Flood of In Laws for me when Chaitu got married.
See this pic
and this pic
and in this pic (no not the pipers)
.. and many more pics to come.. so the people you see in the entire coverage of the pics above are all my in laws related as father, mother, uncle, aunt, sister, brother, nephew, niece.. everyone in a way or other are my in laws.
Yes it was the wedding of Chaitanya my brother-in-law and there was a flood of in-laws for me. I was such an outlier (go search the meaning of this mathematical term).
Before I start let me introduce myself first. Yes you know that I am Bibudesh but 'Bibudesh' is not my demography. I am from Ranchi Jharkhand, with roots and countryside from Bihar, base from Distt Masaurhi or Taregana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taregana) .. I am a hard core Bihari which you will soon witness by the upcoming grammatical mistakes and errors. So I met this girl named Pallavi, fell in love like Shahrukh khan and got married like a good boy. End of my introduction. I know you want to know more, but some stories are better kept hidden.
To every north Indian (which I am not but I am stereotyped as) a south indian wedding is - Stand in a queue near the stage stairs with a gift in your hands, wait for your turn, climb up to the stage, give the gift, get a vacant space in and around the bride-groom, give a plastic smile, get a picture and rush to dining. I saw behind the screen drama only during my own wedding which was filled with Hybrid ritual or KaHar (Kannada +Bihar). Yes Hybrid it was ! .
After my wedding, every other weddings I attended were the same stage drama followed by same food at dining. But still I had this itch to see the 'real' things taking place. I had to see how a real Kannada wedding happens. While I was into my thoughts, Pallavi's mobile rang. My ears stood up to eavesdrop to ensure if she is talking about me to the person on the other side. Well yeah she sometimes thinks that I am dumb but I can make out meaning in Havyaka and yeah you cannot make a fool of myself. So after the talk was over (which I could not understand a bit), she told me if I am willing to travel to Sirsi.
Sirsi? For what?
It was wedding of her cousin brother Chaitanya or Chaitu when called pyar se. I did not give a second thought due to many reasons. Number one is at least I will be able to identify my distant in-laws other than my immediate ones. I will also get an opportunity to connect with my brother in laws whom I don't even remember names correctly (what an Ass I am). Number two I will be able to see the real wedding I had been craving to see and a nice opportunity to click pictures.
So plan was up and we were all set to travel to a small village called as Sugawi via Sirsi.
Sugawi is a very small yet very sweet village some 10 kms from Sirsi. I think there are no more than like 5-10 houses there. The wedding couples are childhood friends from the same village and the Barat was about to cover a distance of less than a km. I was in with full of energy.
So when I visit my in laws in villages their first assumption is that I am a Kannadiga (though I look like from Tamil Nadu) and they fluently start talking to me in Kannada. The moment they start talking I start hunting for my wife, sis/mother/brother/father-in-law to come for rescue as an interpreter. But during weddings everyone is busy and I am left to fend for myself
.
During the wedding I had to ensure that I look like a Damaad(son in law) and not like a Photographer who carry an expression-less face with a flash mounted SLR camera clicking pictures of people in awkward postures such with mouth wide open and feeding curd-rice, or pictures of three mudukas(old men) sitting together expressionlessly etc. So once I got dressed up well Pallavi ensured that I am not looking like a cheapo wedding photographer, I was ready to attend the wedding and face the challenges ahead.
When it comes to Kannada, I have a vocab of some words which I keep flashing if I am confronted with hard core locals. Havyaka words such as yenta, madta, idda, yelli, oota, aata, henge, vadage, horge etc. are always ready to flush out of my mouth. Sometimes it comes out in completely wrong context.
Example- During the wedding someone asked me something in Kannada and I replied "oota cholo ide" (lunch is good). My sis-in-law Akshitha who is aware of my language syndrome resisted her giggle and said she was asking why my parents did not come. I did not know how to respond to that person who was herself holding her giggles, I somehow managed to make her understand with broken words, hands/legs/face/finger sign that my parents are not in Bangalore. Sigh of relief.
I was happy this time since no-one mistook me as a paid wedding photographer. Thank God ! Looked like someone had done the prerequisites.
The wedding was hard core with absolutely no adulteration from modern day weddings. I was glad to see such things happening since the wedding which takes place in Bangalore is so juice-less and boring. At our place if such is the profile of bride and groom that they are 'foreign returned' and belong to a well being family, then there will be showoff to maximum extent. I hate to see that happening.
