First Mohammadian Wedding...

I have always wished I should have muslim friend or colleague
so that during Ramzan and Bakrith, I can have biriyani. In my
school days, til my 5th standard, I had a friend in my native place.
But at that time, they dont invite and all for this.

But whenever I cross their house during their festivals or on Sundays,
my goodness, their biriyani smell is heavan yaar...
I walk slowly and even stop sometimes.

In my college days, there was no muslim guy in our class, moreover
we all were staying in the hostel, so no chance of going to their festivals.

In my first job also there was none, and in my first team in Oracle also,
there was no muslim colleague. But in the dev team, there is a muslim colleague.

One fine day, his brother was getting married, so he invited everybody.
The marriage was on a Friday. Initially I was not interested in going,
because both of my friends didnt show any interest in going.

Sagar, who sits beside me asked, whether am I joining. I said,' No'.
He is a hyderabadi and knows very well thatI like non-veg food very
much. He was surprised and started brain-washing me.

'Hey Vasanth, the quality of non-veg food u get there in their wedding,
u wont get anywhere in this world. Plan to attend, we all will have fun there man.'

I also thought, 'Okay, so far I have never attended a muslim wedding, let me see how is it'.

I went and told my Dinesh, he as usual started giving his dialogues,

'Yov, naa anga vantha, appuram Bombday padathula vantha mathiri
ponngunga Kannalaney paatu paadittu yennai sight adikkum, appuram
athula oru figure yenakku set agirum, athellam ungalukku vayitherichala
irukkum, Ithellam thevaya?'

('Hey, if I come there, like Bombay movie, girls wud sing songs and
start sighting me, I will pick one among them,then you ppl wud be
frustrated, is that required?'.)

People who have attended a muslim wedding wud have realised by now,
what wud happen there.

I said, 'I wud be more than happy if my frend get a good looking girl.Let us go for the marriage'. The we 6 ppl went for the marriage.

We 3 first went there to the wedding hall and were surprised,
'Are we @ the right place only? Coz only some 2-3 ppl were seen other than we 3'.

Then Sakthi asked, 'Yov, oc-la biriyaani podaraanganna thooki pidichittu vanthara vendiyathu thaana? Innum yarumey varalay?'

('hey, if somebody is providing food for free, we come leaving everything behind, but still no one else have come?')

Thats okay, we will wait outside.

Then Imran joined us, we went inside the marriage halland were
waiting. People started coming, but we could not see a single women.

A was so curious and asked, 'Hey, what man, there is no women around?'.

Till that time Imran, who is a muslim, didnt know that we have never
attended a mohammadian's wedding, then he started explaining
the mohammadian's wedding procedure.

All the women will be in a seperate hall and all the men will be in

a seperate hall. They are not allowed here and we are not allowed there.

After hearning this itself, Dinesh got frustrated and we started teasing him,
'Ponnu unna parthu paatu paduthaa? Poya, neeye bottle-a kaila pidichittu paadittu po'.

('Which girl is going to sing song man? You urself sing songs, probably with liquor!')

According the actual muslim custom, the bride and the groom

are not supposed to meet each other before marriage. The person

who conducts the marriage, will take oath and signature from

the groom first, then he goes to the bride. He also wont be able

to see her, she wud be behind the screen. He wud take oath and

sign from her too.

Thats the marriage, there is no MANGAL SOOTHIR or anything...:(

If this is the case, how an another marriage will be fixed in one marriage?
In hindhu wedding, all are @ one place that you get a chance to see other
females, talk to them, tease them and take it to further heights...;))

After the marriage was over, we went to the groom to wish him
and give him the gift that we had got. But that time we noticed
that everyone who goes there, hugs him thrice. Infact everyone
who is meeting each other, are hugging thrice.

But we 3 tamilians are defenitly not comfortable doing that.
Because we are not used to so. But we were told that that shows
the affection, you have for the other person. So in that place, we wanted
to respect their custom, so we hugged him thrice and wished him.

Then the main part of the marriage, meal...yeaahhh...let us have fun.

First they kept Haleem, I generally dont like it that much, still took a bit.
Then they served mutton, my god...I have never tasted such a tasty
mutton in my lifetime, it was melting in my mouth. The other guy, who
generally dont take mutton also took it heavily after tasting a bit.

Then came the chicken, the taste was good. But I wanted to avoid chicken
at that time, so could not take much. We had enough of mutton, rotis and
mutton biriyani. Poor guy, Sakthi, was asking for Saambar, papad and curd.
We teased him for that and we didnt even have curd that day.

Then came the dessert, I always avoid dessert, coz I am dieting :D

Sakthi tasted and told me that the 'Kheer', which is made of milk, almond
and sweet, is good and taste it. I thought, 'Everything here is good
only, okay let me give a try'.

I tasted a bit, then after sometime, they all saw the bowl was empty...:D
It was too good, that too with badaam and pista, good for health na...;)

That was an unforgettable wedding ceremony that I attended, told
our colleague, 'Biya, thum bi zaldi shaadi karlo, hum aur ek wedding
attend kar naha hai, the food is damn good'.

