Cousin's engagement

Felt nostalgic 'bout India today being Sankranti and was looking at my old blogs that i posted around similar time two years back. Thought I shud repost it!

All the excitement and enjoyment that was in India is now just like a concept in my mind whose instantiation does not exist any more! Every day that I spend here makes me fear that this might just remain a concept.

---------------------

Morning 7:am, feb 27 2005.

my cell rang.....(suprabhatam tone)....shut it thinking its the alarm.

Again, my celll rang..... I realised my dad was calling me .... "we are at hebbal...get ready and come to majestic".

Hebbals just 20 minutes from majestic.... i had asked them to call me at 6 AM (....late night 6 am ........and they called me at midnight 7 am !!) Difficult for me.

Got up ...got ready in 10 minutes...my cell rang again ...and...."Vikri i'm on the way will be there in 15 minutes"

Then ran down to the parking lot ... took my bike...and me in majestic by 7:25..thanks to pulsar and the disk break..i reached majestic in 15 minutes....

"Hey manoj"...came a sound from the other side of the foggy road....okay ... i see Vikri all smiling and hero Dr.Ananth...MBBS slowly walking towards me......he was excited and really.... ... Dr.Ananth...MBBS hugged me... i think he was desperate....cursing me for being late....after all hes been waiting to meet 'the aunty'.....

Asha atti my mom and mausis looked at me ... .. i didnt understand their look...

Dr.Ananth...MBBS said lets go..... and the sumo zoomed. Me and vikri on my bike....talking about bangalore roads and me trying to convince him that these roads look good only in the midnight and not in the day time...followed the sumo

We reached peenya after 50 minutes ..long trip...

It was like the typical---- ' American abbayi ... coming to india and going to a village .... for he wants to marry a palleturu ammayi "....... we were in 'andra halli'.... mind you this place is 20km from bengaluru but is not a halli......

We all got down .... and again everybody looked at me..... Yes this time i got it.....

"Uncle anath ge jayavagali......Annannthhh Unnnkkelll Zindabad zindabad" (UNGJ ANZZ).... Hey dear cousins...our aunts and uncles when they shout ...maaan...u cant believe ..they are better than us.... Asha atti full kush.....my mom "Neenu mejestic naga ne UNGJ ANZZ antha oduruthi antha andukundivi"... Dr.Ananth...MBBS with full 70 mm smile was blusing..

Suddenly Dr.Ananth...MBBS disappeared ..... we guess.... he was trying his best to see sowmya....but he couldn’t..... we were accommodated in the neighboring house (it was empty)

We all got ready.... then mausis and attis decided to bring sowmy out, called Dr.Ananth...MBBS out...

The kaaboye pelli koduku....dressed in a check-shirt and black pant..with one bottu....looked like

"ananthu manchi baaludu" …saaaary…"Dr.Ananth...MBBSu manchi baaludu"

Sowmy with total siggu and bidiya and nachiki came out and Dr.Ananth...MBBS was all smiles....trying to jump over the wall ..... unfortunately Gandi maama had not arranged for a puranapul for our senapathi to meet the sainikuralu!!!

Sowmya side......equal chichoras......they whistled ..we shouted .... seemed like a shouting and whistling competition.

........then at around 11 am the engagement started.... Dr.Ananth...MBBS and sowmya exchanged rings..... and again UNGJ ANZZ ... hip hip hurray....DoccTor Annatht MBBS.....DoccTor Annatht eMBeeBiYEs......aunty sowmyage jayavagali...whistles ...murli maama (madhu atti's brother) at his best ...giving full competition to chicoras on sowmy's side.... this continued for a while ..then the engagement ended and then photo sessions...... for about an hour..

Now it was time for what i had been there..for .....of course ...batting time.... ... we had a practice session earler ..2 overs each..uppittu and see-sajjigi...Vikri made me bat one extra over of seesajjigi......the main match...the stadium was all set, the pitch was good ..it was in madhva sangha bhajan center... the batting started with kutu ...rasam..gojju..bisiupinikai...etc..etc...saru was realllyy good.... Rishi was here to compete with me..... he had rasam and only rasam....... Dr.Ananth...MBBS and sowmy were made to sit one behind the other....... Dr.Ananth...MBBS did not bat to his capacity and was more interested in taking care of sowmya's batting...... Vikri liked the jelebis and rasam...

Back to their home....appa amma maama attis mousis ...slept for about an hour......

Then me and dad went to my place (dad had not seen my place...approx 20 km)... mean while the gang enjoyed anthakshari...i missed it...Dr.Ananth...MBBS sang some romantic songs

we were back at 7 pm ..and then they left sowmy's place at 8 pm... "they" left .... not me and Dr.Ananth...MBBS. Had had a different plan. he stayed back to take sowmy out today...

Dr.Ananth...MBBS and sowmya sat outside for a while and then Dr.Ananth...MBBS said he and sowmya will go to the terrace....to see the moon........

For two hours.....me sitting down ..alone...saw 10 moons ....Dr anna....naaku chukkalu kanipinchayi.....at around 10:30 pm Dr.Ananth...MBBS nannu kanukarinchi...decided to leave their palce..came back to my place.....

Then Dr.Ananth...MBBS wanted me to "explain" him how to reach MG road, sankey tank...and other "GOOD" places..... we charted a map. 4 A4 size sheets....

And juss now Dr.Ananth...MBBS called me up and told me hes on MG road............

---------------------