The Runaway Marriage

It's a Sunday on 24th September 2006. Alok Singhal is getting married today. He was in college with me. He is getting married to his girlfriend, then a fiancee, now wife, Deepika. I was excited to be there with my friends. Fortunately, IIM Indore managed to give me vacation in such a way that my last day at home would be the day when Alok would tie the knot. Interestingly Alok had too arrived to his place from Mumbai for the weekend to get married and take his wife with him there.

I was doubly excited as I expected to meet most of batchmates after a long time as well. The first stop was the petrol refilling station. To great my luck, the petrol pump stopped in between while the fuel was being pumped. A delay of 15 minutes. I am a person who is very particular about time. IIM Indore has transformed me into a person who is 'finicky' about time. So I was irritated. No frustrated. Anyway, I did get onto to the road finally. Turned on the music...Ahhh...rolled up the windows....pushed the Air Conditioning button .....and voila....HOT AIR !!! Freaking )*#@)*# A.C. was not working!!! Super hell !! Anyway, I whizzed past the traffic. I maintained a speed limit of 70 Kmph. I did not dare go below it. Tommi Makkinen would have been proud to see a budding rally driver, who could manage to make a Maruti 800 go past Skodas and Lancers. It's all part of the anger game. I met my 'gang' at the place they had mentioned to me. Fortunes of fortunes, they had an accident, burst tyre and one car less. But I was there to save them.

When we reached Alok's place, our expectations were given a slap. It was very quite at his place. Peaceful. Alok was sitting on a bed, with all the elders giving him some blessings. The ghodiwala was waiting outside, to give our gadha a ride. Suddenly two drummers woke from their slumber and started beating the hell out of their drums. 10 minutes later they were gone. Quick ! Mr. Alok Singhal was desperate to get married. He hurried through the religious mumbo - shumbo at his home. And mounted the 'stallion'. The journey on the horse was not be very long. Only till the neighborhood temple. The baraat was a huge crowd of 18 people including the 7 friends of Alok. The boy didn't even let the baraat stop for a second, even for photos, let alone little dances. Going through those lanes where this man once played 'catch' with his friends must have been funny. I didn't get time to think much about it, because Mr.Groom was in a hurry to reach the marriage venue. So he got down at the temple and jumped into Vivek's car and we ran. We ran like hell. We twisted and turned corners. Took weird shortcuts. Anyone from outside would have thought that we were kidnapping the groom. We could not blame them, because we were running away with a guy dressed in a glitzy outfit.

Meanwhile, the bride, Ms.Deepika Goswami , oops now Mrs. Deepika Singhal, was fully dressed and using her mobile phone to lambast our boy here. She was hungry. She was hungry in a red saree and gold jewelery. Pizza huts are very good places. The people at her place had seen an advertisment on television where a fully dressed, bejeweled bride walks into Pizza Hut. So they did the same. Deepikajee went to Pizza Hut in a shocking red saree with moderate jewelery. People must have thought that some bride has runaway , or this girl is new to town. Eyes were on her, so the food was a bit hard to digest. But she ate, in Pizza Hut, in a red saree. She didn't get any discount for helping Pizza Hut follow what they preach on television.

Alok reached the wedding place on time. He straightaway went to the mandap and was all set to go around the holy flames. I was amazed to see how fast a marriage can happen. It just took the clock to move from 3:00 Pm to 5:00 Pm, and Alok and Deepika were married. Both the families were seemingly happy with how things had went. I was amazed. Space age marriage. Absolutely no hassles. He also had a reception planned in the evening. But I had a train to catch to take me back to Indore. I had story to take back with me. A sensational, superfast, "chat mangani , instant byaya" wedding.

Comments

  1. kulpreet1:43 AM, September 30, 2006

    paul...these days such marriages are so rare..attending one of them must have been the experience of life time!!!...as usual a well written and well descriptive post...keep it up buddy :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Piyush3:02 AM, October 03, 2006

    Well, I am not sure if the marriages are really that rare (I think we Indians are yet to reach that stage), but as usual the blog was great to say the least, well written but the fun part was a bit lacking(I hope thats how one gives a "constructive" feedback)

    ReplyDelete
  3. aniket4:43 PM, October 11, 2006

    gr8t post as usual buddy....so u planning to do the same way...or more different (weird) way....anyways buddy keep up the good work...really enjoy reading ur post...thoda aur excitiment dal mere bhai aur maja aaiga...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alopika3:54 PM, July 03, 2009

    I am happy to say that I got great friends who helped me and Deepika whenever needed. Those who have doubts about this type of marriage can explore our married life at www.alopika.com

    I must say, the article is nicely written. Thanks Ayush!!!

    ReplyDelete

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