Chaitu's case was different in a highly positive way and I was glad that I made it to his wedding or I was going to miss something highly interesting.
Here are a few pictures from his wedding.
Chaitu ready to rock-n-roll
Aunt-in-laws on traditional mode of transportation. I was finding it hard and scary to overtake the cart, and let me be honest I cheated and overtook it from the left side and broke traffic rules. Sometimes I had do it while driving to office when an auto-rickshaw at a speed of bullock blocks my way. BTW check their facial expressions, if I was scared then think about them.
Chaitu on the set getting ready
My full and half wives
Welcoming bride relatives
Welcome Rituals
Mission Accomplished expression
One of the faces I use to send in SOS situation. My mother-in-law
The most important person after bride and groom during a wedding. Mother of Groom.
And the father of groom
Since it was raining in-laws, to me it was hard to identify how were they related to my wife.
Talking about in-laws and being a north indian (stereotyped), at our place the son-in-laws are suppose to pull legs of their sister-in-laws in a funny way.
They relationship is more of like fun-filled and there is a saying in hindi 'Saali hoti hai aadhi gharwaali' meaning sister-in-laws are half wives LOL! .. But here there were so many of them that adding them up would become more than 100 wives. If you are a married man then maybe you can realize the gravity of situation which may arise if the volume I am talking about is taken into consideration (100 in total). I know asylum will be THE only viable solution.
Anyways, my saalis (or sister-in-laws) i.e. my wife's sisters were very decent to me. So it was hard for me to even pull their legs, I mean it was decency at its best (m talking about myself). If I tell this to my sister's husband that my sister-in-laws talk to me about studies then he will have nothing but pity on me.
Some sister in laws
Brother in law Chinmaya and his wife
My immediate sister in law Akshitha (who is aware of my syndrome) and her brother
Aiyo ! , so many lady in laws
Photography in progress
Pappu halwai
Many more in laws
Smart guys
Kid getting bored
I want to have a special mention for this lady pictured below. So this lady was looking like the busiest of the lot in the wedding. She reminded me of my office days when we were freshly recruited. Back then it so happened that once our training was over we were placed into certain projects. Nearly 20% of them were not placed due to the organizational policy of maintaining bench. Those 20% of the lots use to see us busy and get frustrated. There were a few among them who were literal fun, the moment we'll meet them they will start pretending as if they are very busy, they make such a facial expression that the entire economy in on their shoulders and they use to start running away even after a chat of 2 minutes. Whenever you'll see them they will be running. This lady was reminding me of those friends. I somehow managed to click her pic without her knowing.
After a full round of facing in-laws it was the most interesting and the most awaited fest to come, the fest of feasting. I simply love sirsi food and if it served in a traditional way then nothing can really beat it. While the food was served I could remember only three of my possessions - My Camera, My Hands and My Mouth. Everything else in world meant nothing. So while I was getting ready to hog I completely forgot that I am slightly dependent on someone else there for signals, i.e. my wife.
The ritual is to let the whole food get served and everyone should start at once. Paysa (Kheer) is the first item to get served and good enough to amplify your hunger. When it was served (2 spoonful as ritual) it took me 3 sec in totality to lick it down to my intestine. This is when my eyes made contact with my wife's which was throwing some kind of warning signal. I interpreted that I should wait and control my emotions towards food at least here. I was helpless still I tried my level best for a while. After a minute serving food ritual ended and hogging food ritual by the great Bibudesh started. I ended up with few inches extra bulge layer on top of my evergreen rising tummy.
Everyone wanted that gadget.
Check out this traditional Mandap made of Banana shoots and decorated with herbs.
Some more detail
Enters the Bride
Happiness in excess !
Smile naturally
Wedding Ritual in progress
Mangalsutra
Blessed
Beautiful face
Gheraoed
Happy face
Once the wedding was over which I did not realize, I was again signaled to start leaving which I was not willing to, but decisions were already made. I was feeling to make it to dinner, have some dance dhamaka, flirt with aadhi-gharwaalis, take some picture of jungle, give some speeches, drink and get loaded before leaving for home. But some dreams are meant to be shattered, still whatever I had was overwhelming in itself. This wedding function got rooted inside me and has left a very positive mark in myself. I am glad and lucky to get related to such an awesome family.
