If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email alerts. Thanks for visiting!
Just two more days until we leave for Bhubhaneshwar for our wedding. Ash is currently living with her aunt in Mumbai with her mom and sister and I’m all the way up in the mainland in Panvel. The first few days were crazy with wedding shopping and last-minute preparations. However, the most time-consuming aspect of any Indian wedding has to be the distribution of invitations. Although Ash and I printed and distributed a separate set of invitations to our friends and colleagues in the U.S., my parents had their own fancy-schmancy version with varying number of invitations for the umpteen ceremonies pre- and post-wedding. Add to it my brother’s wedding a week later and you can imagine the thickness of the invite for any close family or friend who is invited to all possible ceremonies. I sympathize for the busy folk who have thus been invited and are compelled to put in their attendance lest sentiments are hurt.
Thankfully, common sense prevailed over the distribution of invitations as most of them were delivered via courier. However, for more personal contacts this impersonal manner of delivery would do more harm than good. So my parents had to hand-deliver a tiny majority of invites (still a sizeable number) and I was given a few as well. And of course, the Maharashtrian tradition of inviting the would-be groom for a kelvan dinner was yet another social obligation I had to endure. In a smart move, we combined the two - kelvan and handing over the wedding invitations - in one party. Of course, we had to have more than one such party for different sets of friends and families. Poor Ash was ferried around to couple of such parties and had to endure the scrutinizing eyes of all present. But at least under the excuse of such parties, Ash and I got to meet everyone we really wanted to without the glaring lights of the wedding reception.
I absolutely hated the other kind of distribution where I had to go personally to few households in Panvel to personally hand over the invitations. Although it was nice to meet up with people I hadn’t seen in a while, the compulsory stuffing my belly with myriad sorts of eatables completely ruined the experience. During one such evening, I was forced into eating kheer, Thums Up, paani puri, kaaju barfee, anaarsa, besan wadi in that order before going to a kelvan dinner. You can imagine the state of my delicate belly that has been used to regular meals of a non-fatty diet (steak Fridays excluded). Individually I would have loved to gorge on each of those delicacies (yup! including Thums Up) but the khichdi of all stuffed in one massive orgy was too much. After that evening, I refused to go out to hand over any more invitations; social niceties be damned. After all, people too refuse to listen to your pleas of ‘kharach maushi, aaj khop khalaya. Ajun nako‘ (Really, Aunty I have had enough today. Please no more)
And to think that this is just the beginning. Tales of the final battle shall be shared…if I survive. Wish me luck.
by Patrix | on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 3:36 am | 
Personal . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:11 pm reply
You do realise many of us out of India would gladly give an arm and leg for this. :)
But yeah - I know what you mean. Even without a wedding the gastronomic assault inflicted by well meaning relatives is tough to endure. I keep a ‘i got the stomach-flu’ excuse handy !
December 18th, 2007 at 1:15 am reply
ah i knew it..you had to be a ghat..i endured variations of this last year and i sympathize, oh i do ( specially the scrutiny by the outlaws). managed to escape most of the kelvans coz was down with jaundice ( an unexpectedly positive side-effect of falling ill a few weeks before shaadi).
stomach infections, sore throat, dieting ( ahem) work equally well tho.
December 18th, 2007 at 10:46 am reply
Watch out, buddy!! Don’t end up in a hospital like I did.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:44 am reply
boss, this abhishek here, ash is already taken by me ash is supposed to only refer to aishwarya rai , ash is tm-ed and copyrighted , whichever ash you are taking about is not real ash, so i suggest you start using complete name for yours what ever it may be - may be akash vani or something
December 20th, 2007 at 2:34 pm reply
Congratulations! Looking forward to pictures of you on the horse. Here’s my blog wish for you guys
December 20th, 2007 at 2:45 pm reply
is a desi pundit contributor covering the whole shebang? Real time? As long as you aren’t taking your camera and taking pictures of the camera man!! Felt bad not catching up withyou before you left. Definiitely fill me in when you get back!
Much merrymaking!
December 20th, 2007 at 4:04 pm reply
oh stop complaining…….its once around……..and you will work off the extra weight………as you know in India theres only one way to survive and actually enjoy- its to go with the flow. eat one bite of everything and fiddle around with the rest.
December 24th, 2007 at 8:58 am reply
you get these really good carbon tablets that help in digestion…..:)….maybe you should carry them around… and congratulations and best wishes for the big day.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:42 am reply
dang … all that preparations and i MISSED IT :D …. hahaha … hope the wedding (and reception after) was a lot less crazy than the distributing of invites ?
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 am reply
Wishing you a very happy married life :)