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Seshan, my husband’s best friend celebrated his only daughter’s wedding and how?-Part

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by mithila kannan, Jul 14, 2008.

  1. mithila kannan

    mithila kannan Gold IL'ite

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    Mr.Seshan has remained my husband’s best friend for the past forty years or a little more than that.Seshan has stayed put at Tanjore whereas we had been moving from place to place and have finally settled down at Chennai. But that has not affected their friendship in any manner.Not only that, Seshan and my husband are just the opposites of each other in every possible manner.Seshan is a landlordwhile my husband is a professional having worked in different capacities.Seshan was the only son to his parents, my husband has nine siblings.Seshan never made much of his formal education where as my husband is a professionally qualified person.More than any of these, my friends, there is one aspect of Seshan which is just the opposite of my husband.Seshan would not,could not spend a single paisa unnecessarily,why even necessarily for that matter.You can call him a modern day midas.My husband is a compulsive spender .

    Inspite of all these glaring differences in their characteristics, there was something that bound them together,both of them are good human beings.You can ask me,”How can a modern day midas be a good human being?”My dear friends,Seshan is a miser in spending money,but he and his wife are admirable hosts.You can never go to his house and return without having a meal.If you are a stranger in Tanjore and need a place to stay, he will offer to keep you with them,as long as you want and you will be treated like a family member ie you will have to run minor errands like going to the shop or fixing a bulb,but the hospitality and the kindness extended will remain the same from the first day of your stay with them, till you say,”good bye”to them and this goodwill is sure to continue for a lifetime.That is the reason Seshans have a wide circle of friends who have been very close to them for many, many years
    Seshan is a hardworking man.He has tremendous sense of dignity of labour and he expects others close to him to be the same.He has no pretensions at all,inspite of being a wealthy landlord,he has remained the same simple Seshan, that is also the reason for people liking him immediately, on meeting him.
    If there is a wedding in any of their relatives’or family friends’ houses, ,Seshan will be there with his family and all of them will be of some service to the friends. Seshan could be seen serving food, supervising the kitchen or receiving the guests..

    I have to tell you about certain incidents that was narrated to me by my husband involving Seshan before I proceed further.Once Seshan,my husband and two of their friends went to Kodaikanal on a holiday.They reached Kodaikanal in the night.Immediately on reaching Kodaikanal,my husband wanted to take rooms in a good hotel for them to stay.But Seshan would not hear of it.”What? rooms in a hotel? Unnecessary expense.”exploaded Seshan.”In the daytime, we will be seeing the different places and we require the rooms only to sleep,no?Why take rooms?A friend of mine has got a bungalow here,so many times he has asked me to come and stay with him,let us go to his place”Unfortunately he did not have his friend’s phone number and he did not know the exact address of the bungalow also.But that did not deter Seshan.He told his friends,”Let us proceed,my friend is a well known person here.Somehow, I will find out his bungalow”.It proved a task.After lot of enquiries,many looked at this bunch of young men suspiciously I believe,they reached Seshan’s friend’s house.The watchman said,”Sir,our Ayya has gone to Madras,Sir.I don’t have the house keys”.
    My husband and the other two men who were very tired after walking a long distance,Seshan would not hear of engaging a taxi,besides they did not have the correct address also.,wanted to go to a hotel,now atleast.
    Setshan turned to them,hushed them up and asked the watchman,”But your Ayya said that he is constructing another house,no?Where is this house?”The watchman said,”Yes,Sir.Ayya is constructing another house.It is about four kms from here”and proceeded to give the directions to that house which involved turning left and right a dozen times.Besides,he said,”Sir,take a right turn here “and showed left with his fingers.
    My husband turned to Seshan,”Sechu(that’s how friends called him),we can’t be carrying our suitcases and walking that much distance.Let us go to the main road and call a taxi.”Seshan gave him one dirty look,”What?You are all men and you can’t carry a couple of suitcases and walk,give your suitcase to me,I will carry it”Much to the irritation of my husband and others Seshan took a couple of suitcases from them, hoisted them on his shoulders and walked like a soldier.
    After lot of rights and lefts, Seshan and troop found out the other house that Seshan’s friend was constructing.
    Seshan told that watchman,”We are your Ayya’s friends.We are going to spend the night in this house,open a room for us”
    Now the watchman was stupefied.He said,”Sir,the rooms are not ready yet,Sir.Only the hall is ready.If you want,you people can sleep in the hall”
    Seshan asked him whether he had any beddings and received the answer in the negative.By the time my husband and his friends were ready to lay down on the floor,they were so tired.But not our Seshan.He asked the watchman,”What can you give us for spreading on the floor?Have you any bedsheets?”The watchman who felt very sorry for his guests said,”Sir,I do not have bedsheets.But there are empt sacks,sir which have been lying there.If you don’t mind,you can spread the sacks on the floor and sleep on them.
    He brought the sacks and some old news papers.Seshan and his friends spread the newspapers on the floor,spread the sacks on the newspapers and the moment their heads touched the sacks, they were asleep.
    In the morning,one of the friends got up and went to the bathroom and in a few moments the others heard a scream.They thought a snake or something had bitten him,they rushed to the bathroom and when they looked at the friend they also screamed, not only that, they looked at each other and screamed and the watchman who came running to their room, looked at them and covered his mouth with his hands and laughed.The reason being,the sacks on which these people slept in the night were cement sacks,Seshan and his friends spread the sacks and slept on them not knowing this.The cement remaining in the sacks had covered them from head to foot and they looked like beings from the other world.
    The watchman was kind enough to bring them hotwater ,they had a wash and left the place,my husband swearing to himself that he would never venture to go to any place with Seshan,but this vow has been broken a million times,Seshan and my husband being the best of friends.

