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The wedding day arrived. now this was the D-day for us (and also to the groom). Though we promised the cabbie that we would be all ready by 8:30 or so, each of us followed IST and eventually hopped into the cab at 10:15 or so. Govind & Venu were in traditional outfits, Govind was in the most traditional one that too... A dhoti and a shirt - the Tam Iyengar look.we reached the wedding hall when the Kasi-Yatra was going on. i always wondered what would be the scene like if the groom refuses to give in to the wishes of his would-be brother-in-law.just imagine! if the groom really leaves for Kasi...i was explaining about the ritual to my northie friends,when suddenly i had to interrupt..."There she is...Glittering...wow!"... "god!! how did you make her dude!!"...

we headed for the break-fask (or say, Brunch). The pongal was terriffikkk! infact the food was nothing less than awesome.we guys did nothing as such...basically killed time...(read between the lines) and had lunch too..the food served for lunch was superb too...after some time, we came back to our rooms and had a good nap...half of the pple left..to catch their bus..back to hyderabad.

after much deliberation, we(myself,govind,bala,anisha and venu) zeroed in on this hangout called "Amoeba" in Brigade Road...went there to play Bowling. well! for the information of the visitors of this blog, the first time ever i played(tried) Bowling was here..in Amoeba.. good game..had good fun infact, especially because i could play fairly well with the balls(pun intended)..err!

looking for an inexpensive restaurant in Brigade road isnt such an easy task..that too at 10:00pm. even when we found few, there was no food. Finally, we had to settle for a normal Shanti Sagar-ish restaurant. that was the dinner for that night..good or bad..whatever.

i had my programme for Saturday well chalked. i had to meet two guys i met(and made friends) on orkut. one was a mandolin player. we have already exchanged mails about what music we have and what do we need from each other. so, i reached the meeting point taking along with me, the music-DVDs i had burnt for him. he was kind enough to burn a hell a lot of collection for me. had breakfast with him and after a small tete-chat, we headed for Brigade Road again, this time, to attack the planet-M. browsed a lot, bough some music and then, i had another appointment to keep up. this time, another guy(friend from orkut) whom i have promised to meet. we met up, had lunch. he was another interesting guy and we wanted to spend more time in discussiing lot of other stuff, but time was a constraint. Sanjay said that he wanted to meet us at FORUM, a shopping mall somewhere near kormangla. We rushed to that place and finally found him in Landmark store. Sanjay showed me a DVD- "Concert for BangaDesh", by George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Ali Akbar Khan, Bob Dylan, Pt.Ravi Shankar etc.,the price was about 1500 bucks and none of us had the auks(aukaads) to buy that at the moment.

within no time, venu and anisha showed up and we guys just sat there. probably i was lil frustrated over something and my toungue was wagging a lot...i mean..i couldnt keep silent..i was watching all the people passing-by and kept on commenting something or the other.

We took a walk to the Christ college there but alas! we were denied an entry since Sanjay didnt have even his old ID-card.After people dispersed, Sanjay dropped myself and Govind at a restaurant where we said "Cheers!" and had some food.

Sunday lunch was a treat from Govind's cousin, after which we picked up Bala at Forum and came back to the room. Within few mins, we were at Cantonment station to board a train back to hyderabad. The journey was a good one, afterall, gossipping always kills time..especially during journeys with friends.

A nice Holiday! well spent!

I am eager to write about many other things but i guess i should first finish these Bangalore Chronicles.So...

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I have been to Brigade Road before...few years ago. That time, i didnt browse the street much, except for the two most-important avenues(important for me), Music world and Planet-M. This time, with Govind, it was different. He lead us througha narrow-unassuming bylane, across Brigade Road. "Select Book House"-Where like-minds meet... was our destination. the tagline was quite eye-catching. The shoppe was a very small 2 room warehouse of Old books. The very look of the books reminded of Library-1930 editions-brown pages-scent of old paper-few crumbling pages and some dust...the shoppe housed some thousands of books and what dropped my jaws on to the floor(rolling my tongue out till brigade Road) was that , the entire collection was a personal collection. The old-man, to whom the collection belongs was not in the shoppe, although Govind had some unforgettable childhood experiences with the man and his shoppe. we (partially)browsed the collection for about 1-2 hours, zeroed in on few books (although there were many more to buy...to browse the entire collection needs one full-day) and half-heartedly decided to get back to the room.

Bangalore infamous traffic did delay us a bit, but not much. Back in the room, no one was there and 3 of us killed time with the killers we bought in the book shoppe. everyone dropped in slowly and within just few hours(girls...sarees...now! you know the time required in order to put everything in place...and self-hypnotize with "Oh my God! i am wearing Saree for a Party..and i must look good....good enough to turn few heads") everyone was ready. All of us were very bothered about the usual formality...giving some bouquet to the blessed-couple but then, we couldnt find any enroute. So, there was only one thing which each of us could give...A Shake-Hand and we did that.

Sanjay dressed as impeccably as ever...i was not surprised seeing him, because there was nothing new about it. Sanjay's Mom, exuding what is called as "Grace". She is indeed one of the most beautiful women i have seen in my life, age-no-bar.Everyone was in formals and so were we. They have arranged for a music-programme too and the artists were doing some good job infact. barring a couple of kannada-folk songs, which didnt run down well with me, they were very keeping up the mood with some fantastic Old Hindi songs and classical Krithis. One unforgettable one was a hindi number in Raag Desh. if only i could record that one, it was superb. Songs from "Pallavi Anupallavi" were equally rocking.

We headed for Dinner(the most important event of the day) and the food tasted good too. Quite a variety cuisine. It was in the dining hall that i came across a lady who was carrying herself elegantly in a pink saree. the first thought which occurred to me was-"She is Beautiful". well! yes,she was as beautiful as the sentence means...i must have seen many beautiful ladies in my life but very few faces stick in the mind for long and she had something like that. i do not like to use thesaurus here to describe here because she couldnt be described by many adjectives. only one - Beauty. the harder i tried to pull my gaze away from her face( let me be frank with my own self..did i really try??? hmm!!! no comments), the more i was looking at her, past the shoulders and curtains.

Well! without any embrassment, i told about the same to Sanjay, when he told me that she was his cousin. after some "chaudhvin ka chaand ho" kind of imaginary excursions, i was introduced to her by Sanjay...or should i say WE were introduced to her by Sanjay. Yet, a curtain of silence over-rode on those meaningless exchange of glances. Perhaps that imaginary excursion & the song didnt end yet...and the moment slipped.

My dear Keats, i dont know if she is/was a joy forever...But she was indeed a Thing of Beauty...

to be continued...