22 of January was a Monday and unlike the usual trip into the traffic laden streets of Mumbai I was huddled into a cab with my babies heading to Kurla terminus to catch the train to Allahabad for the wedding of Azhar (31) and Saman - Azhar is Bhabijaan' older brother Bari and bhabi Sarita Sheikh' older son - he lives in Canada and is a consultant there.
Despite my repeatedly saying that we should not leave the house before 10.30 we left home at 9.30 to catch a train that was leaving at 12.30!!^%$# We arrived at the station expectedly (for me at least) at 10.30 and spent the next 2 hours waiting for the train on the dirty and smelly platform! Well so much for listening to Mr. Know it All Guddu and my hubby do nothing but loyally agree to his brother!!? %$#&@# Whatever!! The holiday had just begun so I decided to put such small things behind me :) The holiday gang consisted of hubby darling, Rosh, Rock, Sanjana (Archie Prashant' daughter), pretty lil Alize (Honey' babydoll) and me and oh yeah ... how can I forget ... annoying but nevertheless with us for the next 10 full days, Guddu!?!!
The train journey was miserable to say the least -- we were booked in AC-II tier seats and despite the fact that we juggled our seats with fellow passengers so that we could all be together, it was not much fun at all :( Rock was still ailing from his horrid throat infection; the compartment was smelly intermittently, the food on all the stations and the in-house pantry was unpalatable (I had thank fully taken along some cheese spread, nuttella, dal and rice, dahi and a packet of bread for rock and some bananas and apples for the others - by the end of the journey the kids were sick of my even mentioning cheese sandwiches or apples -- ha ha -- they were all soooooo hungry and bored of the same food for the past three meals) and to top it all there were rats in the compartment!! Lord have mercy I thought to myself, as I lay straight jacketed in my bunker bed. I had nightmares of rats running into my jacket and getting caught in the several layers of clothing I had on. I got up feeling like the weight of the world was on me - my body ached from head to toe and for some reason my beloved hubby had christened me Hanuman (and much to my annoyance that he of course didnt care too much about continued to do so through the trip - whatever once again -- there 
are a lot of whatevers in this trip but the trip was great nevertheless) and hauled my self out of my bunker and almost fell onto a passerby (my bunker was one the aisle ones).
Well finally Allahabad did arrive at a little past 10 and we were all bundled up ready to brave the icy cold of the north. Azhar the groom himself in a cool pair of jeans and jacket and slip ons (alias Baba) and their house-help Rakesh arrived at the station to receive us. We broke up in to 2 groups the kids and hubby going in the Tata Sumo while Guddu, Baba and I went in the family car racing thru the narrow bylanes of chowk and civil lines to finally reach the famous 100+ year old rickety bridge of Naini that runs over the Jamuna -- I held my breath as we drove across and finally into the Agricultural campus to meet with Bari Bhai, Akhtari Apa (who had come in from the UK), Kaneez apa, Tasneem apa, Naseem apa and Shazia all of who had come in from Pakistan specially for the wedding; and finally Gauri the super efficient age-old house-help each of them greeting us with warm hugs and smiling faces.
Roshni looking as radiant as the flowers in the background
All dressed up for the sangeet evening - Starting from your right is Sanjana, Roshni, Raunaq, Farrukh, Omar, Azhar, Armaan, Imaan, Yavar and Alize on his shoulder
At the sangeet ceremony
The rest of the gang had gone to Kanpur with the girls mehndi and their Sangeet ceremony. We were quickly shown our bungalow which was adjoining Bari bhai' home and separated by a mere bush; we freshened up and were summoned for breakfast which was the traditional potatoes and masala scrambled eggs with hot paranthas and hot tea. As we hogged our guts out (remember we had a very frugal and limited cuisine diet for the past 24 + hours) we chatted with the apas and bari bhai.
Once breakfast was over we went into our bungalow to settle down -- Fruki was obsessive about arranging all our things into the empty in built wardrobes , which had very very narrow shelves - well we did arrange our stuff and as we were done with this very vital exercise Sarita Bhabi and the gang who had gone to Kanpur arrived -- this included Bhabijaan, and from the UK had come Bari Bhai and Sarita bhabi' younger son Yavar (28); Bhabijaan' younger sister Parveen Apa with her son Omar, beautiful and multi-talented daughter in la
w Zeenat and her samdhan Abida Apa (You can see them to the right of my picture with Archie); then there was Nazmi (Nammo my darling laughing out loud in the picture below - she was the dearest friend I made there - she is my age and is a tax inspector with the Govt of UK, she is married to her own first cousin Khalid bhai and they have an adorable daughter called Imaan (14 year old sweetheart who we all nick-named Imli); 
and from Delhi came Sarita Bhabi' younger sister Dipti Didi and her hubby Rajesh Bhai and their beautiful daughter Nayantara (26), and typical punju dude like son Armaan (16); and from the US had come Bhabijaan' older sister called Shamim Apa (she is a Prof. Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, attained her Phd and taught Geography all her life, and now is an active member of a cool group if retired ladies who get together once week and bitch the hell out of their hubbies, she also is a c
ertified Rosarian and she personally maintains the most beautiful rose garden ever that has over a 150 rose plants) -- basically met the whole family -- each of them lovely warm people.
w Zeenat and her samdhan Abida Apa (You can see them to the right of my picture with Archie); then there was Nazmi (Nammo my darling laughing out loud in the picture below - she was the dearest friend I made there - she is my age and is a tax inspector with the Govt of UK, she is married to her own first cousin Khalid bhai and they have an adorable daughter called Imaan (14 year old sweetheart who we all nick-named Imli); 
and from Delhi came Sarita Bhabi' younger sister Dipti Didi and her hubby Rajesh Bhai and their beautiful daughter Nayantara (26), and typical punju dude like son Armaan (16); and from the US had come Bhabijaan' older sister called Shamim Apa (she is a Prof. Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, attained her Phd and taught Geography all her life, and now is an active member of a cool group if retired ladies who get together once week and bitch the hell out of their hubbies, she also is a c
ertified Rosarian and she personally maintains the most beautiful rose garden ever that has over a 150 rose plants) -- basically met the whole family -- each of them lovely warm people.
