I totally winked out for a while there. Sorry to those who've been reading. (I know youre out there... somewhere.)

Granddad fell ill, many, many complications, blogging took a back seat.

And now, two days away from D- DAY as I sit waiting for my baraat and wedding guests to arrive here at the charming Alila, Cha-am, I thought I would write one last blog as a singleton.

So forgive me if its a bit sentimental.

I wasn't able to blog in detail about Viradh and Gauri, my childhood chaddi- buddy's lovely evening. It was indeed a beautiful, warm and totally reassuring one... kind of like a cross between a tight hug and hot chicken soup. Thanks Gaura. I love you. Viradh, youre a star.

Then there was Bunty and DP Sabharwal's lovely evening at our farm- Brookside. The food was absolutely stunning, the decor gorgeous.. the farm simply glowed with the fairy lights and bright smiles of all round. Thanks, Bunty and DP- you guys are so, so sweet!

And finally...there was the big she-bang thrown by Asha and Prakash Singhania, Navin and Jayanti Rekhi and Usha Kale at the local hot- spot Moksha. Everyone got dolled up to the nines and drank and danced the night away. It was superb fun and a fitting prelude to the wedding. Special mention- Asha Mausi looked super cool. We- the 'Guests of honour' (ahem ahem) were given special flower bracelets and an 'Arati' was performed too. I sat there looking and feeling super smug through the whole thing. It really was such a fun night. Kind of reminded me of the reasons home will always remain home. Thanks to Asha Mausi, Prakash Uncle, Jayanti Aunty, Navin Uncle and Usha Aunty who organized it. You guys rock. Wont mention their kids names, but you guys rock too! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Wish I had the time to put up photos from these events.. perhaps after the wedding is done..

Now that I'm so close, I cant help but want to thank everyone of you guys... all my friends and family in Nagpur, Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Mauritius, Singapore, Hongkong... who've made me and Abhijit feel so, so special. You all are very very special to us and I'm waiting to see each one of you day- after!

All the lovely ladies and gents who are slaving everyday to put up the magnificent Sangeet- you are all superstars in my eyes and I will gladly dance at any event you want...for a fee of course..just kidding. Not.

Rahul Kale, my best, best, forever best man... I love you. There will always be a room in my house for you and that idiot Gautam Saraf. Yes yes Gautam, I love you too. But I like Neha better.

Gauri, Shanu didi, Vidhi, Amy - you guys are my rocks. Nikita, youre a SUPER STAR! You also have one of the most efficient teams in the world! Beanie, I miss you. And to the beautiful ladies who swim and give me wisdom and love everyday... thank you. And soooo many more lovely friends... you know who you are. Mwaah mwaah to you all. I've seen such a beautiful side to so many in the past few days.

Mandeep- you've done more for me than even family ever could. I've just finished dinner with you and you were sniffling into your soup with horrid nasal congestion and cold, but still you slaved on to perfect all the wedding details. You, my friend and your team, are FANTASTIC. Its been my deep honour to have worked with you and planned this wedding with you.

Didi and Jai and babies- I love you guys and having you here is whats making my wedding perfect.

Mum and Papa- I dont really have words and I dont want to bawl right now. So I will skip it. I love you. Always and forever.

And finally, to the man I'm going to marry... thanks for coming along. Really. It was awfully nice of you and now youre stuck with me for life. Hooray. I love you.

I'm so blessed and so sentimental right now... I think I'll go sob myself to sleep.

See you all at Cha-am!

A

Last night was simply FABULOUS!

My lovely blushing bride and myself were invited by Aunties Vindhya and Sherna and Uncles Jimmy and Sonju for a grand Costume party!






