"I advise my cousins, whenever I meet them, to think twice about getting married." To improvise on somebody else's profundity, "They take me too seriously and start thinking about it all the time." This has been the season of weddings in the family.

Being my parents' son I love attending weddings, be they three-day Brahmin versions or the one-day short spells. Apart from playing cards, the thing that interests me the most in Indian weddings is the seamless exaggeration of senses. Think of any colour, yellowish-blue, reddish-green or even greyish pink, you can see it all there in the mandapam!

A Buddhist by spirit, I cannot really comment on the non-vegetarian dishes that they serve at weddings, but even the vegetarian food is a plain definition of variety. Spicy dishes that could induce tears from your eyes, for want of other body parts that could react to the assault right away and so perfectly! Sweets that'll make you think whether you're justified in calling loved ones "sweetie," "sugar" or even "honey" when enjoying a romantic privacy! Sour "items" that could perform a silent surgery in your stomach! Bland ones that resemble your mood at the wedding! And, what not!

The noise made by the tiny tots and those planning their own funeral service a month in advance alike and that special paid-sound manufactured by the bands - traditional and modern - is without an equal (Maybe some discos can sometimes match them, if they really tried).

The smoke produced in the process of the wedding makes up for the sense of smell. And, the crowds that include the son of the mother who gave birth to him the week or the day in the next bed of the hospital in which yours brought you to existence, and the fellow you pardoned for the heinous crime of having stepped on your feet in a crowded bus because your hindered hands couldn't reach for his shirt collar fulfil the sense of touch. (Not to mention that lanky uncle you have met only once, when he commented on the 'pink'ness of your feet kicking the cradle walls, and his stout wife whose cooing inspired you to empty your bowels on her lap!) That's just the way it happens here!

This may not be the land of pleasures but if one's looking for experience, what better place than this land of a billion? So, the next time you attend a wedding, turn a blind eye to garish costumes, a numb tongue to the spicy or oily food, two deaf ears to the noise around and try not to feel claustrophobic. At least, men like me who like to wear bright yellow shirts at weddings won't feel awkward!