Chp 709. Wedding in Bangalore - part 1

A couple of years ago, back when I was working at an Ad agency, my dear niece Eunice had come down to Mumbai to study. Being the cool uncle Kima that I was, I took care of her whenever I could, making sure she was having a good time and in the right company. After all, we're all protective of our loved ones.

And then came that time when we started our own little gaming company, and I was so busy meeting investors and flying to Delhi and Hyderabad all the time that I was hardly in Mumbai. And so I asked my friends to take care of my niece while I was out of town.

I mean, I couldn't entrust her with my friends like B.Ramhluna, Charlie, Fela and Bena because I knew them inside-out as they're my best buddies :D I chose Thara because he was a super nice guy.

I called Thara one fine day and I said, "Yo brah, this muh niece yo."

He was like, "Yo sup yo!"

"Yo yo!" replied Eunice.

"Take good care of her while I'm out of town, bro", I told Thara.

"Any niece of yours is a niece of mine", Thara replied.

And so Thara took care of my niece while I was away. I felt relieved to know she was in good hands. It was really nice to have a friend you could trust, somebody who would not take advantage of your family members, somebody ready to take care of your niece…

But… I think Thara eventually took too much care of her, because just last month, I flew down to Bangalore to attend their wedding!

:D

I guess I had been naïve and failed to connect the dots or understand body languages. All those times Thara, Eunice and I used to hang out together, I thought we were just hanging out as friends. I miss those cozy dinners we used to have together in Mumbai…

I mean, how could I have been so oblivious? When Thara came over to my house and took out Eunice for dinner, I was like, "What an awesome friend Thara is, making sure my niece is well fed!"

When Thara gifted her a box of chocolates and roses on Valentine's Day, I was like, "What a caring friend Thara is, making sure Eunice doesn't feel left out!"

When we went to the park for a stroll and I saw the two of them holding hands, I was like, "Wow, what an amazing friend Thara is, making sure my niece doesn't fall down and hurt herself!"

And when we were having dinner at home and I came back from the kitchen and saw the two of them kissing, I was like, "Awweee, so sweet, my dear friend is teaching my dear niece mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, it will be useful some day when somebody nearby drowns!"

See, I had never suspected a thing!

:D

Even when I went home recently, Eunice's mom told me I was going to be a "PUSUM" at Eunice's "man-ei" (our Mizo customary wedding tradition), which is an honorary title usually reserved for the elders of the family. Check out the odd-one out from the list below, the only "tlangval" in the Pusum list, lolz.

I found Thara at Eunice's house that night as he was helping them type out the wedding invitation. I was like, "What a concerned friend Thara is, he came over just to help them with the wedding program and invitations!"

It was only when I read the invitation that I realized the groom was going to be none other than Thara himself! :D :P

Ok all jokes aside, I am extremely happy to call Thara my… nephew-in-law? :P There is none more deserving of Eunice than Thara, and likewise, Thara of Eunice. Welcome to the family, brother.

Although Thara is from Gujarat and Eunice lives in Mizoram, their wedding was going to be held in Bangalore, and there's a very poignant reason behind that. My dear friend Thara had lost his mother to cancer in Bangalore, followed shortly by his father who passed away due to an unfortunate accident. Both of them were buried in Bangalore. Thara wanted to be close to his parents on his special day, hence the reason why Bangalore was selected as the wedding venue. Nothing felt more sweet than that.

On the day before the wedding, Bangalore peeps were hard at work preparing for the event. Bena and Dana of UTC along with their friends made the banner.

Evelyn Sailo, Wendy Chawngthu, Sangteii Bawitlung, Hlutea and their friends from around Kamanahalli did a great job decorating the Church.

Kamanahalli Mizos played a crucial role because they were like the hosts, as the guesthouses where the out-stationed guests stayed were located at Kamanahalli. This was where Eunice's family from Mizoram stayed at.

This place was right opposite to where my flatmate Amos and I used to stay back in 2006. But the entire area had changed now, completely urbanized, populated and bustling with activities. The only structure that remained from my days was Hotel Empire, the rest of the apartments and shopping malls were all new!

