"The Garud House"

...is the name of the venue where the wedding happened in Bareilly. It had a huge "dwar" and outside were antique fauji machines on both the sides...looked like a n old jonga - not really sure though...

Bridegroom: My dear friend Himanshu (A major in the army, a bomb diffusion expert, an ISB passout, and now Asst. Vice President, Transitions)

Bride: Priyanka, a pretty girl, daughter of a general officer in command (Maj General)

Was really looking forward to attending the wedding for a long time;somehow things were not working out, until I put my sleeves up and decided to do some adventure...(let that be with me...)...so off we were on the roads, around 5.15 am in the morning. I think I reached Lajpat nagar from gurgaon in flat 25 minutes...I know it ain't a big deal, but I was at a consistent speed. By the time, we got out of the NCR, it was late an hence we hit on the crazy traffic. It took us almost 8 hours to reach Rai Bareilly...covering a distance of 248 km. Pity, but that's the stats...had paneer paranthas, thandi lassi at a dhaba..followed by some australian lager beer...and my favourite cd playing. My company, other than the rest four, were few other thoughts, some messages, and some calls to Manish since he was leaving for Boston the same night for good 10 days....(and I had dumped his clothes outside the closet for him to pack and stuff...:-) all the more reason for him to get upset..as if leaving him and going wasn't enough...)

Wedding was awesome - almost every 'fauji' in the brigade seemed preoccupied with the general saab's daughter's wedding...the arrangement was close to pefection. The cantt was beautiful...gosh, army occupies a lot of land..and all that goes in the taxes that we pay to the government - what a terrific chain of events!! The garud house was done up aesthetically...palkis, small paan shop, nice small puliyas, baggi, mandap, bar, and the tandoor...it was worth the 8 hours drive. Being a fauji wedding, everything seemed so disciplined and well coordinated and connected - reminded me so much of those inspections and the sports meets that dad used to get organised in the batallion, and every johny working rigourously day in and out, their mock sessions, drilling, fateek, marchpast, trails...we were kids but used to see the enthusiasm among the officers, JCOs, and the johnies.

Back to the wedding - the usual dance, baraat, varmala, followed by food, and photography - and back to the mess by 1.00 pm. Sat outside in the verandah and listened to the birds, insects, in the middle of sheer quiteness. Started back at 4.20 am in the morning and chatted with raman, while the others were dozing off..we listened to some real good songs and it was a pleasure to see the light engulfing the world slowly...dusk meeting the dawn...

Without any sleep the previous night, I actually had the energy to pick car from bhabi's place, go pick Mishi from dadu house, and then drive to Noida to shalu's place, go shopping with her to lifestyle for 4 hours, and get back home, color my hair and sleep at 12.30. These are the only times when I think I still feel young (!!) and be energetic...otherwise the routine BPO job, and an attempt to strike a work-life balance leaves me feeling only 10 years more than what I am right now. (Hey doctor, I know what you would have to say on this...I am glad you don't know the comments options in blogger...lol...cheers).

Monday morning 6.30 am, drive back to gurgaon..and reach home..and another routine day in the making...