Most Imp Seven Steps of Devesh - Exclusively for ELTP 614(Now Open for all :))

As mentioned in Title, this blog is exclusively for my ELTP batch from which I was the only person present in the marriage of our batch mate Devesh Arora. Devesh has the honour of being my room mate for the longest tenure of time, more than 2 years in Noida. Marriage was going to happen in Patiala, home town of devesh, so it was again tough time for me to travel to such a long distance and that too on Wednesday(12th October) directly from office and alone again :(. Any how I have decided for that 1 month back that I will attend the marriage.


On the marriage day, went to office in the morning. Although thought to reach office around 8 AM and finish the work. This is pure torture on a lazy person to have such an early office timings and no doubt again reached late. Tried to wrap up some urgent work, left lunch and work in the end and ran to room for my bag. Changed clothes, picked up bag and gift for the couple bought just 2 days back. Its a common phenomenon that when ever you are getting late, everything becomes slow. My rickshaw puller took me to metro station with his possible lowest speed giving side to each and every vehicle even stopping by the side of road showing genuineness. Finally when I reached metro station just a little more than 1 hour before of DLI BTI express leaving Delhi station, checking staff of metro become aware of their duty and asked me to unpack the gift. Usually they don't even check me but at that time I was a probable terrorist to them. Finally when I told them I work in Accenture and show them the accenture bag, I was finally allowed to go with out opening the gift pack. There is sure advantage of working in a known company.


Luckily I reached Delhi station on time and took my seat. Both unluckily and expectedly, my seat was not a window seat as mentioned in the ticket and unexpectedly train was full even on Wednesday. As soon as I had a seat in train, got a call from Devesh's best friend and neighbour asking for my location and told me that he will be there to receive me. When some thing like this happens, it always feels good that some one is caring for you. In the whole journey I kept remembering the time when we were flatmate or rather room mate. Some times it feels bad when your good friends are no longer eligible for being your room mate again in life. My as usual boring journey ended in around 5 hours and I reached Patiala around 7:30. 


On reaching station, I called Gurpreet, devesh's friend and meet him after some delay. Delay is normal when ever you are having most of the responsibilities in your friend's marriage. Surprisingly, two of our birlasoft colleagues were also there in the car, Manoj and Aveek. Must say they were his better friends in Noida than me. They drove me devesh's home directly and have to change shirt in car only :(. Though my face is not good at all still did not get chance to even wash that. Entered his home for a minute and in the other minute, Devesh was ready to his first and perhaps the only ride of mare. I took out the camera and take a snap of the rarely laughing devesh enjoying the celebrations being done for him only. 
                                                                                      Marriage is one of the rare day when a 

 man really feels that he is a king and every one is giving importance to him. Devesh was also feeling like a king regularly raising his sword in the air. After walking with him for some distance, I decided to go back to the friends with whom I have come there. They were leaving for the marriage hall, when I asked them to stop and got fit into the car. Men have one unique feature of trying to celebrate with or with out reason and most of them have only one way of doing that. Ironically they have the same way of showing their sadness too. So after this common way for some time i.e. boozing in the car, we reached near the marriage hall from where Baraat was going to leave means devesh was going to ride the mare again. Just to clarify, I don't take alcohol and so did not taste here also :).

People in the marriage were not large in number and 
this is the thing which I personally find good. Though
it feels nice when so many people just want to see you and talk to you still I believe its very hard to please so many people as the families involved in marriage are not able to attend each and every one personally resulting in bitterness in relations. The pic on the right hand side is of the baraat walking in the mid of the road to the final destination of bachelor life of our hero of the day.
This is also the most nervous time for me as at this time all the people knowing you in the marriage try to drag you for dance and I am seriously very bad in dancing. Being a bad photographer, it becomes tougher to take quality snaps too. While our jalsa was progressing slowly with ladies and boys dancing in slow motion, I took a round to marriage palace. To give the feeling to groom of king, now a days they call it palace.

Raj Kamal Palace as shining in the picture was quite silent at the moment as our hero has not reached there. I just waited outside it so that all the people can come and I get the chance to enter :). Outside the hall there were lots of cracker going in the air. In between, my eyes had a look of Devesh sitting on his mare. Looking quite happy but he is one of the person which does not give you a chance to see what is going on in his mind. Though spending some time with him, I have some idea that he has accepted that he is now going to be married and today is the last day of most of the celebrations.

