[BlackPearl]

Being born and brought up in Kolkata and that too being an introvert, I had never dreamt of making so many "Non-Bengali" friends. This has been possible due to team-bhp beyond any doubt. Those who have known me from childhood cannot fathom this change in me Nowadays I am far from being introvert and my lack of Hindi speaking skill has not been much of a hindrance to making friends. Among them, PapaBravo and Navsjab stand out. We attended Navsjab's wedding in 2016 and this time we got the invitation to another big fat North Indian wedding in Delhi, that of Papabravo's sister in law. We met her last year during our Sikkim trip and we behaved unusually well with her when we came to know that her marriage was coming up. That undoubtedly helped in securing an invitation

The Sherpa, Teesta and BlackPearl attending the marriage -


As the day came nearby our chances of making it to the capital started looking bleak. There was huge amount of work at office and we could not start on the planned date. The next day looked equally bad and I had an extremely important meeting that I had to attend. It got over by 6 P.M.and we started from home at 7 P.M. Google map was showing a journey time of 25 Hours 40 Minutes and that meant we would miss the engagement! I was under pressure and put all my driving skills into work to reduce that time. But there were forces at play against us and we got stuck for more than an hour just 10 kilometers from home. Finally after a struggle of more than two hours we could hit the highway. From that point onward it was a race against time and I thought of two things - 1. Should have booked flight tickets, 2. Should have bought a faster and safer vehicle. The Thar is not meant for high speed driving and all my experience and training were playing against driving the vehicle fast. Still I drove as fast as I could safely do and opted for minimal halts.

A customary picture taken en-route with my mobile. There was no time to take the DSLR out :-(


Thankfully, there was no hiccup for the rest of the journey and we reached Delhi the next day at around 2:30 in the afternoon. A drive time of 17 Hours 48 Minutes for 1471 Kilometers was pretty good and my best till date with the Thar. Only my Maruti Esteem has been faster than this on the Kolkata Delhi stretch. The downside was that the Thar gave a mileage of 6 KMPL and we had to halt multiple times for refueling. I will stress more on this later.

The read-out on the Garmin e-trex


PapaBravo aka Pawan and his Father-in-Law had already arranged for an excellent accommodation for us in the Officer's Mess and we headed straight for the place.



We had a few hours in hand to get some rest and freshen up before the engagement party in the evening. Thankfully the venue was nearby and I did not have to drive much. The party was superb and the reception we received was phenomenal. Pawan and his wife Meghna introduced us to the others and took extra care to mention every time that we had traveled all the way from Kolkata.

Engagement party

PapaBravo and BlackPearl, after signing a treaty!


A pic with the bride


With the bride and the groom


Both of us were dead tired after the long trip and the party. Came back to the mess and crashed.

[BlackPearl]

Next day was Mehndi in the morning and I had no part to play in it. It was a boon and I slept till the afternoon. The occasion took place nearby as well and I dropped in just when lunch was being served
However I managed to take all the pictures from PapaBravo and am posting them here.

Mehndi





They seemed to be planning to marry again!






Good that I was not present, otherwise they would have forced me to pose like this!






I finally made it to one pic. It reminded me of a dialogue from the movie Andaaz Apna Apna

[BlackPearl]

The Party!

Gala will be an understatement for the party that took place that evening. It was an affair of a massive scale. North Indians do know how to party hard and one must attend such an event at least once in a lifetime! Pawan was very busy the whole evening as he had a lot of responsibilities. On hind sight I feel that I should have lent a helping hand. But on that day I was too busy enjoying

A sports complex had been booked for that evening and it was on the other side of Delhi. Thankfully I did not have to drive in that traffic. The Innova that we were traveling in jumped a signal and the police caught the driver at the next junction. The driver initially tried to plead to the officer and requested him to let go. But the officer wanted to take his license. The guy then called someone and handed over the phone to the officer. After a minute police let the driver go off without a charge! Later I asked the driver how he managed it, he said his elder brother was in the Police

Pics from the party -

[BlackPearl]

The Marriage

Next day was the D Day for Vedica and Samar. The event took place in a huge ground that had been decorated under the able guidance of Pawan and his Father in Law. It was a bitter cold night in Delhi, but there were gas heaters placed everywhere. Thankfully I was wearing a turban and it prevented my bald head from getting frozen!

The ground looked beautiful and the food was superb. We did not stay till the end of the event as we had to start early next morning for Kolkata.

Pictures from the event -















Next morning it was time to bid good bye to Delhi and to Meghna and Pawan's family. A whirlwind trip of 3 days in Delhi came to an end. The memories will be cherished forever.

The drive back to Kolkata was sedate as we had plenty of time in our hands.

