One down, Five to go…
Disclaimer: This is an attempt. A testimonial if you please. Please feel free to ignore it unless you are or know my now (err… recently) married friend.
Jaipur is a city that I recognise. Yes, yes, its tiny and if I’ve been there even once I should be able to find my way around it or some such. But such rules don’t apply to me. They really don’t. I can get lost anywhere. Also, I can recall the strangest of routes and ways. It just depends on how dreamy my state of mind is.
So, where was I? Jaipur. I like. It’s tiny. It’s warm. It has Nahargadh, Samodh Haveli and Amer and even the minuscule Hawa Mahal. It has the Johri Bazaar. The Lassi. The fried food. The clothes. The juttis. The silver jewellery. The open-air restaurants/bars where you can smoke! It is fabulous. Honestly. Most importantly, it also has my dear dear friend. My dear friend who is married. Now. A married woman. Moving on… or rather, moving back in time… when she was single.
She was single. She drove a Santro and zipped it just like SRK. She drove me around town. Made me eat, drink, shop, sight-see, and laugh! like no one could. Truly. Her madness is quite endearing. I like to call her Superwoman on Jaipur roads. She is quite something. So, when we got news of her marriage/wedding/matrimony, we were excited to say the least. We planned. We packed. We tried to plan. Tried to shop. Managed it somehow. Managed being the operative word here. CP knew she was getting married. So did Khan Market. My dentist knew. My office knew. Respective offices and doctors and peoples knew. We were on our way soon enough.
From the bachelorette to the mehndi, from the wedding ceremony to the vidai. We were there. We were drinking on the sly. Smoking on the sly. EATING like never before. Being pampered like princesses. Falling in love with her gorgeous and warm and adorable family. We were also staring a lot. The colours. The bling. The gifts. The ceremonies. The sangeet. The unbelievable “organised fun”, which is very lacking when alcohol is openly involved. The game show and entertainment was reminiscent of Suraj Bharjatiya. The girl announced her mandap to be ugly. We laughed. All was normal. We scandalised. We loved. We pacified. We were all there… however “there” we could be.
“This is surreal” was a statement I used quite often. “She looks so pretty” was another one. She looked gorgeous. I am sure she broke a lot of hearts. The girl looked absolutely stunning. She also sounded a lot like Rani Mukherjee thanks to her sore throat. Here is to her. To a beautiful person, a superwoman on Jaipur roads, a stunner without even trying. Here is to one of the coolest people I’ve known. To PJ. You made me love a city and so much more… Here is to your happiness…
The Footloose Doll said,
3 December 2008 at 10:42 am
Jaipur is not so tiny anymore. It’ll give you a pseudo metro city feeling.
Very sweet post even though I don’t know you or the friend (though since we are (were?) in the same city, I might have bumped into her without knowing that I would be reading about her some day). :)
Anonymous said,
3 December 2008 at 1:15 pm
*sigh.
awww, sweetness.
Make sure she reads this… you’ll surely make her cry! I miss her!
Perakath said,
3 December 2008 at 2:08 pm
Pikchurs!
siropdevanille said,
4 December 2008 at 9:21 am
@Footloose Doll: She’s still there.. so I’m sure you must have/ will bump into her… and Thank you :)
@Anon: We all do :)
@Perakath: Aiyyo! Pikchurs not possible…! Too many faces that will not appreciate being on an unrestricted blog! hehe…
Joe said,
4 December 2008 at 9:59 am
That’s the first “Aiyyo” i’ve read in a while. Either it’s not longer being used or I don’t read much. Hmmmm… there, i’ve got my “grave ponderous look” reason for the day sorted
Joe said,
4 December 2008 at 10:01 am
Previous statement meant to be: no longer, and not, not longer.
Purely_Narcotic said,
6 December 2008 at 1:35 am
You paint such a beautiful picture of Jaipur. Now if only I could convince someone that we should be headed there for New Year’s. Sigh.
siropdevanille said,
7 December 2008 at 7:17 am
@Joe: What’s wrong with Aiyyo! It’s so expressive! Even for a “north Indian” like me!
And uhmm… I get it. Sorted. eh?
@Purely Narcotic: Oh please do go there and stay at any cheap place or uhmmm stay at a 5 star…! But book a cab and go to nahargadh. It is AWESOME. See the sunset there :)
akshay said,
8 December 2008 at 12:34 pm
Well written pulav.
Good spectatorship translates into good writing, agreementofy?
siropdevanille said,
10 December 2008 at 5:32 am
@akshay: I do agree…
But ummm… I will have to tell aunty that you called me pulav again!! Hahahaa!!!