Nov 25th

Yes now the marriage season is on in a big-big way. Everyday one has to attend at least three marriages and a couple of ‘ladies sangeet’. The whole world seems to be getting married. I do look forward to attending the weddings and eating the lavish dinners spread out. But of late marriages have become nerve-wracking obstacle races.

Just navigating our way into various venues calls for special driving skills. One friend’s daughter was getting married in Sisodia-Rani garden and the other’s son was scheduled in Clark’s Amer. Both are at different corners of the city. To add to my woes our regular driver had to rush to his village as his ailing mother had died. The new driver appeared hell bent on driving our car onto all the merry-making dancing young men in the baraat. Since he was prevented from mowing down humans, he concentrated on crashing into other cars and stray dogs and some unwitting cows. It was a nightmare traveling with Jagdish-the driver. Even Puru’s shouts and yells of warnings finally got through him. “Kuch nahin hoga saheb. Don’t worry.”
Was his placid answer.
We finally arrived in one piece much to my surprise. The hosts were busy welcoming other more important guests; thus we were met by junior officers wearing the traditional pink safas. What happened to the actual real relatives- brothers, uncles, etc? Do the junior colleagues have to stoop so low nowadays? It’s easier to bully a junior colleague to do these roles meant for a brother or uncle because the officer’s arrogance may have made personal relations so strained that the actual brothers and uncles don’t even come for the wedding.

One begins to regret having come. Your unimportance is rubbed home when you have to push the notes filled envelope hurriedly in the hosts hand and then find yourself staring into space as the host moves ahead to greet some more important guest! There is no one to press you for dinner or appreciate the fact that you had made an effort to come. In one marriage the said officer was tipped to become the top surveillance chief, we had to actually stand in a queue to ‘bless the couple’ with gifts and money!

When Kitty decided to marry her part Muslim part Hindu boy, she deprived us of all the pleasure of dancing and singing and going through the hysteria that is part of all these marriages. She had a civil wedding in Bombay.
  
By then Jaipur was buzzing with rumours of how Kitty had run away from home! How we had opposed her choice. After all he was a Muslim. But that was not the only reason of our fears. That Mathai boy was attractive in tall dark handsome mould. But he appeared a wastrel. His father’s large chain of hotels in Kerala was his only source of income. Kitty with her job in a publishing house seemed only too eager to throw it up and work for Mathai’s hotel’s in-house publications. Some how I had never liked the easy way with which he flirted with Pootchie. It didn’t augur well.
Some small time one page newspaper even decided to print the news of Kitty’s disappearance! It went without saying that we were inundated with calls and Puru had to actually go on leave. We couldn’t go to his village as Puru would face further direct criticism. That left us with no option but to check into a hotel in Delhi for some time.
By the time the frenzy died down, we did hold a small dinner inviting only close family and friends.

Pootchie’s marriage as the astrologer had predicted went without a hitch. She was studying in LSR (Lady Sri Ram College) and her roommate’s brother just had a glimpse of her and was so smitten that we had a hard time telling him to be patient, let her finish her graduation at least. The offer was hard to resist. Piyush was heading the London office of Goenka Steels. He was the only son of Mohan Lal Goenka. As soon as Pootchie turned 18 she was officially engaged and swathed in Gucci’s and Armani’s. Her mother-in-law was always inundating her with gifts and I thought there goes her study out of the window.

So almost on the heels of Kitty’s wedding, Pootchie decided to shed her unmarried status. Puru decided to show the world how well he could organize a wedding and every function was worked out with military precision. Well I must say I had a great time shopping for clothes and jewellery. At the end of it all I found Kitty sulking.
“Now what?”
“You didn’t do all this for me and I am your elder daughter.”
“But you said you hated it all. Your life was to be lived simply with out all this fuss.”
“That was then. Now I want it.”
I shrugged. “It’s too late. We will do a fancy one for your child, if we are still around.”
At this she rushed into the bathroom. I could hear Kitty sobbing as if her heart was coming apart.
I discovered that under all that veneer of modernity, she felt jealous and insecure. But in all fairness I had bought both of them equal value jewels and clothes. Only the lavish dinners were extra. It took Kitty some time to overcome her resentment.

But by then she was feeling stifled in her marriage and had picked up a job outside to get ‘more space’ that finally culminated in a divorce.