THE WHITE HORSE

"The white horse"

GS, as we called him, was getting  married.

When his marriage date drew close he  started getting  nervous.

GHUR CHARHI (riding a horse) was an essential  part of the ceremony and he was ill prepared for it. He  dreaded   the very idea of  riding a horse . The question was : how to avoid it !

He had never in his life played any outdoor games.  He never ever did any cycling. Riding a horse was simply unthinkable and yet now seemed so unavoidable.

The marriage was in the town of  Unnao, an hour's drive from lucknow. A friend of ours offered to take me to Unnao in his  car.

Our car gave some hiccups on the way. we  reached  there a bit late in the evening,  just in time as the bridegroom's  barat had already started moving out for the bride's house. I

When we arrived, GS was busy pleading with his elders if he could cover the distance to the  bride's place  in the  ceremonial car, skipping the mandatory horse riding. They were horrified.

"No no , how can you " they said shaking there elderly heads of wisdom,  "it is a part of the ceremony.  you cannot skip it.. you have to cover this distance to the bride's house on the horse.".

The white horse was standing there, fluttering his ears, as if  listening intently to this conversation on the general issue concerning him..And the horse was  apparently getting agitated by this crass talk. He was a healthy white horse  not used to stupid discussions by timid riders. 

GS was eventually escorted to the horse, lifted up and deposited on the  horse back. He clumsily sat on it, fearing an impending disaster.  The horse twitched his nostrils,  to assess  the rider. A horse is a very sensitive animal and he doesn't like inept riders.

whlle GS was still trying to grapple with the reins and ackwardly shifting his position,  the horse took a major decision. He suddenly neighed loudly, fluttered his ears, turned around and bolted in the opposite direction away from the bride's place, carrying his hysterical baggage.

There was a mighty uproar. People gave out  shouts and started running after the horse. There was a whole lot of people  chasing it..

we also turned the car and followed the horse down the street.

It was like a scene straight out of  a comic hollywood film
like "Fransis the talking mule"    From our car we could see GS in a crisis situation. He had. now grabbed the horse's  neck,  lyiing flat on his stomach  on the horse's back and shouting for help.

The horse was moving   fast and the frantic cries of GS were heard  all along the road. People stopped and  watched in dismay. The horse was trying to throw GS off his back but  he managed to stick and cling to it, albeit precariously. Somewhere on the way, in this struggle,  he lost his new nagaraa  ceremonial slippers.

Obstructive traffic  on the road made the horse slow down  after a distance and some dare devil  in the lane managed to grab the reins and stop the horse.   GS now slid down the horse back and landed on the road. He hurriedly crawled to the pavement.

GS  was now thoroughly shaken  with fear  as he squatted on the pavement. His family members and friends arrived and took control of the situation.

0urs was the only car available at the spot. So they decided to use it for the grooms journey to the venue of marriage..  It got decorated with a few flowers. It was done  in hurry.  GS was transferred  to the car.  Another person occupied the seat at tbe back with him,  trying to restore the dress, the headgear, the face, the shoes of the bridegroom.

GS was repeatedly muttering "Maine pahle hee kahaa thaa " (I had told this in advance).

The rest of the ceremony was all smooth and without any incident except that GS constantly kept muttering " maine pahle hi kahaa tha" during the entire ceremony !

After this event GS decided to bycott horses. So he stopped using horse drawn tongas .

It is said that years later, while unwrapping a gift from a friend in  Britain he screamed . When his family members rushed to the room they found him staring at the unwrapled whisky bottle.

It was the famous British scotch whisky -  WHITE HORSE !!

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