"Aaj Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai......."

"Hellooo...mike testing (Screech...bang...)...Dosto aaj main apko ek kahani sunata hu..." and then "Ek hasina thi(out of tune), Ek diwana tha........................(loud, lacking melody)...." Hush! Finally song ends. "Haluuu (again screech..bang etc. reverberations, etc..) Aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai.... Halliii....(reverberations...and song continues)...Haluuuu....Kajra re....(what were the lyrics there? Or was it a similar sounding song?)..."

And it continued for two hours. Nope it was no music program gone all wrong. It was a live band at friends Baraat! And it was a band with a live performance by their 'lead singer'. And what a performance it was! Lyrics all wrong...the reverberating haloo's (or was it Hali's or halu's?) signaling a track change, the awful song selection. But still we all danced away to glory for a couple of hours on a crowded road. In fact it was this awfulness that made all of us shed any inhibitions (atleast I did) we had of dancing on the road and enjoy ourselves even more I guess. We screamed and yelled and flinched at each song he played/sang, but still continued dancing. And our friend, the poor groom, had no other choice but to sit on the mare's back and look at all the craziness unfolding around him. The saving grace for him (and us as well) was that he was not in his hometown but in a town where except for the baraati's who were dancing away to glory no one else knew who he was! And being the kind of person he is am sure he might not have imagined himself being a part of something as crazy as this. But for him and us it will be a crazily memorable experience.