So this is the end of the wedding season for me..

So this is the end of the wedding season for me. For at least the next 6 months I dont want to attend a wedding, reception, roka, sangeet, engagement! I need a break from weddings! So weddings are great fun, but they are also exhausting. Physically, financially and emotionally exhausting!

In the last few months, I have attended a lot of weddings at different locations across the country. I know it is more of a ‘my generation’ thing, cause at one point of time, I had 5 weddings, across 5 consecutive weekends in 5 different states. I had the energy to attend only 3, cause they were not only of really close friends, but also because I have a regular job to go to over the weekdays.

Weddings are about the flavor of the region, of that state. Be it the lovely calm, elegant, musical church wedding in Trivandrum, or the beautiful, chilled out, gorgeous, Bengali  wedding in Kolkata to the loud, energetic, full of life, dramatic Punjabi wedding in Chandigarh, there is  something about attending a certain wedding in that state. They bring out the real flavor, and make the whole occasion larger than life. 

Weddings are about food; mouth watering, lip smacking, kick ass, heavenly food. And the sweets that follow are just orgasmic. From the various types of fish and Bengali sweets, the gol gapes, chaat pappdis, chicken tikkas, roganjosh, amritsari chole to the beef curry, meen curry, poppadums, wedding cake in Trivandrum.

Weddings are about participating in all those pre wedding functions that matter to the bride or the groom. The Simant Poojan in a Maharashtrian wedding, the feast laid out to the Bengali groom and his friends on his last day as a bachelor, the stealing of the grooms shoes, putting up an act together, making a fool of yourself at a sangeet or the loud, reverberating, free flow of alcohol at a punjoo cocktail.

Weddings are exploring the city you are in and having a ball with your friends. From breakfast at flurry`s, lunch at Bhojohori Manna, the boat and tram rides near howrah, rock garden, sector 17 market to the lovely kovallum beaches.

Weddings are about meeting the family. You have always heard about a cousin, a relative, but you had never met them till now.  And then you have a face to the name. You can see the mom, she is both extremely happy and a little anxious. Or the father, who is a little tired or the grandparents who perhaps have waited all their lives to be present for that moment. 

Weddings are about that ‘THE’ moment, a moment which changes things for a lifetime. The bride covering her face with the betel leaves, as her brothers take her around the groom. Or the groom tying the thali in the bride’s neck, or the pheras, and the sindoor. It is that moment, which is emotional, when all the focus is on the bride and the groom, and the bride’s mother is silently wiping her tears, although she knows her daughter is going nowhere and is going to live close by. 

Weddings are emotionally taxing.

• One because you have practically grown up with the bride/ groom.
• You know them, possibly more than what their new spouse knows them.
• You have discussed weddings, marriages, boyfriends, relationships with them for all these years, but you never thought the day would come so soon. 
•  With each wedding, your number of married friends overtakes the number of single friends.
• Somewhere in your tiny head, the pressure for your own wedding is mounting,
• But most importantly you have dropped down on the priority list. For the time being, he/ she is not going to be always available. There is the post wedding customs, the setting up of the new house, the honeymoon, the falling in love with the new husband / wife, the flooding of happiness. You definitely don’t want to call them in the middle of all of these, and crib about your job, boyfriend, or of not having a life.   

Well personally, I have had a lot of fun, in the number of weddings I have attended in the past few months, it’s been awesome! But I am also a little tired.

Firstly because I have no more new clothes to wear at ceremonies, I would have to go with repetitions.

Secondly I think I need a break, need to spend a couple of weekends in Delhi doing nothing. Traveling for work during the week is bad enough, weekends just knock you off. And then of course the emotional bit!

So thats that for now until the next bbm, whatsapp msg, phone call, fb status which says - Guess what! I am getting married ;)