I was slightly late in reaching the place. Most of the guests had already arrived and I had to dish out several fake-smile-fitted-aunty namastes before I could reach him. And there he was, looking smartly dressed for the first time in as long as I have known him. Or perhaps this was the first time I was looking at him with genuine appreciation - for the ten years that I have known him, I have always looked at him with that typical condescending attitude that one reserves specifically for close friends.

That was the ring ceremony.

And today is the wedding! One of my closest friends from childhood is getting married today, the bride being his sweetheart for the last four years. I am definitely extremely pleased and happy for him - partly because I played a significant (or at least I like to think it was significant) role in getting his relationship to start with his bride, and partly because of the we-will-live-happily-ever-after look that both the bride and the groom have on their faces 24 * 7 these days.

SK (lets call my friend by that name for the purpose of this post) and I were in standard IX when he joined my school. He was quite a seedha bachcha in the sense that he could never get the 'non-veg' jokes which everyone laughed at, and was naive (on any other day I would replace that by DUMB) enough to actually do something entertaining when I used to goto his place (ostensibly) because I was getting bored at home! Needless to say, I played a major role in bigado-ing him by sharing with him my then newfound knowledge about everything that was 'non-veg'.

On another occasion, when SK and I were having one of our usual cycle races while returning from school, he was leading me and I tried a maneouvre wherein either he would slam into my bike and fall, or he would have to give up the lead. But unlike other occasions, this time my attempt was a resounding success - not only did SK fall of his bike, he also managed to get a massive and very bloody bruise on his right forearm. I helped him get home, and was damn scared because it was because of me that he was hurt. (Did you notice how I didn't write the fact that I was, and still am, positively terrified of his mother!) But SK was nice enough to save my arse by cooking up a surprisingly believable story about how a crazy taxi driver had driven the vehicle right into his bicycle.

SK's wedding has more significance in my friends' circle than this post, or its heavily cliche title, might indicate. To begin with, his is a love marriage and he had to endure a not-so-trivial confrontation with his parents before they agreed - that itself opens the floodgates for all the guys in my group, given that mine is a small town where everyone knows everyone (everyone's mom knows everyone's mom). Moreover, his bride is a year and a half older (hence the confrontation at home) and which, again, opens the floodgates (nay, I should say - extends the 'can be considered' age-range) for all us guys by that much time. Also, he is getting married at 23 - a very young age - so if anyone in my friends circle is desperate to make out (without producing any controversies - amongst other things) with his gf, he can very well go ahead with marriage thinking 'if SK can do it why can't I' ?

At the risk of souding romantic about a guy, I daresay that my respect and admiration for SK has increased immensely since the time I first met him. Not only has he moved from being a rather moronic boy to an intelligent hard-working and mature man, but has also managed to hit upon a stunning combination of being street-smart, yet honest and good at heart (which, these days, is a lot more than what I can say about most people). Perhaps the most obvious indicator of my appreciation of SK and his deeds is the fact that this is perhaps my longest post in over an year, yet it has taken the least amount of effort / time. Hats off to SK!