Beethoven In Trance - Episode 52

We got up early as usual on Day 5. Today is the wedding day for our friend. We packed our bag and headed to our friend's home after waking her up by phone. After sitting around for a while at her home, we had our breakfast served. The food was wonderful and I was very happy about it. The wedding ceremony started at her home in the afternoon and we video taped the whole thing. I even helped with cooking something for the bride's father. The bride's father needed to fast on the wedding day as a tradition, and he could only eat milk and some nuts. I helped toasted the peanuts. Then one of the aunt mixed it into some milk mixture. The wedding ceremony wouldn't start till evening so we had some time to kill. We contacted the sister of our coworker and she came over to give us another package for us to bring back to US and she took us to a place for shopping. She dropped us off to a local clothing shop because I needed something appropriate for the wedding that evening. She couldn't accompany us that day because she was busy. After saying good bye to her, we went into the shop. I bought a set of India clothing, and went to the check out. Fortunately they accepted credit card. I asked the guy over the counter where I could get money exchange. He pointed me to a group of guys working in the store. I was then 'suggested' by them that I could just sit and they would bring me the person for exchanging money (or at least that was my understanding). I smelled something fishy (or just being paranoid), I insisted they give me direction for Thomas Cook. Then one guy jumped out and gave me some direction, and another guy came out and smashed him on the head. Hummmmmm.

We left the store and since we still have plenty of time till the wedding, we started to walk around and tried to find Thomas Cook. The area consists a few blocks of stores cramped together. We followed the direction that we got previously and were able to find any branch. My wife kept reminding me not to walk in the middle of the road (a habit that I developed in Agra). I then decided to go into a known bank branch (HSBC? forgot the name) to ask for help. The guard won't let me in because of the bag I carry. So I left my bag with my wife and walk inside by myself. I found a young lady in there and asked her for direction. She suggested 'Western Union' which was what our friend suggested and gave me some direction. We then followed the direction to some extent and found the most modern shopping mall in town. The officers at the door checked our bag before letting us in, we have started to get used to it. It's a shopping mall much like the western ones, pretty boring. We eventually found the Western Union, and it was a tiny little office with one guy sitting behind the counter. I called my friend again to confirm this IS the place, then walked in to exchange the money. We walked around the shopping mall a bit then finally decided to sit down in the McDonald's (yeah, it's everywhere). We had a Chicken Maharaj and Vegie Burger. The flavor of chicken maharaj is confusing and I didn't like it at all, actually I hated it. Vegie burger on the other hand has distinct indian flavor, and I liked it. Stuffed with junk food, we headed out of the store.

We wrote down our address on a piece of paper and started to look for a manual rickshaw to take us back. The first driver quote us 50 rupee, then 40. He must be drinking and we went for another one. Most of the drivers don't know the address in English which makes the 'hiring process' a bit difficult. Eventually one driver took the bid, and asked a street vendor to translate it. At that time my offer was 10 rupee, I showed him the address in one hand, and 10 rupee in another hand, and he said yes. We got on the 'bike', and he started to riding back. He didn't know any English and he didn't really know the address. He delivered us to a place close to the address, but not the address. We decided to walk back ourselves so we got off his 'bike', and gave him 10 rupee. He all of sudden started to ask for 15 rupee (which was an offer I made earlier before I hired him). I told him firmly that this was not the address, and I only agreed for 10 rupee. He didn't understand me, and I didn't understand him. I showed him again with the address in one hand and 10 rupee in another (like what I did before he said yes to our offer), and told him the he took us to the wrong address. We gave him the 10 rupee, and we started to walk. He followed us and shouting at us loud and angry. We ignored him and kept walking. I bet the whole block could hear him. We came across a group of young people on the way, and we asked him for direction, they could only tell us the general direction. We kept on walking and the driver kept on following. Very soon we saw a sign that we remembered seeing before and we were heading the right direction. The driver was very persistent, and kept on following us. We didn't think bringning him back to our friend's house was a great idea at that moment, so we went into the club that we went to for the engagement party three days ago. We stopped at the gate, and told the officer that the driver was bothering us. The driver followed us in and started to talk to the guard. I told the guard that I didn't understand what the driver was saying and appearantly the guard had no interest in involving in this matter. He let us in the club, and the driver was disappointed. He left finally. After we walked in the club, the guard stopped us again and told us that the gym opens from 5pm. Ok, we will keep that in mind!

We sat on the lawn under the evening sun for a while, relaxed. We headed back to our friend home to get ready for the party (to be honest I was afraid the driver would waited there, but fortunately he wasn't). Our friend's sister loaned Jessica a set of traditional clothe, and I put on my newly bought as well. We were ready and walked to the club again at night. We met four friends of groom waiting for the party to begin. They were from Germany. We chatted a little bit. The groom was busy with some ceremony very much like the one we just saw at bride's home. After waiting and waiting, the groom finally got on a horse and started to rode back to the dinner party site. There were a group of relatives and friends dancing around the horse and moving slowly to the party site. There were drummers trying to stop them moving and two groups would 'fight' on the road. Drum vs. Dance. There was a line of people on both sides of the groom carrying lights and some guys in front of the everybody setting off fireworks. It was rowdy. I was amazed how traffic was still open and cars were able to pass by the whole army of people.

The groom finally reached the gate, where a group of bride's sisters stopped him for getting in. The groom had to 'bribe' them to get in. Jessica was among them and shouting 'US dollar, US dollar'. Well, the groom surely would be broke if he paid US Dollar. Finally, the monther in law came out for help, grabbed him into the door.

By that time, most of the guests have arrived and started eating already. The party was on the lawn of the club, and it was open. Around lined up an army of cooks ready to serve you whatever you like. We met another friend of us from Delhi at the party and we started to catch up. We then went to see the bride together (who was hiding in the backstage), while the groom was busy with his ritual. We took pictures of the bride then came out for dinner. My friend showed me around and intoduced to me all the dishes and I video taped the whole thing. I even went behind the counter to be a chef for a minute, which was really fun. The only thing that bothered me a little that night is that there was one guy grabbed me in my arm and asked me to give him the video camera. I first thought he was kidding but he was dead serious. I said no, and tried to get away from him, but he was persistent and kept asking me. My friend from Delhi came to rescue and I was able to escape. But soon my friend was 'trapped' again by him and his father. They were asking my friend to send the son US Visa. What the heck??? I went to rescue her and we finally could start eating.

After the dinner, I was sitting on the table and my wife and friend went for desert, the son came back again and asked me for my phone no. I told him that I was from China so he said me for my Chinese phone no. He said he was going to call me and he told me his name is 'honey'. What kind of man call himself 'honey', and NO WAY I am going to call him that! Sure, I gave him a fake chinese no. and he said something that I didn't understand and left.

We didn't stay too long at the party, the wedding was going to last till next day, and we needed to go back to Delhi to stay with her for the night. We took the picture with the bride and groom and we went back to the bride's home with the bride as she needed to change the dress. We pulled out our luggage and said goodbye to them in rush. Her monther was kind enough to give Jessica a necklace as a gift. We said good bye to everyone and got into the car with our friend heading back to Delhi.

By the time we got to our friend's house, it was almost mid night. Her parents went to sleep already. We took a shower and got into bed soon as well. The masquito had a 'Chinese buffet' that night. And that, was our Day 5 in India.