Around the Indian wedding in one night

@4 am morning- I was multitasking.

Trying to wake up my drunk cousin reminding her university exam this morning.

Trying to convince the shook-up groom and sobbing bride i.e. my another cousin (to be wedded in the next 18 hours) to let the matter go and not to have second thoughts on each other’s ‘love’ just one night away from the wedding.

Trying to pull a charged-up guy down from the roof top railing  and stop him from shouting my name while our whole family line was about to wake up, just beneath the roof.

10 hours ago-

I was climbing the stairs with my heavy bag. Sounds of dhol thumping my ears. I wanted to throw the bag and start dancing to the beats right away. on reaching the hall, My eyes met big gathering of senior ladies who had apparently no idea how fast did i grow up. Continuous 2 hours i was inquired on all-well-being and pulled from cheeks after which i started feeling unwell a little.

Thankfully, there entered my cousin ( bride’s sister) in all desi flashy Pink lehnga. An unusual sight of a DU chic on any other day. She borrowed me from the crowd on the pretext of decoration preparations. First few words from my heart came out – “bloody idiot! where were you lying dead all this while! ” . “Shhhh..” all she said and silently dragged me to the roof top closing the door on our back carefully.

The scene was ‘quite’ different across the roof.

In one corner, a stage was set up. 3-4 guys were adjusting DJ, strobe lights hung from water tank. In other corner, a table with imported bottles of alcohol on it was being set up by the same servants who were serving aunties downstairs with laddoos-that’s where overseas cousins come into help. The bride, with neon horns, in a loose shirt turned around and hugged me. The gates were shut. Family line fell tight-slept on the other side of roof after all the preps for big morning had been done. They had no idea what’s going on the other side of the roof.

On a January night, in Delhi, on roof top with everyone wasted around; I, the only sober one in the crowd, was living the night.

Another cousin confessed that the guy who she came with to the wedding all the way from Singapore and introduced as her fiancé, she has no plans to marry with. I was struggling for the words when another cousin fell on me pleading – “Di, I will fail in exam tomorrow! Don’t forget to wake me up in a while!!” I ran downstairs, arranged a bed for her at the farthest possible corner from the mamis, mausis, and nanis. “phewww!!” I breathed out. Suddenly we all heard a shout.

It was my name.  I ran back to the roof at doubled the speed. There i saw a guy standing on the railing of the roof with a bottle in hand in the mid of night, in all filmy style, shouting my name with the prefix- ” I want to marry you” . My eyes popped out, throat ran dry. “Oh god, pull him down! he is creating a scene! he will die! I am gone! “. With nobody conscious around, I myself had to run to drag him down and plead him at the calmest of my voice to stop screaming. He was half way expressing his feelings that he supposedly hosted since high school when another drama started.

This time it was the the bride herself. Crying, hugging and lost in her best friend, a guy. I left the weeping soul near the railing and walked with the unbelieving eyes towards both of them, the bride and the BF (best friend).  The BF had proposed the bride and bride had confessed her liking then and there. Both were crying and i was standing there. Silent and stunned. Fighting in my mind for the appropriate course of action, I asked others to drag the BF out of here. Seeing the tragedy unfolded there, few of them came back to their senses at the lightening speed, beating the alcohol out.

Meanwhile, my cell rang. None other than groom it was. ” Oh Crap!!” somebody has called him to tell all the drama. He was waiting outside the house to have a word with bride. I pleaded him to go back and take a proper sleep before the most awaited night of his life. He was adamant. Bride was slapped into conscience, splashed with water and deodorant’ed by me.  In the middle of road, they argued for an hour.

back to 4 am morning- where I was multitasking.

I was loosing all the cool i ever possessed. I wanted to pack the bag back and leave in the mid of night. What will i answer tomorrow if asked anything!

The bride confessed her mistake and repeatedly professed her love for an hour. I described the scene a little differently to the groom in her favor. Somehow, he was convinced into not to rethink their alliance and left, albeit dumbfounded. I don’t blame him.

On the other side, the freshly aroused romeo was still waiting on the railing to finish his love-tale.

No body slept that night. Ah! Except the cousin who missed the exam next morning.

Next day, all the roof-night-riders appeared with red puffy eyes. Many exchanges of looks happened but no one spilt a word.

The wedding eventually happened- against my worst fears.

That was the most memorable, dramatic, tumultuous and crazy wedding of my life. But the end result is a sweet and amazing love my nutcase cousin and her husband share today.

I wish you luck against any such interesting Indian wedding. Happy wedding season! !

Benefits of reading.

I am a book-worm. I believe that whoever loves reading will agree on the term ‘worm’. Well, here I list down 8 profound benefits of book-reading. Try them. Seriously.

1) Loose weight over it – planned to go on diet regime again? nothing works as charismatic as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s , Lauren Belfer’s City of Light, the third secret, the doomsday, the very obsessive and illicit This is how you loose her , superstition and for some junta Sidney sheldon’s. you will cry your eyes out in the search of the convict and why he targeted all the pretty girls. Well, on few people even Chicken soup for the soul or that kiss in the rain types is effective. Where the kiss happens on the last page after all the high-strung scenes midway. You feel disappointed but hey! at least you forgot about that browny in fridge. Well as I said, depends on your taste!

2) Learn swear-words and practice them over and again- bored of same cliche fouls? wanna learn innovative situation-specific and goal-oriented ones? learn and practice here- with Michael Chabon- where words seem to jump out of book and smack you around – or simply our very Indian out-of-the-IIT authors.

