step-house !

[Pic taken on Day 3 - Lee's wedding day]
The original Gasper greeted us at the level 1. And led us all to level 2. After initial discussions on the days activities and usual 'temperature and rain discussions', I said "Enikkee veedu mothathil onnu chutikandaal kollaam ennundu... Kore area-yil angane parannu kidakkuvalle!"
Mr Gasper responded to this "chuti kaananamenkil purathirangendi varum"

All eyes on Vimal.
Vimal staring at some strategic mark on the roof !
Aila!! now we know who is Vimal's inspiration.. But we needed a few more minutes to decide, who the real PJ king is.. the junior, or the senior.

The call was tough.
With his mom chipping in with numbers
(Aarghh.. I forgot those :-( Should have noted down in a piece of paper )

The PJ king competition was called off, since the judges went mad.

After the house-trip, we settled down for yummy dinner.
We noticed that Vimal was silent throughout. Opens his mouth only to stuff food in.
Sow said "Da, enthelum okke parayedaa.."
Now Vimal's mom makes an interesting revelation "Ivan inganeyaa.. Oraksharam mindilla.. Chechimaar undenkilum ithu thanne sthithi. Avide ningade koode enganeyaa ?"

3 guys - Rat, Sand and Sow - stopped food, stood up and had a silent prayer for 2 minutes and packed off...

Lee Wedding : Part I

"Get lost... We have kurkure"

Thus we shoved off the caterer boy at 7.30PM.

The train had just started from majestic railway station.

Little did we know that we will have to pay the price for it.

Well, the price for it was this - We finally got dinner at 12 in the night !

The train dint have pantry service, and we had to wait till the train reached Salem railway station in the neighbouring state !!

The train trip was funny. Ours were all Side berths.. 5 berths. We were four - Rat, Jins, Sow, Goose. Sho dint turn up. We allowed 2 cute kids to occupy Sho's berth.
The story that got printed the next day was "Sho gave be(i)rth to two kids" :-D

Another incident in the train was equally interesting.
Just opposite to our berth was a beautiful young girl.. accompanied by an elderly person.. Should be her dad. For most of the time between 7.30 and 9.30 (rather... till the lights were ON) all eyes were on her. The poor dad - what could he do ?!
Finally when it was time to sleep, every other person in the train seemed to be in sweet dreams - but for ONE old man, and 4 young chaps. The chaps were awake, to grab their last meal of the day. The old man, unsure of the intention of the youngsters, decided to skip his sleep for the good health of his daughter. Well, little did he know that we are a bunch of 'decent' youngsters. But we felt sorry for the gentleman, and moved to the adjacent berth.
But in the end, that dad was awake all through the night, and had a nap only early in the morning at 4AM, when the train was somewhere near Trichur station...

Our discussion topic for the rest of the day was "The effect of grown up daughters, on the sleep of their dad". The topic was good enough to keep us occupied for a quality time.

Landed at Ekm rly station at 7.15AM

2 hours in bus, and we reached Kottayam.

Jins went straight to his home. Rest of us bumped into Sowji's place.
By noon Sand joined us. We visited Kumarakom, got into a house boat, got into an ordinary boat, did a small trek to the Bird Sanctuary.


And then got into a cozy good theatre to enjoy a good movie - Vinodayathra.
At the end of the day, we went to Goose's house to drop him (read, "get rid of him")
What happened there was shocking and outrageously hillarious at the same time.....

Sand Soo Engagement

In the morning, Sho, KK and me went to NSS college, to meet Sho's cousin sister.. In Sho's own words, "Oru kochu kutti" - studying for Btech :-S
Thatz Kiron Syndrome, which has affected his brain, I guess.

Back into hotel in time. Gasper woke up with fever. High temperature, and dizzy.. But he managed to pack himself fit by 11AM. And the smartly dressed up 6-some reached the venue walking.. 5 minutes late. We always make it a point to reach any important function, at a min positive chronologic shift of 300s. (Wonder how big an impact, its going to make, on our own weddings :-S )

What was going smooth and silent an engagement function turned into shouts and laughters upon our entry. Ellaarum onnuranna pole.. At least the duo on stage seemed a bit relieved to see us (chumaaatheyaa.. push ;-) )

After the initial round of on-stage formalities, like ring exchange, sweets exchange, etc etc, started the photo session. We managed to form a group and stormed the stage. All of a sudden, the stage seemed to small.. The gift* was handed over..

