Shaadi ki tayyariyan

I was a very happy bride. All brides are happy...well, usually...but I was an exception to the extent that all I had cared about in the months preceding my wedding was that I was going to spend the rest of my life with this wonderful person I'd met and fallen for in an instant.

I was oblivious to the shopping sprees and hectic activity that surrounded the wedding. I had no clue what I was going to wear, what my parents were buying as gifts (for me as well as others) and what would happen on that day.

My parents took me to Mumbai to buy jewellery and I actually argued with them about not wanting to spend money on it. I reluctantly bought myself a 'lehenga' and didn't really care about the sarees or clothes that were to form part of the trousseau.

I spent all the time I had dreaming about being with this man...the nitty gritties of the wedding were just nitty gritties to me....left to the others to handle.

And I concentrated on eating papaya to get an 'internal' glow on my skin and trying to lose some weight before d-day.

I recall the wedding morning... Harish and his parents had landed up at 530 or so (in the morning mind you) to begin the ceremonies. My oblivious parents and relatives were roaming around in their night clothes when they walked in. So was I!!!

By 830 I was to get draped in a 9 yard saree for the Tam-bram ceremonies and it was at the nth hour that we realised that I had not stocked up on the customary head jewellery, hairpins to hold my step-cut hair (bedecked in flowers) in place and even enough safety pins!!!

My brothers ran helter-skelter to buy these things and chaos reigned as aunts and cousins laboured over the bride trying to dress her up! To their dismay they also discovered that ignorant of the fact that 9 yard sarees don't have falls, my mother had a fall, not stitched, but peekoed on!!!

Some of my cousins were aghast that I had chosen not to get dressed or made up by a professional on the most important day of my life...and furthermore, I hadn't even had a dress or make-up rehearsal before the auspicious day! 

All this happened even as the elders of the family insisted that we were running out of the 'mahurat' time and the groom sat outside anxiously waiting for his bride.

When I walked out, the 9 yard saree draped on me with the 'fall' visible on the outer layer, I don't know what went on in other minds, but I was totally bindaas...glad that we would finally be able to get on with the ceremony.

Fifteen years hence, I am helping my parents prepare for the weddings of my brothers. Meanwhile, I have decided what I am going to wear, what my kids will wear and to an extent how I will help Harish buy his outfits. From our clothes, to our footwear and jewellery I am working on each aspect.

Wonder what's changed in 15 years!!!