Wedding Blues..!!!

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I had the most beautiful time recently. A most unexpectedly, beautifully amazing time in a city so far away from home. A city which offered so much that I hardly missed home.

It was my friend’s wedding last week, and since I’d been preparing to attend his wedding from the day he announced his parents were thinking of hitching him up, I HAD to go.

So there I am, all decked up, with two large suitcases full of formal clothes and cosmetics and stuff, waiting impatiently at the airport terminal in Goa for the flight to arrive. My friend had insisted that I stay at his home for the function, and that all us friends attend all the functions, right from the ‘haldi’ to the reception.

And right there at the airport, I’m having nerve attacks. I’ve never met his family before. I’ve never left home for a city totally unknown all alone before (well, I have, but that’s for another time). I’m not sure I’m considered the closest of his friends to impose myself on his family at his wedding.

But what to do?

The plane ticket has been bought, my parents have left the airport and I’m already at the departure gates. Aah, but one thing’s pushing me on! A new place, with new people and lots of bachelors and bachelorettes…! Ahem, ahem. I suppose you get the meaning (Or perhaps I should be praying you do not!)!!!

The plane arrives, I get on, love the window seat, sit back to admire the clouds and lightning crashing in the turbulent skies. A really nice cluster of neighbors admire the view with me in the rocking plane (more about that later…).

And finally, I arrive at the NSCBI airport at Kolkata, dragging my luggage off the tracks. My friend is waiting for me just outside.

My dear friend, who had been fighting viral fever until a few hours before, has left a battalion of relatives back at his house, and driven all the way to the airport nearly an hour away from his home, just to pick me up…

And when we reach his home, his family is the kindest, sweetest bunch you can imagine! I was to stay at my friend’s sister’s place, and the hospitality her family gave me would put the Taj to shame!

After a few hours there, I’m as much a part of the wedding festivities as anybody else there. The bride is brought home, and she’s an absolute darling! I’m given the honor of being her squire when her husband is not around, and the sweet, demure girl strikes an instant chord with me.

The tiny niece and nephews my friend has been bragging about the last few years are all agog at the new ‘aunty’ from Goa. One kid of eight years tells me she cannot call me aunty because I’m not married yet. The other kid, a really mature child of eleven has no such qualms. When I address the bride as bhabi, the kids follow suit, much to their uncle, the groom’s chagrin..!

Uncleji introduces me to all his relatives proudly, and my friends sisters are excellent company. The aunts and cousins are beautiful people, plying me with sweets and mishthi and I feel like an honorary guest.

Finally, the three extraordinary days are over. I have to catch a flight at 5.30 the next morning, and my friend’s jijaji, the nephew and Uncleji drop me off at the airport in the early hours. As the car drives off, I feel an emptiness filled with longing inside of me.

Isn’t it wonderful when you find such great people so unexpectedly? I had not imagined I would have such wonderful company, that I’d find new acquaintances, new friends in a strange place I was so apprehensive about…

And yet, how could I doubt it?

And now back home, talking to my parents non-stop about the kindest family (besides mine) I’ve ever known, I feel a gratitude for being able to go to Kolkata.

For not only did the trip boost my confidence (EVERYBODY called me beautiful and nice! Can you imagine it?! Me?????!!!!), it gave me a chance to study different cultures, a chance to meet my friend anew and most importantly, some very new, very beautiful friends…

Yeah, I didn’t meet any bachelors I liked (I’m too choosy!) but what the heck! I got a bit of a new wardrobe!