The much awaited trip…

On 30^th July, we finally left our respective offices for the much awaited and long due trip to our homes- Jaipur and Delhi. It was the first one after our wedding, which made this trip even more amazing. My father was retiring from his bank service after almost 35 years. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts (Retirement), I was again stumped by the number of years that he had spent in the same organization. My mother was waiting for me but more importantly was concerned about all the arrangements since her son-in-law was also coming home to stay for the first time. Each part of each of the days that we were to stay at Jaipur was already planned. Papa got a new Nokia mobile phone from my brother and sister-in-law and we presented him with the bar accessories. He was smiling from ear to ear after getting our gifts.

The retirement party was arranged in the hotel, which has unofficially being declared as our own hotel. As the guests started pouring in, after papa, special attention was on the kids (i.e. us), since we were meeting everyone after almost half a year. I guess papa got so many gifts second time in his life (first time can be his wedding day). My brother's and my in-laws had come down especially from Neemuch and Delhi respectively to greet my father. We ended the day with unwrapping of all the gifts.

Next day was even more jam-packed. Our in-laws were invited for the breakfast. Another reason being the sindhara (ritual for one of the festivals- Teej). I was loaded with sarees and suits and chocolates and a beautiful set. Lunch was at my sister-in-law's uncle's place, where my brother struggled to pop open the Champaign bottle. Final meal of the day was already booked at my mausi's place.

Next day, I and Nimit were legally and constitutionally declared Husband and Wife- we got our marriage registered- a mandatory rule implied since not long back. After a long time I witnessed the laziness and lousy attitude of the government employees (which, according to my father and mama, was fairly fast as per the normal government office working standards). Paper work was already done after reading all the instructions. But when the papers were handed over to the sarkari babu, he rested his specs on his nose and tried to point out something or rather anything wrong in the papers- "10^th ki mark sheet nahi lagayi kya?", only to find out that the next page was the 10^th Mark sheet; "ye type nahi karwaya kya?", only to find out that it was typed exactly what was required. Finally, he exclaimed that "Mathurs never do anything wrong" and Bingo… He found out something to crib about. As my father handed over the photographs of the wedding, he pointed out that the two girls seated behind us in the photograph are wrong. We should have got our exclusive photograph. But somehow he graced us and filed all the papers to be signed by the bade babu. Now, if you find a man working on this table with at-least 3 persons (lazy and boot-licking kind of people) sitting in front of him, you must know that he only can be the bade babu in a government office. These 3 persons think sitting in front of their boss is their only KPI. We should the file to him and he signed but one of the idle persons sitting in front of him has to say something to show importance. So he says, "you should have got bigger photograph… You know its better for the future". My father ignored him since the photo size was as per the guidelines and that's exactly the size that can be accommodated in the certificate and the forms. But after all this drama there, we got registered in record 2 hours time.

Throughout our stay there, mummy prepared her special dishes, making sure not to repeat any item and I love her food… Finally, after 3 hectic days, we started on our 2^nd phase of the vacation- Delhi. Visit to doctors and tailors were the prominent activities there. Mr. Mathur chose to attend his Gurgaon office while I actually enjoyed my vacations. There also we had two formal dinners and one instantly decided KFC treat. I saw all the old photographs of Nimit and the bachcha party. It was fun to see their childhood days. Met two of my best friends after a long time. Thank God they have shifted to Delhi. I can meet them almost every time I visit Delhi.

The days and time spent at Jaipur and Delhi seemed short to sit and talk at length with everyone but it definitely was a much needed visit.