My ‘Bachelor Party’

Normally, in the rest of the world the friends of the guy who is going to get married throw a bachelor party. But here, the tradition had all along been such that it is the guy who is going to get married, who throws a party to his friends before he gets married. Until....
There was a mail in the groups from Badri confirming his participation for my bachelor’s party. I was wondering whats going on, as I was clueless. Then, one by one people started enquiring me on google chat casually, when am planning to get married. Jishnu ‘accidentally’ told me that we shall be meeting in the party next weekend. Anyways, I came to know it was a goof up and did not want to probe into further details.
Then, sometime last week, my fiancé (upgraded from girlfriend status) told me to keep myself free the coming 14th Nov, Saturday evening as she would make plans to go out. Also, my B-school buddy, Vishal was coming to Chennai with his wife for the weekend and we planned to meet up on Saturday evening. I told this plan to her. Next day, there was a mail from Vishal saying that his friend is throwing a party in a beach house in ECR, where I should come and meet him and stay over too. The moment I read this, I started laughing. And in a flash I guessed the chain of communication from me to him, through my fiancé, Ajith, DJ/Cha and finally to Vishal.
Ajith had wanted it to be a surprise party and was planning things to detail, but was let down by a few people. I called him up and told him there is no further need to plan a surprise and that we shall go together after work on Saturday. I started from office on Saturday evening and met Vishal who had come to Chennai. Then left my bike at Kaushik’s place and went to the beach-house with Ajith in his car. The place was just before the ECR toll plaza. A nice place with a swimming pool and semi furnished beach-house. Few people were already there and others joined us soon.
A lot of effort had gone in to arrange the party apart from inviting people; Locating and finalizing the place, arranging the caterers for dinner, side-dish, booze (bought over a period of time from army canteen, courtesy Dominic), mixing etc. The highlight was the swimming pool, in the rain and with booze! I got thulped by a mob in the pool, someone got stripped, David almost lost his gold ring and chain. (Incidentally, it was exactly one year back- 15th Nov 2008, also a rainy night, that we celebrated David’s bachelor party in Mahabs and I was on the phone with…). We partied through the night and had a good dinner- a small buffet had been arranged. Few people (including me) tried to catch some sleep, but we were rudely woken up by the party animals to join them and we again continued the drinking. We started leaving for home in small groups by about 4:30 am, while a few slept off at the beach house and left later.
Anyways, it was a great party and I appreciate all the efforts taken by Ajith, Dom, Prabhu, Mak, Kaushik and everyone else for coming.
Also, if any of you wonder why this blog has been used as a means to communicate that am getting married, please realize that you are not the only one wondering so..
The attendees- Ajith, Kaushik, Dominic, Lakshmi, Bala, Kama, Reju, Dosai, Chidambaram, Vinod, Prashanth, Hari, Rajashekar, Varun, Bra, Katz, Brijesh, Dodo, Prabhu, Maheshwar, DJ, Doc/Uncle, Srinath, Rajesh, Bobby, David, Niranjan, Mak, Venki, Ravikiran, Goa Raj, Nirmal, Jeep Raj, Gokul.. (anyone else? ping me offline, I’ll update..)
Click here to view 24 carefully selected photos suitable for public viewing (courtesy Mustang’s Camera and mine)
Again, thanks Ajith.. Good one!