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Published: March 8th 2010
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At long last! the craziest week of our lives!
Vandana's wedding was one in a lifetime experience!
Monday night was mehendi night and from there it was a downhill ride! Packing up from our gorgeous apartment in Nande Enclave we woke up at 3am on wednesday morning to get our bride ready and down to the Chaltry... uh thats the massive marriage hall they get married in here... and there are seperate rooms like dorms for all the guests to stay in. Its like a massive camp... but a wedding! covered in lights and flowers and such 😊
So Vandu has about 100 sari changes a day... ok maybe like 5... but for each whole new outfit you have a thousand aunties and uncles trying to get into the tiny room to tell us everyone is waiting for the bride, whilst like 15 of us are in this room the size of my bedroom at home... undressing her, redoing her hair, makeup, jewlery... EVERYTHING! its a massive blurr of activity... and everyone is so lucky Karina had every single item ready for this proceedure each time without fail!!!
1st day was religeous ceremonies i hardly understood.... but
ended in Dandia which was rad! 2nd day was abit more fun.. with the bride and groom playing games, and having the swing... and the reception! which is like greet and eat... thats all lol. Bhawan and Klamo (another old school friend) were suited up and handing out flowers at the door... picking up all the peices and generally being amazing helpers to Appa!
The final day had a beautiful Violin concert by Anand's Guru accompanied by his uncle oin the tabla... she was AAAAAAMMMMAAAAAAZZZIIIINNNGGG!!
(ok mum & dad i hope you dont mind but i said to her when she comes to Australia she can come stay with us for awhile if she likes, or at least visit. she's one of the best violin players in the whole of south India... and was fascinated to hear about your harp playing from Anand & I!!!)
farewell was emotional. I cant describe the whole experience or it will take forever... but we were exhausted. Karina and I were included in the family farewell... and Amma told everyone with tears how we had come to their culture and simply said "we will follow you". Appa thanked Bhawan especially for being
an amazing example of calm and an irreplaceable silent helper... he said if anyone needs calm amoungst this stressful time... they should first see B. 😊
The astounding thing is i got a "wow" from bhawan when i first appeared in my very first sari. I LOVE MY SARIS!!! they'd be perfect for sydney autumn/winter. am unsure about chennai in summer tho hehe. It was well established by Vasuda & Karina that Bhawan is exceptionally good looking in his Indian Kurtha & also his new P N RAO suit!!! 😊
after much quality time with the extended family and a lot & alot of waiting we headed off to repack at the apartment for the chennai train. We left 3 suitcases behind, and took only our backpacks, one smaller case & our soft shoulder bag... even then the train ride was a crazy experience... coz we had to bring 5 boxes of wedding gilfts with us also. It was a sleeper car.. and i think if mum had seen it she'd panic... it was pretty intense! but i slept nonetheless. crammed, dark, a bit dirty.. it reminded me of a nice version of prison. we couldnt keep our
luggage in the cuboards coz well thats where other people sleep too :S
Chennai however.. now.... is GREAT! we love it. less polution.. yeah abit more sweaty (OK ALOT!!) but its just like Cairns!
there are more cats then dogs here 😊
our apartment booked by Anand's father is AMAZING to say the very least!
its an A/C mini palace in a security apartment, it has 3 tv's and bhawan LOVES indian tv! and we also have a live in cook of sorts who cleans up and makes us the NICEST chai whenever we want! His name is Ganesh... he makes us jam toast for breakfast! after over two weeks of Iddly... you love it!
Anands father is also giving us accomodation in a secure unit downtown he owns/knows of for the time we are in chennai... free!!! today he is also sorting out us a phone sim card and also a daytrip to Podecherry tomorrow 😊 :P
Anands family have been feeding us constantly since arriving here..their hospitality is astounding! They are like our 3rd set of parents!!! Suchithra, Anand's cousin, is taking us in next weekend before we go back to Bangalore to
beautiful bangalore evening
from our apartment @ Nandi Enclave meet up with our next set of families!! It is so wonderful here! Suchithra is an amazing woman. Thats all i can say... i hope she comes to australia soon!
(mum you will love her too!)
yesterday we went to the 2nd greatest beach in the world.. there were easily as many people as big dayout on this beach daily... and its 13km's long... and the sand is almost a km wide!!! Karina also went home yesterday... that sucked alot.. though she needed back to melbourne, she has been my hero here helping me translate Tamilish to English to Leahish.... not so much language but everything!!! will miss her.
Next on the cards is hanging with the new family in Chennai and exploring... perhaps sorting out that little visa issue... going to Van's cousin's wedding which we scored an invite to at the Chennai Reception and trying not to be rippped off by auto's 😊
ONE MORE THING: at the chennai reception ran by Anands family... there was an icecream making machine like the opposite of a kebab. we ate like 6 each. AWESOME!
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lilloopyleah
Leah Sawell
PHOTOS!
i have 1.5/2 memory cards full.. but this net cafe is too slow for this task!!!! hopefully soon... SO SORRY!!! coz ukno.. i take realoly good photos heheh xoxox