Mesra – The Vidyarthi

The Big Fat Marathi Wedding

March 14, 2014March 14, 2014 kv6 Comments

Chance presents itself!

I have attended quite a many weddings since I gained cognition, but all of them have been those of our own culture or at least in our own state. It was my hearty wish for a very long time to attend a wedding of one of the other cultures of the kaleidoscopic India. So, when my friend (a “He”) invited me (although he didn’t expect me to come!!) to attend his wedding in Satara,Maharashtra, I jumped at the chance!

The Dancing Horse!

I became a bit apprehensive when the groom told me that we would be staying in his village (Shivajinagar) which was quite obvious on my part as all my previous experience of villages haven’t been real good. Upon reaching the village around midnight, with all the apprehensions and imaginations in our heads, we simply weren’t prepared for the spectacle that greeted us. The scene was simply hilarious. The groom was riding a dancing horse! and surely it danced a lot better than the intoxicated men gyrating all around him. Oh and one more thing was new : live singer in a specialised band-bus (Sadly I forgot to click a pic of the bus!)

The Village!

Now let me describe the village in detail . It was a village in true sense but lacked nothing in terms of urban facilities; be it good sanitation or electricity or running water supply or a Tata Sky connection, the place had it all. But, the beauty of the place was rugged yet breathtaking with so much of open space available that you won’t know what to do with it!! And yes the air, the breeze, the cool and clean and refreshing breeze that blew almost all through the day, was perhaps the single most awesome thing that I’ll remember about the place.

All said and done, a place is only as good as the people of the place and make no mistake the people were awesome too. No one understood a word of Hindi (except the Groom’s immediate family) and we didn’t understand a word of Marathi, but we seldom faced any difficulty in getting our thoughts across or understanding the point the villagers were making(Yes it was very very very tough). My friend’s immediate family (i.e. his father, mother and sister hereafter called uncle, aunty and sis respectively) were understandably very busy but didn’t ever let us feel out of home.

The Big Fat Marathi Wedding

Well this was what I went to witness. And literally we were the only people who witnessed the whole wedding!! Jokes apart, it was a wedding quite different from those that I have seen as yet but the essence was the same. Yes, the little nitty-gritties were different, e.g. the bride and groom attended the rasma of Halad Chadavane together unlike the individual haldis in Bihari weddings etc. The Akshataropan rasma was again a spectacle. More than 1000 people were gathered in the hall to bless the couple with akshata (sacred rice). The rasma lasted for only 15 minutes and when the final mantras were chanted and the final grains of akshata were sprinkled as blessings, suddenly there was a huge commotion. Within 5 minutes the hall was empty and only 15-20 people remained. People were in such a rush to get out that they literally jammed the doorway. It was hilarious and we couldn’t stop laughing! Finally, the sacred fire was kindled and the seven vows were taken, the seven circumambulations of the sacred fire were completed, and the bride and the groom were declared Man and wife in the eyes of God and society!

The Vidai was pretty much the same: full of tears and laughter, fear mingled with hope and grief mixed with joy! Then began the tour of Temples and courtesy visits to the homes of our numerous Gods. Wherever we went, we were welcomed in the same spirit as the bride and the groom, which raised my respect and love for the local people many notches higher. Finally, Goddess Lakshmi (read the Bride) entered the house to make it a home for the groom! The entire setup was so beautifully managed and done that it seemed almost flawless and no one was complaining; this in itself is no mean achievement when it comes to Indian weddings!

The Hilarious Bathing Ceremony

We were scheduled to leave early morning the next day of the wedding but aunty would hear nothing of it and ordered us to stay at least until lunch so that we could witness the bathing ceremony of the bride and the groom (we didn’t feel like going anyway). The halad utaravane ceremony was, as I’ve already mentioned, hilarious. All the ladies of the village were gathered and amongst a lot of chatter, jokes and singsong competitions, the ceremony was concluded in all pomp. The ladies played wet holi (minus the colours of-course) and even I got to drench my friend in water; there’s nothing sweeter than to increase the embarrassment of an already embarrassed friend!! This was followed by another tour of temples of the village and those of the adjoining villages. The thing that I loved the most about these temples was their location. Each of them : Amazing!!

All in all it was an awesome treat, the wedding. If I hadn’t gone (like all my other friends) I would have missed an opportunity of a life-time. God bless the Bride and the Groom and may they have a wonderful and blissful married life!

The Missile Man

June 24, 2009July 17, 2010 kv5 Comments

I was hoping someday I could attend one of his lectures and question answer sessions and finally my hope turned into realtiy and all due to the summer vacations at my college. Bemused?? Well actually Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, the missile man of India visited our city on a 2 day tour here on the 24th of June 2009, and he was to address a gathering of around 500 students of different schools and colleges of the city. Since we were having the summer vacations so only the Ranchi guys could come and luckily I am one of them!!!

Dr. Kalam , as I had heard and read has a real simple demeanor and way of talking. His interaction with the students with the well timed jokes and several pledges made the address just fly by…I liked the way he objectivized the various ways of achieving what we want in our life and to contribute to the society…the splendid concept of succeeding with integrity was a real food for the thought. The best thing that I remember from the address is, the four things that we need to avhieve anything in life:

Having an aim in life
Gathering knowledge to achieve it…making friends with good books
Working Hard to achieve it
Perseverance…never be defeated by failure

The most important thing that I noticed was…well to be truthful I and so many others in my college lost the will to listen to other people…be it classes or the guest lectures by the imminent guests during our college fests…I just could not bear to listen after the passage of a mere 10 minutes…and today I listened on to Dr. Kalam for over an hour and even repeated some of the things he said and requested all of us to repeat with him (which I am sure I would not have if I were attending some other guest lecture!)…Man he has some charisma…certainly he’s the missile man of India…a real pioneer!