I am glad that I am married to Pallavi.
See this pic
and this pic
and in this pic (no not the pipers)
.. and many more pics to come.. so the people you see in the entire coverage of the pics above are all my in laws related as father, mother, uncle, aunt, sister, brother, nephew, niece.. everyone in a way or other are my in laws.
Yes it was the wedding of Chaitanya my brother-in-law and there was a flood of in-laws for me. I was such an outlier (go search the meaning of this mathematical term).
Before I start let me introduce myself first. Yes you know that I am Bibudesh but 'Bibudesh' is not my demography. I am from Ranchi Jharkhand, with roots and countryside from Bihar, base from Distt Masaurhi or Taregana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taregana) .. I am a hard core Bihari which you will soon witness by the upcoming grammatical mistakes and errors. So I met this girl named Pallavi, fell in love like Shahrukh khan and got married like a good boy. End of my introduction. I know you want to know more, but some stories are better kept hidden.
To every north Indian (which I am not but I am stereotyped as) a south indian wedding is - Stand in a queue near the stage stairs with a gift in your hands, wait for your turn, climb up to the stage, give the gift, get a vacant space in and around the bride-groom, give a plastic smile, get a picture and rush to dining. I saw behind the screen drama only during my own wedding which was filled with Hybrid ritual or KaHar (Kannada +Bihar). Yes Hybrid it was ! .
After my wedding, every other weddings I attended were the same stage drama followed by same food at dining. But still I had this itch to see the 'real' things taking place. I had to see how a real Kannada wedding happens. While I was into my thoughts, Pallavi's mobile rang. My ears stood up to eavesdrop to ensure if she is talking about me to the person on the other side. Well yeah she sometimes thinks that I am dumb but I can make out meaning in Havyaka and yeah you cannot make a fool of myself. So after the talk was over (which I could not understand a bit), she told me if I am willing to travel to Sirsi.
Sirsi? For what?
It was wedding of her cousin brother Chaitanya or Chaitu when called pyar se. I did not give a second thought due to many reasons. Number one is at least I will be able to identify my distant in-laws other than my immediate ones. I will also get an opportunity to connect with my brother in laws whom I don't even remember names correctly (what an Ass I am). Number two I will be able to see the real wedding I had been craving to see and a nice opportunity to click pictures.
So plan was up and we were all set to travel to a small village called as Sugawi via Sirsi.
Sugawi is a very small yet very sweet village some 10 kms from Sirsi. I think there are no more than like 5-10 houses there. The wedding couples are childhood friends from the same village and the Barat was about to cover a distance of less than a km. I was in with full of energy.
So when I visit my in laws in villages their first assumption is that I am a Kannadiga (though I look like from Tamil Nadu) and they fluently start talking to me in Kannada. The moment they start talking I start hunting for my wife, sis/mother/brother/father-in-law to come for rescue as an interpreter. But during weddings everyone is busy and I am left to fend for myself
.
During the wedding I had to ensure that I look like a Damaad(son in law) and not like a Photographer who carry an expression-less face with a flash mounted SLR camera clicking pictures of people in awkward postures such with mouth wide open and feeding curd-rice, or pictures of three mudukas(old men) sitting together expressionlessly etc. So once I got dressed up well Pallavi ensured that I am not looking like a cheapo wedding photographer, I was ready to attend the wedding and face the challenges ahead.
When it comes to Kannada, I have a vocab of some words which I keep flashing if I am confronted with hard core locals. Havyaka words such as yenta, madta, idda, yelli, oota, aata, henge, vadage, horge etc. are always ready to flush out of my mouth. Sometimes it comes out in completely wrong context.
Example- During the wedding someone asked me something in Kannada and I replied "oota cholo ide" (lunch is good). My sis-in-law Akshitha who is aware of my language syndrome resisted her giggle and said she was asking why my parents did not come. I did not know how to respond to that person who was herself holding her giggles, I somehow managed to make her understand with broken words, hands/legs/face/finger sign that my parents are not in Bangalore. Sigh of relief.
I was happy this time since no-one mistook me as a paid wedding photographer. Thank God ! Looked like someone had done the prerequisites.
