Wedding Bells : Mithila & Harshal

I've been to Amravati last week for the Diwali vaccations.
We decided to shop for bridal wear during this period so we headed for Nagpur on 4th. I was visiting Nagpur after a long time and I could notice lots of infrastuctural developments in the city. The city has got 3 FM radio stations. I don't know why Pune is still 'Santusht' with only one.
Anyways, first we went to Raymond’s for my Reception suit. It was a tough job, as I had never imagined anything about that day before. Family showed resistance for the black colour as its 'Ashubh' but I was more biased to blackish shades rather than lighter ones. In a record 20 minutes time, I settled for a Gray shade (Actually its black but I managed to convince my family that its a Gray). Didn't take more than 5 minutes to buy white shirt piece. Tie selection took little time as Mithila wanted to match the colour of my Tie with her Reception Sari. And guess what, we had not purchased the Sari yet ! Finally Dad asked her to go to another section to see mom and we quickly short listed my Tie. That was my Reception-Day shopping in flat 45 minutes.

Next destination: Bardi, the busiest place in Nagpur. There was hardly any space to walk and it was very easy to get lost in the crowd. Don't know how women find their way to their so-called favorite shops through such a messy place. My Dad wanted to buy Mithila a traditional maharashtrian 'Shaloo' but then we told him that its out of fashion now. Mithila told him about the in-things, which are 'Lachha', 'Ghagra', 'Lehenga', etc. He is still trying to make sense out of these words. Mithila looked at the shopkeeper who was waiting anxiously and said the keyword 'Ghagra'. He went inside and within no time returned with few 'Ghagras'. That was really fast, he should think of working for Google. Ghagra is basically a Sari with lot of hand-made work on it. Shopkeeper was explaining the type of material and why it is so expensive while we were mutely nodding our heads as if we know everything about it.
One after another, Mithila checked out nearly 10-15 Ghagras. And teased the shop keeper by asking him, "Bas itna hi hai kya?" (Is that all you've got).
I noticed that she spent more time in one Pink coloured Ghagra than other ones. I quickly casted my vote for that one. Others diplomatically said, if YOU TWO like it, then we also like it (sigh!). She looked at it thousand times more, from every side, from every corner and then gave her thumbs up.
Total time: 2.5 Hrs

Next shop that we hit was another family favorite. The name of the shop and the name of my Father in law were same. That could be one of the reasons behind this favorism. Mission: Reception Sari.
Other men from the shopping team opted out and asked us to go ahead. They said, they’d wait outside. I smelled the rat. I think, they knew whats gonna happen in next couple of hours. I must appreciate the enthusiasm of the shopkeeper who without getting bored responds to every search query fired. I thought only Robots could have such property. Anyways, Mithila again went through hundreds of Sarees and started to shortlist few. I was playing with her 6 year old cousin, Sejal and was entertaining myself. And in between trying to rate her choices. I really liked one of them and asked her to try that. She looked very beautiful in that. Shopkeeper knew what he has to do next.
Total Time : 2 Hrs.

Next destination was a Traditional Men’s Wear shop for buying 'Sherwani'. Believe me, in not more than 15 minutes, I had in my hand my chosen attire for the day. But Mithila was not convinced. After making the shopkeeper put all the available 'Sherwanis' on table, she finally said, "Agodarchich changli hoti" (First one was better). I think, they just don't get satisfaction until they spend atleast an hour and make shopkeeper's life miserable. And you know why it took her that long to decide? She was actually trying to match the colour of my 'Sherwani' with the colour of her 'Ghagra' !

Final destination was the watch shop. I accept here that it was me who took long for taking the decision this time. I wanted to buy a watch, which I can actually use and not just show off. I liked a black coloured one with dual timings. I liked that feature but it was not-so-traditional according to shopping squad. Then my Dad and my Father in Law took me to the 'Heritage of India' section. They showed me a nice watch with background of prestigious 'Konark Teample'. Mithila immediately liked it. First, I didn't like the golden colour but then realised that we are shopping for Marriage and not for Sinhagad Trek.

I had hardly breathed a sigh of relief thinking that the shopping is over when Dad said, "And shoes?". I managed to convince him that we’d get good shoes in Pune itself.

Thats about it. While holding shopping bags I was feeling a sense of achievement similar to one that Dhoni might have felt while holding the T20 world Cup. We finished all the shopping in one straight day.