Several things….

June 18, 2009June 18, 2009 kv8 Comments

Yet again loads of time has passed since my last post and i really don’t have any other excuse but sheer laziness for it…and you know what I am not even a little ashamed, why? Well I suppose even I don’t know about that much. Well lets leave it at that…better late than never isn’t it? Several things is the name of my post because I need to share several thing s with you all….and here I go…

Thing 1:

I would like to begin this post with something which I like very much : Books!! Well this summer I have let myself down..how? Well till now, I have read only 3 books (The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, The Digital Fortress and The Other Hand) in comparison to the massice 31 that I read during my last summer vacation! Even though I bought two others from the New Delhoi airport, I have made no progress towards reaching anywhere near that huge number of 31, as I havent even read a single one of them! Anyways, on the brighter side, due to coming of my iPod, I discovered the pleasure of Audiobooks. I listened to the audio version of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and you know what I simply loved the whole experience…the feeling that the audiobooks impart..as if some one is reading you a story is what is the most appealing thing about them! I am now going to listen to the the remaining parts of the Twilight series too and am quite sure I will like them too!

Thing 2:

Now comes a totally unrelated topic. LeT(Lashkar-e-Taiba) is making its base down here in the jungles of Jharkhand and Bihar…what the hell. Yeah as if the threats posed by the naxals (the MCC, the PWG etc.) wasn’t enough, now even these bast***s from across the border are trying to establish their say out here. I mean what do these sadistic vampires get out of killing innnocent people for no reason whatsoever. Why have they misplaced their minds so easily in the hands of some mullahs , who have only one thing in theor mind…how to hurt India, and how to hurt the non-Muslims. I mean, if there is God he is only one, Ram or Allah or Jesus what does it matter? I just can’t understand this… Coming back to the Jharkhand LeT, this news simply has sent shivers down in the hearts of the already under-fire police department and the state’s governor Syed Sibte Razi (as the state is currently under the President’s rule, Razi is the all in all of the state). Now it needs to be seen, what do these people do inorder to tackle this sudden and immense problem.

Thing 3:

Any of you who has seen me will be knowing that the most striking feature of me is my girth!! Yeah, bluntlyI am quite fat. Now these summer vacations always bring with them loads of delicious food (with the tongue watering Magoes and Lichis all around) and also accompany very lethargic routine meaning no exercises and hence meaning those very very irritating extra kilos that I very painstakingly manage to lose durin the time college is open!! 😦 I have started doing some Yoga but I dont think that’ll work and cutting down on the food isn’t my forte thats for sure, so what to do?? Yes I am going to run…from tomorrow sure shot (but Tomorrow Never Dies…or does it??)

Thing 4:

Now that I enter the 4th and final year of my B.E. its finally the time of reckoning. As I have a call for further studies so its essential that I start preparing for the GRE (naah no Ties and Lies for me!) from immediate effect. Yeah I’ve bought all the necessary books and all…what is required now is some peace of mind to start over. I think I will begin it in earnest from tomorrow too. Moreover the coming semester will also bring with it the placements…well its not going to be easy, the next sem even though it has a lot to offer too!

Last Thing but certainly not the Least Thing:

Now speaking so much and yet not mentioning the T-20 World Cup will be something I won’t be excused for. Yeah every one around is leaving no expletives while ostracizing Dhoni, the Indian Captain, yes, I agree he made some mistakes and that his batting form isn’t that purple anymore, but comeon people what else were you expecting? He isn’t some God, after all he is a human too and as the saying gose To err is human, so lets take this loss in the spirit of the game and lets hope Team India wins the next time. Now all my hopes lie with South Africa, Go Proteas Go (and No Pakistan No!!!)

EEE Rocks!!!!

August 31, 2008 kvLeave a comment

Sometimes even amidst a desert u find reservoirs full of water, even amidst lots of sadness and sorrow you find reasons to laugh out loud. The trip to Patratu (on 30.08.2008) was such a thing only in an otherwise quite so unflattering semester as yet.

It was an educational tour cum picnic for the EEE people from 2k5, 2k6 and 2k7 batches. We visited the PTPS i.e. the Patratu Thermal Power Station whic h has a capacity of 840MW though due to shortage of fuel and high scale power theft prevalent in Jharkhand, all the power plant produces is around 275 to 300 MW and that too after incurring heavy losses! But the whole power plant as such was a good experience to us. It gave us a practical insight on how power is actually generated. But the biggest impact was that we people finally saw throught the sheen of the huge packages that the power companies offer to us during the placements, as the whole power generation things costs the engineers heavily. Firstly, the incessant high decibel noises going on inside the power plant is sure to leave people deaf in some years, and then come the flurry of different problems that arise due to coal powder viz. skin diseases, bronchiitis etc.

The tour ended on a very very high note after the lunch in Madhuban Dhaba. It was not just food out there but pure fun too. We all danced out there like anything. There were few boundaries , but still on the whole nothing was there to prevent us from enjoying the whole of the party. The whole dancing and singing thing went on for more than a couple of hours. The food was so-so and the arrangement a bit lax but still the whole enjoyment came from this laxity only!!

The best part of this trip or for that matter any trip is the memories that they weave in the complex walls of our minds. One thing is for sure, that the bond between the EEEians is gonna be stronger from now on. Even the large gap between the boys and the girls has started to heal after this and this sure is going to be the best thing that happens to our class!

EEE Rocks!