Setup of PLOT:
Rakesh was getting married in his hometown and he invited US( me and many more) to attend his marriage. That wasn't the voice of Rakesh, it was the call of FATE, asking me to visit BIHAR!
START:
Me and Sam both reached office on 25th with our bags as we were the only two guys going from Bangalore to the LAND OF EDUCATION of ancient INDIA. Worked the whole day (;-) ) and started our journey. We boarded the flight to Kolkata. Plan was to reach Kolkata, stay in Gyan's brother house. We reached Kolkata pretty late. Met Gyan's brother and bhabhi jee. As soon as we hit the bed, the day was OVER!
Second Day:
It was a time to visit BENGAL! As soon we hit the road, it was all "MITHAAYI" SHOP everywhere. People, who know me because of my habit, know my week point. It's not blood which flows in my veins. It’s the SUGAR SYRUP and after watching those many sweet shops, I went INSANE and ate whatever ... wherever I got. Laddu, gulabjamun, pede, burfi, jalebi, chamcham, mishti dahi, chhena, rassssgulley......... LIST was endless and quality was awesome! I ate until my stomach cries internally - “YOU MORON... I know you don't have LIMIT but I have. “And Sam cried the same as he is a CALORIE conscious guy who was calculating my calories and cost of whatever I ate. ;-)
As soon as we reached home, FIGHT started between my belly and tongue as bhabhi jee was all ready with her machi. I had the same when she visit Bangalore last year. Although my belly was crying for some rest but it’s impossible for me to say NO to her love which she poured in that MACHI. My senses supported my tongue. After that I was so full that it was difficult for me to start the next round of city visit. Even oxygen has to fight with food in my throat to reach till my lungs.
We Watched the world cup match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Shahid afrildi turned the whole match in his first spell. We spent the whole evening in front of T.V with snacks and sweets (can't live without that...) and had dinner (again fish and a delicious vegetable WITH SWEETS) to finish the day!
Third Day:
Plan was to go DAKSHINESHWAR temple on bank of HUGHALI! It is one of the most famous temple of goddess KAALI in Kolkata. We hired a cab. I was amazed to find that for a journey of about 1.5 hour, meter was showing just Rs 80/- but my findings were shattered instantly when cab driver told us that they are using ERA old meter and whatever it shows, you have to pay DOUBLE of that. We finished the darshan in next 30 minutes. Sat near the bank of hughali(Local name of Ganga jee). Then we headed towards another market to try MORE versions of Bengali food. Sam knew one good restaurant. Being a new person, I let Sam order the food with a clear instruction that food should be AWESOME. He ordered pator maach, sukhto, biryaani and chapaati. Believe me, this was the first time, I was having these dishes and THEY WERE AWESOME. Even at one time, I was ready to kill Sam for masala of pator maach!
After having lunch, we went to roam south Victoria palace, city mall, visited city's metro- India's first. After saying goodbye to bhaiya and bhabhi, we started the next phase of our journey. We caught the train to Purnia. It was an overnight journey so we went to our bed as soon as we entered in coach.
D-Day!- Reason for the TRIP
Rakesh's Wedding day.
We reached Katihar railway station at around 6 AM. Rakesh had sent a car to pick us to his home, which was around 60 KMs from there. As soon as we reached there, a warm welcome by his entire family! I already know his sister. But, I was surprised when his brother in law said "This must be Jeevan". I found that everyone seems to know me. But the reason was clear. Rakesh has explained all my features, habits and my weakness to them. Even for breakfast, they gave me a full box of rasgulley!! I showed a little courtesy in beginning but failed to keep resistance from that box for long and ended with finishing half (plz read almost full) box.
After finishing our breakfast, we headed towards our hotel. We got fresh and went out to roam in the city and ended into a sweet shop. ;-)
Since Sam wants to see Rakesh's village, so we headed towards the village. It was me, Sam, Rakesh and Rakesh's brother in law. It was a good sight of big wheat and corn's fields on both side of the road. The last stretch of the road was very bad. His village was a typical old Hindi movie kind of village, unlike villages in Uttaranchal. In Uttaranchal, one village's perimeter is around 1 KM as houses are very distant from each other because of their stepwise architecture. While here I witnessed close neighborhood, dry grass roof to keep the temperature down in summer. A nice experience!!
Since it was Rakesh's wedding day and it had been almost 3 days that Rakesh had not seen her "to be" wife so we decided that we will go back home via his "to be " in laws house. On the way to their house, Rakesh was so happy but when we are just around 100 meters away from the house. He was pale, frightened with his in laws or don't know what. He didn't let us get out of the car and without meeting our BHABHI JEE, we came back to hotel.
Baaraat was suppose to depart at 6 PM( I(Stretch)T- 7 PM) So we had enough time for a quick nap. By the time, I got up, Sam was ready. After making our self ready, we reached Rakesh's house. Rakesh and his parents were busy in performing last rituals of his BACHELOR life. Old people were discussing their issues in other groups. Some people were running here and there to prepare themselves for the occasion. Kids, they were very much fascinated with my camera and were busy in posing for me. Those cute faces refreshed my memories of my childhood, when we used to plead with our uncle to click our photo, with his 32 film kodak camera and most of the time, he used it's flash rather than roll, to make us happy! Thanks to my Digital camera, I was able to capture all those faces and poses in my camera and MEMORY forever!!
