Many Many Congratulations Chiranjit and Sauparnee

First of all...

Heartily congratulation to Chiranjit and Sauparnee...


Either it is love for Chiranjit or interest in my writing; I would like to thank you for visiting the page. It has been more than one year since I have written anything and I thought of giving Chiranjit a gift through my blog. Attending marriage is one of the toughest things to do in my life and if it involves travelling then it becomes like a nightmare as my mind starts thinking about all the arrangements I have to do to travel and stay there. Now being a married person, I have additional responsibility to take care of comfort of my partner. None the less, as soon as Chiranjit informed me about the marriage date, I got the air tickets booked so that I could push myself to attend the marriage and thus instruct my mind that if I don't attend then there will be no refund :)

Just one week before marriage I was not even in condition to walk properly because of which I missed the marriage of one of my family like friend Shubham. I was not sure if I will be able to travel so far just after 7 days. Luckily my condition started to improve and I started feeling lesser pain while walking. Finally D-day came; I took 2 days leave and with the help of my wife completed the packing by friday night. We reluctantly woke up at 3 AM on Saturday 6th December, day of marriage and reached Airport to travel to Kolkata, a place where I have never imagined traveling in my life.

There were lots of doubts in mind like how will we be able to speak to People, what to eat and how to survive there for next three and a half days. Thoughts of going back to home started to fly in my mind but air tickets in my hand were enough to push me in the plane. Finally we boarded flights with no delay and reached Kolkata by 9 AM. As guided by Chiranjit or Chiro as we like to call him, we booked the taxi from the bidhannagar police counter and exited from Airport. As soon as we got out of Airport, we had the feeling of heritage city seeing a big queue of old yellow ambassador taxies which are rarely seen now a days. With the help of police person, we got ours and while sitting in taxi, we came to know that even taxi driver knows Hindi so there should be no issue in staying except we might be treated like a American travelling in Delhi. There was no issue in reaching our destination, a guest house booked by Chiro after his instructions to the driver. Near Guest house, we met him and needless to say meeting someone known in an unknown place feels like meeting angel of God.

In the guest house, we got settled, had bit of daal rice and took rest. After some time, chiro visited us again and we met Ashish Dutta, our ex-colleague, staying with his family in same guest house, came for attending the marriage like us. Thanks to Chiro, even though it was his marriage day, he was putting his best efforts to take care of us. I might have never been able to take care of anyone in such a way on this day. In the evening around 6 Pm, Chiro's father visited us with vehicle to take us to Sauparnee(Bride)'s place for marriage event. We boarded the vehicle and our journey from North Kolkata to South Kolkata started. In the journey, it felt like a time travel tour where I saw Kolkata changing from a small town city to a metropolitan city in form of narrow roads to broader one, from small shops to bigger markets, with traffic lights being the only common thing. However I will try to detail my Kolkata Trip sometime later in future. So let us get back to the events.

After 2 hours, we reached destination and at the gate, there was a big lovely statue of Ganeshji for welcome.

As we had Ashish with us who is well versed in Bengali, we had no issue in reaching Chiro’s room at the second floor. Dressed up in lovely Kurta and traditional dhoti (with elastic :) ), he was looking really good. He introduced us to his family, who after knowing that we do not understand Bengali, spoke in Hindi and let us know that how happy they are after seeing us. Chiro's mom is such an adorable lady as she showered me with so much love which made me feel so good on my decision to come to marriage. 

Seriously love and affection of people has been the only remaining thing in the world which make life worth living a bit. After that we got out to inspect the things which we can have to satisfy our hunger. Ashish and Bhabhiji were really caring for us, looking for veg servings everywhere only for us to have. After a while, we settled for Palak Paneer and Kulchas with gulab jamun and ate to full. After making our tummy full, our mind was in condition to analyze the arrangements. It was a multi floor building having different floors for everything. Ground floor for non-veg food, first floor for marriage ceremony and second floor for veg food. All this was much different from a north Indian marriage where we are used to see a big ground having eating stalls all around and bride and groom staged in-between. However it was very refreshing to see a simple arrangement with no show-offs for relatives and other attendees; which I have seen all my life.

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After finishing our food, we moved to first floor where a beautiful mandap was setup. Really it was one of the most beautiful mandaps I have ever seen.









After a while, Chiro came to sit there and introduce us to his sister who is really an intelligent and simple girl. We had a brief talk about almost everything about Kolkata. Setup of really good reputation about me by Chiro, really made me feel great. Sometime later, Sauparnee dressed up as bride came there looking very graceful in traditional clothes. 

She was covering her eyes with leaves and was carried on hands by relatives while circling around chiro whereas Chiro's eyes were covered by hands.

After some rounds, both were lifted up and exchanged garlands almost similar to North Indian marriages.

Then they were settled inside mandap and chanting of Mantras by panditji started and I started to click pictures in between. Frankly speaking, I have never been a keen observer so I would like to apologize to Chiro if I missed some important steps in between. After a while, I heard traditional sound being made by relatives by rolling their lips.

 Apart from that, almost all rituals were similar to marriages I have seen including mine; chanting of mantras, seven rounds around fire and filling sindoor along parting line of Bride's hair. 

One thing not there was photographers’ disturbance in following the rituals. They were silently doing their job and I wish if it would have been same in my case as well. However, I must mention that Chiro's family were really concerned that if we have had food for sure and it was really hard to convince them :)

 After completion of marriage rituals, Chiro's parents saw us off to the taxi in which we went back to guest house. Again I was overwhelmed by their affection as they hugged us and express their happiness due to our visit. We informed them that we are here and will meet again at reception on 8th December. We reached guest house in half of the time we took to travel earlier and took a tight sleep after a long day.

Event 2 - Reception

After spending Sunday and most of the Monday in roaming around Kolkata, finally reception night came. Again Chiro showed his care for us and sent his uncle to take us to the venue, though venue was not even at 10 minutes walking distance. Place arranged for reception was almost similar to that of marriage with multi story arrangements. At the gate, Chiro was waiting for us and was looking very smart in white attire. He guided us to the first floor where reception event was in progress. Sauparnee was wearing a beautiful blue saree. 

We were again showered with love by the parents and relatives. I would like to say big big thanks to Chiranjit and his family for so much affection. After spending some time there, Chiro's uncle guided us to second floor where food arrangement was done and asked caterer to take special care of us. We had kachoris and sabzi along with gulab jamuns and went back to first floor.

It was not a big lavish arrangement but simple, sober and lovely. I wish people in my part of country take inspiration and focus on strengthening the relations in such events rather than burning money on lavish arrangements. Everyone there was enjoying to the fullest, talking to each other and taking pictures even with phones which were very small. I felt everyone here is completely content with their lives and happy with whatever they have. Bride and groom were sitting and talking, no one was in hurry to get their pictures clicked. We also got our picture clicked by Chiro's uncle who were really very caring for us.

After a while, Sauparnee's parents bid farewell and we were advised by Chiro to go back to guest house as event was expected to take long time to be over. We had an emotional farewell given by everyone there and were seen off by Chiro till our Cab which took us back to Guest house. Next day after meeting Chiro's father who even arranged taxi for us to take us to airport, we bid good bye to Kolkata, seeing so many things which I never knew that they could exist in India and in hope to come back here in my life again. It was really a journey worth having.

In the end, I would like to wish Chiranjit and Sauparnee, a very happy life ahead and thanks everyone to read it till the end :). Hope you enjoyed the events with me.