3 days-3 marriages

Mom returned today evening from her '3 days-3 marriages' trip to Kolar. Its the season of marriages here now. So its not uncommon to have 5-6 marriage invites for a single day!! My dad is on a business trip to Mumbai, so its was imperative for my mom to attend all the marriages.
When she returned, she gave quite an interesting account of her experiences, something worth blogging about. So here it goes..
She left on Thursday morning to attend a family friend's marriage in Chintamani (my native). It was a "no hassles" marriage & everything went fine, as in 99.99% of marriages.
That evening she traveled from Chintamani to Kolar (about 40 kms) to attend a far relative's marriage-reception. As she was entering the marriage hall, she saw the bride & party (our relatives) standing outside the hall. For some unknown reason (with so many people around, its easy for the main reason to be lost in translation :) ) the bridegroom was objecting the bride's party entering the hall. The bride's party were all waiting there, at the enternce. Then Bang!! entered my mom, went & spoke to the groom & his parents & managed to get the bride & party in. After that the groom (again for some unknown reason) refused to wear jewelery during the function & objected even the girl wearing it. This was turning to be really absurd, a nightmarish situation to the bride's parents. Again Bang!! entered my mom, convinced the groom & he agreed to allow the bride to wear jewel but he wouldn't wear any. A groom's jewel would be hidden by his suit anyway, there wouldn't be many objections to this condition.
All the experiences my mom had from arranging umpteen number of marriages for my cousins had proved useful here ..
Later that night, she along with my sister, 2 cousin-sisters & their bunch of kids has to spend the night at another cousin's house & return to Chintamani and travel further 40 kms to attend another relative's marriage, the next day.
My cousin had been out of town (for a marriage ofcourse :) ) & had given the keys to a neighbour. Mom & gang were welcomed to the house by a swarm of mosquitoes. Unluckily for them, mosquito mats were empty & the mosquito net would be sufficient for just two people. After all the confusions in the marriage, everyone seemed to have lost their apetite during the dinner & now with the mosquito menace, they were feeling the hunger pangs. But nothing could be done now, it was 10:30 PM & all the stores in that small-time town would be closed. The elders in the gang packed up the kids on the cot having the mosquito net & they got into bantering that comes so naturally to women folk. But the mosquitoes & empty stomachs wouldn't allow them to have a meaningful conversation.
Only those who've been through such experiences can understand how dreadfully long such nights can be. You'll be just waiting for even a small streak of light outside your window to conclude that its morning atlast & run out of your bed.
The next day the elders got ready at 4:30 AM itself & got their kids also ready in jiffy & headed to the bus stop to catch the 5:30 AM bus to Chintamani. Still starving but nothing to eat, they luckily found some snacks at Chintamani bus stop. With their stomach Gods happy, they boarded the bus that would take them to another of those 99.99% successful marriages.