The thing that excites, arrives and whooshes by

After declaring supreme love for my blog, I pack up and leave it all alone. The ironies of life.

Got back from a Kolkata wedding replete with Bongs and desserts, both of all shapes and sizes. Started out by having my hand baggage confiscated for having a Swiss Army knife. It's called the cons of last minute packing, but what can one do? The guard was quite pleased with himself for having correctly identified the prohibited object, and I was quite amused at myself for having let it get by me. We all got away unhurt and unscathed though.

On arrival at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, I was picked up by an old, toothless Dada and a shorter than short, bespectacled Kanu. Dada drove the rickety white Ambassador like there was no tomorrow, while Kanu smiled with a flourish. Dada and Kanu...my heroes for you, while on the other hand my travel companion had her boyfriend pick her up at the airport with a bunch of flowers. Moving on.

Kanu was extremely chatty, and although Dada was too, I barely could understand him through his lisp. We drove through all the backroads, almost ran over 5 pedestrians (I kept count) and a few rickshaw pullers added in for good measure, and finally made it to the bride's house. Red-oxide flooring, high ceilings, slow moving fans, bowlfuls of jaggery dipped rosgullas, and a cuter than cute grandma. What more could one want?

Took some trips on older than me Kolkata buses, and visited the opposite-end expatriate type lounges. Wedding was small and fun. Was, of course, kind of weird to watch your friend from school marry someone you barely know, but the sugar intoxication erased any kind of sad feelings that may have arisen.

The bride told me she spent a whole day ripping up letters and such from boyfriends of lore, and recounted our own letter writing days. She solemnly announced that although she could not read any of my scrawl on random bits of paper (those days I used to write on the backs of opened up used envelopes), she still saved them. Nice memory type moment. It's also nice to feel the closeness with someone you've hardly kept in touch with for the past several years. Some things don't change.

I have always maintained that weddings are fun, for dress up purposes and for eating purposes. Non South Indian weddings are even funner because people dance. A nice break from overwork and from seeing your colleagues for 12 hours a day. The wait is now on for next wedding of cousin in February. Chirotees and kumkum, here I come.