Jan 23rd, Erode, Sakthi Duraiswamy Wedding Hall (Owned by owner of Sakthi masala)
One more core member of “Varuthapadha Vaalibar Sangam” (some might claim that we aren’t “Vaalibars”any more) took his marital vows, even though he didn’t do much other than smile all through the ceremony.
Jaanu and his wife, Raghav and his mom, Nanda and I boarded the day train – West Coast Express at around 11:30AM from Chennai central. This was the first time I met Raghav’s mom and she probably would have concluded that I too was one of the lost for good guys in Raghav’s circle. The first thing Nanda and I did was start the honours of brunch-Podi coated Idlis from Raghav’s mom and some accompaniments from Saravana Bhavan. Even as we were made fun of, owing to our ability to not say “NO” to any offerings in edible form, we continued on until we ran out of resources. As usual, there were jokes plenty, some involving those present, and quite a few on those who were not present in the scene. Time passed by and we reached Erode junction, where Raghav caught up with his partners-in-crime with whom he had collaborated in harassing Basha during the engagement ceremony. There were stories plenty about Basha and there seemed to be no love lost between him and his cousins/friends/his wife’s cousins…
Moorthy, Basha’s college mate who sported a Kakha-Kakha style moustache, was scurrying around doing all the hotel check-ins and local commute arrangements, even as his employer BSNL sought his assistance in fixing some outage. The true friend that he was, he told BSNL in no uncertain terms that he was not be disturbed. And we complain about BSNL’s services !! After freshening up in the hotel room, we headed to the wedding hall, which was one of the biggest and grandiose ones we have ever seen. Basha was beaming ear-to-ear on the dias with his bride. We couldn’t help smiling mildly (we never laugh out loud) as he appeared to repeatedly dive-in (he had to do that to owing to his custom made dress)while seeking blessings at the feet of elders. The bride for the evening literally had a knight in shining armour by her side– Basha chose a dazzling all off-white outfit that radiated. Guess who helped him choose that thundering dress – our own Raghav.
The hunger pangs did us in and we proceeded to the buffet style dinner laid out in the front of the hall. The food was delicious and the best part was the 3 types of dosas which were being made in front of us and served hot. More useless talk followed at the expense of some beleaguered friends (primarily Prabhu, another do-gooder for the function) . My biological system had initiated its shutdown sequence and we had to literally drag Jaanu, who is the ultimate sociopath given to prolonged bouts of conversation with everyone at every given opportunity, back to the hotel room.
The next day morning we got the expected dressing down from Raghav’s mom owing to our slippage with regards to being on-time. We reached the venue to see Basha tie the sacred knot with Sathya, which was a very quick affair compared to the versions we have seen so far. There was no recital of Sanskrit hymns or the “homam” which would have left the bridegroom teary eyed. We somehow forgot to buy a gift for our pal and hence tried our level best to get an envelope in which we could pledge our monetary support to the newlyweds. That plan has been shelved temporarily and we have vowed to take care of that once Basha returns “officially” to work. Meanwhile, Basha tried hard not to be overly concerned about the jokes we were cracking amongst ourselves about his outstanding qualities. M.Ned who had joined us in the morning and being the senior among the guys, led us to the dining hall for the customary breakfast. My next shutdown sequence had started and I coaxed the entourage to head back to the hotel for a short nap.
Raghav and his mom headed to Coimbatore, where Raghav decided to implement our close friend Simbu's copyrighted move of gifting “used” laptop to one of the unsuspecting relatives in exchange for a bigger item in return:-) After a sedate lunch at the nearby Hotel Jardin, Nanda and I took an autorickshaw ride to the station that turned out to be the most exhilarating and heart pounding ride I have ever taken in any vehicle. The driver displayed a maniacal zeal to take us to the station, and the way he drove his vehicle, I supposed he had “higher” plans. However, the journey back to Chennai on the Allepey-Dhanbad express was relatively sedate and tiresome.
Our heartfelt best wishes to Basha and Sathya !!
