BMHS: Marriages pave way for frequent get-togethers and parties!

Dharwad/Bengaluru: These days, the number of frequent get-togethers and parties is on the increase, thanks to the marriages of friends' children. If am right as Narayan keeps saying, the WhatsApp group of the 1976 batch came into being only after Deepak Laddad's kid’s wedding in Dharwad. All those who had assembled for the marriage felt the need of forming an online group and things started falling in place for meeting one another every now and then.

Nani pays respect to ‘Teachers’: Probably, more than a handful of such marriages might have taken place in the last 3-4 years or so. By and large, most of them took place at Dharwad while a recent one of the sons of Raghuprasad was held in Bengaluru. Ravi's daughter's marriage gave the feel of another get-together. Narayan booked rail tickets for me well in advance to attend the marriage. In fact, we went much prior to the marriage so that he could meet his office commitments. Once, the marriage got over it was party time without saying and as usual, Nani had brought with him a few bottles to pay respects to his Teachers!

Twins make it: Perhaps it looks like both, Ravi and Venkatesh should have been twins. They not only stay close to one another but also keep moving with one another. It may look intriguing that this has been the case with them for decades or probably right from their school days itself. After coming out of the college they had jointly set up a Hero Honda service outlet which was doing good business. But they felt enough is enough and retired from the business parting the unit they had set up. Nothing surprising, both Ravi and Venkatesh promptly made it to the evening party together. Sometime back went to Dharwad for marriage and found Sanjay there. But much before had surfaced these twins together!

Triplets come together: If Ravi and Venkatesh are twins of the group so are the triplets Sunil, Sugandhi and Raghuprasad. The fact has been established multiple times. For the first-ever reunion, all the three made it without any fuss. But in the subsequent meetings, all three of them had their own valid reasons for not making it. But it was a different case again during the recent marriage in Bengaluru. Both Sunil and Sugandhi were there with their spouses as well.

Reception at the hall, party in the hotel: Edwin, Gajanan, Ravi, Sanjay, Suresh and Venkatesh came in a seven-seat vehicle of Sanjay. Sanjay and Suresh drove it in parts. As they had come the previous day of marriage, they were well ahead of time for the reception. They were camping in a hotel nearby the wedding hall. Nani sent me his personal car sharp at 5.00 PM as assured. We were at the hotel at around 6 PM. Most of the friends from Dharwad were found dozing and assumed as they had come travelling from a long distance, they might be taking a rest. No, that wasn’t the case. As one of them revealed, they had started partying as soon as they hit the Bengaluru highway! But Nani was in no mood to listen to their party stories and he wanted the evening party to start asap. So, most of them were literally woken up from their sleep to get ready. While it was time for the reception at the hall the party began at the hotel.

Teething problems to begin with: Nani as a true gentleman he is had not come just stretching his hands straight. Thanks to his never-ending reverence for the Gurus he had come armed with a couple of Teachers. But there was a hitch in the hotel. No glasses were provided forget extra chairs for they had a Bar in the hotel building. So what, who cares for their stipulations felt the pals. As there was no hope of getting snacks either, Sanjay sought the help of Nani’s driver in getting a salad from outside along with water bottles. The groundnuts brought from Dharwad tasted salty even after a couple of pegs and you may imagine whether the fellow who prepared was also inebriated? However, the mixture brought by Nani suited well. No chairs were also no problem as Gajanan and Venkatesh willingly preferred to squat.

Srilanka keeps haunting: As the gulping went on once again the hot topic came up. Gajanan and Ravi were the centres of attraction for their adventure with a lady teacher during the school days. Ravi pretended to give a gentleman pose rubbishing the claims made but Gajanan preferred to give a silent amusing smile giving room for speculations of your own! Vijaykumar Kotur, who was a classmate for only one year turned up during the party time. He was overwhelmingly happy for meeting all of them after a gap of 48 years! In between reminiscence came up as a hot topic of the day. The person concerned warned me of naming him in this report. He visited Srilanka on some pretext and thought of having some fun but it turned out to be a futile visit. When he insisted to recollect what he did, he gave a mysterious smile leaving his misadventures in your own imagination!

SS give a miss: At the reception, Jagadish and Nagesh also joined to make the group bigger. Of the six people who made it to the marriage in the car, Gajanan, Ravi and Suresh remained back. Gajanan left for Mysuru while Ravi and Suresh went to their kid’s house. Sunil and Sugandhi told of coming home as they had a cocktail reception on the way to Devanahalli. Ravi keeps telling during every visit that he will definitely come next time but the next time hasn’t been realized yet. Taking the assurance of Sunil and Sugandhi too seriously, swept the whole house and tried to make it tidy in whatever way possible. My wife, for a change, bought costly dry fruit sweets to treat them. The evening grew but there were no signs of both these guys turning up. Under pressure and being at the receiving end called Sugandhi only to be told that they are already on their way back. They were returning back comfortably with their spouses while I was aptly felicitated with glowing lamps!

-Manohar Yadavatti