It Was Atul's Wedding on Last Saturday.

Now that's what i call a peer pressure. why? well, most of my friends from my age are getting married. and worst is when u accompany him to give away the invitation card of his marriage. Moreover, Everybody literally hounds you by popping up the same question till you answer it. So, when are you getting maried? and I answer that by saying, 'ya, pretty soon. May be next year?'. Then oldies retort to me by saying, 'What next year? don't marry untill you find the right girl.' Well, I would say that was the best advice I could hav had on getting married.

Atul was not my batchmate. he was one year ahead of me. But we used to go to school together. we had been to the same tutions for several years till the 10th Exam. We stayed in the same locality. Evern after Atul left our society, he still did not lose touch with us. We always used to meet on weekends. he was very introvert.

It was friday (the day before his marriage) and Atul was calling me over the phone to remind me time and again to drop in at his house before 7'o clock. We adhered to the Indian tradition and went in late. He was furious. Atul's nature is like that. he gets angry pretty fast and soothes faster than that. The reason Atul was insisting us to come early so that we dance as much as we can since DJ was only till 10'o Clock. But we all gathered around 9 at his place and we only had one hour in hand. but Boy, did not we make most of it? yes, we surely did. We danced on the tunes of Jai Ho, Aloo Chaat and other typical marathi songs.

It was 10. and Atul's dad came from his house to the DJ. To my surprise, He asked him to put the music off. surprised. because Atul, being the only child of them and he, himself serving in the police department, he could have easily extended the mood but he remained firm on his decision. I admired that honesty in him a lot that day. Woh Kehte hain na, 'Charity begins at home'. We wrapped up the programme and went to sleep after promising Atul that we would visit the hall well before you in the morning.

We did not keep the promise that we made the previous day of reaching the venue. It was more embarassing when Atul called us on the way to remind us what happened on that promise that we made. and we kept assuring him that we would reach there in a flash. The moment we reached we were welcomed with one symbolic honking instrument called, Tutari, on the reception. We felt elated and fortunate that it beaped at the time when we entered the hall. But the fact was the person armed with it alwasy had to honk it when someone is about to enter the hall. so, we were not the exceptions. There was one more nice thing to tell about this wedding. There were Phetas being offered to everyone to be draped around their head. But to our dismay, we could only chance upon one of them and that too was worn by a friend of mine who had accompanied me. It was fun when we came out of the hall to look for present packet for him and he felt really ackward wearing that pheta outside the hall in that bustling street (he actually came to know of it when people started staring at him while passing by).

The marriage took place at the scheduled time. There is one ritual in the maharashtrian marriages to lift the groom-to-be when bride goes to offer him a garland. We chatted after the marriage as to why nobody lifted Atul like that, when one of his realtive promptly replied back, 'who would dare to lift him?'. since Atul, being a bit plump, nobody wanted to take chance on this one.

Marriage came to an end. we accompanied Atul till he got into the car with his bride. I reminded myself that one more amongst my friend have settled down in his life and I would hardly meet him on weekends now. I will miss you Atul.