Day Before Festivities Begin

As the posts continue up to the wedding day, I will be posting not only what was happening with my family but also Neeraj’s family. Someday when we look back at this, we will be able to recollect all that happened with both families during this special time.

We had left off that my cousins from Mumbai, my parents, my mama, mami, and cousin from Surat, and myself had arrived in Jaipur on May 14.

On May 12, Suraj and six of my friends (Dr. & Mrs. Katz, Jillian, Diane & Dan, and Beth) left on American Airlines from Chicago and reached Delhi around 8.30 pm IST on May 13. They were greeted by Roop Mama & family as well as Lata Didi (choti masi) & family at the airport. Of course my family was all excited to see proper Americans for the first time who they would get to interact with on a day to day basis as they traveled together to Jaipur and then at the marriage. My family was also excited to see Suraj, who hasn’t been back to India in nine years.

So what’s the first meal they had upon reaching Delhi? McDonalds. That would be Mumma’s idea to have my family in Delhi to take them there. (she was all worried if they would eat Indian food).

My friends, Suraj, and the rest of the family in Delhi were all going to reach Jaipur in late afternoon/early evening on the 14th.

Because we had reached Jaipur in the late morning, we headed straight to the hotel to relax, shower, etc… I also had to go to the beauty parlour that day to finalize all that was going to happen to me in the next two days. After a few hours, Chandni, Heena, Pinky Didi (their cousin from Jaipur), and I were off to Shades, the beauty parlour in Raja Park. All I can say was that it was an interesting first visit and when I left the place — I really didn’t want to come back.

This parlour was a professional beauty salon, but the ladies that were working there did not impress me on my first visit. The owner came and talked to us first — took me in the back and did a test or two. Then told me that I had this and that, and I should get this or that treatment done. I was overwhelmed:!: She made me feel right down ugly. As she started to name off the things that were included in the pre-bridal and bridal packages, I became to get even more worried. They wanted to start everything that very minute, and I was thinking to myself:

I want to go home

I told my cousin, when the owner left the room, that I didn’t want to get all that crap done — so she said let the owner know what I wanted done. That’s what I did and also told her that I didn’t want to start anything today (for goodness sakes it was my first day in Jaipur, and I was not going to spend the next 4-6 hours at the beauty parlour ). We told her that we would be back the next morning to start whatever they needed to do on me and headed back to the hotel.

As we were going back to the hotel, Pinky Didi mentioned that her house is very nearby so we stopped at their house. We stayed there for a pretty long time with me mentioning on/off that we should start getting back to the hotel. Then Mumma called and said that everyone from Delhi have reached the hotel and where are we,everybody is askign for me, etc.. Then I reiterated to Chandni and Heena that we should get going to the hotel.

We reached the hotel, and I slowly made my rounds to see everyone from Bhaiya to my American friends to Lata Didi/Kishore Jijaji, Asha Masi & family, etc…

What’s Happening with Neeraj & his Family

On the same day, Neeraj and his family were getting ready to leave their home in Hindaun City and make their four hour drive to Jaipur. In the morning, Neeraj was busy getting his suit pant-piece from the tailors and finishing up any last minute items that he needed. He had rented a Scorpio SUV for the next four days so that his family would be able to travel comfortably back and forth from Hindaun City. Almost Neeraj’s full family was going to be traveling that day which included:

Neeraj’s parents

Satish Bhaiya, Renu Bhabhi, & their two kids, Gudden & Harshit

Shobha Didi and her two kids, Shubham & Himanshu

Rajani Didi and her daughter, Shruti

Lakshmi

Neeraj’s other elder brother, Manoj Bhaiya, already lives in Jaipur, and the family was headed to their home that day.

Sunday, 14th May was a pleasant day, in Jaipur terms . It wasn’t as hot as it was expected. As Neeraj and his family started their journey around 1 pm, they stopped about two hours later at a mid-way/dhaba area, only to find out that their vehicle had an air conditioning issue which caused something to rupture in the engine. Oh no, how will they continue?

Satish Bhaiya then did whatever he could to get another vehicle, but it took him over an hour to get that done. As you can imagine with five little kids, in the peakest time during the day in means of weather, it couldn’t have been easy.

They finally got another car, and instead of reaching around 5 pm in Jaipur, they reached at 8 pm.

Neeraj’s father, brother, Lakshmi, and Neeraj changed clothes very quickly and headed to our hotel so that both fathers could talk about more about the marriage prepartions, etc..

When they had reached the hotel, I had no idea at that time what they all had been through during the day — it was the first time that I was seeing Neeraj (not that we had a chance to talk ), as I spent the whole time talking to Lakshmi.

After all the talk was completed, they had something to eat and headed back to Manoj Bhaiya’s house.

Next Post: May 15, Mata ki Chowki

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.