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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Chp 267. Wedding Planner: The Prep


These past two days felt like a month. I’ve never been this tired. Apart from the wedding work, there’s the exhausting task of being in charge of the house renovation.

I had to manage three different groups of workers – the painters, the masons and the welders.

If I’m not driving to the paint shop to get more paints that “suddenly” ran out, I’m at the quarry-shop transporting cement, sand and glazed-tiles for the masons. The dickey and back seat of my Wagon R is now covered with sand, cement and paint.



My hands and legs are still bruised from all the carrying and mixing of cement etc. A bag of cement weighs 50kgs, and there’s no proper grip on the sand and cement bags. This is what we’re doing to our garage. New floors. Looks pretty neat now.



Each row of tile requires 3 sacks of sand and 1 sack of cement. That’s +200kg of sweat and toil, multiplied by 10. But at the end of the day, boy it feels great to say, this is my house, I built it with my bare hands.


Wedding cards pain, again!

Yes, we eventually ordered a couple of hundred more wedding invitation cards because the 700 we ordered ran out! Our relatives from all over Aizawl bombarded us with, “Hey you missed out this guy or that girl who’s married to one of our somebody’s somebody who’s a blood relative” etc etc.

And so, the mad cycle of placing a new order for more wedding cards, folding them, writing the names, distributing them etc began again.


Planning the wedding ceremony:

If it weren’t for relatives, I would feel like Perez Hilton at an Amish convention. I had absolutely no idea what was to be done, but my uncles, aunts and mom’s cousins came to the rescue. They were as involved as we were.

It’s not as simple as, “ok let’s conduct a wedding and be done with it.” Nopes. Its way more complicated. Here are the basic things I’ve learnt:

The KTP (Christian Youth Fellowship) plays an extremely important role. They will be there during the wedding as ushers in the church (to make sure everybody’s seated properly and in order, and that they walk out of the church in an orderly fashion), parking attendants / valet (very important, especially with Aizawl’s congested small roads and heavy traffic jams), and also as the choir during the wedding service.

The KTP refreshment committee may be the most important of them all, as they will be making tea along with the snacks and constructing counters outside the church so that once the wedding is over, people can come out and take tea/snacks from the counters. I am not a tea drinker, but one thing is for sure: Mizos loveeeee tea.

The counters have to be made in such a way that there are 4 different options for the people, as every person has their own preference about the way they take their tea:
  1. A sen hang (black tea, no sugar)
  2. A sen thlum (black tea with sugar)
  3. A paw hang (Tea with milk, no sugar)
  4. A paw thlum (Tea with milk and sugar)


Yes I know what you’re thinking - “Why don’t they just make four counters with the same “black tea, no sugar”, and then add milk or sugar on-the-spot according to what the person likes, instead of making 4 counters with different content as it might lead to wastage of a particular type or a demand for one type that’s no longer there?”

Inventory management indeed. Even I asked that same question, and the answer I got was that people move along the line much faster and that they expect to be served directly this way due to this practice being followed at every function. Funny people, these tea drinkers are For us coffee lovers, its funny to see people making such a big mountain over something so tasteless… (bring it on, you tea drinkers, gimme ur best shot Banzaiiiiiiiii! )

Then there is the cleaning committee, for which my cousin H and I are directly in charge of. It will be our duty to provide dustbins and waste bags at the Church complex and later collect all the wastes (paper cups and plates) and make sure the area is spotlessly clean. We’ll also have to hire a small truck that will carry the waste packages and dispose them at the garbage dump.

Regarding the KTP choir mentioned above, the choir members will be learning a new song for this occasion alone, and since the fellowship is on a voluntary basis, they can learn and practice only in the night after they are done with their school/college/work. And for that, we have to provide the refreshments which include tea (again) and other snacks.

Other people not to miss out are the video-cameramen and professional photographers. Since dad is bed ridden, I was planning to connect a LIVE feed of the church wedding ceremony directly from the church to his TV in his room. I talked to Simjazz and he told me it’s possible as long as the distance from our house to the church is not more than 100 metres. It gets complicated if it’s more than that. It’s approximately 100m away but when I told mom about this plan she said it will only discourage dad from making an attempt to be present during the ceremony so I shouldn’t mention this to him. So this operation is on a standby.

Then there is the practice of inviting celebrity gospel singers to grace us with a song or two. The two singers we invited – Vanlalsailova and Maggie will both be out of station on that date, and Pi Vanhlupuii has a lot of near and dear ones who passed away recently so she said she’ll be there for the wedding (she’s mom’s friend) but she’s not in that right frame of mind to sing a happy wedding song. Hence we are still looking for singers to invite.

Last but not the least, there is the task of decorating and other interior designing work which are undertaken by mom’s cousin Upa Zosangzuala (“UPA” means “Church elder”) and his wife. I went with them to the ceremonial hall (meant for the after-church function) and measured the tables meant for serving tea and snacks (so that a beautiful table cover can be stitched), the frames (where a large “Mazami weds Nicholas” will be printed), the sofa set where the newly weds will be sitting down (so that we can buy or stitch new sofa covers etc) and many more.

They also brought beautiful cane baskets meant for placing the flowers and wedding presents. All in all, these past two days felt like labour camp, keeping me tired and occupied till 2 in the morning. Yeah, staying up till 2am back in Mumbai may be normal, but it is a HUGE deal here in Mizoram because the sun freaking rises at 4:30 in the morning. Since we’re a part of India, we have to follow Indian Standard Time, but keep in mind we’re on the other side of Bangladesh, so we’re around 2 hours ahead of Mumbai, theoretically speaking.

