Today my mother while cleaning her book shelf, found few of my envelopes. They were from my High School days. One was Rs.51 Cash Prize I won in Twelfth Standard for “Most Deserving Student of the High School”. The other was a First Prize with Rs.150 for “Best Speaker” in a debate competition – I am trying to recollect whether this was in any Inter School or Intra School event. Going back nearly two decades is quite challenging, but nevertheless seeing the prizes feels good.

I have been using the default Audio system (Alphine) that came with my Honda city for last few years, I have done no customization or fitted any other accessory to the car. Unfortunately the Alphine default system doesn’t support USB or iPod connections. After I bought my iPhone I was feeling the need to have this connection option. So after procrastinating for a long time I went out recently (in June ‘09) and bought a new Audio system. It was a Pioneer FH-P6050UB double DIN system for Rs.15,750 inclusive of two Sony speakers and installation in two cars (putting the old Alphine system in my other car) from RadioWare House, Wallajah Road, Chennai. I was looking at other options – an Alphine double DIN but that supported only iPod, no USB connection, that would be too restrictive.

The Pioneer one I finally decided on had the USB connection support prominently shown, but for iPod/iPhone the box said you need a special cable but the seller didn’t know what that cable it is. I took a chance and bought it – it turned out to be fine. The cable was none other than the default USB cable used in iPhone for charging and connection to PC. If you have a iPod/iPhone I highly recommend this system. Excellent Audio quality and nice functionality.

I was invited by one of the team members in Vishwak’s media team for his marriage (nikah) today. Many of us from Vishwak attended his marriage today which happened in a Hotel in Egmore, Chennai.  This was the first time I was attending a Muslim wedding religious act (the earlier muslim weddings I have gone have been for the reception events). It was very interesting for me to see different ritual methods for a wedding from the common Hindu weddings I am used to. I was lucky I had seated next to me a team member from Vishwak who was a Muslim and who got married recently (which is more important, since he remembers them vividly), explain me in simple terms about the rituals.

I am sure there was more religious meanings and explanations, but in simple lay-man terms the Muslim wedding I attended to, happened like the following:

• The wedding hall was divided into two sections – one for Male guests and the other for Female guests. In general, I believe female guests (especially non-muslims) can be seated in the Male area, but not vice-versa
• The bridegroom comes to the stage in Male area escorted by his friends/family male members
• The bride comes to the stage in Female area escorted by her friends/family female members
• Then the religious ceremony was conducted by religious elders / priest. The priest reads verses from the Quran
• Thereafter the groom signs a legal document of marriage, along with his father & bride’s father, witnesses sign, then it goes to bride to sign
• Then the friends and family wished the bride and the groom separately and take photographs
• A good meal (Non-Vegetarian and Vegetarian separately)  was served for all the guest to enjoy
• Then after some time, the bride and groom see each other and jointly welcome the guests