Narsim's Blog

This is my first personal blog, i post my personal details regarding my life and some experiences i've had had so far

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Shoba's Wedding Trip

We the travelers, Me, Kumar, Murali, Chandrasingh and Mathew started from Chennai by bus.

Murali and Mathew were the first to get to the private operators bus stand in koyambedu, Kumar, me next and finally Chandrasingh. We had dinner there in a small shop; I had nothing since afternoon, was famished and digged in.

We got into the bus, where another group of youngster, far younger than us, maybe fresh just from college or around an year of experience I guess, were also traveling. The bus started around 8:55 pm, almost twenty minutes late. It took us another two hours just to get to kathiparai. This was one of the longest short drives for me in years. I have never been caught up in jam like today in any bus journey or in my two wheeler before.

We had fun talking about our offices, pulling each others legs and talking about the good old days. Time flew and it was almost 12:00 am, some of the older travelers started to get agitated by our shouting and laughing. We were the less noisy group though. After an outburst from one the older traveling people, things quitened up a bit. After the stop around midnight, we continued on.

This was a sleepless night as I had anticipated, the seats were comfy, but most of us were not regular travelers, and it told in us not able to cope with the alien conditions. We slept in fits, the road getting bad all the time. During the later part of the journey, just when we were dozing off one by one, we were jolted from our short lived slumber due to a bad bump in the road here or one or more potholes there and a combination of both. The super driver added to our woes, he never slowed in the bad patches. For him this was just another day in office I guess, I can't blame this though.

We got up pretty early around 600 am, when the bus reached near trichy. Our chatter started once again, with noise levels rising with the day. We reached tiruchirapalli and alighted in the bus stand around 630 am. We tried to call shoba once we came into trichy. The phone kept ringing the first few tries, then somebody (later came it was her uncle), they told us we would be picked up by a rental car near the bus stand and were given the plate no.

We alighted in the bus stand, to the loo direct, as most us wanted to free our bladders. It was bad to say the least about the condition of the toilets. I have been to far worse versions back here in Chennai, but Mathew and Murali literally ran out the moment then came in. We will never forget this.

The climate was nice; it was slightly chilly in the morning, but not so hot later. It was just fine. We had tea and then got into the car and reached rangiem (shoba' s native place). We reached her home, said our hi’s to be the bride to be and her parents. Met her dad, mum and grandma. We had coffee, and then were escorted by car to one of their relative place.

We got ready. Breakfast awaited us on our return, a typical chettinad breakfast, we all enjoyed it. We had a heavy breakfast to say the least. They we sat out and chatted for a while.

Soon the “mappillai azaiophu” started and we got into the thick of things, I was sort of the unofficial photographer for the group. We went to home in a nearby street where the ceremony too place. Chandrasingh kept pushing me to go upfront and snap pictures, he harassed me very much, its true!!! We saw the groom, they make a good pair. We returned to shoba' s house and soon the marriage started. This is the first chettinad wedding that I am attending. It was a small and simple weeding, surrounded by relatives and close friends. Very different from the ones I’ve usually gone to. A nice experience.

Chandrasingh was very interested in all the happenings, he kept asking me question and most times I had nothing to say, it was all so new to me in the first place and I was never interested in these matters anyways from the start.

We were made to have an early lunch; we were still trying to lighten up after the morning breakfast. We just ate little, could not really appreciate the lunch, which was also good. But I must add not as good as the first one in the morning. Maybe our hunger earlier added to this biased view and we were so full from the morning feast.

We gave the present (a watch each for the couple) to the newly wed, congratulated her parents ,grand mother (who remembered incidentally - not surprising for me though) and took our leave soon.

We went back to her relative’s home, packed our bags and were dropped by car in Tiruchirapalli bus stand. We took a bus to Trichy. We wanted to catch the afternoon bus to Chennai and wanted to be home in time for bed. As it turned was, it was not meant to be.

We got a bus to Chennai, as soon as we got down in trichy. The bus started in a while. We stopped for snacks (that's what we thought) in samayapuram. Minutes went from 10, 20 to almost an hour. That's when we came to know that the bus has had technical problems, and could not go on. We were told that we would be put into busses coming our way to Chennai. There was chaos for a while, then it was decided we would be dropped back in trichy and our money were returned. There was some minor disputes regarding the fair amount, it was ambiguous as many was charged differently by the agents who got us the bus seats. Thankfully, nothing serious happened. Most got back what they paid.

Back in trichy; found out that no busses were available in the evening, booked for a late night bus to Chennai. To kill time, we went to a bar in a 3 star hotel nearby, had drinks and chatting away time. We then had dinner in a hotel near the bus stand and got into the bus with time to spare.

The return journey was as eventful as the onward, if not more. We felt tired, we slept better on the way back, but still not peaceful. I once again slept in fits. To add this, there was a big traffic jam and the bus meant to reach Chennai around 4-5 in the morning got here only around 8-9.

Murali got down in Tambaram and I got down in Kathiparai. The others went on to Koyambedu as it was nearer for them from there. I reached home around 9 am.

Check out the photos taken during the trip here http://www.flickr.com/photos/narsim/sets/72057594066259040/

Though we might remember the unpleasant things first, the sweeter will follow later and will last more than the less nice ones. For me at least I guess...This might probably be the last time I go on a trip with Kumar, he will soon be for starting for US, that makes it all the more memorable. A nice small trip that had many interesting moments.

Hope to take more of these marriage trips of my friends and colleagues former and new ones. These Marriage Trips are never empty.

This what Mathew had to say about this trip

Well, all in all it was an excellent trip. Good to see shoba being such a good traditional girl doing things the good old way! Also how can you forget the vella paniyaram that we got for breakfast!!! The highlights of the day were the breakfast and the lunch.

Also the Dinner party which Kumar threw! It refreshed all of us and later put us to sleep!!

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