My friend's wedding...a dream in the world of reality!!

Please note that this is a dream and there are relations to people I know and have been associated with. I have changed names, for my sake.

On Tuesday morning, as I was getting ready to go to office, I got a call from this school friend of mine, Mary. She was getting married. I was ecstatic as I was asked to be the maid of honor.

Our friendship goes way back to the days when we used to live in the same lane in Delhi. She and I went to the same school and were in the same class, different sections though. We are Telugu Brahmins and hers is a Christian family, but that was never a hindrance in our friendship as our parents were also equally thick friends.

Mary has an elder brother, Thomas. He considered me as his sister, in the same way he considered Mary. So we were more of a family than friends. Those were really some good days.

Being in different sections and then moving to different places increased the gap in our friendship. We slowly became hi-hello friends. In spite of that, she called me to inform that I was her maid-of-honor was really an honor for me.

To top it all, attending a proper Christian wedding was my dream. Actually getting married in Christian style is my dream, but attending also is great. This gave me an opportunity to fulfill a part of it, though. So I was happy.

I agreed to it immediately and started contacting all my friends in Delhi. Most of them agreed to attend since this gives us a great chance to meet after like almost a decade.

Also Mary being my school friend, she was their friend too J.

Next day, Mary called me to know about my itinerary and inform me about my stay. I told her that Mom was coming along with me. The news made Mary’s mom happier than anyone. It would have more than 20 years since they saw each other. After Uncle’s demise, we did not get to meet Aunty and this could be an apt occasion is what Mom also felt and agreed to accompany.

I reached Delhi on Saturday morning. The ceremony was due on Sunday. So I had the whole day to myself, to meet my friends, hangout in our favorite places. Thomas received us and gave us another big surprise, the wedding was to be held in the school.

This was superb news for me, since I have been attached with my school. I love everything about the place, the teachers, my classmates, even the principal and vice-principal. And not to forget the non-teaching staff who were most supportive to us. I jumped at the news and rushed to the school. As a maid of honor, it is my responsibility to oversee all the arrangements and ensure that everything goes on without hiccups. Frankly, the real reason was to revisit my school and relive some memories, if not all.

The feeling was overwhelming, the moment I entered the building. There were many changes to the place, but the essence was still intact. I became nostalgic when I was just wandering around the primary section, the foundation of our lives.

There is a way to the playground from this section, the place where the wedding was to take place. The preparations were going on in full swing.

Sometime later, I really don’t know, after how much time, Thomas came and took me to the hotel. Mom had directly gone to the hotel, to check on Aunty, if she needed any help. Surprisingly, there was a Haldi ceremony, which usually takes place in a Hindu wedding ceremony. But looks like Mary liked that ceremony so much that she wanted it as a part of her wedding as well. And Mom was there, so she was guiding Aunty on how to go about that ceremony. I was standing at the end of the garden, enjoying the happiness that Mary had on her face.

Soon I was joined by my school friends. The reunion felt great, after a hectic work schedule, a sudden relaxation of this stature is a boon to one’s life. And I was no exception. Thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with them, reliving old days.

In my heart and I am sure in hers, Mary knew that I was longing for a break like this. So she let me have my share of fun with my old buddies, I totally loved her for this!!

There was kumkum, haldi, bangles, coconut and all in a Christian which was an amazing blend of cultures. So there we were, enjoying the ceremony, where out of nowhere, Meena comes out hurling abuses at me. I was appalled, dumbstruck with no idea why she was scolding me like that.

Thomas jumped into the scene like a samurai and handled it all too well. He sent me back to the hotel and asked others to take care of Meena.

Meena was a classmate but not a very close buddy. We were always on good terms, so a sudden bombardment of this sort was shocking for me. I was still in a state of shock when I reached my room. I could not understand why she behaved like that. The biggest surprise was, no one stopped her!! She kept shouting but no one opposed her. I could not understand why!!

“One can’t please all.” This statement, I could never understand and believe. I could never handle someone not liking me. Though there were people I did not like, but I could not tolerate if someone said they did not like me. I would continue to pester the person asking them for a reason for disliking me. And now this, in public was more of embarrassment for me. I spent the rest of the time in the room crying. I did not go back to the venue so that I do not trouble Mary with this situation.

Though I did not like what happened, the next day, I put everything behind and went to the school. This was Mary’s day and as the maid of honor, it was my duty to ensure nothing went wrong. As soon as I reached the school, I was spellbound. The ground was decorated with flowers; the stage was setup for the ceremony. Everything was just so beautiful and perfect. The ground was getting watered and the morning sun shone to the water droplets creating small rainbows around. There could have no better place for Mary to get married and I was so happy for her!!

