Family weddings (Part 1)

I find attending family weddings extremely stressful. You are expected to remember and greet 4th cousins, your uncle’s wife’s brother’s wife’s father, anyone and everyone you met 3 years earlier at a wedding and will probably meet 3 years later at another wedding.

As you set off for the wedding reminding your mum to not introduce you to people you don’t remember meeting 3 years earlier, you are simultaneously preparing for a test in memory, family trees and relationships.

Once you are at the wedding, you realize any amount of preparation is inadequate. Your mum goes back on her promise and reintroduces you to people you think you are meeting for the first time. She says " you remember Sapna right? You met her at Anu akka's wedding." And you try hard to conjure up images of the wedding which happened 3 years earlier. You give up after a while and look at your mum with a who-is-this look. And she says " Don't you remember Sapna. Subbu uncle's daughter?" You ask yourself "Who is this Subbu uncle?" and look at your mum helplessly. She gets the hint and says "Remember Subbu uncle. Anu akka's brother-in-law". And that's when a distant light glows in your head. Oh yeah!Subbu uncle. That man i met 3 years earlier at my cousin sister's wedding.

It takes me time to figure out the connection by which time Sapna is embarrassed because you took time to say hi to her. And you are embarrassed because you are telling yourself "when did i ever meet her " while saying hi to her. After that incident, you try and get lost in the maze of uncles, aunts, grand uncles who obviously don't remember you unless forced to.

Now, that leads to another problem which i will talk about some other time.