Goli No: 24...... Bhandya's marriage .......

Year 2000 ...... Bhandya announced that he is getting married...... Cards were getting printed ..... Bhandya lower middle class maharashtrian boy from lalbaug ...... 200 cards were being printed ... limited invitations..... suddenly pakya commented ....... Arrey... zindagi mein ek baar shadi hota hein ...... dil khol ke sab ko bula ..... Bhandya retorted..... that he wanted to invite the whole world ..... but for Baapu his father ......

Pillai commented...... Arrey aadmi hoja .... kitney din baap se darega .. Teri shaadi hein na .... Bhandya went out with pakya ...... and gave orders for some 3000 cards .... A huge list was drawn out ..... including every body from bhandya's childhood days ........ to all his train friends .... Bhandya had compartment friends ..... train friends ..... and also platform friends ..... Infact pillai suggested why don't you print a handbill .........

Bhandya and pakya negotiated hard with the printer ....... and got a loose handbill kind of invitation card ....... and the invites reached 5000 people .... I gave bhandya a months leave ..... bhandya would go from morning to evening ...... from parel to kasara....... churchgate to bhayander ...... and V.T to Panvel ...... and distributed the so called ...... invitation card ...... to any body he was remotely connected with .......


On the D-day ...... I with pillai .... dhandapani ...... banerjee and others from the office ...... reached the venue ...... the hall looked very small ....... Could hardly accomodate not more than 200 people ..... The wedding ritual was on ...... bhandya looked happy and cheerful ....... Bhandyas father looked tense ...... he was scanning the crowd ....... with every passing second the crowd seemed to swell ........

Pillai took me outside ....... I saw a huge crowd of more than a thousand people standing outside the gate...... on the ground..... outside the hall ...... also on the footpath..... Bhandya's father came out and was scanning the crowd on the ground ....... with suspiscion written all over his face ....... his eyebrows narrowed and with a wet forehead ....... he asked pillai ..... yeh log kaun hein ..... Pillai muttered ..... Tumhara shaadi ka mehman ...... Bhandyas fathered screamed with anger .... aaila ...... amhi tar phakta don shey lokana bulaya ....... pillai muttered.... May be mulgi kadche......

Bhandya's father called bride's father........ Aabha..... ha kai gondhal ahey ....... ha tumcha gondhal nahin na ....... Aabha looked at the crowd ........ hey kay lagna chey pahuney ........ Pillai muttered naheen ........ RTO chi gardi ahey ...... Bhandyas father and Aabha realised gravity of the situation took up strategic possitions on both sides of the entrance and closed the collapsable gates ....... Seing the gate being closed ..... the crowd surged towards the entrance ..... and barged in .....

Bhandyas father and Aabha started quarelling over who invited so many guests ...... And the culprit bhandya was ignorant of all these happenings ......... The marriage ritual got over and it was lunch time ...... Food was prepared for some 300 guest ....... buffet style ...... the caterer demanded ...... extra money ...... he said you paid me for 300 people and want me to serve me over 1000 ....... any way ...... i won't be able to prepare food for so many people at such a short notice .......

I .... pillai ..... bhandya's father ...... with the Caterer entered the dinning hall ...... there was a huge commotion ..... people were pushing and struggling with each other to get plates ...... and to get near the food counters ...... Bhandya's father requested Caterer for help ......... Caterer said first pay .... Some how bhandya's father and Aabha argued ..... negotiated ..... and paid Caterer for 100 more plates ...... espescially close relatives ......

In all this commotion bhandya in his wedding finery ..... was smiling ...... happily looking at the crowd fighting with each other ...... told pakya ...... Dekh sabka record break kiya na ..... and infact was heard telling some of the battered guests ..... Nakki .... jayhoon jaicha .......