First Step of Arranged Marriage

Uncle (insisting): Oh! Sharmaji, ab to ladki ko aane mein do din lagenge. Aisa kijiye aap aa jayiye ghar, ladki dekhne na sahi Saharanpur mein dost ke naate hi sahi.

Dad (reluctantly): Are Sir, aap ladki ko bula lo fir sab sath mein ho jayega!

Uncle (pretending): Aap is mind se na aayiye. Bas milne ke liye hi aajao.

Dad (modesty): Ab Sarkar ka hukum kisne tala hai aaj tak!

These consecutive expressions full of insistence, reluctance, pretention, and modesty made me to stand together with my childhood friend cum brother Deepank (virtual name) his first step of Marriage. I would like to call it as ‘Love at first Sight’, If bride/groom don’t like each other at first sight then second step become an imagination & things got stuck right where they were. Anyways, in our case bride was supposed to come there after two days so ‘Love at first Sight’ moment is far away. It was a mutual agreement that it would be an informal meet which was not supposed to have any relation with marriage proposal (as uncle said). But we called our aunt (buaji) for going to host’s place, my brother bought me a new jeans (as I have casual dress style), my brother shaved and joined us in that visit, we removed dust from car, We did all these unusual things for just another informal meet. When we reached to Uncle’s place he seemed to be more enthusiastic to know who is “Deepank” or his may be groom. As soon as his doubt got cleared regarding identification with clear indication of pointing index finger of my dad, he started focusing on identity named “Deepank”.

Then onwards, things got started with a warm welcome which was full of infinite number of dishes. I want to categorize the welcome food of that informal meet into three, four or better into five stages. Stage I: simple water, Stage II: Cold Drink and Fruits, Stage III: Dry Fruits, Stage IV: Snack (includes delicious homemade bread pizzas) and Coffee, Stage V: Tea. All things seem were very happening. Uncle was elaborating about the achievements of family, explaining us about the family members and we got more & more confused as we saw new faces of his joint family members. Really all things were very happening. We were being taken into different stages of welcome food. And all of sudden, I realized we two were looking totally stupid and out of box looking here and there for rescue & everyone is looking at box. Yes, me and my brother. Everyone was watching my brother with a gaze of would be groom and a sarcastic smirk. I was hating that moment. Bud suddenly, I started to realize that the experience was strange to me because it was happening first time. As soon as, I realized that feel, I started enjoying that strange experience and felt myself more comfortable as a boost-man for my brother, who was analyzing the situation in more deeper sense than mine because he was victim.

I realized that confirmation of the relation is dependent upon ‘Love at first sight’. That moment which had 5 stages of welcome food would not come back. So, I left the job of Boost-man and started to eat as much as I could. No doubt food was delicious. But we were there for different purpose. Situation became more fascinating when we were asked to meet the family members of may be bride. Every married woman of that family was smirking on us and wanted to comment in teasing manner. I wanted to comment back on their expression & tease them back but everyone was restricting himself/herself because it was our first informal meet. The best part is everybody knew that everybody was restricting the expressions to come out. Even though, I used to shoot few sentences for breaking the ice. Actually, I become restless if I remain silent for long duration.

Anyways, all things went well. That informal meet led to another informal meet and remained informal with solving a lot of purposes. Actually, everyone who was involved in this meet already knew that this informal meet have a vital role to play and is very specific in its aim. I really liked this strange experience or integral stage of Arrange Marriage and now I am waiting for the moment when my brother will get official right to see the may be bride in front of everyone. I remember the dialogue of my bro, ‘Sala, puri umar ladki ko dekha aur jab ladki ka baap kahe ki ladki ko dekho to samajh nahi aata kya dekhe’. I don’t know how to express but I loved that strange and awkward environment when you meet with those people whom you don’t know at all and talk infinitely in all those directions which proves that your family is culturally best or better to say it is rich in all fields.

Delhi - 6

"Some missions are impossible." So was mine, MISSION DELHI EXPLORATION. But when you try to opt for simplest, shortest and easiest route from the map of clustered, confusing and intermingled routes, you face those moments which insist you to use the keyboard of any laptop or desktop for writing a post like this.

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I used my art of bargaining for bringing prices down to Rs. 10 from Rs. 30 for the useful Delhi map.
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I brought bike from my brother's house for receiving my cousin Lt. Col. Anurag Sharma from Airport.
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My sisters compelled me to meet them at Mausi's house in Bhajanpura.

These jigsaw's flashbacks are sufficient in explaining the happened cause of writing this post. I purchased the Map for getting an idea about Delhi routes and opted a new route selected from MAP for receiving my brother which led me to select a route for Bhajanpura which passes from DELHI-6

I was riding on Bajaj Discover 135 and using Qutub Road which heads towards the traffic-wise dead zone of Delhi known as 'Sadar Bajar'. Traffic-wise dead zone means one can crawl faster on that road instead of moving on a motor vehicle. 1, 2.. 5... 60.... 100..... 400, and so on, I was counting the bald and haired heads wearing colorful helmets and sitting on different type of two wheelers, in still. Actually, all were waiting for a 'royal truck' which is parked precisely at the center of road. Royal truck was supposed to be unloaded by the huge army of worker who were trying hard for the sake of waiting traffic. But after all human have their limits, therefore they took about 15 minutes in completing this task. It is my short-sightedness that i can see only one such truck but there were 2, 3 or more Royal Trucks doing the same thing. Side by side, few traffic passengers who don't respect the Royal Truck were moving from the narrow gap between truck and divider of Delhi-6. Concluding the situation, I can say that followers of Royal Truck were waiting for its permission for doing the moment.