Suddenly, a coconut from yesterday’s Haldi ceremony came hurling at me. I just missed it. I turned around to see who and from where it came. Just then Meena came running with another coconut in her hand. She threw me on the ground and shouted at me, asking me if she should throw another one at me. I was speechless; I did not know why she was shouting at me like that.

This time, I shouted back at her, “Haan mar de..tere dil ko bhi tasalli mil jayegi. Lekin kyun…yeh toh bata de???”

She replied, “mere papa ko maarne ke time pe yeh pata nahi socha tha kya tune?”

********************************* The end *********************************************

Love comes softly...watch it!!!

Another finding from Katherine Heigl movies was the "Love Comes Softly" series. It is a series of 11 movies/episodes of roughly about 1 and 1/2 hour.

The movie starts with two people with completely different backgrounds getting married under some unavoidable circumstances. The woman is pregnant with her first husband and the man already has a daughter of 9. The rest of the episode shows the struggle to adjust, love and cherish the relationship.
In subsequent episodes, the family expands and new people join and celebrate life.

What I really liked about the complete series is the way the characters love and embrace life. They are content with what they have and always eager to extend help. It reinforces our faith in God, irrespective of religion. The series bolsters our belief in fellow human beings, in the act of helping others. It reminds us that "God helps those who help themselves." and "One must help, one day or the other, it will definitely help us" and so on. 

These were the moral values that we had learnt in Moral Science classes in school. And have seemed to have lost somewhere in our everyday struggle to survive and excel the race, be it at home, workplace, anywhere!! These episodes are a reminder of what we had learnt and are expected to follow and teach our future generation.

I recommend this series to everyone irrespective of age and gender. I absolutely gloat over romantic movies, but this one was so pleasant that it filled my heart with joy and I was all smiles watching it.

This may not be the best of series around, but give it a try. 

My rating for the entire series would be: 3.5/5

p.s. There is a book by this name also.

Lost and Not Found????

The fact that some one is looking for you, someone is waiting for you is so re-assuring. It makes you want to live. I really wonder what happens to people who are found to be missing(what a pun!!) and their well-wishers who wait for their arrival.

I have come across couple of incidents in the recent days that deals with missing people. Last week, I saw 2 episodes of Crime Patrol that spoke about missing women. Whatever may be the reason for disapperance, maybe intentional or pure fate, women are usually such an easy target for people, just because they "seem" to be fragile. 

The two episodes that I saw made me think of all the people who get lost due to some circumstances. My heart goes out to the kith and kin of the missing ones. 

But at the same time, I happened to watch "Gone Girl" movie. The whole plot was a shocker and a complete paradoxical of the issues that I had seen in CP. It was rejuvenating, but still it amazed me to think about the "Gone Girl", who created the missing of herself (oops did I just give the plot of the story!!!)

So the two different sources giving me completely adverse situations of missing has resulted into me losing into something oblivion. 

Well it also reminded me of a lost friend/acquaintance from school. She happened to be one of my closest friends in school for almost 3 years.

But then things turned bitter and we were no longer on talking terms. When I recollect those situations, I am "lost", probably at loss of words, loss of reasons why, what and when it happened. Not that I want my friend back, it never costed me anything to lose her, infact she was at a loss of a lot of things, IMO.

I tried looking for her, I believe almost all my class mates did, but she literally got lost in the world, with absolutely no contact with anyone, at all. 

Too many bereavements, I find myself deprived of words... Maybe this was all that I wanted to say!!!

Man is the architect of his own destiny-is it????

"If God in his wisdom has brought close,

the day I must die,

That day by water or fire or air,

My feet shall fall in the destined snare,

wherever my road may lie"

These prophetic words clearly specify the helplessness of a man when it comes to facing his destiny.Its said that man is the architect of his own destiny, but the question that arises is: who is the architect who designed man? Who made man so capable that he is calling himself the architect of his destiny? Well it is that supreme power that designed man and rules him and his destiny, his past, present and future.

One may be tempted to say that today in the world of science when man has gone to space,scaled Mount Everest, explored the depths of ocean, saying that man is not the architect of his destiny would be a hilarious joke. But in saying that we forget that many people who in an attempt to explore the space have found themselves buried under deep oceans with their destiny denying them a proper funeral. Those in an attempt to scale the Everest died without bidding a last farewell to their beloved ones. Was this what they had, as an architect designed as their destiny?

The making of the Titanic the ship that wouldn't sink was also being termed as another step towards man mastering his destiny. But the result....everyone knows!!!!

Great empires have fallen, great leaders like Alexander couldn't achieve what they desired, great cultures fell at almost the same time proving how vulnerable and fragile man was in the hands of his destiny.

Shakespeare had said that life is a play and we are the characters and the director of the play is the supreme who pulls out once the role of the character is complete......

Note: this is the first speech that i gave in a inter school competitions,,,my most favorite one indeed!!!!!