On the day of the wedding, my family back in Bangalore was busy getting ready :D

I on the other hand had just woken up from my bed in Pune and I got dressed immediately. Since I had just returned from a 3-week vacation in Mizoram, my leave was initially not granted, and finally approved a day before the wedding!

I booked my flight ticket on the day of the wedding in the last minute, and though last-minute bookings were expensive, it was totally worth it because my niece was getting married, and Thara was going to call me "Uncle" from that day onwards! That's freaking priceless! :D

And so I dressed up in my suit as I was planning to go to the Church directly from Bangalore airport. It was also the first time I ever took a flight wearing a complete suit, lolz.

Luckily, the seat behind me was empty, so I hung my coat there :)

Reached Bangalore :)

I took an Uber directly from the airport to the Church - United Theological College, Benson Town. Traveling on Miller's road brought back so many memories! And I literally screamed when I saw Miller's 46! It was one of our most regular haunts more than 10 years ago, and the place was still around!

Meanwhile, back at the guesthouse, Eunice was prepping up for her big day.

Her make-up artist was Lalhruaitluangi Chhangte, who's currently working in Bangalore.

Hruaii did an amazing work.

The beautiful bride.

With her brother Sam Zobiaka.

On her way to Church.

Picked up.

Meanwhile, I too had reached UTC. I met Thara immediately, who was standing by the Church doorway nervously.

The beautiful banner…

My nephew Ruatfela busy clicking pics…

My two nephews Sam and Ruatfela… Third nephew Sawmtea is also somewhere hovering around :)

Good to meet Sangteii again after all these years.

Nervous groom being groomed properly :)

My cousin and mother of the bride U-Dini.

She arranged all our ties and hankies.

Father of the bride U-Zomawia.

Family pic time. I met U Maruata's new wife Dingdingi for the first time and she was super sweet. U Maruata was Eunice's LG back in Mumbai.

Thara with his soon to be father-in-law :)

People arriving to the wedding service one by one…

Wendy and Evelyn who played a very important role during the entire wedding.

One last bachelor selfie :)

Time to head inside the Church…

We initially sat here on the first row…

But later the ushers came and told us to sit at the special family section in front. Right side for the bride's family and left side for the groom's.

A few selfies while we waited…

Pastor Lalrinsanga arrived soon after we sat down and he too waited for the groom and bride.

Thara too waited patiently for his soon-to-be wife.

The bride arrived.

The best man brought her inside the Church…

Here comes the bride, tran tran tra tran…

Ready to start the ceremony!

Wedding ceremony in progress…

Hello, how do you do, my name is Thara :P

Wedding ring exchange…

Blessings from the Pastor…

Congratulations, you are now happily married :)

Signing the certificate…

Presenting the certificate…

A good short sermon…

KTP choir…

Rev. K. Laltlangkima giving the final blessings…

There goes the bride and groom…

And with that I will conclude part 1 of the wedding. There are already 140 photos in this post so I'll put up the rest in the other posts.

Hope you enjoyed reading so far, upcoming posts have a lot of juicy stories on my friends Bee, Babie etc so stay tuned for that! :D

Until then, cheers everyone…

Chp 708. Airport people

One of my favorite comedy / drama feel-good movies is "The Terminal" starring Tom Hanks. The movie is about a passenger from a fictitious Eastern European country who happened to get stuck at the airport because of a coup back home, making his passport and visa invalid. So he could neither enter the country nor exit it, hence ended up living at the airport terminal for a long time, meeting different people, making new friends and falling in love all at the same place.

Recently, after an awesome vacation in Mizoram, on my way back from Aizawl to Pune, I ended up staying at Kolkata airport for a 10+ hours layover, and the different people I met kinda reminded me of "The Terminal".

I took a morning flight from Aizawl to Kolkata. As I have mentioned in my Aijal Club post, we were up till 1 in the morning at the club, as my family and friends had thrown a farewell party for me. So waking up at 7 the same freaking morning was super tough.