Tonight before sleeping, we’ll also have to plan who’s going to pick up the groom and his family from the airport when they land in Aizawl tomorrow. Eight big English folks. Definitely not something easy to manage.

Ending this post with two pictures taken from my room today and last night. I promised Giddiyaja some breathtaking pictures of Aizawl scenery, but with the current weather, things are far from picturesque. :-(


[with mist]


[without mist]





14 comments:

Tetea said...

"...Perez Hilton at an Amish convention..." Lol! Really, I was reading your post at work and when I got to this line I couldn't control myself and laughed out loud. Not a very good thing to do when the only thing you hear is the sound of colleagues typing on their computers.

Anyway, great post. I had fun reading it.

'Hope everything goes according to plan, and that your dad makes it to the wedding ceremony...

benjamin rualthanzauva said...

masons in Mizoram? Are they the one more commonly known as Head Mistiri?

benjamin rualthanzauva said...

could have given you a hand were I there.

Varte said...

Hetiang hi alawm upa-ten 'mawngvawmba ang seka phe' an tih ngei chu. I hah lutuk ang a, Inneih ni ber pawh i hmang tha thei lo ang tih hlauhawm a nih kha, han awm ve ila, i hahzia hre lek lo khan a tui tui lo ei ila tha tur...

I Unaunute chu tluang taka Innei turin duhsakna ka han hlan ve ang e.

In IN hi ka rin lohna lai daihah a awm!!!

Kanidar said...

Inneih hi Trum 4 ka buaipui ve tawh a, a hahthlak dan chu ka hrethiam ve tawhin ka hria.

Ei tur buatsaih in daih loh palh a hlauhawm ber, over-estimate policy apply dawn ila, a chuan hnem viau khan a zahthlak deuh roh bawk si a.

Trum khat han mangan phat hi chu a awm ve chawk a nia, intih vuivai palh a hlauhawm bawk si.... Hui ham, Fel ve duak mai ang..

24th zing lamah chuan kuhva hring leh meizial nen sofa a i thut der der theih nan ka duhsakna sang ber ka hlan a che :D

Eveline said...

Looks like you're having a busy but an awesome time. The setup you have there is quite excellent.

I especially liked the tea part. lol! I read that over about 5 times with a big grin on my face, since i'm such a big tea lover and i'm impressed with the importance given to the way it's going to be served.
I'm also impressed that you're always willing to go to hell and back for family.

Wish i could see you at the wedding but it's kinda short notice to change my travel plans. ;)
You know how when things happen to your Internet People, and you really want to know the details, but would never ask (or even expect to ever know) because Internet People are people too? Well: you're a very satisfying sort of Internet Person, Kima :)

Blind Dayze said...

Loads of plans to be made indeed...just reading about the things to be done is making me giddy :)

dr_feelgood said...

Hope the groom and family arrives safely. And also hope everything goes well, you really worked hard and you deserve the blessings of the weather god for a nice fine day on D Day.
Time for a litttle funny.A Mizo family sent a wedding videos to friends in the UK.The congregation was singing 'Aw Lalpa I malsawmna Hlu' which is set the tune of 'Guide Me Oh thou Great Jehova', and the UK friends couldn't understand why they should be singiing THAT song on a Wedding Day.

Unknown said...

I va 'All-in-one' ve mawle. Chhunah Mason leh Carpentry works, zanah IT leh Kohhran/Khawtlâng Dân hre mi - Huissss...i lo va turu ve aw..Lolzzzz....Tak takah 'Wedding Planner' hna hi Aizawlah a hlawk viau lo ang maw?

Hriatpuia Pa said...

Zaithiam sawm lai ber mai khi... a va buaithlak ve aw, kei lah ka rawn zai hman dawn si lova!! :))

Tluang takin han zo duak mai teh u.. duhsakna ka hlan a che u.

Eh, helamah hrilh tur ka nei i ti mi kha?? hna min pe em? ka chiang teh nuaih lo. ka lo hrilh kual dawn mi??

Mizohican said...

Hi all, thank you all for your comments. I couldnt come online past 3 days due to no net connectivity on my Tata indicom :(

The wedding was a success but currently many of us including me, mom, cousins, aunts and uncles etc are all sick in bed with body temperature and loose motion, including some of our foreigner guests and even the chief minister of Mizoram. We suspect its some food poisoning. Anyway, I'll try to update you guys with what happened the past few days. Thanx for visiting once again. I am still feeling sick so don't have to energy to make a new post to reply to everyone individually. Gnite.

nancy said...

i van khongaihthlak.. lo dam vat la, cuan thlalak te rawn post rawh.. i lan thatna chauh post lo la o:D

vana said...

Buai awm cher cher hle mai bro chu. Ka thianpa hian nupui a nei ve a nimin mai kha, a buai berah ka tang a, a nawm leh nawmloh poh ka hrelo!, :(.

Anonymous said...

nothing to do with the wedding...the other day (sunday) i got me a bottle of Old Monk (after reading you post obviously)....i couldnt even remember the last time I drank old monk...and i've this badest hangover, and till now, this five pounder is still hammering me poor head !!!??? SCREW YOU SANDMAN !! he he