The wedding was hard core with absolutely no adulteration from modern day weddings. I was glad to see such things happening since the wedding which takes place in Bangalore is so juice-less and boring. At our place if such is the profile of bride and groom that they are 'foreign returned' and belong to a well being family, then there will be showoff to maximum extent. I hate to see that happening.
Chaitu's case was different in a highly positive way and I was glad that I made it to his wedding or I was going to miss something highly interesting.
Here are a few pictures from his wedding.
Chaitu ready to rock-n-roll
Aunt-in-laws on traditional mode of transportation. I was finding it hard and scary to overtake the cart, and let me be honest I cheated and overtook it from the left side and broke traffic rules. Sometimes I had do it while driving to office when an auto-rickshaw at a speed of bullock blocks my way. BTW check their facial expressions, if I was scared then think about them.
Chaitu on the set getting ready
My full and half wives
Welcoming bride relatives
Welcome Rituals
One of the faces I use to send in SOS situation. My mother-in-law
The most important person after bride and groom during a wedding. Mother of Groom.
Since it was raining in-laws, to me it was hard to identify how were they related to my wife.
Talking about in-laws and being a north indian (stereotyped), at our place the son-in-laws are suppose to pull legs of their sister-in-laws in a funny way.
They relationship is more of like fun-filled and there is a saying in hindi 'Saali hoti hai aadhi gharwaali' meaning sister-in-laws are half wives LOL! .. But here there were so many of them that adding them up would become more than 100 wives. If you are a married man then maybe you can realize the gravity of situation which may arise if the volume I am talking about is taken into consideration (100 in total). I know asylum will be THE only viable solution.
Anyways, my saalis (or sister-in-laws) i.e. my wife's sisters were very decent to me. So it was hard for me to even pull their legs, I mean it was decency at its best (m talking about myself). If I tell this to my sister's husband that my sister-in-laws talk to me about studies then he will have nothing but pity on me.
Some sister in laws
Brother in law Chinmaya and his wife
My immediate sister in law Akshitha (who is aware of my syndrome) and her brother
Aiyo ! , so many lady in laws
Photography in progress
I want to have a special mention for this lady pictured below. So this lady was looking like the busiest of the lot in the wedding. She reminded me of my office days when we were freshly recruited. Back then it so happened that once our training was over we were placed into certain projects. Nearly 20% of them were not placed due to the organizational policy of maintaining bench. Those 20% of the lots use to see us busy and get frustrated. There were a few among them who were literal fun, the moment we'll meet them they will start pretending as if they are very busy, they make such a facial expression that the entire economy in on their shoulders and they use to start running away even after a chat of 2 minutes. Whenever you'll see them they will be running. This lady was reminding me of those friends. I somehow managed to click her pic without her knowing.
After a full round of facing in-laws it was the most interesting and the most awaited fest to come, the fest of feasting. I simply love sirsi food and if it served in a traditional way then nothing can really beat it. While the food was served I could remember only three of my possessions - My Camera, My Hands and My Mouth. Everything else in world meant nothing. So while I was getting ready to hog I completely forgot that I am slightly dependent on someone else there for signals, i.e. my wife.
The ritual is to let the whole food get served and everyone should start at once. Paysa (Kheer) is the first item to get served and good enough to amplify your hunger. When it was served (2 spoonful as ritual) it took me 3 sec in totality to lick it down to my intestine. This is when my eyes made contact with my wife's which was throwing some kind of warning signal. I interpreted that I should wait and control my emotions towards food at least here. I was helpless still I tried my level best for a while. After a minute serving food ritual ended and hogging food ritual by the great Bibudesh started. I ended up with few inches extra bulge layer on top of my evergreen rising tummy.
Everyone wanted that gadget.
Check out this traditional Mandap made of Banana shoots and decorated with herbs.
Some more detail
Happiness in excess !
Wedding Ritual in progress
Beautiful face
Gheraoed
Happy face
Once the wedding was over which I did not realize, I was again signaled to start leaving which I was not willing to, but decisions were already made. I was feeling to make it to dinner, have some dance dhamaka, flirt with aadhi-gharwaalis, take some picture of jungle, give some speeches, drink and get loaded before leaving for home. But some dreams are meant to be shattered, still whatever I had was overwhelming in itself. This wedding function got rooted inside me and has left a very positive mark in myself. I am glad and lucky to get related to such an awesome family.
I am glad that I am married to Pallavi.
