We are Engaged! Part III

Let’s begin where we left off in Part II. I want to talk a bit about the hall so that I can get the atmosphere. The banquet hall was within the Holiday Inn hotel in downtown Peoria. It was on the second floor, and you had to take the elevator to reach the hall. The hall had two doors, one was a main entrance overlooking the indoor swimming pool of the hotel, and the other door was what I considered the back door, very near to where our head table was located.

When we had started to plan this party with the catering manager, Neeraj and I had specifically mantioned that we wanted the main entrance to be the door that all of our guests would enter. She said taht she would have the signs setup for that. But that wasn’t the case when we got to the hall.

The signs led to the back door and so poor Bhayia and to keep running around and giving the guests their place cards, which told them at what table they were sitting. The banquet manager soon came by and introduced himself to Neeraj and myself, and that was the first thing I mentioned to him — fix the signs to the door! Minor snafu, that was surely fixable.

The ambience of the rom was just magnificent. We had this centerpiece, glass vase with a red rose in it, that was sitting in the middle of a mirror tray. There were two votive candles on that tray as well. This was decorated on all of the tables. The lights were dimmed so the candlelight atmosphere was portrayed. The lights on the walls also shone reflecting the color of the sari, it was very beautiful.

Appetizers were provided for our guests, yummy kachoris, fruit and vegetables with delicious dip, and tortilla chips with salsa. For the first hour or so guests mingled, congratulated us, etc.. Then two of younger cousins (one is in 8th std. the other is in 10th std.) did the welcome and then were going to invite those at the head table (Neeraj’s friend Rajesh, Bhayia, my parents, and Neeraj and myself) to be seated.

We wanted it to be special so we were going to enter through one of the doors farthest from the head table and walk through the room to the table while appropriate music played in the background. Neeraj’s friend Rajesh from Hindaun and IIT, now studying in NY, was going to go first while Le Jayenge Le Jayenge…Diwale Dulhania le jayenge was going to play in the background. Only for some reason our friend that was handling the music didn’t turn on the music. So nothing played.

Then Bhayia was going to enter on the tune that he picked, James Bond 007 theme music, but of course that didn’t play either. So our guests didn’t really understand (in my opinion) what the heck was giong on . When it was Mumma and Papa’s turn to enter, I was thinking, great, this is dumb, they won’t know what to do either. The background score from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum should have been playing — this time it did:!:

Neeraj and I were going to enter next. We thought of doing something cute and different. The song that we chose was from the movie Deewana Mastana called,

Oh Mummy Mummy, Oh daddy daddy, ho jaao ready, jise meri shaadi hogi, jise meri shaadi hogi, aaj maine woh ladki dhoondh lee hai!

Cool eh? I had tolld Neeraj that he should go first as if he is singing and just take a few steps, and then when the part comes about that he has found that girl, he should turn around and then I will enter. SImple and fun right? Wrong. Neeraj kept walking almost to the front near the head table so my cousins were confused, not listening to the music, to why I didn’t enter. So one of my cousins comes running in the back looking for me, and I told her to go back and sit down. It was a mess and it ruined the whole cuteness of the intro. Oh well, something to keep in mind for the next time we try to do something like this (i.e. wedding reception in US).

Part IV is next tomorrow.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.