A wedding hall is like railway platform
Author :
gvk2
Blog :My Take by GVK
Date: 6/12/2012 1:24:41 AM
As in a railway platform, most people you meet at a wedding hall represent a floating crowd. People with whom you strike instant conversation, exchange credentials and promise to meet, but rarely do, until the next wedding, when you go through the rigmarole all over again. Such is the way I usually meet with some of my wife’s Sulur cousins. They are a lively bunch, and a well-knit group. I can count on spending an hour with them at wedding receptions. They rarely miss weddings and other social dos in our extended family. Weddings are designed to bring together distant relations who are otherwise not in touch with one another.
At a recent wedding of a nephew I ran into Venkat, son of my wife’s Balu chittappa. Venkat and our son are of the same age-group; and they were schoolboy friends when our families were based in the same city – Hyderabad – in mid-1970s. After an year in Hyderabad journalism took me back to New Delhi, from where we moved to Bhopal, Chandigarh, and Chennai. The last we had seen of Venkat was over 11 years back, at my son’s wedding in Bangalore.
At our recent meeting in Chennai Raghavendra wedding hall, Venkat introduced us to his wife and college-going son. Based in Coimbatore Venkat is a radio journalist specializing in sports. He is a veteran of Commonwealth Games, Army international athletics meet, and world Cup Hockey, having covered these events for All India Radio. During off-sports season Venkat produces radio plays broadcast from Coimbatore AIR station. Venkat and I spent over an hour together ; and, true to the script of wedding hall meetings, we promised to stay in touch. He invited us to visit him in Coimbatore. It didn’t occur to me to take his address. But then, if we do take him up on the invite , I know where to find Venkat in Coimbatore - local AIR station.
Venkat wanted my contact details, URL of this blog, but , in that crowded hall, we couldn’t find anyone with a paper and ball pen. And we don’t carry our address book/ card to wedding receptions, do we.
