Church Wedding - Part Four .

PART FOUR ....................

THE PARTY.

True to the pattern till then , at 1900 hours sharp Crystal Springs Almeida Park was ready to receive the guests for the reception. With snow white table cloth, chair covers with coloured sashes around them .Tables were tastefully arranged and looked good.   Four chairs were laid around each table.The tables were laid out with four packets each of favors which consisted of photo frames, and almond sweet packet and confetti packets so that each individual at the table would get one each of favors and confetti packet. Stage was set with sitting arrangements for the Bride , the Groom . the Best Man and the Maid of Honour. All the trees around the Crystal Palace were decorated with hundreds of  fairy lights . Chinese lanterns and streamers in large numbers were strung on the trees in very large numbers. With the darkness descending on the Crystal Spring all the fairy lights and the Chinese lanterns were switched on and Crystal Palace was looking very beautiful  like a scene out of the fairy land . 

Guests started arriving shortly after 1900 h. Barman was still busy pounding away at the herbs , ice and whatever else  there was in the pot . Curiosity got the better of me and I went up to the bar to investigate . To the inquiry as to what was happening , I was told that he was making " मोहितो ". It had vodka , sugar , mint leaves and some other ingredients . Pounding was necessary to squash mint leaves,sugar , etc for better taste and flavour. I wanted to taste it pronto . Was politely told that the bar was "not open". I could see it was not shut , but having heard that term , many times ,  during our serving days , I had no problem understanding the meaning of "not open".SU enlightened me by saying that bar would be open after cutting of the wedding cake and drinking of  the "toast" for the wedding couple was drunk, which would be some time after 1930 h . For persons having the timing of 1900 h sharp , 30 minutes were 30 minutes too many to wait, alas the wedding plans & programme took precedence :)  However seeing my hangdog expression he relented and a little while later declared the bar as open .By the exodus from the tables towards the bar there were many many more who thought as I did :).As I had waited for so long and was so intrigued by the "pounding drink", I wasted no time asking for a  " मोहितो ". It was sweet , it had fantastic flavour and tasted heavenly . As I did not want to forget the name , I requested Claire to write it down for me . On a paper napkin she wrote " मोजितो ", "MOJITO " .To my inquiring look she enlightened me by telling me that in Mexican and in Hebrew , "J" is pronounced as "H". After our tour to U S of A and  discussions/ argument with my D-I L , I knew why it was  " "सान होसे "  and not  " सान जोसे "  but it also happened in Hebrew ,was news to me and I knew it not !! It is really true that there is no end to learning and one keeps learning till his dying day . But now at the age of 69 years my ignorance saddens me . I console myself by saying that not every one can learn and know every thing about every thing in this universe ! However some where in my heart I feel that it is a poor consolation !! 

By 1925 hours or so almost all the guests had arrived , Baliga  and Chris with his second wife  joined our table and we started chatting up the old times ! Harry Aluwalia and crowd had settled and made themselves comfortable in a quite corner of the park . Here are some photos taken at our table .

Priti and Claire

Beautifully laid out tables with the guests . Don't miss the Favors and confetti on the tables.

 Mrs   Chato     ,   Chato,      Baliga,      Steve,  SU,      Velu

Claire & Priti

 Mrs Chato , Chato , Steve , Baliga , velu & SU

 Claire,            Priti,             Christabel.   

At 1930 sharp Ayesha and Arjun walked in with the Best man and the Maid of Honour. They were led to the stage . The Maid Of Honour read out the "speech" and toast of the  Maid Of Honour. Followed by Best Man's Speech and toast . While this was going on the caterers  quietly placed the wedding cake in the decorated arch specially put there for the cake cutting occasion, others were putting cake slices and a toasting shot glasses full of red wine on all the tables. After the speeches we all drank toast for the wellbeing and happiness of the newly wed couple . Cake was cut and we had that .

After that Ayesha and Arjun led in the first dance . Then of course every one went on the floor and some serious merry making and enjoying of the proceedings took place . 

It was a gala , gay , wild wild party and one of the most enjoyable wedding celebrations we had attended .It was reminiscent of the parties we used to have in our younger days in the squadrons. and so it turned out to be best party ever attended or witnessed in a long long time . It was simply wonderful and it was such a great influence on my thinking that it became subject/title of this part of the blog.

Some time during the party G D Shintre came over to say hello to Priti & self as we were not only course mates but also room mates in Allahabad.He had also come to Sulur while doing JCC and once as Captain of a Packet aircraft to deliver some load.I had showed him a tear-ass pullup take off and what a clean Gnat could do . When he had come with the Packet he returned the compliment by doing a pull up take off in an empty Packet with full power on jet pack and full boost on both the engines .It was good .

When I was young , in our village we had bullock cart races in one of the annual functions .The races were a great attraction and taken very seriously by every one.People from surrounding villages came to take part in the race . It being a matter of great prestige and Honour to win it for your village .People came from far and wide to participate in these races with specially trained and bred racing bullocks and specially designed light weight carts . The races were run with no holds barred and with great enthusiasm . The speeds achieved by the bullock carts were really great and astonishing . They really looked great .But they were no comparison to fleet and swift chariot races I was to see much much later in the film "Ben Hur " .

Shintre's pull up take off had reminded me of the those bullock cart races,they were good but no patch on the chariots, of course I had never had the heart to tell Shintre of this comparison :-). 

We chatted up good old times . I kept making rounds to the bar . There were vodka shots , white rum shots , wine shots and many more . As we had to travel to Borivilli and I was told not to mix my drinks by none other then Priti , I did not taste any of those :( Every one was dancing and enjoying the occasion to the full .The dinner was announced . Food was fabulous and plentiful.After dinner we bid fare well to all . Took a lift to the railway station from one of the guest of Su who dropped us at the station and caught a local to go to Boriville. 

And so came to an end one of the most memorable and enjoyable wedding ever attended by us !!!!!!!!!!