Soon after, Sand's dad asked with a cunning smile "Athil onnum illallo, alle"
Crystal clear, that Sand has done his homework, and has given some insight to his dad, on our past 'kaarnaamey' :-D

Food time.
Guyz sat, as I left for one last round of photography, with my canon in stand by - expecting the guyz to hold one seat for me.. Expectations expectations ! :(
Came back just to find "there is always the next round" :((
But that went good.. Urvashi shaapam upakaaram.
I could get some outdoor snaps of the couple.
The "professional" photographers were making them pose in all funny manners.. With Sand sitting on top of a painted yellow coconut tree, Soo standing with neck bent west-bound at 27 degrees, eyes facing each other.. and what all poses !

Packed up the session soon, thanks to the dis-interest of the couple in such funny acts. Back to the hall, and it was time for the next round of foodings. I sat with the couple. While we were into eating, Sowji called from US and wished Sand. He was awake all this time, and had called up multiple times already, but could not get Sand over the phone..

Soon after lunch, we left for the hotel, bidding adieu to everyone. We need to reach Bangalore before it midnight! We started back from our hotel at around 2PM and after an eventful rainy drive, reached ground zero by 11PM.

Tail:
1. Sho, seeing all the man-deep potholes on the highway "Aaraa ividokke kizhal kunar kuzhichu vechey?" - He meant kizhal kunar kuzhal kinar (borewell), but Ms Vikata Saraswathi had other plans :-D
2. Long drive exhausted KK. He announced "chaaya kudikkaan ethelum sthalam kaanuvaanenkil parayane.."
Sho "athaa oru police station.. keriyaalo?" :-S
3. 2 accidents delayed our onward and return journeys. Pictures are hearbreaking...
4. The scenic nature of NSS college brought in thoughts into KK "I wanna do a BTech yet again!"
5. The gift* : It was a huge box (a diwali sweets box), wrapped with gift wrapper (not bought specifically for this occasion) and given a topping cover with a pink net cloth (came with the diwali sweet box) - None of these cost us a penny. If you open the box, you wont find anything inside. But some research, and you find hidden inside, a CD (CD is not bought.. its free as well :D ) The CD is a Video CD - athil oru kathaaprasangam.. Title "Bem Bem Boom Boom Kee Kee"
More details on it cant be revealed at this point, since the crew has plan to release a movie on the same theme.. A location study was done at Lakshadweep
(Verum thallaanu kettaaa...)
6. The D-day (not the film release) - The wedding - in the third week of Jan 2k7 !

Our First Wedding !

A very fancy title !
But its not my wedding with some eena meena deeka
BTW, its not even a wedding, for that matter..
Its "Sand's Engagement with Soo" !
The first signs of a wedding bell, in our group of jolly good friends.

All of you know Sand and Soo from this space. But not many of you would have expected this :)
Well, it was on Oct29, 2006. The two love birds finally getting officially tied up. Wedding is planned for Jan21, 2k7. Cant wait for blasting on that day.
For now, lets see how we rocked the day, the event, the gathering, the duo with our tremendous presence at the venue :-D

Saturday, October 28, 2006
2.10AM
Thats when Gasper and I finished the engagement gift. It required a lot of artistic and technical excellence. And ample support from Bin. Its all packed, wrapped, and kept in good shape.
Well, what is the gift ?? -> That will be told at the end of the story :-)

5.30AM
We got up and packed ourselves for KK's house.
That is the starting point for the trip. Sho reached the place the previous night and spent the night there. At 5.50AM, we expected a pair of dressed up gentlemen at the door, but we were greeted by a topless KK and a sleepy Sho in shorts :-S
On top of this, lecture by KK "You said you would come y'day night and blah blah blah.."
Knowing his nature, we preferred to keep mum. Yes, its our fault :-S

Finally at 7.15AM we start. Mridul also reached by that time.
KK in the driving seat. Mridul in front. Rest of the 3 packed behind.
An eventful drive to Palakkad thru EC-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Dharamapuri-Salem-Coimbatore-Valayar.

