My first charter flight

The chit-chat went on for a long time between my wife, cousins and yours truly me. We had fun sitting in the portico and talking about relocating to the USA, living expenses, cars, travel, food, married life, courting days etc. Wait a minute, did I say, “courting days”? Yes, one of my cousins, Arun, was getting married to Sumana, and that too within a week!!!

To commemorate the American Diaspora meeting the Indian variants, we took a photo – which now competes with its ancestor, captured circa 1992. Each person in the new photo competes with their own self, about two decades ago, but with wrinkled cheeks, matured looks and whiter hair! A keen observer would definitely miss one family member forever…

The wedding took place in Nanded, Maharashtra, India, and we flew there. Nanded is about 800 odd kilometers from Bangalore and does not have a direct flight. The original plan was to fly to Hyderabad and then board a luxury bus to Nanded, an eight hour drive. This was an ordeal for many in the family as there were few important but senior citizens. When I specify senior, they ARE senior. The eight hour drive from Hyderabad to Nanded caused a lot of hubbub – one, among the many confusions, was “Will Thaatha (Arun's grandfather) attend the wedding? Who will convince him and when? Can he withstand the stress? Will we not miss him if he does not come?” However there were many others; who has to book the tickets, where will we assemble, who has to pay and how? As the confusion resolved itself with the passage of time, about 27 people were ready to go the flight – road way. This approach killed the interest of a few others.

As many of them believed, Swami hit the wedding party with a wonderful magic wand. Geeta aunty and Mohan uncle talked to the Sumana’s parents and arranged a chartered plane to fly us all directly to Nanded!!!! I thought it was the coolest thing that could have happened. I was astounded when Deepika informed me about this, because the farthest I had gone was to hire a taxi and use it for about a week or so. This was luxury with a new definition.

We boarded the plane, a Kingfisher Red, on Saturday, June 23, 2010 and were served Pav Bhaji. Did I tell you that Arun likes it? Custom snacks served mid air – who would not appreciate this kind of personal attention. We were received with a fleet of taxis, loads of fresh flowers and liters of juice/coke/mock tail. Arun continued to travel first class journey in a swanky BMW.

The wedding was very nice and different – considering the fact that we are South Indians – dancing, sangeeth, a never ending supply of sweets, soft drinks and snacks – which eventually killed my appetite. While a south Indian wedding would be a lot more ritualistic, a north Indian wedding is more social. In a south Indian wedding, the purohit is like a bandit holding you at ransom but the north Indian variant is much more casual and cool.

Every event in the wedding (our arrival from the airport to the NRI Bhavan/ Arun’s baraat/the arrival of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan) caused a successful traffic jam in Nanded. I had always been on that side of the traffic where I was waiting for someone to pass by, but this time, the tables had turned – “Saala main to Sahab ban gaya”!!! The people of Nanded, at one of the traffic jams, got to see well dressed, refined and gay women dance and lead Arun’s way into the kalyana mantapa. Ah, wasn’t it a sight to behold?? Arun grinned and enjoyed the attention he was getting.

Amidst the patient Mohan uncle, ever laughing Geetha aunty, Prakash uncle and Sadashivan uncle’s wit, Thaatha’s rigidity, good will of Varun and Sai Lakshmi, an episode of Arun’s stolen Sherwani, the helping Usha aunty and Mangala atte (my mother-in-law) and good wishes of other relatives, we can term it as a successful wedding of humungous proportions.


Aravind Bargur
Feb 23, 2010