Well, "A Picture says a thousand words", pardon me but i have to use this cliched one-liner to start this post, just so that u take ur eyes off the text and fix your eyeballs on the picture once again to soak in the sense of celebration! Well, no prizes for guessing that its a wedding photograph, and the bride and the groom,(the most ornamented ones) are flanked by the entire family from the bride's side....Why is this picture here then....nice question!
Coz, this is where my last break took me, to the "Shettyland", as i call it, Mangalore on the Indian map! For the unitiated, Mangalore(karnataka) is the hometown of a community called Bunts who bear surnames such as Shetty(the most famous ones), Rai(aishwarya rai), Pujari, Hegde, etc.
This community (from now on i mean the Shettys) is quite peculiar in the way their families are. Almost every male member holds a medical degree, its somewhat like a prerequisite here; even though there are daring young blooded shettys who are looking elsewhere and making a mark for themselves in unimaginable businesses(read as granit mining, jelly production for road construction). In Mumbai, which is where i live, the Shettys enjoy a reputation of either being restauranteurs or people on the wrong side of the law!(tried very hard to make this sound polite, thats the best i could manage). But the fact is its and extremely educated and qualification stressing community back in their homwtown. Its normal for kids to do their medical graduation from some university in/ around karnataka and then fly to UK or the States to complete their Masters. But whats amazing is that, not many of them want to settle down in the countries that they have spent lakhs earning master's. They'd rather come back to their small li'l town and join their dad in his hospital or practise on their own. Such a affinity to their hometown surprises me, or is it the invisible parent pressure....i don't know, haven't figured it out yet!
Back to my vacation,
So here i was, in Mangalore, on the 2nd day of the 1st month of the 7th year of the 2nd millenium!
The occassion was Shibani's wedding (my friend shonali's elder sister). Now i have never been closely related to any and i mean it, any sort of wedding so this was a first for me!
The groom had just returned to m'lore after 2 years in Auckland and the first round of rituals was the Mehndi ceremony.
Here, my friends, is where i thanked Suraj Barjatya and Aditya Chopra(filmmakers) for making 3 hour long, 14 song and dance sequenced family drama movies which had every possible occassion in life celebrated and hence a song devoted to each one of them.
So the plan was this....mehndi functions are pretty normal, the bride getting henna on her hands and feet and the entire girls side celebrating that.
What i did not know was that this also served as an Ice-breaker woth the groom's family! and the shetty's decided to do this in their own way.
And just in case u r wondering what was it here it in a DIY(do-it yourself) format:
1. Collect pictures and videos of your sister and her boyfriend right from the time they first met till recent ones
2. Call up all your cousins and ask them to prepare themselves for a dance sequence(better do this well in advance if you have some busy of 2 left feet cousins)
3. Make a playlist of songs that depict the couple's journey from their first meeting to marriage
4. Use Windows movie maker or any song editing software to make 50-60 second clips pf the desired songs. (oh must include songs include the ones from jo jeeta wohi sikandar for college life, Dilwale dulhaniya le jaayenge, Hum Tum, Kuch kuch hota hai and other yash raj movies for the whole milna- bichadna sequence)
5. Get some friend or cousin who can choreograph a simple yet fun to look at dance sequence.
6. Use a lot of props to make the sequence look more realistic
7. Make short movies using ur digicam that showcase your sister's excitement and preparations before getting married...(u can incorporate this in the song and dance medley itself and use it as a connector)
8. Once you have rehearsed all your dance moves with everyone and synchronization is somewhere on the horizon, u can heave a sigh of relief.
9. Decide a color theme for all the performers for the mehndi evening and well last but not the least
10. Sleep Well the night before, make sure the DJ arrives on time, the mehndi venue is decorated with flowers, chairs, carpet, lights, the caterer's got his act together, outfits are ironed, make-ups done, digicams are loaded, cars are sent to pick up relatively important relatives and voila, its time to put up the SHOW! Lights on, Camera n Action!
This was more or less what all hapenned just within the first 2 days of my vacation in mangalore, and all this while I was staying along with other friend's from bangalore in a beatiful recluse called the 'Mangalore Club'.(a structure that actually look quite depressing from the front, but is an amazing retreat once u r in).........
I know u r tired n u wanna catch a coffee or go answer nature's call....go ahead, read my next blog on how the mehndi function was and the Muhurtam ceremony, the Nema - -where i witnessed a human being possessed by GOD, and of course the Final Shaadi and the reception....Trust me this is one hell of a 3-hour movie!
Chak De Phatte!
