Flamingo dance/ Weddings/ Disaster

One of the most challenging things about attending an Indian marriage is the dance that precedes the actually marriage ceremony, especially if you belong to the groom's side. One requires special training in a sort of dance, which curiously reminds one of desperate flamingos dancing to attract the females and failing badly. This usually happens in the baraat and no one is generally spared, most of the times not even the groom.

Men and sometimes women look not only funny (and of course 'wannabe flamingos'), but also become the centre of attraction for the onlookers. A very entertaining site indeed, if you are not a part of the flamingo pack!

Of course there are varieties of birdies running and jumping around on the road ahead of the poor ghodi! There are some trained ones, Abhishek Singh and Vivek Bangde types, who dance confidently and lead the flamingo pack. Pro marriage dancers like them are needed to save the pack. Then there are some like Mahesh, who dance in their own world. They don't care even if the female flamingo doesn't look at them, they are like sufis...aiming for direct connection with the almighty with their flamingo dance (though its rather difficult to explain why the do this in a baraat). Then there is another type which dances for a second and then goes back in the background (clicking snaps, screaming to make conversations with fellow dancers, messaging on phone and so on); Vivek Amberkar falls in this category. And then there are some really stupid ones, who insist on dancing all through the baraat, without any idea of what they are doing, jumping around like ducks let loose on a beach trying to fly off, when chased by beach dragons - I am a certified member of this gang, maybe Bhavin also comes close. We are the funniest to watch but still insist on dancing - aankhir yaar ki shaadi hai!

There is nothing more embarrassing than looking at your own video dancing in a baraat. The only way to avoid this is by avoiding the baraat itself, a monumental task by itself! Of course one also has to then bear the wrath of the groom/ friends/ family etc.

I am looking for suggestions on how to make the most of this flamingo dance in the next wedding I attend. Are there coaching classes for something like this? In Ahmedbaad, maybe? I am willing to go to Mumbai also to master this art, provided someone is willing to help a log of wood like me. Any suggestions?

Convocation series - Abhishek, Divya & Bhavin

Here is the next group of people. Quite an unusual mix but its intentional.

Abhishek Singh

Abhishek was my first friend in the class and I really don’t remember why or how. I guess it was Ramya, our common friend in the beginning of first semester. We three had some good time together, before the eventual fall-out. However, surprisingly this never affected my dosti with him. It was never a very deep or philosophical but more of a ‘fun’ dosti. Somehow, we had quite a few common friends over the next two years, some girls as well. Now that I look back at those years, I think there were plenty of reasons for us to fight, but it never happened (my roomies in first year were not so lucky though). He always had more friends outside the class than inside and became popular and sometimes even unpopular because of his antics with the females in NID. Abhi is in some ways only a kid, eternally seeking his soul-mate and his life-mate. He is the ‘Ranbir’ from ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’…but sometimes dangerously close to ‘Shahrukh’ from ‘Anjaam’ also. I am quite likely to be murdered for this one!

Divya

The most extraordinary thing about Divya in the beginning was the fact that she was my Junior in Navarachna, Baroda (1996-98), though none of us were aware of that then. I first became friends with Sanjeev and through him with Divya as well. We had some good masti together, though my friendship with Divya was largely (and sadly) limited to these aspects only. I guess we knew much more about each other’s lives than we acknowledged, and this was certainly not good. But in a way the ups and downs in our life made our friendship solid. I remember a shoot we did for Bhavana in a temple for an ad. We had good fun during that. I have some pics and videos from that and I may put it up if possible. Somehow with Divya my friendship has always been dark and more about sorrows than smiles. I hope that changes in future.

Bhavin

It took a long time for me to become friends with Bhavin. I remember the walk we took (Mousumi, Muzayun, Bhavin & me) over the bridge very late in the night very early on in NID and that is when I discovered about his lightly concealed imagination and talents. He could really talk dirty, I mean really really dirty and that made the four of us a true foursome. We had tremendous fun and laughed like crazy. I think one of the things that shaped our friendships in the class was the people with whom we did our projects, with Bhavin I hardly ever worked. I started knowing him better towards the end of NID and particularly in Bangalore. Now he is my housemate and it’s only now that I appreciate him as a friend and companion fully. And we are similar in a lot of ways, sadly because of that our house hardly gets cleaned!


Read about Vijay, Snehal & Vivek, Sanjeev, Shweta & Devesh, and Kiran, Pavan, Mousumi & Mahesh.

Read more posts on Convocation Series here.