Another customery pic on the return journey. This was most probably on the Agra Lucknow Expressway.


The drive time while returning was around 21 hours and the Thar gave a mileage of 13+ kmpl. Coming back to the point I had mentioned that I would explain later. There was approximately 3 hours of difference between driving blazingly fast and adequately fast on a 1500 Km stretch. Traffic conditions were more or less same both ways. The price difference between the two trips for diesel was about Rs 5000 . If I think about these statistics it raises a pertinent question if it is worth the additional effort to drive faster to save about 3 hours time and pay almost the double for the fuel?

To conclude, I know this is not a travelogue and people will hardly find any interest to go through it. But I keep on writing because I love to come back on team bhp and read these to refresh my memory from time to time. I hope that I make many more friends on team bhp from different parts of the country and get invitations to attend such memorable events

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!

[MDED]

Dear BlackPearl Sir,

Driving down from Kolkata to Delhi in a Thar must have been some experience. But, nonetheless you witnessed a wedding which every Indian wants to attend. I sincerely hope that you get to attend a Punjabi wedding in Punjab, wherein you will be received on the outer ring road of the city by the hosts with Band & Baaja!

[GTO]

Just read your travelogue in detail - thanks for sharing, BlackPearl. Every time I see pics of your Thar on holiday, I want to buy one myself. Looking amazing in that rear 3-quarter pic of the opening post. Enjoy your Jeep, man. I have fond memories of touring in mine.

Sharp threads too, Mr. & Mrs. BlackPearl. That grey suit with blue shoes is . You guys look great together.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

The price difference between the two trips for diesel was about Rs 5000 . If I think about these statistics it raises a pertinent question if it is worth the additional effort to drive faster to save about 3 hours time and pay almost the double for the fuel?

I think that's probably because your Thar has the aerodynamics of a brick . Wouldn't make such a big difference in a modern car with a low drag coefficient and a tall 6th gear for cruising.

[Uprasenjit]

I don't have anything else to write except that all of you are looking dashing

[AKSen2015]

I second Uprasenjit da . Nothing to say ... Sherpa looks regal and so does everyone else.

[Samba]

Waiting for the day to come, when you and your Bhpian wife will drive both the cars to attend someone's wedding!

May be that travelogue will look like this ! -




Regarding this travelogue, as-usual it was an engaging read with some nice pics! All of you are looking gorgeous and my best wishes to the newly wed couple.


Rated 5*.

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing. I had the pleasure of attending a few Indian weddings myself.
Not necessarily the largest, but certainly lasted very long enough( well at least for us European. Our neighbours daughter in Delhi. For five days it was a constant coming and going of family friends, caterers what have you.

Love weddings and by the looks of it, this was a great one. Looks like everybody was thoroughly enjoying themselves and so many happy faces!

Cars look great too!

Our daughter, my princess, just got married last week here in the Netherlands. It was a a splendid ceremony with a gorgeous bride (of course every dad will say that). The actual ceremony was outside in the afternoon and for the evening dinner and party we moved inside. Next day, big afterparty in our new home. So in essence a day and a half, which is extraordinary for the Dutch already. But we have a very large international spread out family and same with our friends. So they never come for tea only. The night before the wedding we had 19 people staying at our place. Mattresses everywhere. We had more family/friends staying in three B&Bs nearby. It was good fun and it gave me enormous pleasure to see my daughter and wife enjoying every moment!

Jeroen

[megazoid]

That is some serious mile munching there BlackPearl. I can imagine how much you would have pushed to get that kind of top whack. Great snaps and writing to match. The roads were 4/6 laned through out?

[ALTIMAed]

Must have been one hell of a drive, but knowing the kind of driving experience that you have, for you it would be 'another day at work'!!

Nice colourful pics coupled with a lot of smiles. Pawan and you look great wearing the safa.

Could someone photoshop your (present) Mini between the Bolero and the Thar in the picture with you and Teesta!

[mi2n]

Congratulations to the new couple. Absolutely brilliant reflection of the essence of events through your narratives and photographs! What a dash to Delhi! I took more time reaching Lucknow

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

But I keep on writing because I love to come back on team bhp and read these to refresh my memory from time to time. I hope that I make many more friends on team bhp from different parts of the country and get invitations to attend such memorable events

Can totally relate to your above statement. Thanks to Team-BHP for giving us a wonderful platform to share and store our memories which we can look back anytime and relive some of the best moments of our past trips.


Thanks for sharing.

[ARAY]

Congratulations to the newly wed.
A short and crisp narration of one of the most Epic events up North.
Good to see the Thar, maybe will see Hulk, the next time.
Had I been at Asansol, surely would have met you guys.
And I think this Samba has a valid point and a good foresight.
Thanks for sharing this experience.