3 ) Pick a character and act as a royalty-  Just choose a character you liked the most in first 20 pages and live slowly the loftiness of British Royalty or Dutch realms under his/her disguise. yeah, you can imitate his/her style of speaking as well, just practice in dark when all are slept and you are up there with the holy-writ in your hands feeling goddamned royal in – Jane Austen’s , The Canterbury Papers, The Three Musketeers and alike.

4) Or simply avoid nasty creature beside you- this tactic works wonder. Whenever the unwanted creature tries to get involved with you, nail your head little more inside the page. He will truly curse your safety device. Yeah, another possible pronoun ‘she’ in last sentence missed out deliberately.

5) Want to give somebody slow death- nothing can work as good as pieces like- You Can Win, One hundred years of solitude, One night at the call center, I too had a love story. the best part is that your intentions won’t be doubted because all these books have been bestsellers. word of caution – the side-effects may be too hazardous, use the weapon with moderation.

6) It is so good that you get benefited from reading habit of even others- take an example of the cutie beside you.  Well, break the ice with discussion on release of the book/other works of that author/or simply that book in cutie’s hand. if you are desperate enough, Google out first, you don’t wanna make a fool out of yourself there. On benefits of Smart phones, I will be writing another such piece of intense thoughts soon. Word of caution- don’t end up telling his/her whole plot or climax in excitement and under newly gained confidence from Google. May backfire.

7) Test your Eye sight and flexibility- I did my first eye stress-test with Jane austen’s Pride and prejudice. when I finished the whole book in one night under the Nokia’s flashlight. proud! I got to know the extent to which my body can fit and circle within few fixed inches whole night and the different angles I can show off with my neck keeping it at the very same place on a sleeper class dabba of train when I was  reading Tell me your dreams. I read that night at such a speed as my life depended on its completion, literally,  as my neck could have snapped.

8) Or just simply remind yourself what a great fool you are and how much room of improvement is still left for you.

Well on a serious note, the best/worst thing that you can do to your hours is – Reading. However reading-reluctant you are, prepare yourself to fit in the author’ shoes, give him a slack for initial 30 pages, and believe in him, He will lend you the flavors of a rainbow of emotions and much more! Take a flight of faith; a diligent book will never disappoint you.

As we say, Bookworms will rule the day – as soon as we finish one more chapter..

So what are you reading today??

Participation.

‘Participation’ – the very corner-stone, which rests the whole system around us. Be it democracy, be it nature. 

Look around. Kejriwal is winning hearts by peddling this ‘participatory framework’ for providing solution to the widespread problems. The questions raised are not new; his outlook towards finding solution, certainly is.

The universe too finds balance by small-small but unique contributions from all of us. Participation of citizens help reach robust, quick and effective solutions to not only polity but also science and nature. Citizen science participation is one such interesting concept, which is seeing green shoots in India already.

In many countries, citizens actively participate in guarding nature and giving their invaluable inputs in preserving it. These programs are called Citizen Science Programs.

Instances are many where we all can get actively involved as a solution-provider, experience some:

-Submit your observations in changes happening around you.

-Capture and share natural discoveries and photographs.

-Studies gauging the impact of light pollution ask people to notify about their ability to see the stars and constellations at night.

-The last time you saw a house sparrow in your backyard tells a lot about how the ‘Man’ is treating the bird which shared your childhood!.. same goes with butterflies!

-People living beside high-risk rivers watch and alert meteorologist at the earliest. They are trained beforehand in a week training camp on how to identify easy signs of danger.

-Measure rain, hail, snow falling near your place and share the data with meteorologists.

There are many such bird-watch, nature-watch, river-watch, dolphins-watch, tiger-watch projects are working around us. You can look up the web and sign up for these wonderful projects. Isn’t it amazing to act a ‘chhota scientist’ sitting at home!!

Even our very own Wikipedia or take Android too fit the criteria of being the same participatory kind projects!

I find such ideas very amazing and hope to be a part of any such initiative soon. Given its rapid recognition among Indians, that day may not be too far when each and every individual, however amateur and non-professional, will be contributing his little bit in saving the planet, including me!

I tell you, such programs hold great promise for future and more inclusive sustainable development for many reasons-

-Citizens who have been living in a particular area or have been involved in a particular activity- such as fishing or farming, get to hold specific experience-based knowledge in that domain. Scientists who know things by theory and lab-based practices will profit so much by working in tandem with such experienced folks in their research.

-Some phenomena just need long-time persistent observation of events around; With help of this collected data, an exhaustive database can be maintained which will work as a case study to derive predictions and possible solutions to the issue in hand. the only difference is that inputs will be given by citizens not the Subject matter Experts.

The benefits are obvious- SMEs are expensive. They may not be available all the time to predict looming catastrophe such as a dangerously overflowing river. Experts can be consulted on the soundness of the data received to rectify any anomaly, but their 100% guidance is not required. Obviously, This is how a bottom-up approach works.  Not to say, Such practices make citizens more aware and empathetic to the habitat and the inhabitants.

A country such as India which has one of the largest pools of ‘eyes and hands’ to watch out and take care, will get hugely benefited by such programs.

Schools must inculcate this participatory inclination in young generation and help them make a difference. NGOs, experts and a helping hand from government can work together in this direction. If our young generation is taught this way, we no longer need to depend on handful of experts for each and every issue.

Among the various abnormal conditions occurring in modern day society, the foremost is – Isolation of man from Nature. As they say, Man masters nature not by force but by understanding.

Let the man connect and gain a deeper understanding of his relation to his very roots. After all, It shouldn’t always be Man vs Nature; In my eyes, they are made for each other, Perfectly.