This was my only chance to see a wedding from such close proximity, so whatever the pandit said, I'd ask him to explain. And the whole ritual went on for hours. So my friend who'd warned me earlier, kept telling me not to get this serious. Then there was some ritual that required Gauri to wash my feet and I didn't want her to do it. When it was time for the bidaai, Gauri sat in the car and started crying. Soon her mother started crying, her father and brother followed. So then in all seriousness I said if you are all feeling so bad then you can keep her. I'll come and see her regularly.
Since we are from different religions and me being the way I am (when they look at me nobody can ever think that I can be responsible), I could imagine how insecure her parents were feeling.
For the first time after knowing each other for seven years we spent the night together. Before this we'd always be worried whenever we went out, even if it was for a stroll, as to what if somebody sees us. It was quite an exciting feeling that we were sleeping together and that when I'd wake up in the morning, she’d still be there.
Can you believe it, the next evening I took a flight back to Bombay and the day after that I shot for Dil Aashna Hai. Actually I had gone on the sets because the unit wanted to congratulate me but they asked me to shoot one shot and before I knew it, one shot became five and I was late in coming back home and we had a big fight.
Very few guests came from the film industry - Rajiv Mehra, Viveck Vaswani, Aziz Mirza and G.P. Sippy. Juhi and her mom had a party for us when we came to Bombay. All of Gauri's friends came for the marriage. Mine was a house-in-mourning, so there wasn't any festivity.
I wore my Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman suits. At the sangeet and all I was the life of the party because the atmosphere was so gloomy I really decided to make things look a little more cheerful. In fact Gauri's mom is a good dancer and the life of any party but she wasn't dancing at her own daughter's sangeet. By the end of the wedding everyone grew very fond of me.
The wedding gifts did not include any of the things that I wanted. No computer games! People are so stupid - they should give me what I want. Instead, they gave a lot of crystal.
Gauri's father had arranged an army band that played the songs from my forthcoming releases, mainly Deewana and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. It was the first time I wore a suit and the first sign of Gauri's mother thawing was when she told me that "we never thought you were so nice looking". I wore a tuxedo for my reception and I gelled my hair. My logic was that the person who should enjoy the most at my wedding should be me!
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