It was amazing... people dressed to the nines and boy, did they impress.
Aunty Dhun came as Ronaldo, complete with football and red shorts. Her T-shirt ofcourse, said 'Sweet 16'. Aunty Supriya came as a yesteryears Tollywood heroine and totally rocked the frilled sleeves and Bong saree.
Aunty V was 'Hotstuff' the devil in a gorgeous red boa and spiky neck cuff, Farah did a super Lady Gaga and Uncle Jim did a mean 'Waka Waka' dance dressed as an Arab Sheik.
Sonju uncle as a rowdy Cowboy and Sherna Aunty made a very angelic 'Pari'.
Dorab Uncle was a Parsi Sadra and dhoti wearing priest, Aunty Roshan made a convincing cowboy. Soniya's bellbottoms gave her the sixties edge as did Sasha aunty's tight sari and bouffant, while Nikita looked curvy and stunning with her guitar a la Zeenat in 'Hare Rama, Hare Krishna.'
A special shout- out to Monu Mulani who came as SRK from 'My name is Khan' complete with hand held board that said 'My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist' and 'I can repair almost anything, even broken hearts' on the other side. Monu even did the gimpy SRK walk.. full marks Monu- thunderous applause!
Sanya came as Shantipriya from Om Shanti Om and walked away with the prize! Meanwhile we had Marilyn Monica and Marilyn Divya oomphing it up... nice cleavage ladies! Asha mausi as Mona Darling and Amita Aunty as a vamp were luscious.
Rukshad was 'Fook Yu' complete with Chinese whiskers and braid and Anil uncle came with a 'gunna' as Quick Gun Murugan. Yogesh uncle channeled Sarkar and Anjan as Zorro was quite dashing! The mask will come in use later dude..if you know what I mean... wink wink, nudge nudge. Heh.
Naresh- Dharmendra burned up the dance floor, while the ladies had to baccho from Rishi Kapoor Gaurav. Gaurav, I want to borrow the heart pendant and belt from you dude.
Ritesh Bhaiya was Gabbar... literally and figuratively... and kept threatening people with his gun.. I want to borrow the gun from you Bhaiya.
The Taneja Clan were the stars of Lollywood... complete with calling cards et al!
Mom was Helen in bright red wig and slinky shiny dress and sister was a pirate complete with talking parrot.
Mon Pater of course had to be as obnoxious as is humanly possible and came as a Belly Dancer. He jiggled his bare belly at anyone who would pay attention, walked on tippy toes upto unsuspecting guests and flashed them with his shiny pink falsies and generally made a huge pink pest of himself.
Abby was my slut bride with red net stockings, cleavage ridden dress and white lace gloves. He was a cross between Madonna in 'Like a Virgin' and a Thai side show cross dresser... if we took him to Bangkok in this get-up, I guarantee I will lose my suhaag. I think he quite enjoyed all the uncles feeling up his falsies on the pretense that 'One was slipping'. Poor raped sod. He asked for it. During dress trials he actually asked the horrified tailors to make his boobies 'so large that no one would look at his face'. A lot of people told me how lucky I was to have found a man like him. Sure... A cross- dressing, attention grabbing slut...I'm all set in life guys.

If I've missed anyone out, please dont mind... I'm slightly hung over from all the revelry! Also, the photos are quite blurry and very few... would anyone who has got some nice one either please forward them to me or upload them on the Wedding Webpage? Thanks!
I do have some rather interesting video footage though, which will be released on Youtube later... unless... Mwaahahahahaha *evil laugh*

The attention to detail was just amazing...even the menu was tailor made with items such as 'Kutti Cheez', 'For you thighs Only', 'Gabbar ke Kebab' and 'My Name Is Paan' to name a few.
And if this was not enough, there was a whole catwalk segment with every couple strutting their stuff and prizes for everyone. Thank yo Monica for being the stylish MC.
I am soooo amazed by the sheer effort, warmth and love all around me... I'm overwhelmed, honoured and humbled.
Thank you, thank you, thank you a MILLION times.
Abby and I are blessed to be surrounded by so much fun and love.
Keep on rocking my lovely nagpur family and friends.










Tonight... on to my best childhood friend Gauri and her husband Viradh's home for a comforting evening of love and food!

More later,
A

कराओके करोगे?

Last night was super fun!

the Ladhas opened their beautiful home to a bunch of tuneless karaoke divas and did not once complain about the issuing cacophony. Full marks Divya and Gaurav.

Reigning Karaoke queens were Anurag Saraf, Saket Daga and Radhika Rajwade, with 100 marks for each song they belted out. On an aside, Anurag did a mean falsetto. Bravo, bravo.
The rest were Karaoke princesses, notably, Monu Mulani, Ashish Surekha and Abhijit Sanyal... they managed to get decent scores when they sang and not yelled into the mike.
Backing vocals was the whole company, as the photos will show.
Special mention to throat - achy Rahul Kale (obviously) who sang 'Kitne bhi tu kar le sitam' at my request and then drowned his ailing vocal cords in Brandy.

Thank you thank you thank you Divya and Gaurav for such a lovely, tuneless evening!

Tonight is the big dress- up costume party.... costumes galore, hooray!

ओउर फर्स्ट केलवान!

So thrilled!

Last night was our first kelwan!

My dearest friends Rahul Kale, Vidhi and Saket Daga, and Anita and Sameer Khosla threw us the loveliest do at Rahul's newly done up Bachelor pad.
Am putting up a few photos from this night of fun, food and love.
We were welcomed through an arbor of flowers and fairy lights into a room of mood lighting and a table groaning under the weight of a superb Tapas assortment.