Finally Rakesh finished all customs and get ready with his attire. He came out and was all set to CHARGE on his in-laws house to rescue his wife, who might have feeling ALL ALONE there! All people started in cars and reunite in front of GIRL's house.
It was time for all invited people to show OFF their talent. These people are those UNKNOWN Participants who are talented but generous enough to let other people WIN in TV dance shows. It was time to show off their skill and let this world know that God created everyone with their dancing shoes and these shoes work in all stages of life. Be it an old woman of age 80 or a small kid of age 5! People showed their power during their dance step by lifting another person on their shoulders. Kids were trying to imitate elders while others were creating their own moves! Even i tried my hands... sorry legs (Actually both) in same and was all tired while entering the party hall. We got kicked by others. We pulled so many people to dance with us. All in all, enjoyed the dance session more than what we saw on those BAKWAAS channels.
Finally Baaraat entered in main Hall and everyone reached to the centre stage. Now Along with Rakesh, everyone was waiting for our (to be) Bhabhi jee. Wait was over and bhabhi jee entered in Hall. She was looking GORGEOUS; after all she was the MISS INDIA of the day. All eyes set to the couple which was standing on the centre stage for their VAR-MAALAA! Both looked (or trying to look) confused, tensed before varmaalaa but the tension fled as soon as varmaalaa was over. Both started smiling after looking at audiences as if they were saying- Thanks for being here!! :-)
Now it's time for DAAWAT( The DINNER). But before that, I clicked some pics of bhabhi jee and Rakesh. One of the Bhabhi jee's relative was telling her the all possible poses she might have seen in all photo albums and Bhabhi jee was giving them with full ISSHTYLE!! It was Rakesh, who was all shy, sitting on a corner, waiting to finish us with this photo shoot.
As soon as we finish this, I headed towards Dining room. I need not to ask anyone about the directions. It was the aromas which just hold my nose and directed me to my plate. I started with mutton, sabji, papad and chapati. Second round has homemade rasgulley, rice and veg curry. By this time, Sam was done with his dinner while my third round with rice curd, rasgulley and gulabjaamun was finished. I was done but as soon as I was getting up from my seat, Rakesh's elder brother came and asked me to join with him. I was unable to say No to him and accompanied him with ONLY sweets in my plate. People around me started looking at me as if they had never seen a sweet-aterian in their life. However finally we got up from the table and headed towards the PANDAAL to see the rest ceremony of the weddings.
It was month of February, neither cold nor hot. A perfect night to sit and see the rituals of wedding. Rituals were all similar as in our village. Role of bride's mother and father, brother, process to tie MANGAL-SUTRA, MAANG bharaayi. Everything was over by 4 AM.
Now Rakesh had officially (and willingly) lost his BACHLORS while his wife had gained her Masters HAPPILY. Now it was the time to come back to our HOME. We had a train from Katihaar to Patna at 6 AM. So we said Bye to Rakesh and his family. Rakesh arranged a car to drop us till railway station. Train was on time. With a night full of adventure and after being LIVE evidence of changing Rakesh status to SINGLE to MARRIED, we entered in our coach and fell asleep.
Next destination was Patna where we met Gyan's dad on railway station. We bought sweets from station as we have to fly from Patna to Bangalore in next 4 hours. Uncle insisted us to visit us to visit their home. Since it was our first trip to Patna, he told us about every single local point, museums and roads so that we won't face any problem. His hint was that Gyan's marriage is also approaching. Meanwhile, we reached Gyan's home where auntie jee was full ready with lunch. We finished our lunch and headed to see uncle's office as it was just 2 streets from their home. After meeting his whole office staff, we started our last phase of journey with a bag full of sweets, namkeens and SO MANY MEMORIES. While taking my seat in flight, I was just trying to run all my memories in FAST FORWARD and found the draft of this story.
Take off from this trip:
1. There is NO better place than KOLKATA, in terms of CHENNA sweets.
2. India is full of surprises. Same process... same task but different style of rituals. Be it a process of tieing saree knot or any particular wedding process.
3. If so many people know you because of your some habit, it means either you have a VERY BAD habit or you are JEEVAN NAILWAL. ;-)
4. Loved the warm hearted welcome from each and every person of Bihar. Be it my friend's family or their relatives or any local guy. Respect in the language - calling "HUM" for me and "AAP" for you. It feels AWESOME!
And last, but not the least, whenever you get an opportunity to visit eastern part of INDIA, just GRAB it. It will be a lifetime opportunity for you, as I did.
With this last advice, I am closing this blog and promise you to come back with more trip stories, more adventures and more incidents. Till then, Take care and KEEP EATING SWEETS... ;-)
