Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wedding Diary-II

Further Perils....

Last you heard of our fearless Baratis, they were braving everything from road-rage to mosquitoes in their heroic bid to embrace the all Indian experience.. However...

'However' indeed! Ignoring for the moment sundry small(HA!!!) discomforts, like upset stomachs, colds, coughs, fevers, and other malaises that go by no name, let us come to the next Big thing. It was big enough, you know.. another accident in fact!

On the way to the farmhouse (where we'd had the bright idea of staging the latest edition of the Great Family Reunion In Times Of Joy And Revelry), a car happened to ram into a man. The car happened to be carrying precious cargo.. B Uncle, N Masi and the kids.. and the Man happened to be a Police Man!!! Sweet, eh? We'll leave the rest of the picture to be filled in by your own imaginations...

Actually these were not the only brave Baratis. The very next day, R Bhaiya had a thrilling ride in an auto. Picture this.. Auto driver losing his cool at two youths on motorbike who bumped into his little automobile and sped away.. Next thing we know is the auto-guy does some razzle-dazzle manoeuvres and his auto swooshes to a stop in front of the offending bike.. Heated words are exchanged, and the passenger (R Bhaiya) tries in vain to dissuade Auto-man from any further discussion.

What followed was this. Threats and abuses flowed pretty freely, and emboldened by the fact that he was bigger and stronger than the two motorbike youths, Auto-guy figured he'd show them.. except that this is real life, and more often than not, you end up being shown things you wouldn't have believed possible!

So what do you know, pretty soon, a truck full of brawny men pulls up. Uh-Oh!!!! Pretty soon, Auto-man is being nicely beaten up. Bro tries to step in and stop them, but they coolly tear off his shirt pocket, which he wisely takes as a hint to stay away. Some ten minutes later, the crowds disperse, and a lone auto drives off, bro safely inside it, the chastised Auto-guy in melancholy mode rubbing the occasional hand on his now painful ear...

Monday, December 3, 2007

Wedding Diary - I

The wedding is finally over! So many things happened that it's difficult to write about any of them, cause they all run into each other! But to begin with, I thought I'd write about the most unexpected perils of attending a wedding ever!

So, N masi and B uncle came to India to attend the wedding with the kids, and initially it was all good fun, with a lot of loud singing, painting and general fun which didn't really include getting any homework done.

The first day that they'd come over, my younger cousin and I managed to break a pretty pottery-thing while playing football inside my (rather small) room.

The next day, B uncle and I went around putting up posters directing people to the venue of bro's Mekhal. It was really entertaining, cause every time we put one up, we turned around to see a guard skulking in a corner glaring at us suspiciously. When we'd put up almost all of them, we turned to see the skulking guard standing behind us, hopping from one foot to the other and in the distance, we saw.. well, nothing much really, just that we didn't see any of the posters we'd put up earlier!

Apparently, his sense of 'dooty' kicked in a little late, but impelled him to remove the stuff as he suspected we didn't have permission for the same. He was right of course, and we hopped across and got permission from a happy looking man in the office. After that former-skulking-guard was as helpful as could be, helping us put the stuff up and whatnot! In any case, B uncle went and spoke to what I assume was the head of all guards, and they parted on the best of terms, B uncle having used up all the Hindi he could think of, ending with a very lightly accented 'dhanyavad'!

The next episode in their Indian Adventures was somewhat less merry. In fact, it was pretty much part of the 'Nightmarish Indian Trip' phase of it all. To put it in a nutshell(so that is it all concise and has depth at the same time, you know) there was a bit of an accident. No, let us put it this way... they got to experience the fastest growing phenomenon in Delhi... Road Rage!!! Picture this, two kids and one B uncle, travelling home, BANG!! Someone hits the car from behind.. Before they've had time to do more than make sure everyone is ok, the driver of the car behind them(the Bang-er) drags out the driver of their car(the Bang-ee... only one step or an H away from Bhang-ee, the discerning reader will note) and proceeds to vent in verbal and physical formats; the shindig ending only after registering in the minds of all concerned(or the 'All' we are concerned with) as another reason why India is only good in those little doses that come very very far apart...

To Be Continued...