Counting Days…

The ultimate marriage date was coming close. Preparations were going on. Indian marriages have lots of rituals before marriage. Those rituals started with a bang. We used to practice dance every night. Few years back, it was really easy to get people together, but now everyone is grown up. They have their own life and hence become difficult to get them together. Anyway, we still got a bunch of people to rock the stage. As per tradition, we asked everyone who would like to perform, some said no and others yes. Eventually, we had around 13-14 performances which were enough for fun.

I guess, I skipped some rituals before dance night. The first was “Jawara bona”. Plant wheat seeds, which are then considered as Goddess. By this date, house was filled with many guests. It’s considered good, people are taking time off to be in the marriage, to celebrate. Even with recent trend, there were enough guests. In night time, we used to have formal dance practice, followed by dinner and free form dance.

The second ritual was Haldi (Turmeric). It is applied 5 days in advance and then every day until marriage. It brings out natural color of skin and considered good. From this day onwards, the bride and groom are considered godly and are not supposed to do any of the household chores. It’s awesome. You are not even supposed to take water and drink on your own, someone will hand it over to you, quite interesting.     

The 3^rd ritual was Mehandi (Heena). A temporary tattoo applied to all the close family members. It was not applied on me as it was scheduled the next day being the Groom.

4^th comes a special one-which announces that marriage is near is Mata Poojan. All close family members’ visits a temple and worships Goddess and invite them to the wedding. It was cool, me and many family members gathered on this day. It was just 2 days before marriage, hence most of the people were there. We went temple dancing and came back the same way. We even danced in the temple.

Then mehandi was applied on me. It’s good to take some rest after that, so that we are not disturbing the wet tattoo and allowing it to dry for better color. The longer it stays, better it becomes. I also applied some oils on top, so that it remains intact. It’s said that more color means more love. Looks like it might be true.

In the evening, we worship the God with dance and colors. I was still sleeping by this time. Relatives woke me up and called down. It was a colorful atmosphere; everyone was dancing and blowing color.  Those are the best times in anyone’s life. This is the 5^th ritual, known as Satsang.

At first, there was no plan of dance night (Mahila Sangeet). Then we booked a small hall and in the end it was decided to take it to another level and book hall in the marriage garden itself. The hall was small, so people gave all their attention on the performances. Sounds like blessing in disguise. There were plenty of people even for the dance night. We tried to keep it small, but even these few people were enough to fill the hall completely.

On the Edge

It was time for another beautiful journey. I was traveling to change my life, to experience something which I had never before. It was something which I was prepared for. I was working on it from some time now. It is none other than but Marriage. Yes, I was about to travel for my marriage in Indore. I was preparing myself from long time for it. I had checked out at least 50 profiles, met with 9 girls and finally got married to the love of my life, the 51^st girl. It’s like you know when you find someone. You know that she is the only one for you. You know that she will change your life forever.

We were preparing for the marriage from 6 months now. Venue, food, ceremonial arrangements, Priests, dresses and many other arrangements were going on. Marriage is considered and is the biggest event in anyone’s life. You want to do it right from all perspectives; everything had to be planned in perfect way. While, these things were being planned with the help of parents and relatives, I was planning on my own for after marriage. I had planned everything in advance for the beautiful bride. I already completed court (legal) marriage with her in the last India visit in order to get her Visa. Her visa was set, tickets were booked. I even booked a house for us in advance, so that when we come back, we have everything set for us.

I prepared around 2-3 different kinds of invitation for guests which were loved by many people. I had to design a website for worldwide friends, an email for local office folks. A pre invitation video for whatsapp friends and last one, sent just 15 days before marriage. I must say, lot of preparation is required. While, I was preparing all these from US, my Dad was booking all kind of event management guys plus venue plus cater plus priest plus photographer and lot more. Mom was taking care of clothing gifts and Sis was planning for Music program-Mahila Sangeet. In addition, other relatives were planning from their end as well.  