Such situation is quite common in the narrow street like roads of Delhi 110006. Utilization of roads is perfect and even under such crowded circumstances I was able to see a rickshaw on which a gentleman wearing white shirt was sitting. Suddenly, something touched him in his armpit and he stoop up on the negligible floor of cycle rickshaw and shouted 'Abey, dekh ke chal maaaaaaaaaa..... (gulp)'. You could have done the same, when unkowingly you got hit by the horn of bull of bullock cart. 1.5 feet long horns were pointing towards white shirted person. In response of 'Abey, dekh ke..', bull snuffed and the growing anger of person got digested with that gulp of person. He took few seconds to realize that even though man is a social animal but Science is not so developed that he can verbally communicate with Bull. So he chose the easy target bullock cart driver and spoke more loudly, 'teri... &*^$$$'. I was lucky that my ass was guarded by the car not by a bullock cart. Due to circumstances and fear of the imagined smiling face of bull, I didn't overtake that cart on Qutub Road.

Delhi-6 was so happening that few people innovate their own ways of passing the time while waiting for the permission of Royal Truck. Another, blue colored helmet wearing person had marginal distance between front of his scooter and backside of car. An old man came to him and pleaded him to give him way for crossing the road. Helmentman replied, "Main yaha ghanto se intzaar karke itna aage aaya hun, piche nahi hatunga kahi aur se chale jao". Old man had weak bones but strong voice, He replied, "bete jaunga to yahi se, chahe kud ke jana pade". Then Old man tried to exhale as much as he could to reduce his volume so that he can pass by the marginal distance. Eventually, he got succeeded in reducing his stomach to get fit into the gap, which resulted in crossing the scooter. After passing, situation was supposed to be calm down but the old man shouted, "Ghanta jawan aadmi hai, tere se achcha to main hun aur jab tera budhapa aayega na tab tarasiyo". Helment man replied, "Baba abhi tera budhapa hai tu taras...".

Suddenly Royal Truck gave permission to his followers and we started moving a bit faster than crawling. It was the will of God that I tool only half hour to cross a stretch of 500m. '1km/hr’, Isn't too fast? We all started moving and oldman, helmetman, white-shirted person, bull, bullockcart god disappeared. I reached to the transition where narrow roads fused with the wide road of ISBT. I accelerated the bike for getting out of traffic rush.

400...100… 60... 5... 2 1! I came out of Delhi-6 and cursed my Mission of Delhi Exploration. I looked back, to my surprise no one was willing to leave those narrow streets and join the wide road of city. They all want to enjoy the crowded scene and abusing each other. I was sitting out on Discover 135, away from the merged traffic of rickshaw pullers, cycle rickshaw, trucks, bullock cart, animal driven vehicles, with a relief. But somewhere, in mind I realized that while moving so fast I left out all of them, yes all of them in Delhi-6

the 3 mistakes of my life

Chetan Bhagat, leading English Author of Indian Nationality, has presented a real time story of Gujrati friends in his newly released novel 'the 3 mistakes of my life'. There is no doubt that this 250 pages novel of Rupa Paperback publications has full right to emerge as another best seller after his '5 point someone' and 'one night @ call centre'. It inspires to resolve religious, political, social & calamity issues of life instead of getting devastated. I really appreciate the cover of nove which reflect all the aspect of novel and especially the THREE. You can observe three differnt colors, three different men and three different stump. By the end, it shows a ray of hope to Indian Cricket Lovers for having a nice Batting Strength in future due to its connection with reality.

This novel is a narrated story of three friends Govind, Ishaan & Omi and narrator is former one. All have their different aspiration related to business, cricket & religion respectively. As a stable source of income they opened up a business shop. It gave them an opportunity to train a child named Ali, as future of Indian Cricket Team. They faced a lot of problems related to politics, religion, calamities & unacceptable love. In this story, they try to overcome these problem & their committed MISTAKES. Number of mistakes is not hard to guess. Above all, the description of terrifying experience about Bhuj Earthquake and Godhra Kand is really nicely written. Pointing the message of story is hard, but 'Success' is not an obvious answer of 'attempt' is clear message that floats on every page.

A common man can easily attach himself with the story due to its connection with real incidents. It is simply a real time narrated story with lack of extra spice. So it is the call of reader whether they appreciate spicy story or real story. I feel it as a nice story which binds reader with its flow. Giving it one try will be worth ones you finish off with this medium sized novel. Personally speaking, I like the real time connection, sensual description (especially), risk taking character of child & simple story telling way of author. I will recommend this novel for all kind of people except those who are fond of good language.