My friend OPie reached my house around 8 and he too was extremely hungover, lolz. I quickly packed, said goodbye to my family, chucked my luggage into OP's car and we left for the airport immediately.

We saw this cute little sign behind a truck in front of us, lolz. "Don't copy my STYAL"!

Nobody will be copying your styal for sure bro. :D

We reached the airport at around 10 and walked inside immediately. The security guards who checked my hand baggage told me to transfer my smoked pork from there to my check-in luggage because there had been reports of Kolkata airport security confiscating the meat from Mizo passengers on their connecting flights!

I was like, WTF. But another passenger behind me told me that was actually true, and so I reluctantly transferred my smoked pork from my hand baggage to my check-in luggage. I was reluctant because I had weighed my check-in luggage before leaving my house and I made sure it was exactly 15 KGs, the permissible weight limit. Adding the smoked pork meant additional 4-5 KGs!

Luckily, my Pune travel companion and good friend Remruati was waiting for me near the counter, and she took out a small but heavy bag from her check-in luggage, and together, our combined luggage weight was exactly 30 KGs. Phew!

As we got inside security check-in, I emptied my pocket, and guess what? I had my Wagon R keys! Lolzz. I tried to contact some of the airport officials I knew but they were all busy, and so my sister told me to send the keys from Pune :D lolz, why is there always so much drama around me? :P

Our plane to Kolkata soon landed. On our way to the runway, with Remruati and BZi.

With Jey :)

Funny thing about my friend Jey was that, on my flight from Kolkata to Aizawl, he and I were on the same flight, and again, on this flight from Aizawl to Kolkata, we were on the same flight again :D

The two Instagram models :)

Another drama! As I was about to board the plane, I handed the official my Aizawl-Kolkata boarding pass, when I realized my Kolkata-Pune boarding pass wasn't with me! And so I ran back to the departure lounge with a Jet official, and we searched the place where I was sitting but couldn't find it. A senior Jet official then appeared and told us the whole plane was waiting for just me and that I should get a new boarding pass from Kolkata. We ran back to the flight and I was the last person in.

I felt like everybody was staring at me as I walked inside the plane alone :( When I reached my seat, Remruati asked me what happened and when I told her, she facepalmed and told me my Kolkata-Pune boarding pass was with her all along! Aaaaarrrgh. :D :D :D

Anyway, I settled in and relaxed. Remruati and BZi were completely fixated on taking selfies. I slyly took a selfie of them taking a selfie :P

After we took off, it was time for the in-flight snacks immediately as the journey was very short. The flight attendant asked us if we wanted veg or non-veg. BZi and I both said "non-veg" normally. Remruati said "non-veg" so stylishly and sweetly that the flight attendant probably misheard it and she was served veg! :D

Poor Remruati, lolz. To rub salt into her wounds, we posed for a pic together showcasing our non-veg snacks while Remruati uneagerly posed with her veg snack :D

That's for making me run back and forth looking for my boarding pass, Remruat, bleh :P

We landed at Kolkata around 12 noon, where we met our other Pune flight companion Becky. She and her friends, all ex-Carmelians, were there, and I took a pic of them.

Remruati, the nula-luck as always, exchanging her phone number with a hopeful suitor :P

Once we were through security check-in, I was suddenly alone. I searched for my three friends everywhere, and finally found them busy doing what they do best - posing for pics :D

As our next flight was at 11 PM, we had a lot of time to kill. We decided to head upstairs to "The Irish House" for a quick snacks and drinks.

The reason why we had such a long layover was because we didn't want to take multi-carriers. If you're from the North East, then you'll know how unpredictable flights are because of the weather and mountains. Most of the time, flights get delayed or canceled, and we end up missing our connecting flights. But if both flights are of the same airline, then we don't lose out on any fare and the airline arranges another flight for us. That day, the only single airline flight from Aizawl to Pune was the one with a 10+ hours long layover at Kolkata.

At "The Irish House".

Ahhh… Millennials. Always on their phones, tsk tsk tsk, no time for real socializing in real life :D

The Irish House had a 1+1 offer, and since my friends didn't drink, I made BZi pose with one of my extra beer, so that I didn't look too pathetic drinking all alone on a Sunday afternoon :D

Food timeeee! Everything was so delicious.