On the way, when we were about half way thru, we stopped for a cup of tea. And due to popular demand I called up Soo's house. The mission - to find the route to Nelliyaampathy. Its a hill station some 1hr drive from Palakkad.
Rat : Hello, Soorya's house ?
J : Yes.
Rat : PJ aano ?
J : One sec, i'll hand over..
Rat : :-S

PJ : Hello
Rat : Hello ! Ithu njaanaa Ratheesh
PJ : :-S
Rat : Manasilaayille ? Soorya's friend.. With me are KK, Gasper, Shobin and Mridul..
PJ : (almost asked) Who are all these ppl ? And who are you ?!
Rat : we are coming from bangalore for the function.
At this point, PJ got some idea - at least these are some friends of Soorya, coming from Blore.
And the stupid me thot I was a famous personality at the Soo-house. Stupid idiot dumbo me :-s

Got the detailed roadmap.. Then I asked
"Where is Soo?"
PJ : She has gone for wedding
:-S And we thought it was tomoro ! BTW, tomoro is engagement.. Oh.. so its someone elses wedding
Finally, hung up, saying "See you there". PJ was still in total confusion.

The guyz killed me for the next half an hour in the car, for this stupidity.

Later Soo called up and said 'Aaraa ee Ratheesh ? Valla kaaryavumundaayirunno ? Rat ennu paranjaal poraayirunno ? Ivide ellaarum molilottu nokki iruppaayirunnu.. Ratheesh-o aaraa ithu?'
:-SS

After marathon drives, reached Palakkad by 6PM. And since it's already late, dropped the nelliyaampathy trip. Went straight to Hotel Soorya City. Thats the engmnt venue for tomoro. The receptionist gave a broad 70mm smile and said "No rooms"

We checked a couple more of hotels, and finally zeroed in, to Kairali Hotel.
2 AC rooms. With TV, fridge, bathtub, hot water facility... After all, Sand is paying ;-D

Bath, a walk, dinner, sleep...

Baaki ke stories later...

My Best Friend's Wedding - Part II

It was around 1.10AM when we crossed the border at Walayar.
Got up at around 5AM.
Saw some towns - dont remember the names!
Officially got up at around 7AM.
Saw Pala. The bus was almost empty by then.
Our stop was Eerattupetta. Reached there by 8AM.

Got into a Kanjirapalli bus and reached by 8.50AM.
Alex and his bro Kunjunni were there with Santro.
A jolly good trip thru rubber estates, to reach their house.
A cousin of theirs Roshan was also there in the car..
It was jokes all the way.
Discussions on why the rubber trees are planted on road-sides,
and not on roads topped the topics.

Home. A lil cute house, at a slope.
Mom n Dad greeted us at the steps..
Jokes started pouring in right from then :D
Not realising his dad was a teacher, I started lavishing literature in Malayalam :-S

Alex pushed us into restrooms to maintain peace in house..
A refreshing cold-water bath, a yummy breakfast consisting of dosa, idli and banana roast, and we were ready to go for the Big Event. We had made sure that we did no stuff in too many things into the tummy :-)
Binoy was wondering, why the golden qn was not asked yet..
But then, this conversation started.

Rat : How long will we have to wait in the church, b4 proceeding to the main attraction ?
Mom: Oh.. Ratheesh-inu ithokke oru puthuma aayirikkumallo alle..
The discussion was between me and Alex's mom, but it hit right into Bin's head :D

Another one by Alex's Dad..
Dad: What does Alex do on weekends? Do you ppl meet up ?
Rat : Nope, we seldom meet. Weekends for Alex are spent in church.
Dad: Ningal ellaarum koode ivane onnu nannaakki edukkanam

Rat/Bin :-SS


Packed the bags, stuffed them into the car, took some group photos, and we left.
Our timings are always most perfect.
The moment we stepped into the church was , when the function started.
Alex went into his usual prayer mood.. Bin seated beside alex with a blim on his face.
I had my tasks cut out.. Take max pics of the couple, and the function.
There she was seated.. Face was tight. Muscles pulled up :D
I waved at her from the front of the crowd, and she smiled..
Thats the way !! ;-)
She looked like an angel.. In her wedding gown.
A nice diamond (?) necklace, and some minimal ornaments..
Beside her was Rojo, the groom. Tall, handsome, and equally tensed :D

The rituals went on for quite some time. We took a break in between and went out of the church. Thats when we met Raman (its a girl, sofi's frnd; forgot real name). See this dialogue:
Raman: Oh, so this is Bin
Bin : Yes, this is Bin
Raman: You came just now ?
Bin : No, we came y'day itself. I mean, started y'day :-)
Raman: oh.. saw the couple ?
Bin : Yes, we were in all this time.
Raman: Saw the groom's brothers?
Bin : Nope.. Groom has only brothers (and no sisters?) :D
Raman: haha.. The groom is 27 yrs old. Brother is 17 yrs old. Youngest is in 5th grade.
Bin : Was his dad onsite, for a major part of his life ?