The day, when I was leaving for marriage was the same day when I got the keys from apartment manager. So, I had to get the keys, shift all my stuff and board the flight-all on the same day. I must say, I live on the edge. I took the keys, transferred most of my stuff and got ready to leave. I had the liberty to move some stuff and leave the rest as I had good terms with Uncle-Aunty-the previous apartment manager.

I didn’t had any of my bags with me just a backpack. I had a relative bag. It was 15kgs as that’s the limit; I am allowed to take with me while traveling domestically (Delhi to Indore). I reached Indore and started preparing to get my clothes ready. I booked all of them when I came last time, but I had to go for trials to make sure they are tailored properly. It was marriage; everything had to be done the right way.

…To be continued

Bachelor’s Trip in the Wild Vegas

Posing at Death Valley NP

I am back again with some late posts and with the same reason. I always finish off the previous trips before making a new trip, this is the same. I am planning something big and hence thought of writing this one before. My Bachelor’s trip or I would say my last bachelor trip was organized, where it should have been. It was none other than Wild Wild Vegas. The trip was not planned to be a bachelor’s trip; it was started as a reunion plan and then eventually turned into Bachelor’s trip. We started planning as 4 people and soon, one guy dropped. It was due to that one person, that it was planned in Vegas and he backed out. There are some people who just don’t know how to understand what’s important. Our initial plan was to have the reunion in Minnesota, the same place where we all met. Then it was shifted to Vegas. There were 3 people in the plan-Khan Sab, Bhati bhai and me. Then after few days, we got one more-Dani bhai. Until, last moment-we were 4 guys. We booked flights-Spirit (TIP: I booked it on airport, which saved me around 30$, instead of doing it online) and hotel (TIP; Bhati bhai had some account in Harrah’s, hence it saved us some money) and then car-it became bit costly, but we got hatchback-Awesome.

New Year Celebration

I got married in Feb 2018 and we had New Year’s long weekend, so it it was perfect time to plan the trip. At the last moment, we got to know that Khan Sab has backed out but another friend came into picture few days before trip, so only 3 people were remaining now. We started, after finishing our jobs on Friday the 29^th and reached the same day. Picked up our car and then headed straight to Hotel. We were bit tired on that day, so just arranged some supplies and said Good Night. Everyone knew that it was a bachelor trip for me, but we got to know that it was for Bhati bhai as well. His marriage was also fixed.

Hotels

We planned to go for a road trip on the first day of our trip. We visited Death Valley National Park.it was a nice place with scenic lookouts and beautiful drives. It’s the hottest, driest and lowest national park. It was given its forbidding name as a group was lost here, which was also rescued later, but any way they gave this name. We stopped by at many places to get the feel of the place such as Dantes View, Twenty mule Canyon, Zabriskie Point, Furnace Creek, Badwater Basin and Permanent Springs. Our car was going at 80 and I thought of opening the top which was really a bad idea as it was about to blow out. (Tip: Never do that in a moving car). The best location was badwater basin-it’s the lowest point in North America. Its 282 feet below sea level and often gets salts from surrounding basin making it undrinkable and hence the name. It was lot for the day. So we just slept after returning the car.

We didn’t plan to do much on the next day as we wanted to see the fireworks and celebrate New Year in evening. So we were just hanging around the hotels, casinos and on the streets. I am not good at gambling, so I stayed away from it. I like the hotels, their decoration, so we were going to each hotel to see and admire the New Year festivity. Night time, we saw fireworks, which were ok. They should be planned in a better way. We were standing in front of Ceaser’s Palace which had the best fireworks. The 1^st of 2018 was the last day of our Sin City so we wanted to keep it soft. We exchanged pictures and Bhati bhai departed for Flight as he had the earliest one. I and Dani wanted to check out the Freemont. The street was just waking up when we visited there-around 3-4 PM. We saw some Magicians and different type of people showing their creative abilities in order to earn some money. That was all for Vegas, then we returned airport and came back home. I reached bit late and luckily found a taxi waiting at the station.