Finally after some energetic dancing in front of the palace, people entered inside. Devesh as usual was in the end. All the main relatives moved forward for meeting with girl's relatives and all the other to meet the food counters. Finally there were 2-3 friends who were with groom, making him feel that there is no behind him now and we are the only one who are caring for him. It took quite a while before, mare was set free and groom landed on the earth. As a normal tradition, there was a ribbon waiting for him. There was no gate, so two poles were arranged for that. The sister in laws of hero were waiting for their dear jiju to fill their pockets.

After some expected arguments and bargaining over the amount, devesh was allowed to enter the hall where there were lots of photography skills displayed by the camera men. There were around 4-5 camera men taking pics and video making job of people like me much tougher. So I stopped taking pics of the hot property of the night. Don't take it otherwise, I am mentioning Devesh only :).
I take a round of the palace. It was quite a big hall. Indoor area was bigger as compared to outdoor area making it idle for the marriages even in case of rain.

There were few people inside the hall. It becomes tougher for the many people from the girl's side to come to marriage if it is outside their home town. It usually leaves only close relatives and friends. There
 were good arrangements for the regular snacks and fruit chats. Devesh was made to sit on the centre stage and left for us to attend. All the relatives were finishing up their final arrangements for the marriage. We tried to feed the groom as there was some time before the dinner for the couple. After some snaps with the groom, wait for the bride started. There is no value of groom even on his D-day without his better half. Mean while got chance to have a talk with Devesh. He was as normal as on any day. May be he has seen so much in last few days that there was no 

much excitement or nervousness left in him. Finally girl of the day arrived and all the heads turned to her. We usually talk about groom being tortured for all day on his D-day but after looking at the bride, it all looks negligible. Though looking gorgeous in ethnic wear and jewellery, it was really tough for her to even  sit, leave alone walking. But it was her day and essentially she should look the most beautiful girl on the earth. After she reached near the stage, our hero stood up and climbed up the erupted rotatable stage which is a fashion now a days. 
As a sense of responsibility, Devesh lent a hand to Dipti (first time I mentioned bride's name:)) and there were loads of wooing. 


And yessss, one more thing a flower was also
 given to Dipti by none other than our hero. As you can see in the pic, couple seems to be quite happy with each other. I believe, there is this happy nature of the bride which will keep Devesh happy too.
Its very hard to ignore a smile as it is infectious and it looks like spreading on all the faces. Finally the couple reached the top of the stage after lots of photography and clapping.
After reaching the top, holding hands, some rotation
and showering of flowers, both exchanged garlands with each other and each and every person who is having any camera, can't resist taking a snap of them.

Both were looking very beautiful together. This is the only time when I think how beautiful Indian marriages are. Everyone around was happy making bride and groom happier. Though I don't like this rotation procedure as it may cause some unwanted accident due to unbalance specially in the condition when bride is not able to even walk properly still every thing else was beautiful.


After this, there were regular photographs with bride and groom of the relatives and friends on the stage

We too had some pics with the couple and then parted away. I spent some time with Devesh's parents talking about Devesh and Dipti. It is really great to talk with parents when they are so happy. Being with friends and parents, had to shake a leg on dance floor and then went outside where normal boy's thing on marriage was going on. After having the boozing effect, everyone become your fast friend and share a conversation with completely unknown people mostly on love marriages and arrange marriage.

After some time, it was time for dinner and thus we had light dinner with the families. I was as usual silent and did not talk much. Good thing was that, there were straight marriage after dinner. There was no further time spent on photography. In the start itself, we put the devesh's shoes in the car to avoid any bargaining. After most of the time was spent with Devesh in the rituals, bride was brought to mandap.  Marriage went smoothly. There were lots of laughter as both bride and groom were ready to accept all the promises with out even bothering to listen. Happiness was all around and Devesh was centre of our all the jokes. Even devesh's mummy sat with us for some time and made fun of him with us. There was one instance of devesh's love for coffee which made us laugh a lot also. Check the pic of never before seen pic of groom sipping coffee in the mandap :)

Finally everything went happily. Some sadness in the end as the bride's and relatives' weeping made the environment some what heavy but finally everyone was happy. We reached Devesh's home in Gurpreet's car before the couple. 
Some rituals were followed. We were in hurry to take 4 AM bus and so even after insistence of Devesh's mummy, we took blessings and our shagan and reached bus stand again in Gurpreet's car. We thanked Gurpreet for helping us so much and took our respective buses to attend office next day. Quite hectic it was still quite enjoyable. Clearly Friends are essential to make any moment enjoyable!!!


Thanks for reading it till here. Hope you enjoyed the wedding atleast a fraction of what I did.


Post your comments to let me know your view.


Cheers!!!!