MITHAI MALA PAAN

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

31/I/2025

 

‘Garlanding’ is part of the culture of the Sun City. When a child is born, parents are garlanded. It’s a birthday, the birthday boy/girl is given one. Anniversaries are no different. People feel offended if you forget to come to their party without a garland.

 

Retirement is another function where there are garlands galore. That person gets buried in garlands. Death is no different, garlands signify paying your last respects to the departed soul.

 

On a brighter note, wedding ceremonies are a time to garland not only the groom, but also the parents, grandparents and everyone on stage. We in the Christian community here follow this ritual too. To be technically correct, so that no family member is left out, an extra garland is carried.

 

Garlands are of various varieties. How it is ordered is by telling the florist, “Bhaari wali dena”, that is, give a heavier one. The flowers are bigger, better and fresher.

 

Yesterday, we attended a ‘Peethi ceremony’ of a ‘would be groom’. This ceremony is followed by dinner. The guest list was about 100. Imagine, the groom and his kin on stage were buried under the weight of those many garlands. We call it a ‘mithai-mala-paan’ ceremony.

 

If a hundred people force feed you a Gulab jamun each or a piece of barfi or Peda, and then stuff an oversized ‘meetha pan’ in your mouth, which in the Blue City is the size of a hand grenade, diabetes is bound to catch you. Most of the senior lot are diabetic, so sweets get served as dessert and paan as “movement order”. Equivalent to the after dinner ‘saunf n mishri’ offered in officer’s messes.

 

In the good old days, garlands were of a different genre. They were glittery with lots of frilly, silver and golden streaks or ‘jhalar’. Many times they were a kind of loop, like a ‘bottle brush’ kind of plastic flowers. Well, at places there were no fresh flowers like they are available today, improvisation was the key.

 

What caught my eye was the garland made of currency notes. From a distance it appeared to be nothing less than 500-rupee currency notes strung in. The bottom of the garland was spread like a sunflower with notes attached in a circular manner. Higher the denomination,  the more ‘rais’ the family is considered to be, I suppose.

 

It took me many-many moons back. The Year of the Lord was 1989 when I got married. The groom to be yours truly was also honoured by one note filled garland by a close family friend. The flower garlands were kept aside but that one stayed with me till I reached the destination. I was told ‘not’ to take it off. The prickly silver strings make you feel itchy around the neck. But what the heck.

 

It is very irritating, mind you. You looked like a joker alright, but had no option but to follow orders. One had to ‘behave’ being the groom and should stand out in the crowd. Imagine, getting down at the railway station with a ‘noton ki mala’ and being received by the in-laws with ‘phoolon ki mala’.

 

Be that as it may. Let me confess, I had a “do rupiya” wali mala on. The bright red colour notes were brand new, straight from the bank. Even they smelt like freshly minted ones. Of course, they sell for a premium over and above the number of notes attached.

 

Finally, one got rid of them before leaving for church. I had handed that garland over to mom and then forgotten about it. I got married, reached home and was about to leave for our honeymoon when mom handed over that note studded garland back to us. “Beta bure waqt main kaam ayega”, she said.

 

I and my better half, plucked those notes out very carefully and pledged that we shall keep the money as reserve with us till eternity. They were left in the safe custody of my wife. My father-in-law had also pushed an envelope just before we were leaving for the railway station after the ‘bidai’ ceremony. It was a crisp wad of a ‘gaddi’ of five-rupee notes. Wow, that was a bonus and that too got added to our reserve kitty.

 

The first ‘rainy day’ came within two months of marriage. The second one followed in another month's time. Reserves vanished without us even knowing. Soon, the third rainy day also came unexpectedly. Since then, it has been raining every now and then. How did we manage our lives? It is a story for another day.

 

How many of you have seen or worn a garland of currency notes and follow the ritual of “Mithai-Mala-Paan”? I wonder!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND
©® NOEL ELLIS