Faded family album: A wedding and a poonal

Faded pictures take you back in time; trigger memory into recalling events and incidents that you would not have otherwise remembered, or have even forgotten.
This one is dated 1974. Apart from the bride and the groom one can spot in this frame at least 10 persons, many of them partly visible. Recognizing them all is a challenge. I can make out no more than four faces in this photo.
Bhagya's wedding and her brother Sridhar's poonal were held at the same venue - Kozhumbu Chattiram, Palani. It was a two-in-one event, and cost effective from our parents' point of view.
Our family picture, taken after the wedding.The kids here now have children of their own. And two of those in the picture are no more - father and Murthy mama.
This group has had a casualty as well - Govindan's sister (wearing dark glasses).
Most members of the Pollachi clan are here. The photo, like other group photographs, was taken at the backyard of the chaultry, located just a street away from the shrine. Many relatives attended the marriage because we held it at Palani.
Father had reason to feel happy and relieved at having fulfilled, what he saw as, the last of his family responsibilities. Someone else, unrelated to us, and far away in Dehradun, was
equally happy at seeing Bhagya getting married. He was my father's boss in the finance ministry, Shivnaub Singh.

Mr Singh wanted my father to move with him to Dehradun as his personal assistant.My father, who shifted from New Delhi to Pollachi on retirement, had expressed his inability, saying he wouldn't take up any commitment on retirement, till he was able to perform Bhagya's marriage. Now that she was happily married, Shivnaub Singh lost no time persuading my father to join him in Dehradun.