ThoughtfulChaos

My dear friend Sahil is getting married in November and the title of this post is how he announced this news to our school gang. All of a sudden there was a lot of commotion. Emails were flying back and forth. I did not check recently but around the 20th of this month the school mailing list was comfortably poised to break our record of 148 mails in a single month that was set was back in December 2002 (immediately after the group was formed and became active). Wedding announcements are one surefire way of getting people to mail to the group. And I aid that once in a while by rumouring that I myself am going to get married. I have already done it twice and I think the effect is wearing off so I will keep this particular tactic on the backburner for a while :-)

The lucky girl is Namrata. I was tempted to put a '?' in brackets in the previous sentence after the word 'lucky' but I thought why make the obviously obvious more obvious. Sahil and Namrata met up online about an year and half ago, got to know each other and (you already knew this was coming, didn't you?) fell in love. Geeky, isn't it? One fine morning (I was in Bangalore vacationing for a few days with my brother) I get a call from Sahil. We talked and talked and talked and after about half an hour of talking he let the cat out of the bag. He told me about Namrata and him. If I say "I was shocked!" that would be a gross understatement. Anyway I was indeed very shocked. Sahil is the last guy in the world I would imagine falling for a girl... well not actually... since he is a nice guy and all. But the logical thinker in me always believed that the odds of him finding the 'right' girl were impossibly low. Still waters do run deep. I want to set 1 thing clear for the record. Sahil never had any particular aversion towards girls, at least not after school. He was friendly with many of my girlfriends ("girlfriend = friend who is a girl" for ones with more naughty minds out there). He himself had many girlfriends (for definition refer to previous sentence). Yeah... he changed after school.

Same day in the evening I chatted with Namrata. I was quite excited and really wanted to know who the brave girl was. We chatted for some time and she came across as a really nice person. How and when I met Namrata first is still classified so no blogging about that. But we had a nice time together. In January some of my school friends had come to Mumbai and I had also gone there to party with them. We had a ball of a time. I don't know why but in retrospect Sahil and Namrata liking each other does not seem all that improbable. I talk to Namrata once in a while but its been a while since we met.

Sahil and Namrata are like fire and ice. Namrata doesn't like reading and Sahil likes reading. Sahil is quite shaant by nature and Namrata is a bit aggressive (Mumbai effect?). Good news is this will keep things interesting. Bad news is well... this will keep things "interesting" (notice that I put interesting in double quotes). OK guys I am just kidding. Hey Sahil and Namrata... I am sure you are going to make a great couple! I am really happy for you guys!

Sahil's wedding is a special event for me. A close friend getting married triggers an entire gamut of emotions and thoughts that probably no other event can cause. I feel as if times are really changing, we are all now grown ups and then what? Marriage brings with it a lot of responsibilities, joys and problems. Can you still freak out with your friend the way you used to earlier? Will the friend change? Of course s/he will but in what ways? But 1 thing I am very happy about. Now there is someone who can give me the low down on married life :-) I have asked Linu a hundred times to comment on this but she avoids the question altogether (Linu, you reading this?)

The wedding is in November. Sahil is coming for only a few days. Couple of days in Ahmedabad, a single day in Mumbai, then off to Srinagar (if you have to ask why you don't deserve to know :-) ), then to Ahmedabad and then to Mumbai and then back to Melbourne. We all have heard of NRIs who come to India, get married and then fly off... all in the span of a few days. Now I get to witness one with my own eyes ;-)

Goes without saying that I will be going for the marriage. I plan to wear a really nice trad dress so some shopping is in the offing. And you can rely on me for a detailed update on the marriage.