Of course Rahul said the Tapas was in honour of Spain's win at the Footie, but I'd like to think its because he knows how much I adore it.







The evening was a very merry one with dear friends meeting and celebrating the beginning of a 10 day run of mad parties until D day.

Thanks guys for the perfect start!

Tonight is Karaoke night at the Ladhas. Smooth Operator... here I come.

Ciao for now
A

And here it is... Blog number 2.

Am not quite so pissy right now so I must say, am very, very chuffed at the way the wedding webpage has turned out! LOVE it and really must thank Mandeep, Sunil, the Jagsons team, Mangesh Sawalakhe and his team for dealing so patiently with this tantrumy Bridezilla.

So we just went to the Alila to finalize all the details. Am so very excited!
Everything is going exactly the way I want it to... so apparently micromanaging and nitpicking DOES work.
The property is looking beautiful against the slightly overcast sky, the Chef has prepared a dhasu menu (seafood lovers rejoice... much crab, lobster and prawn masti await), the mehndiwalis are coming in from Bangkok, the booze list is growing more and more extensive (thank you drunk ADU) and there are mild to no showers expected... so we are all set.
The Pundit coming in from Bangkok has a stutter (or should I say st..st..sttt..stutter), but apparently so does Hrithik Roshan and if Hritki boy can say his dialogues without a hitch so can our Pundit. Pray for us, just in case he cannot. Sw..sw..swww..swwwaaha to that.

Of course we ate continuously from the time we touched down in Bangkok until the time we boarded the return flight. Whilst my wishful- anorexic mum cribbed the entire time about how she would regain EVERY ounce she had lost in the past 2 weeks (perish forbid) I ate and enjoyed every minute of it.
Apparently everyone has lost weight for my wedding except me. Hooray.
As I said, I plan to deck anyone looking hotter than me at the wedding. So eat fools, or be decked.
I'm going to have to deck the lot of you, arent I?

Anyway, the ride back from Alila to Bangkok was no less exciting. First, Abhijit (who was in India) went missing in Khopoli. He left the house in Bombay to drive to Khopoli 2 hours away and 4 hours later had still not reached! And his phone was dead. So, I did what any sensible person using ISD would do- I panicked and called half the world trying to locate him. And when half the world couldnt locate him, he finally called and said his car broke down and he had no network. Phew. Breathed a sigh of relief. (Until the phone bill comes in next month- then is when I shall have a massive coronary)

Speaking of relief, I was not the only one needing it- the excitement was apparently far too much for father's bladder, which demanded relief too.
So the next half hour was spent in Papa's anguished inquiries to the driver of the van- 'Are we there yet?' At some point, the red- faced ADU emptied a mineral water bottle, all ready to replace its liquid contents with his own. This idea, as you can imagine, was enthusiastically shot down by Mum, Mandeep and myself. After this plan failed he contemplated jumping into the back of the pickup truck next to us in the slow moving traffic and doing his business there. This was until he noticed the beefy, 7 foot driver of the pickup. So that idea went in the crapper too. (Yes I realize the irony that the ideas had crappers but my father didnt)
After a while spent observing father's facial contortions and uncontrolled wriggling in the back seat, the driver finally pulled up at a green spot bang- smack in the middle of the road and gestured to it...
And THAT is how, my friends, father let fly full in the face of oncoming traffic and did the shuddhikaran of Thailand.

Moral of the story: Empty bladders thoroughly before embarking on coach to Alila, or face consequences later.

After that pithy moral tale, I shall log off.

After all, a bride needs her beauty sleep, no?

so, farewell, adieu... and to all, a good night.

Ok.
So this is my first ever blog entry. Hooray. Big Whoop.
Ugh. Head hurts and is going to burst.
Am crazy zit bride with a month to go to magically clear the zits.
And lose oh about 20 kilos.
Not much to accomplish. Given my knee hurts like a 90 year old's and my work load just got upped. As I said earlier, BIG WHOOP.
If you're reading this, it probably means the wedding web page FINALLY went online.
(What? You mean they did it before the wedding got done and they had 5 kids and 2 mortgages and heart disease and rode gimpily off into the sunset??)
So yeah, I'm a bit pissy today. Just spent another hour explaining to the site developer why I did not think it appropriate to have a photograph of a seaplane on a beach with the words 'Welcome to Thailand Wedding' on the home page. "Yes, yes, it is in Thailand. Yes, yes there are beaches. Yes, yes there are even seaplanes. But just, no. OK?"
So, I have to stop the blogging and get to work.
More later. Buh bye now.
Oh, check this out- I have the Hindi Alphabet as an option here so I'm going to sign out with my Hindi spelt name. Finally, some excitement. No. Wait. Its gone.
अपर्णा