The Wedding Weavers

A ground in Shivaji Park is getting ready to weave another Wedding, just like a studio getting ready for another shoot. A zillion men and women would have weaved their lives with each other in matrimony on this very soil.The atmosphere at the ground is calm, devoid of the burden of anchoring the zillion marriages it has witnessed so far.

Its about 1am in the morning, but it seems like a normal working day, for the workers at the ground. Some of them are busy unloading the carpets from the little tempo (referred as baccha) in their terminology, others are trying to sort the bamboos and tie them up in the prescribed manner basis the design which their absent minded supervisor seems to have told them. The supervisor Ismail is new, and is particularly known for giving filmsy excuses.

The owner of the decorator company,arrives to take a stock of things, and to ensure that the work on the site is executed in the right manner,he immediately notices the missing pillar at the gate which was part of the design and remarks

“Ismail, Gate pe pillar nahi lagaya, design maih tha na”
Absent minded Ismail, tries his antics with the boss
“Pillar to laga hai na, dekho na sahab”
The Seth is quite patient and calmly asks Ismail, how come he cant see the missing pillar,trying to fumble again for excuses, he says he didn’t see the design or forgot, in no mood to argue, the Seth tell him to refer the design and ensure the pillar is constructed.
“Chandni aagayi kya”, the Seth remarks.Relax Chandni is not the Chandni from the Chandni bar, instead Chandni is what is referred to the colourful or design cloth which is used around the tent.

Kailash is a worker from UP, he is busy setting up the frame of pipe for the tent. He lives in one of the slums in Lalbaugh. He has been suffering from Hernia, but refuses to get himself operated, as he thinks getting him self operated will harm him. Probably unaware or simply ignorant of the danger he is living in by breeding a disease in his body,he continues to work relentlessly to feed his family.It is people like Kailash, who make me realize, that lack of health awareness is such a big problem in our country.Thousands of people in our country die because they are unaware of the disease they are suffering with or they hold some pre-conceived notions related to surgery.The cities today are full of people like Kailash who leave their villages and families behind to earn as little as Rs 125 a day and an inch of place in some crowded slum for shelter. But since the wedding business is a seasonal affair, a lot of these labourers go back to the villages during the monsoon for farming, to get whatever they can make from their land. Sometimes I really wonder what will happen to our cities, with so many laborers, I guess it is time to urbanise the villages.

Its only a couple of hours for the morning, the section for the wedding ceremony is almost ready,the chandni (cloth) is put up around the vidhi section.The hustle-bustle at the site also increases, as more bachas (small tempos), tempos and more workers arrive with furniture and godhris (carpets) after winding up another reception site, the previous night. The bride and groom who would be tying the knot the next morning, would probably be taking their last nap as bachelors, unaware of those dozen hands who would have worked meticulously the entire night towards making it a picture perfect wedding for them.