    Once we went to Tanjore with our kids to spend sometime with the Seshans.Seshan’s youngest son came running to the house one day.He asked his father,”Appa,give me eight annas.I want to take a hire cycle”
    Hire cycles were lent on an hourly basis those days and those who were learning to cycle,preferred to take hour cycle.
    Seshan took one look at his son and asked him,”Why do you require eight anas for that?Four anas will do”
    His son said,”Appa for others he charges eight annas per half an hour but when he came to know who I am, he agreed to take eight annas from me for one hour.”
    Seshan reluctantly parted with eight anas.Soon his son came cycling,he called out to his father,”Appa,see,I have started cycling!”
    Seshan shouted in return,”You fool,every second you are spending paisa,you know,go cycle for one hour And then come and talk to me.”I and my husband could not contain our laughter.This incident ,whenever I remember it,never fails to bring a smile on my face even today.

    Seshans have three sons and a daughter.His daughter completed her graduation, when Seshan rang up my husband and asked him to look for a suitable bridegroom for his daughter.Seshan’s daughter was, and even today is, a very sweet girl and she is like our daughter.My husband started looking out for a suitable boy in all earnestness and finally he was lucky to come across a good alliance.Seshan made it clear to my husband that at every stage in the marriage,my husband should be present and my husband agreed .The boy and his parents went to see the girl at Tanjore,my husband also went to Tanjore.Everything went off very smoothly,the boy and the girl liked each other and so also the parents of the boy and the girl.

    The next step was where to conduct the wedding.The boy’s father was very keen that the marriage had to be celebrated at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:eek:ffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Madras</st1:place></st1:City> only.He cited so many reasons,one being that his mother who was more than ninety would not be able to travel to Tanjore and she was very particular about attending her grandson’s wedding.
    Seshan was predictably,disturbed.”No,why should I celebrate my only daughter’s marriage in an unknown place?”Suddenly,<st1:City w:st="on">Madras</st1:City> became an unknown territi\ory for him whereas he used to visit <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Madras</st1:place></st1:City> twice a month atleast.
    “Drop his alliance.Let us look for some other boy”said Seshan.My husband was livid with fury.He shouted at his friend,”You will not get another alliance as good as this one.The family is a good one,they like your daughter and the boy is very well qualified.We will go ahead with the marriage.We will have it at Madras and I will take care of everything”said my husband.Seshan relented after much arguements.
    When this marriage was finalized we were at Delhi.My husband deputed his brothers to book a good mandapam for the marriage and he flew to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Madras</st1:City></st1:place> to finalise the caterer who will take care of the rest of the arrangements .
    Seshan and his family consisting of his three sons,his daughter-the bride to be and his wife landed in Madras just a few days before the marriage to stay with one of my brother’s in law,whose flat was on the third floor,no lift please!My two brothers in law went to receive them at the station.Seshan and his family took quite sometime to get down from their compartment with their luggage that consisted of some twenty suitcases,ten big card board boxes nicely packed,dozens of big shoppers bags and countless number of shoulder bags,that’s all.When my brother in law called a couple of porters they took one look at the luggage and said that they wanted nothing less than five hundred rupees to carry the luggage to the exit.
    Seshan almost got a heart attack,”Five hundred rupees,do you think you can cheat me,Iam also from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Madras</st1:City></st1:place> only, Do you know?”Seshan tried to impress the porters.But one of them said,”Sir you may be from the moon for all that matters.We will not touch these huge amount of luggage for less than five hundred rupees.”
    My brother in law said,”Its alright,uncle,let us pay them and move on”and earned a glare from Seshan.
    Seshan turned, counted how many men his family and my brothers in law counted up to and said,”We are six men.Can’t we carry these bags?”He told his wife and daughter to stand there keeping a watch on the luggage while he,his sons and my brothers in law carried the luggage to the taxi stand and came back to carry the rest.One brother in law of mine,stayed near the taxi.Passersby and the porters assembled there, looked at this sight with amusement and some of them with pity.Finally they reached home.(to be continued in Part 2)
     
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  2. Anandchitra

    Anandchitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Re: Seshan, my husband’s best friend celebrated his only daughter’s wedding and how?-

    My dear mottueBow
    I dont know how you can excel yourself each time! I am also like your friend.. :bowdowna maha kanjus.. what to do.. have made family carry bags and walk many a mile to save a buck or two.. just hilarious.. now rushing to read the other part!
     
  3. sundarusha

    sundarusha Gold IL'ite

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    Re: Seshan, my husband’s best friend celebrated his only daughter’s wedding and how?-

    Dear Mithila

    It was so hilarious reading the part about Mr.Seshan going around looking fo the second house and insisting that the watchmen let them in ..... and the part about everyone lying on cement sacks...
    I can't wait to read the next part.
     

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