Wedding woes: When travel meets chaos

KARACHI:

Can you feel it? The thrum of the dhol beating in your ears. The bass of wedding music reverberating through the dance floor. The adrenaline making you raise your hands high at every event.

Or are you too occupied by the sniffle of an expected flu or the agitating forewarning of a body-rattling sneeze? Or maybe you are squeezed too uncomfortably between two relatives in a car to care.

Either way, you're reminded of your naïveté back when you'd watch reels romanticising the desi wedding experience, only to be left contemplating just how wide the radius of your comfort zone can stretch.

A loaded season

Welcome to the ides of January - a brief but intense period that indiscriminately demands maximum effort if you're living in this corner of the world. Others refer to this spell as the inevitable wedding season.

By this point, you might have attended a wedding or two at least. For the most part, you're unfazed. Your poor coastal city is generally sidelined by the touch of winter - it's a nimble graze at best. Karachi is unfamiliar with the cold, so when it does strike, it's worth the celebration. And what is a grander celebration here than a committed series of wedding festivities?

So, you're excited. You received word months ago that a family wedding is scheduled for this season, hence you have much to look forward to. And with the parties split across cities, that tiny, adventurous spirit within you is intrigued by the logistics. However, the larger part is daunted by the imminent chaos.

You reckon this might be the last wedding in your family for a while, so you need to make the most of it. Chaos aside, there will be many memories to extract from this after all. The neutrality of this prediction spares you from the brunt of the bedlam ahead.

On the road

If you're a Karachiite, you naturally believe that Hyderabad isn't too far away. A small road trip is no inconvenience for you, even if you're not fond of travelling. Your schedule seems fairly simple - hit the road in the morning, mark your stop before the afternoon, unwind at your aunt's, attend the wedding, and head back home the same night. Pretty straightforward, right?

Wrong. When the bulk of your journey kicks off on the Motorway, you don't account for the blockage and its resulting traffic that lies ahead.

But hey, that's fine. You're resting with your legs stretched out in the trunk of the three-row car, with your little brother perched on the opposite side. So far, it's a picnic, especially since you're not a fan of the morning breeze and the sun is gleaming before the rear window like a blessing.

That is until the hours begin to press on. You're starting to run out of snacks and your ears hurt from how long you've had your earphones plugged into them. Though, as soon as you take them off, you find that your relatives are engaged in a feud about routes and not making it in time for the salon appointment.

Soon, the sun begins to bake you from one side, and you wonder if you should champion gratitude. You don't like the cold, so by some self-imposed law, you must delight in the punishing heat. Especially now, when you have no other choice.

Against all odds

By a miracle, you arrive at your destination, well into the afternoon. You happily hop off the trunk, ecstatic at feeling the ground under your feet. Now, there's the matter of squeezing into an apartment bursting with people since your aunt is the only relative who lives in this city.

To no one's surprise, you can hardly find a spot to sink into and waste away the remaining hours. Every bathroom is occupied too, so no chance of even washing your heat-soaked face. A moment of respite arrives when half the apartment empties out, the elders rushing to the nearest salon.

This gives you space to get ready, though at times you have to resort to using curtains as your changing stations. Somehow, you're all dressed and ready to go. But not so fast, because it is almost a ritual for an argument to break out before a big function.

It shouldn't be rocket science crowning your uncle - the groom - with a sehra, but as per an impromptu consensus, it now is. As the hours fly by, your extended family grows restless - some rushing the process, others cleverly sneaking in moments for photographs.

When you finally make it to the venue, you think: this is it. Well, not quite. You happen to be on the groom's side. A grand entrance is an obligation. Cue the fireworks, as you stand shivering in your sharara, already missing the merciless afternoon sun.

And finally, you have made it. A fantastic evening lies ahead, though it's over in a blink. So is heading back and changing into your casual clothes amid the throng of relatives roaming inside the cramped space. But the good thing is, it's over. All that's left now is to depart for home.

But, oh no, the bride and the groom are facing complications checking into their hotel room. So all the drivers, who are supposed to steer the journey back home, will now be making a detour. What they hoped to be minutes prolong to hours as the rest of the guests sit idly by. Every yawn threatens sleep, but you're told that waiting till the morning means risking running into traffic, and you've already seen how that plays out.

Finally, with all obstacles put to rest, you and your extended family set out for home, all vehicles tailing each other for safety. Somewhere along the way, the chain splits and ends with your car waiting on an eerie street at 3AM. Your cousin needs to be dropped off at her place, but your ride is unfortunately ahead of the others. Knocking on a locked door is pointless, so wait by a frightful sidewalk you must.

You reach home at around 4AM, weary and anxious. You all but embrace every piece of furniture in your room. As you wash off the day's sweat and head to bed, you can only think of one thing: you have a reception to attend later today.