Kozhikode Trip: Nishad's Marriage

Last Year around this time we were busily planning on how to get to Nishad's Marriage which was in Calicut/Kozikhode. Since we had 3 holidays(24th sat, 25th sun, 26th mon-republic day) in a row we were able to make it. Until the last day many of them did not confirm and we were not able to book tickets. So Shuaib arranged for a car. Finally the people who made it were Malviya, Shuaib, Reagan, Shankar and Arvind. We left at around 4 AM and Arvind picked up everyone. From there our "Journey of troubles" started. Shuaib, Reagan and Arvind drove.

As soon as we crossed Bangalore, we came across our first problem, a Flat tire, in fact the tire had ripped off and was of no use to us. We replaced it with the stepney and went on till Mandya without a stepney. The car would wobble and rattle if we went faster than 60Kmph, and we had to travel 380Km. At Mandya, we stopped, and got new tire, fixed the puncture, and also got the wheels balanced and aligned. By then we were too hungry and had our breakfast. It was somewhere around 9:30 and our parents would call to find out where we were as we left so early. We would say we are in Mandya and they would be shocked, for which we would say, we are driving very slowly.

Chamundi betta/Hills

We stopped in Mysore for lunch and we did not get any place to park. So, we parked in the Zoo's Parking area. It was so hot and we did not get any shade to park. We had our lunch and came back to the parking lot just to see another flat tire. The new patch on the punctured area had probably melted due to the heat, again the engineers got to work and changed the tire and again we had to hunt for a puncture shop.

Though the Bandipur route was longer, we opted for that. We were in Bandipur at the dusk and we enjoyed the drive through the forest. We had our eyes open to spot something in the wild, we were a bit lucky to spot some.

After the wheel alignment and balancing we could drive a bit faster and once we were out of Bandipur we just cruised through the amazing roads of kerala. The roads were a beauty and a great pleasure to drive and Malviya was counting the Kilometers we covered without encountering a speed bump. It was around 127KM. All of us enjoyed that drive.

We stopped at some view points and took pictures. The place was so silent and there were hardly any vehicles on that road.

We reached Nishad's house quite late but on time for dinner. We all belted the dinner as we all were damn hungry and all of us were non-vegetarians. There was rice and yummy chicken stew. Nishad had booked us a big room with two double beds and a single bed. We guys were so tired and it was 11Pm. It was Nishad's marriage the next day and he was still hanging out with us so late and dropped us at the hotel.

The next day all got up and were getting ready for the reception which was in the morning. Since there were 5 of us it took some time for all of us to have our bath. Suddenly Nishad drops into our room and we are all shocked, he is the groom and we all were what the hell are you doing here man? Nishad was like, " The reception is over." We were shocked. We went through so much planning and hurdles to reach Calicut and some how we made it and we did not attend the reception.

He was so cool and was lying on the bed. It was like it is someone else's wedding. He had come to call us to his house for some kind of function and only when we reached there, we got to know that all his relatives were waiting for us. It's a ritual in their community that the groom's friends have to dress up the groom. He told us lets hurry up as all are waiting and when we all rushed to his room on the first floor and entered his room, the cameramen and photographer followed us to his room. They had to capture the entire dressing up.

After this, all Nishad had to do was to stand in one place and all his elderly relatives will come up to him and he has to fall at their feet and seek blessing and they will give him a ring.

By now Bhavya had also made to Nishad's house with her husband, in fact she had been there before us. All of us had not seen such a ceremony. After this we all went to the marriage hall and we had to wait for the right astrological time to enter the hall. All of us entered together and we saw that the hall was already full and everyone was waiting for the Bride and Groom.

A priest just said something probably some prayers and then Nishad put a gold chain around Deepa's neck and Hooked it and the marriage was over in a flash. We were all shocked to see such simple procedure. All the guys except Malviya(who is already married) planned to marry a mallu girl, because of two reasons. Firstly the wedding ceremony is so simple and secondly the amount of gold we would get. The Bride was completely covered with gold.

After the marriage we all went to Kozikhode beach, 5 of us played in the water for more than 2 hours with just a ball and we had so much fun. After we cam out of water and dried ourselves, we ate a lot of stuff that they were selling on the Beach. The 5 of us kept eating a lot of fruits that were soaked in salt water. We kept buying and eating them. We all got back to the hotel and took our stuff as we planned to stay in Nishad's Beautiful house. His house is on a small hill that is by the highway. There are hardly any houses around and they have huge area surrounding their house. This area is filled with a lot of trees and the air there was so fresh and light. The house has a huge kitchen like the old fashioned house and a big store room out side the house. The store room has a link to the kitchen and near that is a well. Its a duplex house which is modern from inside and ethnic from out.

The next day we had planned to leave to Bangalore and Nishad's dad insisted us to come along with Nishad's family to Deepa's house. Morning 6 of us along with Nishad's dad had breakfast and we again had Chicken stew, Chicken fry with aapam and nool puttu. By then we are tired of eating chicken and drinking tea. In Deepa's house, Deepa's Dad did not leave us until we had lunch, and it was only 11AM and we had just then majorly feasted in Nishad's house. Some how we pulled ourselves and there was more Chicken and tea to loose our appetite. Not that we did not eat it. We still stuffed ourselves and shot of to Bangalore.

The car had some problems with the reverse gear and later we had problems with the 5th gear as well so we stopped by at a mechanic shed to get it checked. The mechanic made us wait for so long and he just left, That bastard was trying to con us, the job was just a matter of 5 minutes, he deliberately was delaying us so we would pay him how much he wants, Malviya had this doubt form the beginning. There was a Coorgie mechanic and we spoke to him in kannada and he fixed it for us in minutes and finally we were on our way out of Kerala.

We were already late and we took the same route back and we had to belt through the roads. But when we entered Bandipur we had to slow down. Thanks to the mechanic mofo that we got delayed, we entered Bandipur at dusk and were able to spot a lot of animals.

We saw some really long Peacock, Elephants, Wild hens and cocks, Ducks, Deer, Boars, Black Monkey, Macaques. By the time we were out of Bandipur the sun had set and we were on our way to Bangalore. The car gave a lot of problems and one thing everyone learnt in the Trip is that if friends are together no problem is a problem. We just overcame all of it. By the time we reached Bangalore, we had traveled 950 Km.

Right click and open in new window.
More pics from Shuaib's Cam
More pics from Reagan's Cam
Nishad's Marriage album