Wedding at Dwarakapuri!

Before you are surprised, let me tell you that I had not made any trips to Uttar Pradesh or Uttaranchal or Uttarakhand. The Dwarakapuri referred to here is the air conditioned auditorium at ISKCON, Bangalore where I had the good fortune to attend a very close friend's wedding.

S has always been my favorite ever since I met him. He was the one who taught me the A, B, C, D of auditing. It is another thing that my knowledge of auditing has not proceeded much beyond that but that had more to do with myself. S has always come across as a hard working and pleasant individual who is now a successful CA working with the Internal Audit department of an MNC in the city of Bengaluru. He is globe trotting (literally) and has visited countries ranging from Argentina to Japan as part of his assignments (one lucky boy, he is!)

Well, the boy turned luckier (though he was my first audit senior, I have the right to refer to him as "boy", he is 2 months younger to me in age and if he can still be called boy, so can I!) on 1 May when he entered into wedlock with A. They looked fabulous together and the wedding had all festivities associated with the typical Tam- Brahm wedding :-)

Dwarakapuri was the perfect venue- an air conditioned auditorium maintained very neatly with good chairs and seating arrangements. The welcome drink they served (lime, ginger, pudina juice) was awesome! The kathirmandapam was decorated very tastefully and Gopala Vadhyaar was in full control of the situation.

To add to my happiness, I met A, K, B, M and VK after such a long time! Had a good time chatting with all of them and reminiscing old times...A is expecting a baby next month. K is expecting his wife, M to be back from Muscat by end of this month. B is her usual busy- B self. M & A are happy with their respective jobs. VK had his wife and cute little kid with him and they made for a wonderful, happy family together :-)

After the thalikettu and wishing the bride and groom, we proceeded to the Dining Hall since all of us had to get back to work. I was informed earlier that the lunch at ISKCON would be the typical satwik lunch (onions, garlic- strict no- no) but never had I imagined that it would be this tasty!

We were served chana dal kheer first and it tasted yum! Chithranna followed and then it was time for hot, fluffy puris with a fabulous sabji. Rice followed with the usual Sambhar- rasam. The cucumber kichady, pineapple pachady, Avial, beans thoran and corn thoran (absolutely marvellous) made for good accompaniments. The large appalam with banana chips, sharkaravaratti uppery and the hot mango pickle added to the taste. With truly authentic obittu and palpayasam, I was filled up to the brink. The true hero, however was the hot, fresh and the rightly spicy parippu vada. It was the best that I have ever had in my life :-) I washed down all the food I had with fresh and tasty buttermilk and it was a struggle getting up from the chair!

Truly, one of the best wedding lunches I have ever had with the cleanliness of the dining hall and the prompt service adding much more to the taste of the food! This is one wedding function that will remain etched out in the memories of all those who attended the function for a very long period of time. All the best to S & A for a very happy and prosperous married life :-)