Bari Bhai and Sarita Bhabi' house is one of those old age English homes that looks a little run down from the exterior due to weather conditions but over all a beautiful house with flower-filled gardens all around it. It overlooks the Yamuna river and you can see the Naini bridge in the distance and you can hear the trains going over it. The kids had a ball of a time with the open spaces and the tree in this picture was Roshni' favorite tree under which she would often just loll around and nap. 
Fruki, Rock, Me and Rosh
The bride Saman and the groom Azhar at the baarat ceremony in Kanpur - smitten by each other!!!
Bhabijaan, Shamim Apa, Bari Bhai, Akhtari Apa and Parveen ApaThe Sangeet ceremony was on the 24th in the lawns. The house was looking like a fairy land once all the decorations were completed. And all of us were all set to do our bit for the guests -- we were expecting over 150 guests including the girls family -- who were coming to put haldi mehndi for Azhar. The guests arrived VERY LATE and so all the ladies including yourstruly sat on the gaddis arranged; and sang all the possible punju shadi songs. It was fun but kind off not that cool as there was no mike arranged for and hence whatever we sang could hardly be heard beyond 3-4 ft. When the guests did arrive we thru petals of flowers on their path, gave them bouquets of flowers and took them to the main pandaal. Azhar was then brought into the crowd dressed in a pale green Sherwani (tailored by nonen other than Dipti Didi) looking so excited and bashful. All the men of the family were holding a beautiful dupatta as a cover above him and he walked below this like a little prince -- it was a truly princely moment and I had tears in my eyes to see the happiness on Sarita Bhabi and Bari Bhai' faces.
On the 26th came in the late arrivers Honey and her love Maanav Shah (he is a dream with lil Alize and she adores him too -- he is basically a really nice guy). I havent seen Ali more confident and happy in such a long time and honey so pretty and happy too. I pray that they are a family soon -- insha-allah. As soon as they came we packed into 2 cars and drove to Bari Bhai' farm house where all of us could not stop eating delicious sweet guavas straight off the trees -- this was the family orchard with several hundred trees; a short drive away from the farm house is the ancestral property where Bhabi jaan and Bari bhai' Grand Dad lived several years ago. They were the Thakurs of the village called Mandari -- crowds of village kids and adults gathered to get a glimpse of us -- the caretakers insisted that spirits haunt the haveli even today; the kids enjoyed the cycle rickshaw rides across the city.
That evening Archie and Linet came too by flight; Linet was sick with a sore throat while Archie was bubbly as ever. The evening they arrived was the Mehndi -- so with mehndi on our hands, the kids i.e. Rosh, Rock, Sanju and I with Bima and Parveen Apa went to do our hair which was in a real state as had not had a head bath for the past 4 days. Rosh washed her hair and did her nails, Sanju washed and blow dried her hair straight and Honey did her hair and pedicure.
The next morning we were to set off for the baarat to Kanpur. The bus journey to Kanpur was a riot with all of us swinging to antakshari songs and hubby darling making everybody laugh like hell - at one stage he went and sat with the driver and also tied his turban in his josh. He had christened Sarita Bhabi as God Mother and kept all of us in splits with his mad antics. It was good to see him in his elements -- of course the flip side is that he hardly spent any time with me on this entire trip as he was busy pleasing the everybody else.
The last to arrive were Sarita bhabi's youngest sister Nandini, her hubby and kids Jhanvi and Ishaan - I really liked chutkoo didi very much and do believ that we would have got on very well had she arrived a bit earlier. Nevertheless it was great meeting with her and her lovely family.
We ate loads of yummy grub - the non-veggies went mad digging into ALL the variety that was served on each day and the several occasions, one evening Sarita Bhabi treated us to mouth-watering chaat at Shiv Chaatwaalas - paani puris, dahi puris ragda pattice; we indulged in loads of decking up for all the different occasions - mehndi, sangeet, baraat and then finally the reception, we would break into a dance at the drop of a hat and singing antakshari anywhere and every where too;
we also visited the sangam of ganga and jamuna into the saraswati in a boat that took us to the new Jamuna bridge and then back to view the freaky mixing of the 2 rivers, we then visited Farrukh's old school "Boys High School" where he spent 3 years of his childhood years - he was so excited showing us where his classroom was and where he was made to kneel down and where he parked his bicycle.
The kids at the banks of the Yamuna with a sadhu seeking alms -- Imli, Sanju, Rosh, Alize, Sadhu and Raunaq
Proud and excited Farrukh and Rosh at the Boys High School Compound
Roshnis hand with Mehndi
Raunaq riding a cycle Rickshaw with Sanju and Alize in the back :)
The kids on the roof at the haveli
Me amidst the crowd of kids that had gathered to see us at Mandari
Raunaq with a lil chick in his hands -- the kids just loved all the animals on the farm - Hens, goats and cows.
Raunaq posing in the Guava orchard
We generally enjoyed taking in the fresh crisp air and meeting so many lovely people ... it was good to see this side of Farrukh's family -- people with values, education and warmth. They totally loved Farrukh and he was in his wildest elements making everyone have a great time -- I felt really good being there and would like to submit that I have taken back with me some lovely memories that will give me a lifetime of warmth.
