Happy Tired, Sad Tired

Lucknow, 7am, 17th Nov 2024: groggy, I looked at my wife, still tired from last night's late night get together with family. We were in my hometown, to attend the wedding of my cousin brother, travelling back to Lucknow after around an year. Day wise agenda was set, which was soon to be disrupted by the phone call received by my wife. 

It was one of my sister in laws (last I counted, we have 9). Her father in law (CAT question- my father's elder brother is my?), who was hospitalized. Platelets count had gone down to well below 15k and since I was in town (his son, was in Faridabad), I was called in for the leg work by my aunt. So me and dad hurriedly got dressed and left, grabbing fruits and sandwiches on the way. 

We reached the hospital- the imagery changing to a morose one. Gloomy faces, hurried steps, sleepy faces crowded the reception area. We made a beeline for the ICU, only to be stopped by a surly looking guard, who permitted only one person to advance. Obviously, Dad went ahead, and as it mostly happens, I was left to either stare at the phone or at people.  And as it mostly happens, I choose the latter. After around an hour, Dad came back, with no updates, with the next update due after an hour. I thus continued my staring, my superbly interesting task now having four set of eyes for generating further insights. We were soon joined by my father's sister's husband and son (question 2, CAT guys), another sister-in-law and my father's oldest brother (q3- how many brothers does my father have?). We went about discussing everything from what could have caused the platelet count to go down (all hypotheses were wrong), how much time my cousin brother will take to reach by car (we missed the actual time by an hour), and the need to be healthier (while munching away on the aforementioned sandwiches). The gloomy faces in the reception area of the hospital kept increasing continuously.  

The gloomy faces were because of tiredness, a sad tiredness, a tiredness caused by fear, of losing control, of losing that person. We were witnessing families breaking up, death rearing its head in the early morning. 

I was then called to donate platelets, as Tauji's situation slightly worsened. Thankfully, on my part, everything was right (BMI, vein position, food etc), so I successfully donated the platelets (hospitals now give you the option to choose a movie of your choice, during the 50 min platelet donation activity). After an hour and the discovery that Rannchodas Chanched was actually Javed Jafferi (the movie I was watching while blood was moving in and out of me), we were on our way back home, to get ready for my mother's sister's son (question 4 guys) wedding in the evening. 

We took a little rest and started preparing for the wedding. Embellished clothes, shining shoes, last-minute wedding envelope search (the ones with that one rupee coin attached), and we were officially running late for the wedding procession. A note on North Indian weddings- we do it with proper pomp and show, causing at least 2 traffic jams, many many comments on the hypocrisy of it all, all the while dancing away to the perfect wedding song - Mere Desh Ki Dharti! (Translated- my country's land. Have no clue how this is the OG wedding procession song, but duh!)

PS- it's 3am right, when I am writing this post, and the wedding is only halfway through. 

Sunlight brought curtains on the wedding. Gloomy faces, hurried steps, and sleepy faces crowded the reception area of the hotel. 

This time, the gloomy faces were because of tiredness, but it was a happy tired. We had just witnessed the coming together of two people, two families and two souls; joy rearing its head in the early morning.   

We reached back home at around 6:00 am, happily skipping the "vidaai". Before falling asleep, I started reminiscing about the day that had passed by. Saw many aspects of life within 24 hours- someone nearly losing, someone gaining a new one. That's life isn't it?