"maaru" (aka marwari) wedding/engagement...

I have always heard that "For marwaris, the two biggest things in life are marriage and building a house." Well of course it does not stop there, for they are known for quite a lot of things - numbers , business acumen etc etc.

Recently I attended a friend's engagement and his sister's wedding - a combo-event. I was there for the first day only, which consisted of the engagement function and "Sangeet Sandhya" for his sister. But this was enough to prove the above statement right. The arrangements were superlative. From the time we set foot on Bellary railway station, to the time we boarded the bus back to Bangalore everything was taken care of. A Scorpio + driver was at our disposal throughout the day. Not just that, we were taken to a huge 7 bedroom house (ofcourse we did not find the use of all the 7 for none of us halted overnight) and given the key to that house. This literally made us feel HOMELY.

And then, three trips to the marriage hall.
Trip 1 :- Breakfast
Well, if only one could actually classify it as a "break-fast". There were atleast 10 to 12 items on the menu. For a south-Indian who is generally accustomed to kaara/kesari-bath or idli-vada or dosa this was quite overwhelming. The marraige hall as such was decorated will all bright colors.

Trip 2 :- Lunch
The lunch had what I presume a total marwari touch. It was FULL OF SWEETS. I am not a fan of sweets, so to be frank I found it a little hard to take in so much of sweets. But I had to give in under pressure for everyone used to combine the sweets with so much LOVE and put it directly into my mouth on the part of the tongue that is nearer to my throat :-P. After the heavy lunch, it was a nice sweet pan that finally helped me come back to life. I finally decided, if in the evening there is going to be an action replay of this, then I better skip the dinner.

Trip 3 :- Engagment, Sangeet Sandhya & Dinner
Now comes the best trip. Our hero was all dressed up for the occasion. The stage was set for the engagement. The atmosphere was quite pleasant by Bellary's standards. Here and there we could find the pretty faces of the colorfully dressed marwari gentler community ("chicks" in slang...but ). Finally, Mr Gopal Asawa exchanged the rings with Ms Pooja. And one event was over. Then it was the "Sangeet Sandhya", started with a prayer to Lord Ganesha. From then on, the action began. One by one, people from the Asawa family started to show their talents. By far, I must say this was one of the best talent shows. Starting from the 5-10 year old kids to aunties everyone were at their best. We were all sitting there spellbound, amazed at the skills. Mostly it was dancing to the Hindi numbers. Finally after the show, we all came to the following conclusion - The marwari women have an extra DANCING GENE. Everyone were amazing and appeared quite professional on the floor. A special mention has to be made of the multi-talented compere. I do not know the name but she did a wonderful job. Finally came the time for dinner and I was a little apprehensive about one more sweet dominated dosage. But to my relief, the dinner was a buffet and I could only have what I want. However, ironically, I ended up having everything for I just could not resist. Every item from the salads to the panipuri, from the main course to the desserts were just too good.

Overall, the "friend's engagement" turned out to be - a school reunion, a time to relax and chat, good food and some music and dance. What more could we ask for?? ( than a maaru wedding)

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this post are not meant to be derogatory to any group of people. Kindly do not misinterpret the post. :-)