Cocktail Party!

We were in Jamshedpur last week, to visit my in-laws and also to attend two of Abhishek’s close friends’ weddings. The weddings were a grand affair, complete with bachelor party, cocktail party, wedding party, after wedding party and some more. I found myself clinking cocktail glasses with my father-in-law, who is always the life of every party. We danced to Yo! Yo! Honey Singh’s numbers, my favorite one being ‘Blue hai pani pani pani’. Abhishek and one of his friends, Rohit, danced like they were possessed, they were later joined by the groom, who did some karate style break dance. The three seemed to be trying to out do each other in the ‘who’s got the wackiest move’ contest and just when I decided that Rohit had the wackiest move of the three, I saw somebody hopping on one leg, holding a drink in one hand and circling the dance floor to the song ‘Chikni Chameli’– the step was rather funny and I was impressed how the man managed to not drop a single drop of drink from his glass to the floor, upon taking a closer look I realized the man was my father-in-law. I quickly turned to see if my mother-in-law was watching and to my delight she was clapping and cheering her husband. Such a good sport she is, I thought. Had Abhishek danced like that he would have received a withering look from me, not that it would have made him stop dancing, my guess is he would have tried something wackier just to scandalize me further.

The party had a lot of who’s who from the city and I was introduced to everyone by my husband. I was shaking hands with most of them as a common form of greeting. At one point I found myself stuck with an older man, who was sweet but he just did not let go of my hand for a long time after the handshake. He seemed like he was getting emotional from meeting the ‘bachhaa party’ (he was referring to the groom and his friends) and also from.. ahem.. downing a couple too many drinks. Holding my hand he started reminiscing to me about how his son, Abhishek and other guys of the same age used to play in his backyard as kids and how it suddenly seemed like time had flown and they were all grown up, well-settled, married young men now. I smiled sympathetically and also tried to softly wriggle my hand out but it seemed like he had gripped it quite tightly. Jerking my hand would seem rude so I kept standing there hoping someone would come to meet him so that he would free me but the possibility of that looked quite dim. I started getting worried, wondering I would have to remain tethered to him for the rest of the party, when Abhishek emerged from the crowd, he came walking towards me, looking embarrassed, and whispered in my ear ‘Uncle ka haath chod. Kya kar rahi hai?!’. I glared at him and hissed ‘Does it look like I’m holding him? He’s not letting me go!’. ‘Ooooh’ said Abhishek, as if he that’s something he had not considered, and pulled me by my shoulder. My hand automatically snapped out of uncle’s hand and I was relieved that I was able to move freely again. The rest of the party I decided I will fold my hands and do the traditional ‘Namaste’ so I don’t run myself in to the risk of getting stuck again.

Finally we went over to wish the bride and the groom, who looked very gorgeous together. Abhishek back-slapped the groom, who was his childhood friend and said ‘You’re a very lucky man’, the groom smiled good-naturedly. Abhishek then turned to the bride and said ‘I wish I could say the same to you but you’re not a man’ and laughed at his own poor quality joke. I gave him a scornful look for making fun of the bride and also gave him an earful later. He was just lucky that the bride didn’t catch his joke. In fact, it seemed like she thought he had paid her a compliment, because she coyly said, batting her eyelids  ‘Thanks. But I think I’m just as lucky to have him’.

After the party, we stepped out into the wintery, chilly cold weather. There was a stony silence on the road and although quite tired, we were looking forward to yet another cocktail party that we had been invited for. What ensued in the next party is a fodder for my next blog! 🙂