18th Junly - 20th July [Skit Weekend]

In my mind I was going for the weekend at Khandala with Chawla family, as usual.

But I forgot, this extended weekend was organized by Mona because Pinky had planned to conceive, create and rehearse the full skit during weekend. Kunal Narang’s wedding preparations were full on. Venue was set, invitations were on its way, menu was fixed, dress selection was over and sequence of functions was set. Now only thing left was to execute all things as planned. This wedding has being planned as Holiday Wedding, i.e. all events will take place in single resort in Goa. Goa is very beautiful in rains, hopefully rain God will contribute and make this memorable wedding.

Skit practice is one thing which requires presence off maximum participants, in this case all cousins. Earlier Pashu-Dimpi-Pinky team was enough for entertaining skit, with Dimpi in England, this responsibility has fallen on other two. However, Kashyap-Dhwani have joined the team in big way.

This year monsoon was late in coming but it did arrive and made our week end fabulous. In Pune instead of 6th June, rains arrived on 14th July, that also with lot of 'Nakras'. Daily Muskan-Dhwani will plan 'Kanda Bhaji' party, but in end will be canceled due to non arrival of rains.

In Mona Bunglow at Khandala, clouds literally walked in the living room of Bunglow, embraced us, gave us ‘pyar ki Jhapi’, moved around for some time and left us, feeling high!

Suddenly during the making of skit I realized that the people whom I consider as kids are grownups with lot of attitude, own personality, life and thinking. Out of 12 kids(!) present, 8 were married and that also for years. Most of them were working, having own career, personal demons, life outlook. It was a reminder that life has moved on.

And next day in morning, surprise of all was the ladies started talking about the age. Mona started by claimed she has crossed 60. Wow. One thing I can say for Chawla DNA. Most of them look at least younger by 10 years! Be it Mona, Bindiya or Kids, sorry young adults of family.

Some observation on how life dries up juices from your system. The spunkiness, the spontaneity, the youthfulness, the unbounded happiness which was trade mark in such gatherings in past, was coming in bits and pieces, not like earlier times in continuous flow. And yes, cell phone kept interrupting the flow.

But then life is such, it keeps moving and changing scenes. It is time for Mahek - Maher generation to take over, but where is their 'Sena'? 

On Friday, Pinky & Kash sat down and planned the skit for 12 – 15 minutes duration. Kashyap did the good job by downloading the songs, editing them in required length. Pinky kept repeating, ‘I know who will dance and who will not, I have planned my skit accordingly.’  What a sign of maturity. She was prime planner for all skits done till now for all cousins wedding. And then she made a big announcement. She said to my shock, ‘Now I am 37, please get married before I turn 40, I do not want to continue with this job in my 40’s!’

This ‘Skit Making’ is thankless job. Non dancers want out, lazy bugs want slow number, audience want fast number, moody people want impromptu number, all want others to do sync with them, some want old numbers and some latest. Thankfully, all were in for Hindi filmy songs only. And in all thisdifferent requirements we want something different. Are you ready for hard work? No.

Those on floor practicing got tired and retired by 2.0 am. However, Ashish – Sunny – Kunal – Pammy who were more of observers drank Coke, eat Maggie and went to sleep around 5.0 am. Saturday passed like a blink, planning – executing – practicing all songs. Day was glorious, comfortable, drizzling and cool. It was an excellent set up for such activity. I enjoyed the day thoroughly. And to make a evening more pleasant, Nanda dropped in suddenly late at night, with Khushboo & Karan, just for overnight stay. Their inclusion brought in new momentum and again we slept very late on Saturday.

On Sunday we returned, tired but happy.

 
by P G Dodeja