Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The TamBrahms' hot favourite - PAPPU CAN'T DANCE, SALA !

I have n't been to a wedding since a few months now. Parents wanted me to attend one today, though. Some close family friends of ours. TamBrahms.
On mom's demand, I return from college at 6pm and head for the marriage venue by 7. ( Parents give up on me and go an hour earlier to the venue). I have all the time in the world ( unlike my dear, super-panicky mother) and I patiently wait for 10 minutes at the bus stop and catch a 374 to Vile Parle.
I enter the marriage hall, and I wonder for a second if I've landed up at the wrong place. But no, I spot my mom there !
What greets me is a blast of music.
Very near the entrance, a group of saree-clad mamis and veshti-clad mamas danced to PAPPU CAN'T DANCE, SALA ! The group looked terribly excited, while the poor saastrigaL ( pundits ) looked on, helplessly and bored.
The dance group would periodically keep an eye out for possible options to victimise onlookers. Every few minutes, a new shy mami or a reluctant mama would get dragged onto the 'dance floor'. This protesting mami / mama would then perform some extremely ridiculous, thoroughly embarrased jig and run off at the first possible opportunity, having satisfied the excited dancers and thus having generated some laughter.
A suitable DJ is quickly appointed from amongst the lot of relatives, who scans through lists of songs from several CDs and changes the track at the most inappropriate, offbeat points. This is followed by disapproval from the crowds, but the frustration is shortlived because the new song more than makes up for the uncomfortable, untimely switch between songs ! "Nagada Nagada" is next, while "Crazy Kiya re" and "Mauja hi Mauja" follow.
Finally, the best of them all, " Zara zara touch me" ( that sidey,miserable Katrina Kaif song) is played. And WHOA ! All the mamas are suddenly excited !!! New mamas step onto the dance floor, old ones get a sudden burst of energy, while several even attempt to waltz with their shy wives ! The group then attempts a quick mix of jive/salsa /ballet/ Bhangra and God-knows-what-other forms of dance.
I had a great time ROFLing around.
Needless to say, I was hiding, careful not to get spotted and victimised by the dance group. Mom did try to damage my efforts, by calling out to me loud enough for half the world to hear, but I was quick to escape. And today, I can bravely declare , head held high up in the air - I'm proud of my abilities of recognizing imminent dangers, changing locations and figuring out new hiding places when required.

Anyway, today was the engagement day, and hence dinner was the typical South-Indian one. Sambar, Rasam, Curd with some five hundred million curries, complete with some much talked about payasam. ( The mamis, ofcourse, religiously performed a complete post-mortem of the dinner, as if it had some shocking variety to present. While all I did was concentrate on eating as fast as I could.)
In the meantime, rice and sambar had already been thrown over my plate( uhm... a leaf ), and I realised it was an emergency - I HAD to finish it off before more food was hurled onto the 'leaf'. I panicked, increased my speed, but in vain - the Rasam guy was already hovering around my table, watching, WAITING to load my 'leaf' with more food. I tell him "No, thanks", skip Rasam and heave a huge sigh of relief at the thought of having bought myself more time to eat.
These meals, more often than not, are like extremely lengthy examinations. Something like an IEM or a Software Engineering paper, where you need to race against time.
Tomorrow is the Muhurtham and the Reception, so I'l blog later if I have more stories.

9 comments:

Navneeth Sundar said...

I don't see any reason why you won't have more stories to tell, after the marriage, esp after this kinda engagement day story...

I'll reserve my comments for the post marriage story!

Girish said...

so comments Mr. navneeth! :P

AS for me, i was disappointed only at the choice of songs..
Given that it is a Tambrahm wedding, I would have been gladdened had they stuck to good old Tam numbers, the likes of Naaka Mukka, Samaan nikalo and the rest of that line of illustrious "dance floor" numbers :)
YOU should have been the champion of these pearls, jan! Talk of pioneering change!

krithika said...

omg brilliant!i was rofling all the time reading this!absolutely brilliant description of the dance n all..but theyve got really hep huh!the wedding i went to had 'sooraj hua maddham' still

silversplash said...

@Navneeth - Reception was rather peaceful :) Nothing blogworthy ! Could n't attend the Muhuratham - it was at impossibly early hours.. 6 am or something !

@G - Too much ! Great idea ! We should have those songs played at all future weddings !

@ Kat - Did n't anyone cry ??!! SOORAJ HUA MADDHAM??!! :O

krithika said...

lol actually the bride did n the dancing had to stop

John Anderton said...

Wow.. you're awesome at this.. I almost felt as if I was there :o
As for my commentary (as seen in my posts about the Imagine Cup events) people fall asleep 2 lines in :P

Nenlos said...

ROFLMAO! I know exactly what you mean! Had the goddamn same experience at cousin's wedding. Unfortunately, I wasn't spared because I was the "all-important-naatanaar". *sigh*
There was a band and a baraat and mamas in ujala white veshtis and mamis in eye-hurting zari saris doing pelvic thrusts and gyrating to cheapo "dance floor" numbers.

And on the morning after the reception, all the mamas and mamis were playing Antakshari... of Carnatic songs! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I was asked to help one team out with 'song starting with V' and I suggested Vataapi Ganapatim (with Achintya's voice playing in my head) and I was promptly dragged into the Carnatic Antakshari game. Was made to forcibly sing Carnatic songs and was acknowledged by "Aaha! Oho! Tch tch tch!" ROFL! I was a bright red turnip throughout the ceremony at the end of which, I was branded a "chamaththu ponnu".

Navneeth Sundar said...

@Giri - Absolutely, Senthil stuff da. Not too shure abt the "pearls" u suggested though.
@Jan - Thanks to tha mamas for the entertainment :), both to the audience and the readers here...

Live n let live! said...

hey...well d dance scenario is common to all of us now-a-days..i beg to differ about the food though!!!