Srinagar: A local wedding guest who announced at 8:15 pm that he was "just leaving, really, this time" was still in the courtyard shaking hands at 12:20 am, according to family members who have stopped counting.
Witnesses say the guest, a retired clerk known to everyone only as Bashir Sahab, stood up from the dastarkhan, wiped his hands, and began what was expected to be a brief round of farewells. He has since moved past the groom's family, the bride's family, the cooks, the tent contractor and a man nobody can identify.
"He told me he had an early morning," said one cousin, checking his watch for the ninth time. "That was before the second round of kahwa. I believe the early morning has now arrived."
The farewell has reportedly passed through several distinct phases, including the standing goodbye, the walking goodbye, the shoes-on-but-still-talking goodbye and, most recently, the goodbye conducted from inside a parked car with the window rolled down.
Family elders confirmed that the guest's departure is now the longest-running event of the wedding season, narrowly beating a 2019 farewell that was eventually interrupted by snowfall.
At press time, the guest had been spotted re-entering the house to say goodbye to a relative he had "almost forgotten", promising everyone he would be "two minutes, maximum".