I also met Joseph Mualchin's brother David at The Irish House, he was sitting at the bar counter watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S on his laptop. We met at Aijal Club during my recent vacation. We went together to the smoking section of the airport a couple of times from the bar until he had to leave to catch his Delhi flight. I went and saw him off.

I got back to The Irish House and we continued with our casual conversations.

Soon it was time for BZi's flight to Chennai, and we went and saw her off at her gate.

Once she had gone inside her plane, we roamed around the terminal and came across Hlimhlimi, a medical student from Bihar. She was wandering around the airport haplessly with her mouth wide open, not knowing where to go or what to do, communicating with others in sign language.

Just kidding, Hlimhlimi is Remruati and Becky's friend and she was also waiting to board her flight. We couldn't go back to "The Irish House" with her as she was underaged, and so we hung around with her at the terminal lounge.

Very sweet girl, she reminded me of my college days when I too wasn't enthusiastic about rejoining my college semester, lolz.

Finally it was time for Hlimhlimi's flight to Patna, and we went and saw her off till her gate as well. Once she had disappeared down the tunnel, we walked back and suddenly met… Papazarie!

Papazarie, aka Zari Ralte and I had been friends on Facebook since the beginning of Facebook and she's one of those extremely fun and sporty person, what we Mizos would call as super "chimawm". She has the gift of the gab, and was once known as the Queen of ZoGaG. And the funniest thing was, that was the first time we were actually meeting in person!

She immediately started pulling my legs on various topics as we didn't feel like strangers to each other even though it was our first-time meeting. Such is the candor of Papazarie :)

We headed upstairs to "The Irish House" once again as there was nothing else to do downstairs. We ordered some more snacks. Yummmmm!



Cheesy snacks.



Sweet snacks.



Not-exactly-snack snacks :P



Great times indeed.

Another funny incident - The Irish House didn't serve hot coffee, which Becky and Remruati wanted, and we weren't allowed to bring in "outside food". But since we had been at the place almost the entire day, the Manager finally gave us permission and Becky and Remruati ran downstairs excitedly to bring back coffee from CCD, lolz. :D

After a couple of cocktails down, it was time for Papazarie's flight to Bangalore. We made our way towards her gate.

Did I not mention Papazarie is super chimawm? See how much she had influenced Remruati and Becky, lolz. Three monkeys posing by the ladies loo :)

After a few more laughter, we watched Papazarie as she strutted through her boarding gate into her PBB (Passenger Boarding Bridge).

As we walked back, I met Chhantea, my dear friend from Mumbai.

The madness never stopped, lolz. For somebody who doesn't know that many people, that day had indeed been crazy for me. Chhantea and I caught up on old times and then the four of us went to eat some KFC and cold coffee since there was some time left for his flight to Mumbai.

After we went and saw him off at his boarding gate, I decided to take one last "one for the air" drink at the Kingfisher stall.

After that, it was time for us to board. Hoo boy, what a crazy day at the airport indeed. :D

We saw off David to Delhi, BZi to Chennai, Hlimhlimi to Patna, Papazarie to Bangalore, Chhantea to Mumbai, and finally us to Pune. :P In a way, we felt like we were the hosts of the airport as we saw off all the guests we had invited, lolz.

Inside our flight :)

Some of the crazy things we did on that flight :D

Our in-flight dinner - Chicken curry rice. Remruati made sure she pronounced "non-veg" properly this time when asked :D

One of our flight attendants was called Ruotmawi :D :D :D and so whenever she walked past us, Becky and I would hum "Ni tla ngailo Zion khawpui…" And finally she looked at us and grinned :D

We reached Pune at around 1:30 in the morning and from there, we all went our respective ways. Man, what a journey that had been. Very "The Terminal" indeed.

And with that, my amazing vacation in Mizoram came to an end. Now it is back to Pune and current stuff, with lots of new and exciting blog updates coming up, so stay tuned folks. Cheers for now and wishing you all a very happy weekend. Bye!