During all these things, we didnt see a single women.

Be AWAKE when you book tickets...

It was January 1, 2003. I was at my hometown and was leaving
to chennai for work after some 3 days leave. Before I left, I
decided not to come back without getting an another good job.

Yeah, the day came that I got the offer from Oracle on March 13th, 2003.
So I decided to go home after some 2.5 months. After my night shift work
came back home, had bath, went to the booking counter before it opens,
feeling damn sleepy, waited till the counter opens and booked the tickets.

And I started on a Saturday morning after my night shift work
in Kovai Express, reached home. From there I went to my
grandma's place and from there went to Erode to catch the Blue Mountain
express to come back to Chennai.

I caught it, saw the coach and seat number. Got into that coach and got surprised.
There wasa person sleeping already in my berth.

I woke him up and told, 'This is my seat'.

He sleepily said, 'No, this is my seat. I booked it from Coimbatore'.

I said, 'No, I booked it from Erode only. But mine is confirmed ticket'.

He said, 'Mine is also confirmed ticket only'.

I very confidently asked, 'Okay give me ur tickets, let me check'.

He said, 'Mine is already verified by TTE, U give me urs, I will verify'.

I said after loosing some % of confidence, 'Okay fine! Check it' and gave the tickets.

He was going thru my ticket for some 30 seconds,
suddenly jumped out of joy and literally shouted,

'Hey man, you have booked it for yesterday!'.

Me, ':( is it?'.

I got the ticket back and verified. Yeah the travelling date
was for the previous day.

'Oh! Shittt!'.

This is what happens when you book ticket early in the morning
after your night shift work and you fail to verify it in that counter itself.

The TTE came and I explained him the situation. He was very
understanding and told me to get down @ Salem station, get an open ticket
and if possible catch this train itself or come inthe next train.

That was a real bad day and the things were not over yet...

I got down at Salem and walked towards the ticket counter.
I saw there was an another TTE at the gate, but I thought
that he wud also understand my situation like the former one
and let me go.

But he was a different kind, very adamant on the fine for
travelling without a ticket from Erode to Salem. I tried to
convince him for 20 mins, but not successful. Finally started
counting how much I had in my purse.

Oh! My God! I had only 167.50 Rs. Where as the fine and
the open ticket to Chennai costed me 166 Rs. And what was
left in my pocket was just 1.5 Rs. I asked that TTE only,

'Sir, please give me 2 Rs.I need to catch a bus from central station to myplace in Chennai'.

He was VERY UNDERSTANDING and gave me that 2 Rs.
I think this was the first time that I begged for money to some unknown....

Then I came to the platform to catch my next train.

That was a real real bad day and things were still not over...

Since it was Sunday, all the train were coming full. What I had was
a general ticket and I find no place even to enter into the general comportment.

In the meantime, I saw the first TTE. He felt so sorry for me and
told after hearing what happend with that rude TTE,

'I didnt want to put that penalty for you, otherwise I myself would
have given you this ticket'.

Finally I got into one train where I found a place to stand. It was a
bum-shattering experience, coz after sometime I got a place to
rest half of my bum. I was very tired because of the two days
travelling and roaming.

I thought I was sitting there, but actually fell down 2-3 times because
of the sleep. Finally reached Chennai central with that 3.5 Rs. I thought
I would get some money if ATM is available, but I found no ATM in the visinity.

That was a real bad day that all the Mylapore buses coming were
either LSS, in which the charge wud be 4 Rs or the luxurious buses in
which the charge wud be 7 Rs, whereas what I had was only 3.5 Rs.
I waited for some 45 mins to get the normal buses.

May be I could have taken an auto and on the way I cud have get
some money in the ATMs. But in Chennai, autos are horrible and
would loot lot of money from you.

So it is always better to check your tickets as soon as you get it at the counter.

That was a fearful night...

It was 11:30 in the night, I was still in the office and decided

to leave. I didnt want to pay extra to the auto, but to walk

for 3 KMs to my home.

It was 12:00 when I was some half a KM away frm my home,
my roomie called and asked me to come fast since he wants to
lock and sleep, which made me to take the short-cut, which is
via a graveyard.

Dhimak said, 'Yes, Proceed'. Dil said, 'No, Stop'.
Decided to go by my mind, took the short-cut.

When I was in the middle of the graveyard, there was cool breeze
that touched my back...neck....and head. It was so soft like the
fingers of a female.

Suddenly heard the strange sound zzzzzeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkk.

My heart started beating so fast that one can hear it easily

with naked ears. That sudden strange sound ran a chill
thru my spine. I started walking faster and faster.

But the speed was not enough I felt,coz the sound was getting

bigger and it was approaching me.

After some 10 steps, Dil said, 'Better run'. But dhimak said,

'No, turn back and see what it is'. Again being a mind ruler,

decided to turn back and see what it is.

I just turned.....Oh! My God!





























It was just the piece of paper which was rolling in that breeze

and was approaching me....:(

Thanks I turned and saw, otherwise I dont know what wud
have happened. Thanks that day I went by my mind.