ABD - About a wedding dress - Part Two

---

My parents, brother and friend Alice, landed at Kochi Airport at 4 am.
Andrew and I had left Fort Cochin an hour and a half before and in the darkness tried to find our way to the airport. Our map was not the best but with a little imagination and a lot of luck, we made it to the airport with time to spare, for a super sweet coffee and a strange tasting pastry.
I was really nervous. A time of many “firsts” left me slightly nerve wrecked.
The first time Andrew would meet my parents.
The first time my divorced parents, who had been in a civil war for 15 years since their separation, would be in the same room together, let alone the same aircraft, let alone adjoining seats, not to mention they where going to spend 10 day in the same resort. Oh no. This would definitely not end well.
The first time my family and my friend would be in India. Challenging, dirty, crazy India.
The sliding doors opened and out they came. With a loud chitter chatter, happily walking down the ramp and into our arms. There they where!
It was so good to see them all and it looked like they had all really enjoyed themselves so far. I exhaled. The drive back to Fort Cochin as dawn was breaking was a nice introduction for the newcomers. Much to Andy’s delight, on the ay we passed Cochins cricket stadium; its distinctive light pillars standing out against the hazy sky.
My mother and Alice where to stay with Andrew and I in our little house, and my brother and dad were to stay in another place around the corner.
We let them all unpack and go to sleep and agreed to meet them that evening. Andrew and I where going to go to Alleppey that day to visit Coir Village where our wedding was going to take place that weekend and we just wanted to check that it was as beautiful as we expected it to be.
We drove to Alleppey that morning, still a little sleep deprived. The drive was glorious. Palm trees lined the side of the road and Christian churches stood side by side with colorful mosques and intricately carved Hindu temples.
The weather was beautiful, we where in high spirits and arrived in Alleppey “the Venice of the east” around 11 am. Walking up the stairs to the ADTC office, we both started feeling slightly uneasy. It all seemed a little decrepit. If this is what the office looks like, the resort can’t be much nicer, I thought.
Devadas, our contact person and his managing director, welcomed us and ushered us into the MD’s office. They where really lovely and reassured us that they would do anything to make this wedding what we dreamed of.
The MD (we didn’t ever find out his real name), had a lazy left eye. This left us not quite sure where to look when he was speaking to us, I looked over my right shoulder several times in search of another person in the room. (ATD)
Devadas and another man (apparently the MD’s brother) drove Andrew and me to the Coir Village.
We drove for about 40 minutes. The backwaters to our left and right. The jungle becoming more lush and dense as we drove on. We turned right, off the main road into a dirt road. The view outside the left had side window a mosaic of palm trees, coir, banana trees and villagers in bright colored sari’s and lungi’s going about their business. Looking out the right had side window, I could see the point where the backwaters met the Arabian Sea and white herons gathered.
“I’m in a movie” I kept repeating. “No, I’m in a dream”…
We pulled up in front of a small river. On the opposite bank I could see the reception of the resort. A red and white colored small boat made its way across and the boat man invited us on. We crossed the river, the wiry boatman using his long bamboo stick to navigate.
We were greeted by two big coconuts with bright colored straws. I didn’t much rate the taste of this local drink but I thought it looked cool.
The resort was too beautiful for words. I stood dumbstruck. This was it!
Devadas introduced us to the manager of the place, a man named Antony, who later became my right arm. Antony was the proud owner of a friendly and reassuringly honest face. We later learned he is an evangelical Christian, which is very rare in the often fanatically Hindu southern tip of India.
We took another boat across to another island where our cottages where located and where we would have the wedding ceremony.
As we where discussing the details and Andrew was whizzing about photo documenting everything, I suddenly became aware of a loud prayer-like song that seemed to be coming from the surrounding jungle. I asked what that was and was told that it was festival time in the area and that the nearby temple had its speakers pointed in the resorts direction.
Devadas assured me that the prayer would end at 5pm and thus would be nothing to worry about on the day of the wedding. I trusted him.
We thanked everyone and made our way back to the car. On the way back to Alleppey we stopped at the Marari Fisherman’s resort, the other resort owned by ATDC and had a look at that as an alternative. It was nowhere near as special as the Coir Village resort.
Happy that we had made the right choice, we made our way back to Fort Cochin to have dinner with my family and Alice.
That evening I was meant to pick up my tailored wedding dress. I was quite excited but also a little worried. Alice, my mother and I went to pick the dress up while Andy, my father and Claus where getting ready for dinner.
I am only happy that my mother and Alice where there, otherwise I would have broken down in that shop.
The dress that I was presented with looked like it had been made for a grotesque French theater performance. It was three sized to big all around.
“I am not wearing this monstrosity!” There was nothing exaggerated about it. It was a dress out of a horror film. A dress worn by those porcelain dolls with the round shaped blusher that come to life in the middle of the night wearing a puffy white dress, glaring at you with their glass eyes, the dress more threatening than the doll itself. A bad caricature of an ancient Greek toga.
I felt my anger brew as I held the 10 meters of that beautiful crème colored georgette that been cropped and sowed in such an unloving manner until tears came to my eyes. There was nothing to be done. It was unfixable.
My mother, glasses resting on her nose, eyes examining, hands turning the dress inside out, was still trying to find a way to salvage the situation. I caught her eye as she looked up and tried to convince herself courageously “Maybe if we take it apart here…” her voice trailing off as she finally admitted there was no way.
“Madam, this was the dress you ordered. We refuse to make any changes to it.” The sales man had the nerve to open his mouth
My gaze stopped wandering and I firmly fixed my eyes on him. “And now we must close the shop for the evening” he said and tried to walk off.
“No!” I growled at him. He would not do this to me. After all that money was paid. I will not be ripped off; I will not let him get away with this.
“Now you listen to me” I said calmly, the anger only coming through the blaze in my eyes. He stood cold.
“You will not get away with this. I will not let you.” “Either you give me back my money, all of it, or I will make sure that everyone on the face of this earth finds out what you did to me. I promise you; I will drag your name and your business’ name through the mud over the internet and I will destroy you. I swear to you as I am standing here right now you have a choice”
The man went off; tail between his legs and came back seconds later with the cash.
Holding my head high, my mother and my best girl approvingly on my side, I walked out and didn’t look back.
That evening we all had dinner at the Old Fort Restaurant in Fort Cochin. It was a beautiful setting, the inner courtyard of this Old mansion was decorated with fairy lights and a duet of flute and sitar was seated by an artificial lake playing a soft Indian tune.
We were tired, but we were happy. Dinner was so lovely and above all we where all enjoying each others company. It all went so beautifully, that I decided to finally relax.

---