Hari and Nisha got married on Sunday 15th of this May 2006, i.e. yesterday.

 

They had their dreams come true after nearly four years of affair. If I remember correctly, it was in February 2002 that they started seeing each other. I've been pretty close to them till then, so with a pinch of pride I can say that I know more about beginning of the relation than any of my batchmates. But after that I gradually kept off from them. It was my call; to me it was inevitable, but I'm criticized a lot for that decision even now.

 

Hari and Nisha had traveled a lot of south India as part of their career and in its hunt. But not together. Nisha did her project in Bangalore, then got job in Hyderabad and then later was transferred to Mumbai. Hari has been in these cities as well. Now they both are in Mumbai for quite some time from now. They sure should have had a great time there and now they are happily bonded legally as well.

 

Nisha had told me long back that their marriage would be solemnized during summer holydays cause there were quite a few children to attend the function. As told, their marriage was fixed in May.

 

Since the marriage was on a Sunday, we took the pleasure of being there one day before. My room mate Manoj has been boasting about his place Ottappalam, for quite long time now. This is a place where a majority of Malayalam movies are shot. We had planned to roam around the place on the day before and then attend the marriage on Sunday and come back. A weekend holiday in Palakkad, planned well and executed to perfection. 13^th of May, though it was a second Saturday, was declared as a working day in my company as a compensation to an unanticipated holiday last month same day, which happened because when Rajkumar died on 12^th last month, the mob who attended the funeral got violent and created some unfortunate incidents which disrupted public life for over a day. (Phew!! that was quite a long sentence  )

 

 

We reached there on 13th morning. After a good refreshing bath and refreshments, as usual we got late for starting off. Luckily Manoj could arrange two bikes for us. We were four in number, me, Sujesh, Manoj and Sunny. We started off to Nisha's home first, because Sunny was leaving the same day to Ernakulam. Since he doesn't attend functions on Sunday because he has to attend the church, he decided to meet Nisha the day before marriage.

 

One bike was a new Unicorn; the other was an old Bajaj KBZ. The KBZ was too old and poorly maintained that he hardly hit the 60 kmph mark, the gears were slipping, the brakes was hardly there and not to mention the missing horn and the rear view mirrors. A journey that would take hardly half an hour took around one hour to make.

 

We met Nisha at her home at around 11 AM. The home was just awakening itself for the D day. She was in a casual dress, there weren't much guests around. And the guy who is supposed to help everyone around, her brother, couldn't make it from middle east due to non-availability of leave. We stayed there for half an hour, teased her a little, shared new stories about ourselves and then wished her all the best and left the place for an adventurous day ahead.

 

We then decided to go to Keezhoor. Manoj told us that this place is in the background in a lot of movies and is a beautiful place indeed. We reached there by around mid-day when the sun was in its glowing best. It's a place which is full of mountains and valleys. There were paddy fields a little quite far and the whole place was looking remarkably beautiful.

 

We took a lot of pictures from there. For one snap, I climbed one steep rock and then was stuck there for sometime because I couldn't climb back down. Then I decided to take the risk and then climbed down some how. It really scared the shit out of me.

 

By the time we came back to Ottappalam, it was 3 o'clock. So we went to a hotel called Choice to have our lunch. It was a pretty good hotel and for the outstanding food they serve, it was exceptionally cheap as well. Felt so good to have delicious homely food from outside after a long time. To me, the food I get in Bangalore is pathetic. Even the kerala restaurants here don't serve good kerala food.

 

What would a typical keralite do after a tiring morning and a heavy lunch? Sleep. Yes, we couldn't travel any longer and decided to go to Manoj's home and sleep. By the time we wake up, it was evening 6. Then we decided to rather stay at home and organize Manoj's computer. His machine was having voice issues and the folders were all so disorganized. Sunny was also getting late to leave. Manoj went to drop him. And by late evening Anoop kurian also arrived.

 

The next day morning, me Manoj and Mannu went to the near by temple. It was the same place where Manoj's sister Mini's marriage was solemnized. Since we were going to the temple, I borrowed one mundu from Manoj's dad which I decided to wear for the marriage as well. I always like to wear mundu. I feel keralites look good in kasavu mundu rather in any other dress.

 

We met Lekshmi on Ottappalam bus stand. I had asked her to come there since she was alone and couldn't go alone to the auditorium. We reached there in time, 10 minutes before the muhoortham. There we met Sachin, Sujith, Sreekanth, Prem, ... and handful of juniors. Female section was very weak. There were only three Dhanya PK, Dhanya Menon, Simi Menon.

 

The marriage was solemnized nicely. Me and Sujith took enough pictures. As a matter of fact, we were having competition there to see whose photos were looking better. We had a splendid time there. The feast was also good. And I did make a lot of noise and show-off with Lekshmi's new handy-cam. She said the video has turned out to be fine. I'm waiting to see it.

 

Lekshmi left immediately after marriage since she had to go to Trivandrum. We then got a call from Anup Vijayan that he is on his way. So we waited for him. Anup reached by around 3. He had his lunch and then we started our group discussions. In the mean time Sujith wanted to have some liquor, so we all went to Toddy shop. Almost as a pledge, I had stopped it years back, so I didn't touch. So did most of us except Sujith and Anup.

 

After sharing some light moments there we all parted. Sujith went to Thrissur to catch his train to Chennai, Anup and Sachin went to Palakkad, me Sujesh and Anoop retuned back to Ottappalam and by evening we boarded our train back to Bangalore.

 

Altogether it was an enjoyable journey and a memorable weekend. Thanks for Nisha and Hari for getting married :D. And best wishes for a very delightful lifetime too. Enjoy !!!