I pulled that idiot from there, not wanting to disturb the tranquility of the place.

Back to church.
Knot tied.
Oath taken.
Offerings given..

Yummy! Lunch time.
There was a fencing made to regulate the crowd entry.
Our dedicated effort made fence-side entry possible :)

Seated right in front of the reception stage.
Some events were going on , on-stage..
Cake cutting, tender coconut sip, ring gift, this that..

We got into the eating mood.. Finished off the table, i mean, the dishes in quick time. All the tim, there was noisy fellow with a mic in hand. He was singing !
In recognition of the song, soon after every song, I raised the left hand in a peculiar gesture and cried out 'Yo'. That inspired the singer further more :-S

Even while we were eating, the couple went for a dress change.
By the time, we had our hands washed, they came back.
Sofi came in a reddish-maroon colored Sari.
Rojo in a shining violet shirt.
They got seated for lunch.
We had to leave, to reach our home 350+ odd km away from here.
So we quickly went to their table, shook hands, handed over the *gift* and bid adieu.
Left at 2.15

Alex and Kunjunni dropped us at Erumeli Bus stand.
Got into a Kottayam bus. Reached Kottayam by 3.45.
Kottayam KSRTC Stand. Got a thru bus. Reached Thalassery at 2.20
I got into home by 2.40 !
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

My Best Friend's Wedding - Part I

I had strict orders..
To attend the function.
And I had no way out.

Even if I had a way out, I would have gone for the wedding :D
How can you miss your best friends's wedding ?
S is getting married !!!

It was a long weekend, and tickets were the hot property around. But thanks to S, she had arranged for our bus tickets. Binoy and I geared up for the trip. Just the previous day, we had been to forum shopping mall to get a gift for the would-be-couple.
Getting the gift was just 5 min's task.
Selecting the right card took some 20 odd mins..
Well, the gift is one-of-a-kind thing. Keep guessing what it would be :-)
(will jot it down in the last episode)

Friday, Aug11, 6PM.
Madiwala.
Wedding is tomorrow 10.30AM near Erumeli, in Kottayam district of Kerala. Bus leaves only at 7PM. Idiots, they wrote departing time 6PM in the ticket. Anyways, that gave us some time for preparing a detailed scan report of the area. Boy, it was a good rocking collection :D

Bus started by 7.15PM.
The first 30 mins were spent finishing off the free-100-sms quota :)
Binoy almost kicked me twice for my non-stop tapping on the mobile keypad. Finally, with 9 msg's to spare, we reached Hosur - Roaming started :(
In the mean time, another interesting thing happened..
The bus was playing a super (s)hit movie - Lokanathan IAS. Full volume. Ppl were in a frenzy. Not knowing whether to scream or to jump out of the window. Some went into sleep.. Some switched on their personal mp3 players. I was all the time on mobile. Bus at high speed, probably past 65kmphr.
All of a sudden, brakes were applied.
The bus made a sharp turn, finally stopped on the wrong side of the road, at an intersection.
A truck had just made an orthogonal transit in front of us!
The driver was sleeping or what ?!
He guided the bus back on track, and we proceeded with therest of the trip...

Let me quickly narrate the dinner incident too, b4 winding up. Bus stopped at the usual place (forgot the name) We waited for long, for our chapathi. The waiter came with porota. Idiot. We waited again.. Finally came our chapathi. Finished it. Sang a song, did a dance, paid the bill and strolled slowly to the bus - to see the driver, red-eyed, shouting slogans in familiar short-lettered words. The bus was filled up, ready to go, and they had been waiting for 2 idiots, reportedly for 10 minutes :D

Back to seat.
Enjoyed the limelight.. :-S
And dozed off to sleep..
MP3 player playing 'Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai'...

My Best Friend's Wedding

Coming Soon...
On a screen near you !