A Big Fat Indian Wedding!

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Disclaimer: Author cannot spell in English or any other language. This computer does not have spell check and has a semi-working keyboard. She is too lazy to edit any mistypes or misspells and would like to apologize if it causes any offence.

So I survived my first Indian wedding! And I do mean survived. 3 days of endless activity, hordes of people, and an uncooperative stomach leaves one drained, but amazed at the energy of everyone celebrating the marrige. A big thanks to Ranjit and his family for including me in the whole shebang!

Besides going to the wedding I did see a bit of south Mumbai (Bombay as everyone still calls it). I absoltuley loved the mix of European architecture and wide boulevards with tropical foliage and youthful crowds. Besides the heat, it is absolutely a place I could live (I don't think I could ever afford the life style I would like to become accustomed to there however, as real estate prices are much more expensive than even Shanghai).

And now to the wedding.....Because Bombay is one of those cities that define urban sprall with traffic to think about competing with Bangkok, the family all moved up to northern Mumbai (Andheri for those of you who know your way around this part of the world) and stayed in various borrowed apartments in the bulding where the groom's family lived. When I say family I mean 60 people. As all of you who know me so well can atest to, I don't remember names, and get even more confused when everyone uses nicknames most of the time (I really need a chart, if ever you aren't busy Ranjit, to figure out where everyone fits :-)). So I will not attempt to expain who was who, only my lost part in the activity.

As with very big family gathering most of the time is spent sittiing and reminising with long lost cousins. But the wedding meant there was also lots of dancing, eating and general partying with the older generation leading the charge. On day one we also went to the temple for some puja and got terribly lost on the way. Luckily they couldn't start without the groom. I must confess I have no idea what was going on besides some singing, push ups by the pundit and lots of money being given to the god. There were some blessings and lots of sitting on the floor with numb legs. I honestly have no idea how I am going to survive 10 days of meditating in the lotus position.

The evening was more fun when the mehndi commenced. All the women get henna designs put on their hands and then can't touch anything for an hour. Assistance was needed for eating and drinking. And then the dancing commenced. And the drinking (which surprisingly temporaily settled my stomach), by which I mean shots of every variety. And of course there was food. All the elements of a great party!

Day two brought the sangeet where both the bride and groom's side prepare dances bollywood style and have a mini dance off. This evening was a slightly bigger party, with 600 people in attendance. Watching the dancing was great fun! And I got to wear my sari again. The bathroom attendant redressed me, however, as apparently I had done the pleats wrong. It certianly stayed on better after her rearrangement. As my stomach had decided to stop digesting anything by this point she and I became great friends.

By day 3 I was exahusted by all the late nights and a mutinous stomach, so I missed the morning puja. But I did make it to the official wedding in the evening. Yes, it is almost like the movies, the groom rides a horse with a sword and his family dances him to his bride. He refuses to get off the horse until the bride's brothers pay him, but at the same time they steal his shoes so he can't run away. The bride wears an outfit that weighs more than she does, and can barely move by the end of the evening. The ceremony takes place under a beautiful canopy of flowers and afterwards everyone congratulates the bride and groom while eating, drinking and complaing about the blisters from the preveiou two nights of dancing. Alas, everyone is exhausted when it is time for the bride and groom to leave for the grooms family home and play games where they get to know eachother.

All in all a great experience! Now I am in Rajistan looking at marble palaces out of fairytales. More on that later.....

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