Attending Amit's Wedding

The Background

Amit Nangal is my colleague at Samsung. When I joined Samsung in June 2008 I was moved to his project for a short duration. At that time he used to look matrimonial advertisements a lot. He was very serious about his marriage. I think the search over in December when Amit's parent arranged his marriage. The date was 5th February 2008, just one day before my birthday. I decided to join his wedding as many of my company friends were attending. I collected money to buy wedding gift for Amit from my team members, everybody contributed between 100 and 200. I also collected money, around 600 each, to book a cab to reach Bhiwani, called Bhyani by locals, to attend the wedding. 6 people contributed and decided to attend marriage. We planned to leave office at around 5:30 in the evening and reach there before 10 in the night. One among these 7 people was Balaji a Tamil person, who had a strong wish to attend a north Indian wedding. I decided to buy a gift for amit from a nearby shopping Mall.

Preparing to go…

I left office at around 4:15 with Swami, one of my group mate but not going with us, we looked crockery sets as gift but didn't find and good one and returned office. At 4:45 me and Vikas left the office for his home, as Vikas has to get ready… seriously ready I mean, moreover the cab driver was given address of Vikas's home. I was pillion riding with him on his bike. Vikas was having a helmet but not me. At the Delhi border a Delhi police home guard stopped us, I told Vikas to run away but Vikas stopped as it was almost impossible to run. We decided to give him 50 Rupees but he demanded 100, we argued a bit but at that moment his boss came in and asked us to pay a fine 600. I give him 100 rupee, Vikas told me don't worry we shall adjust it in wedding gift collection, I said ok …with a smile. We reached Vikas home at round 5:40, and found cab driver waiting for US. Vikas started to take bath almost after reaching there. Meanwhile I eat some maggy at his home, watched an half an hour episode on Discovery, by 6:30 his bath was over, I thought wow … less than one hour … Batter than girls. It took vikas another 45 minutes to get ready and we left for office at around 7:20 and reached office at around 8PM a 2 and half hour delay from our plan. We started calling people from office to join US. Balaji had problem as the Koreans, so called clients asked his to fix the bug before leaving the office. He was dropped out, almost everybody felt sad for him. Another person TK Sunil, out Project manager, who had been room mate of Amit (the groom). Sunil told us that he won't be able to come but shall contribute for the cab charges. Now we were 6 boys ready to go but had no wedding gift. It was already so late we decided to buy flowers on the way.

The Journey

We started our journey and crossed Delhi border at 10:30. We were around 100 Km away from the place. Meanwhile Amit Nangal, the groom, called us. We told him that we shall reach at 12. He said ok, but make little fast. At 12 we reached Rohtak just 70 Km away from the place. I was constantly cruising Vikas for the delay, we doubted that by the time we shall reach there everything shall be over, even the dinner. We didn't have any wedding gift and not even flower. The next damn thing was a railway crossing at Rohtak, which we need to cross, was closed. Anyway we started watching a Chrenjeevi movie on cab TV, Chrenjeevi is a Tamil Hero (Movie Actor) who can through people 100 feet away. Everybody enjoyed the stupid stunts, meanwhile the crossing was open and we started. Just around 60 KM away from the place with out any gift and too late we decided to call Amit Nangal's brother he told us that don't worry someone shall be at the entry of Bhiyani city to guide us to wedding location. In the way Tanweer Alam one of the person in our group told us that in there community boy can have more than one wife. Vikas pulled Tanweer's leg saying, "beta too to 4 shadi kario", every body laughed. Later we just concentrated on Chrenjeevi movie and Chrenjeevi continued to demonstrate his super powers.

The wedding

At 1:30 (AM Now) we reached Bhyani, and as Amit's brother promised some one was waiting for us to guide there. We reached the site at 1:40. Ah! Thank God, Amit was just going on the stage and he was not married yet. We showed our faces to him. Got some photograph done by sitting in various posed along side the couple and we said Nameste to 'to be bhabhiji'. After getting down from the stage we stood around 30 feet away from Amit. We started commenting on Amit ... "Beta thand bohot ho rahi hai" ... Yaar Amit teri koi Sali nahi hai hamare waste". We had dinner and sit in a corner and started discussing, what generally boys discuss. A bull entered the tent house we were sitting. He took a round around the and probably eat something. Someone sitting along side us told us "ye yahan har shadi mein aata hai aasirwad dene" the funny element was that this guy was serious and not joking. I think at around 2:30 Phera started. We were shivering as it was too cold and we were almost in open. There were some quilts but all were occupied by people from girl's side. Later we got two quilts and sat there covered. Phera was usual one, but the people from girl's side were throwing utensils in the feet of Amit while he was going around the hawankund for Pheras. We enjoyed a lot.

An attempt to go back home…

After Pheras we decided to go back and came out and there was a lot of fog outside, and driver was missing, we asked several people and got no clue about the driver. 15 minutes later the driver returned. He was sitting near tandoor to beat the cold. We started out back journey and probably reached the exit of the town, however we were not sure were we were as visibility was too low. Soon the driver gave up and said he cannot drive. We called Amit's brother he suggested us to come back as a guest house was booked for us. We reached the guest house but the gate of guest house was closed. Amit's brother started knocking the door ... he and Vikas knocked the door for around 25 minutes but nobody opened the door ... at last around 3:30 the door was opened and we all six along with driver started to sleep. We decided to wake up 6 in the morning. This time we actually got up was 6 in the morning ... yes and everybody was awake at this time. It was still foggy but the visibility was batter than that was at night.

The return

We started and reached at the exit of the town, with are 3 outgoing roads, we carefully chosen the road towards Rohtak. We started listening to music on our mobile and the Driver keep proceeding slowly. We reached slightly more than 20 Km's in around one hour and saw a board pointing showing it is going toward Rajsthan… Damn it. We halted and asked one passerby … he told us that we have came in wrong direction, Rohtak is exactly in opposite direction. We asked the shortcut. He told us that we have to go back to Bhyani. We followed his directions and reached Bhyani and asked 3 people to cross confirm the way to Rohtak. We reached at Delhi border at around 10:30 in the morning eat some pakora and tea at Bahadurgarh. I decided to take a day off as my home was nearby. Everybody else decided to reach office. They reached Noida at 2:30. Damm everybody's office was missed.