My brother-in-law Mausam’s marriage was one of the most enjoyable events that I have attended in my lifetime. Those ten days had such a plethora of incidents from pleasant to worse, that, one would have to try really hard to erase even one bit of those memories. In this post, I would indite incidents only up to marriage-eve. In my next post, I would describe the marriage-day itself and events thereafter.
When I and Kuhu left Bangalore, our bodies had been toned to 21 degree Celsius, 50% relative humidity, huge reserves of energy and willingness to work. All that turned on its head, when we got out of our 6E-156 Indigo flight, on the night of 29th of July. Kolkata was simmering at 34 degree Celsius, with an equally sweaty humidity quotient of 97%. We got drenched in perspiration in 10 minutes, and tempers boiled straight away. “Dada ar shomoi pelo na biye korar. Bari giye oke bolbo jeno kuri khana A/C r byabostha kore. Uff ei gorome shajbo ki kore and kaaj korbo ki kore…(Big bro could not find a worse moment to marry. I would instruct him to get around 20 A/Cs planted all across the function hall. In this sapping heat and humidity, how can anyone do any work or embellish oneself with make-ups??).. ” were the first comments from an angry and irritated Kuhu. We reached the “Deb Household”, on 67B Beadon Street, on the evening of 30th of July, four days before the marriage, which was scheduled on the 3rd of August.
By that time itself, we had no energy left in us. We were exhausted already. Gallons of chilled water and soft drinks were flowing down our throats. There was no urge to talk, move around or even eat. Suddenly at 9.30 pm I realized that I had left my mobile phone inside the cab while coming to Beadon Street. We could not possibly have had a more dreadful and atrocious start to this supposedly happy sojourn of Mausam’s (Bubu) marriage ceremony. Luckily for me, the person who picked up the phone from the cab had been kind enough to keep it switched on, so that we could track it. He stayed in Rippon Street, one of the most notorious Muslim localities in south-central Kolkata. At 10.30 pm, Bubu, chotka and I picked the phone up from the gentleman’s residence.
The next two days were relatively less eventful, but the heat and humidity were really getting under our skin. It was getting exceedingly difficult to work and organize things for D-day, but we had no choice. The breakdown of a power station far down in Kolaghat, put the final nail on the coffin. To back the sapping heat, there was no power for two days. Extra power back-up was envisaged, in case there was a black-out on marriage day (that did not take place however).
On marriage-eve, the last night of bachelorhood (Iburo) for Bubu, we decided to have a blast. The rituals at lunch time were over and done with, and we were literally getting bored after that. At 8 in the evening, six of us including the would-be groom gatecrashed into a Saltlake Sector V pub to have a real party. Bubu himself described it as the “final piece of enjoyment” before getting hitched for a lifetime. We danced ourselves crazy to the loudest pieces of music you could ever hope to hear. For Bubu, it was as if he was emancipating himself even before bondage. On marriage day he had to get up at 4am for some small rituals, but the previous night, we returned at 1.30am. So basically that night he had less than 3 hours of sleep. That took its toll the next morning however, albeit to a very small extent.
It was a fantastic buildup to the marriage itself, and the best was yet to come. More of that in my next post !! So stay tuned…
