Mere Yaar KI Shaadi-1st episode!

Times of Industrial Systems:
A report by our Special Correspondent :
Mission Solapur
The rumor and talk was there among the team mates for more than a week trying to finalize the list of comrades who will be on the mission.
After some initial setbacks, wherein I was woke up at 23:00 Hrs (I will never forgive Ravikumar M for that) on the night of Saturday and asked for my SSO password, we finally got moving.
Time : 4:45 AM
Date : 28th December 2003
Place : In the middle of nowhere
Lijan (representing Close Looping), Indresh (Audit), Prasanna (Audit), Ravi M (Men of Indsys), Netra (Women of Indsys) and Radhika (newbies) were searching for Ratheesh's (Task Force) house (popularly referred as forest by the GE drivers) who all were rostered to his home since the Sumo in which we were to leave was supposed to leave from there.
After some conflicting directions (even Malayalam was used), we met each other on the road (head on) and the medium of communication were cell phones.
Started off from there at 4:45 AM.
The first impediment (excluding Indresh) was the fog. We had to slow down to 20 KMPH and the visibility was 10 M at some places.
Later we flew at 130 KMPH according to eyewitness and the speedometer was straining to break off.
In the meantime Ratheesh was trying hard to impress Radhika and each time she said that "ooo it is so cold", he offered his jacket.
I later warned him to keep off (regional feelings).
Our first pit stop was at a road side dhaba (what do you expect, a 3 Star restaurant!) where we had chai and the next one was at Hotel Mayura.
We had Upma (Indresh sold it to us) and we watched Rangoli on Doordarshan after a long time.
Indresh spoke in his broken Kannada and the waiter preferred Hindi.
When we were having Tea in glass cups, Radhika called the bewildered waiter and asked for Disposable cups.
This was where we re-christened Radhika as Disposable.
The waiter gave her a weird look and just nodded his head. She got the message.
Disposable cups on a highway motel...Radhika, give us a break.
When we were nearing Solapur, we tried to call Azeem but due to connectivity problems, none of the cell phones were working and the call just remained as Ek Soch thi.
Radhika wanted Sunflower (why?) and then Grapes.
We had to ultimately buckle under the pressure and stopped near a vineyard.
We had chai (not again) and Radhika and Ratheesh had almost shared a tea (cup aur pyali) when I had to use my high offices and intervene and we got a separate cup for her.
We finally reached the outskirts of Solapur...
Wait for the remaining in the next episode.
Yours,
Prasanna G

Coming up...Ratheesh has his pants off as Lijan does not like it!

Trip to Solapur Part 2

Times of Industrial Systems:
A report by our Special Correspondent :

Mission Solapur
Continued from the previous edition...
Due to integrity issues, had to delay this edition

We reached the outskirts of Solapur to be greeted by Azeem's switched off Cell Phone and we did not have any other details since all were safely stored by Ratheesh at his home. Indresh disappeared and did not surface for 20 Min and I should mention that the people of Solapur were very friendly and we had to literally run away from a person since he wanted to help us.
Indresh somehow came back with a partial address which was the only way to identify Azeem's place in Solapur and in the meantime Radhika disappeared.
After a long wait, I had to use my high office again and dispatch our trusted lieutenant Ratheesh to get her back.
He was successful and they came out of a Blanket Store of course with a blanket (for further details please contact them personally...I am already getting death threats).

The main landmark that we got was Char Putla (we did not have a clue what it was), and Indresh asked so many people about it on our way that he had almost sold it.
Indresh discovered the Solapur Railway station (Columbus would be proud of that, even he did not have directions).
In our pursuit for finding Azeem, we had criss-crossed the by lanes of Solapur, and Netra and I had a heated discussion whether the girls in Solapur were pretty or not.

We at last found Azeem standing near a tree with a few people in spotless white Kurta Pajama looking like Saddam Hussein after being captured.
We have our trusted ally Sultan also there.
The girls would have hugged Azeem if I was not around and in fact he was really glad to see us there.

After initial greetings and gaalis, we were escorted to the quarters that was provided to us, by Sultan and Nadeem (Azeem's brother).
It was an amazing flat with all that was necessary for a family.
The inner bedroom was given for the ladies and Indresh was the first person who went and slept on the bed there.
The ladies got enraged by this and Lij and Netra attacked Indresh and the rest is geography.

Since there was only one washroom we had to share it and Indresh came up with a novel idea that he will be sitting outside the washroom and sending everybody one by one. I suggested he issue tokens. In fact I had a serious doubt if he was with Sulabh Complex before joining us.
We finally completed the bath session and I had to ask for an update every 5 Min Ratheesh was in there, for obvious reasons.

In came the Charlie's Angels dressed to kill the guys in Solapur.
We had traditional Netra, semi-traditional Lij and super-traditional Radhika.

Ratheesh was wearing shirt, trousers and slippers and he had to face the wrath of Lij and Netra.
I added fuel to fire. Ravi was non-committal as usual and Indresh was not available for comments.
At last Ratheesh had to change to jeans (in private).

We reached the venue just on time for lunch and after being separated in the men's and women's section we at last met the groom in his fav suit.
After a few snaps, Azeem's father-in-law was so nice that, he realizing, that a few of us were vegetarians escorted us personally to a restaurant where we had to class Gujju food. While we came back, we found the ladies in the men's chavani and the guys in Solapur were feasting their eyes (no pun intended).

We took a few final snaps there with Azeem in-between Lij and Netra trying hard to control his emotions.

Yours,
Prasanna G

Coming up...The long arm of law catches us and Indresh is caught by Maharastra Police for criminal impersonation.