29 November,2010 07:13 AM IST | | A Correspondent
While the city*s political czars and glitterati graced the wedding of Nitesh Rane at the Turf Club, the numbers game almost stumped the organisers of the wedding.
The wedding organisers got everything right, well almost. The decoration was up to the mark and so was the lighting and seating.
However, the one aspect that the organisers did not keep in mind was the 50,000-odd crowd that dropped in to bless the couple.
Just let us in
And like every other wedding, there were gate crashers galore. And one cannot blame the small crew that was manning the ship or shall we say the entry gates. While some guests got in early, others who arrived fashionably late were left waiting in line for over 30 minutes at the main entry gate.
Eat and throw
Once inside, it was a totally different ball game. It was a sea of people, and everywhere that one looked, more people. While some were seen talking in huddles, a majority of *guests* attacked the food counter. Some spilled, some stuffed their faces, and a whole lot left eatables spewed on the lawns.
Houseful
The seating arrangement was no less grand than a maharaja*s durbar, but the biggest flaw was it had only one entry point. One had to cross the entire stretch of the grand stage to gain access to the ground.
VIP darshan
The couple sparkled on the grand stage. And why wouldn*t they, it was after all the best day of their life. But one should be pardoned if one assumed that the serpentine queue to greet the couple was similar to the darshan queue at the Siddhivinayak temple on a holy Tuesday. It took us nearly two hours and four buckets of sweat to cover a distance of 500m and bless the couple. Phew!
Dabangg aya re
Some hapless commoners got lucky when Salman Khan came in and the musicians switched to the tunes of Dabangg*s songs. Sallu miyan did an effective job of thinning out the crowd from the stage. Other celebs be spotted were Ravi Kisan, comedian Johnny Lever and actress Nagma.
Leaders from both the Shiv Sena and Congress and many builders were also seen at the venue.
Yeh pyaas hai badi
Thankfully, there were a few gentlemen who offered beverages to the guests waiting in line. Then around 10.15 pm there was a mad rush and mass panic. The food at the buffet counter had exhausted, and the sight of strewn plastic bottles, plates, and leftovers greeted us. Rane*s son Nitesh, who is currently fighting against the water mafia would have been fidgety in his chair had he seen the way the water, both bottled and tap, was being wasted!
50,000
Number of people who turned up at the reception last night
