I am finally legally married...

After 2 and half years of our traditional wedding, Aman and I finally registered our marriage on 7th July’ 08.
Its not that we didn’t want or try to get our marriage registered before but our great Indian Judicial System was a huge deterrent.

.....

And this is how –
We got married in Kapurthala, Punjab (Aman’s hometown) and there wasn’t time to get the wedding registered. We just had a couple of days there and all that time went in meeting relatives and visiting temples.
The next logical step was to get the wedding registered in Bangalore (the place where we live). Again we didn’t fulfill lot many conditions –
- The wedding didn’t take place in Bangalore and so the court couldn’t register it
- Both Aman and me hadn’t stayed here long enough to be recognized as domicile citizens???
- we didn’t have important (??) documents like Ration card or the Voters id card

Fine, so we thought we’ll do this holy task in Ranchi (my hometown). Now who ever is familiar with the working of a town like Ranchi will know that even if you have all the documents in place and even if you have all the right contacts you still need to make almost all the people in the ladder “happy”. Thanks to Dad who did all that and much more, we were given a date to come and register the wedding.
It was a bright Friday morning, while I was getting ready to be married once again to the same man, we got some awesome news. Apparently one man in protest of some new government policy had tried committing suicide in public. He was battling for life for past week and finally on the same morning as my wedding registration he succumbed to his injuries and died. As a result all government organizations including the court were abruptly shut to mourn his death. And with that the possibility of our registering the wedding too died.

Now in this recent trip for Bhiaya’s wedding, we finally managed to finish this mammoth task. The actual registration didn’t take more than 5 minutes. That was disappointing. They should have atleast respected our efforts and made it a look big. But anyways, all said and done, I am finally legally married :)

July Update

It’s been a rather funny month. Rains in Orissa were very heavy on our pockets. We (Aman, me and parents – in – law) were to travel from Bangalore to Ranchi for Bhai’s wedding. All tickets were booked on the comparatively economical mode of travel - the TRAIN. But just a day prior to our departure, all trains to the eastern part of the country were cancelled. As a result we had to fly to Calcutta (as there is no direct connectivity) and then take the train to Ranchi. There goes all the planning to be sane and reasonable for a change. Return was also the same story. But this time more than rains it was Aman and his work. So we had to pre-pone our return by a day, again making the already light wallets some more lighter.

Wedding was a grand affair. All money shopping for it feels like a worth while expenditure. I actually like weddings. I like the state of happiness the entire family is in. I like the fact that my otherwise short tempered family is quite patient for a change. I like meeting all relatives and catching up on the lives of distant cousins. I like food and lastly I like dressing up. And bhaiya’s wedding in all possible manners did live upto these expectations.

One incident worth a mention is Aman and his "Suit". We reached Ranchi on the morning of 4th July. The engagement was scheduled for 5th July. Packing is almost always a last minute affair for us and in this last minute Aman conveniently forgot to pack "The Suit" he was planning to wear for the engagement. "The Suit" that he had got made more than a month back after a lot of trips to all possible malls and stores. In such scenarios the most viable and the only possible option looks like wearing something else. And in case you don’t have an extra dress then buy one. But unfortunately or rather stubbornly these options weren’t available for him.

The solution – he asked his brother who was in Bangalore but not in our home to break the lock, pick up "The Suit" and air cargo it the same day. All this did happen although with a whole lot of twists and turns mostly credited to the landlord who vehemently opposed the idea of breaking the lock. "The Suit" was sent through air cargo on the night of 4th to Delhi. After spending a night in Delhi the suit was sent to Ranchi on 5th. Some million phone calls followed to keep a track of "The Suit" and ensure it was boarding all the right flights. We picked it up from the airport at 7 pm and Aman was wearing it at 8pm.

Talk about being determined to make things happen

For Records, this is the Suit I am talking about !!! And for those who don’t recognize him already, he is the tall guy in the center.