Off to the wedding.

The day had begun on a leisurely note. Spoke to dad and briefed him about our stay and scheduled programme, while spending time at his cremation site. 

We're off for the wedding by about a half past 9 and reached there a three quarters of an hour later. Parking was a Herculean effort but finally, found a suitable place but realised that I'd have to wait for almost the entire lot to leave to get us off from the venue! There were a whole lot of relatives from Lekha's family and the elders, including my mom decided to sit down below at level 1, next to the dining hall, because they were not in a position to climb up the long flight of stairs to the first floor where the wedding was taking place. Certain oddities were noticed:-

   (a) Since everyone knew that the elders were sitting down below, the boy who was my 

         sister-in-law's brother or both - the would-be-bride and he - could have come to them and

         sought their blessings.

   (b) When weddings are planned, care needs to be taken to ensure participation of the entire lot of

          guests and in these days LED screens, could be deployed judiciously to ensure the same.

   (c) The wedding day is a 'mad' day for the people concerned and therefore, slip ups are capable of

         creeping in despite the best of intentions and it's best to laugh them off without taking things

         to heart at 'slights that might not have been intentional'!

I felt bad that mom was made to go through the discomfort but she took it very sportingly and the enduring snapshot of this wedding was the manner in which my mom ate her food, while spilling the 'paayasam' on to her dress which I'd washed off then and there. I was reminded of my dad, in similar circumstances, a year before he passed away and couldn't help but note the similarities! 

The journey back was quiet and we're in time for our siesta.

People dropped by to meet and chat up with mom and she was excited like a kid as they told her as to how much they missed her. Her day was made!

Tailpiece.

The rubber trees have grown taller but there's plenty of weeds around them. The next weeding out process will begin tomorrow but it will be directed at the immediate surroundings of each sapling! The complete weeding out can only be undertaken when the sun gets stronger and there's no trace of rain!