BUT I did get invited to my first wedding! (and can you believe I actually tied it myself!! We had an hour and a half sari - bootcamp with Aruna this week and now we're pros)
It was fate I tell you...I had a bad day yesterday with news from home, and I think the novelty of India was wearing off. I'm still adjusting to living with people here - it's a little different when it's not my loveable Dromore girls. I got really used to living with people who are similar to me, and people I chose to live with...I have to keep reminding myself to move past the cultural and social barriers that make living together a little more awkward than back home.
So we got the invite from Rehka - our local tailor who does all of our sari and punjabi outfits, and for our participants too! Which meant that last week she had 35 sari's to tailor. eek!
Anyway, her little sister was getting married (arranged marriage) so she came by with an invite for all of us, and so the 4 of us volunteer staff went with Minakshi our wonderful Administrative Assistant who is from India so she could explain a lot of the ceremonial stuff to us.
We arrived just in time for it to start, and as I'm getting used to - being a foreigner means you are front and centre for *everything*, even if you don't know anyone! haha. So we strolled in about 2 minutes before it all started and got seats in the front row. It was lots of fun to see all the gorgeous sari's and the bride in her whole ensemble.
They did a lot of ceremonial acts, and we got to check out the fire part of the ceremony where they had to walk around the fire a number of times, and do a lot of other traditional acts to bring good luck and blessing.
Then we went down to eat lunch, and since we have Maharastrian dinner here every event - where you eat in your sari on the floor on a banana leaf plate and eat all the traditional foods we were totally prepped! All the food was the same, and none of us had to use cutlery, we're pros now - no one was staring and laughing at least...and it was really nice to get some serious spice in our food again, I think the ladies here think we can't handle it and have been jipping us on the delicious spice.
Then we went back upstairs to the hall, went up on stage to give our gift and get our picture taken by a bunch of guys and then we hung out while Rehka brought her 5 sisters and brother over to introduce to us. It was lots of fun, but I realised how badly I need to start my Marathi lessons so I can speak to people - all I've managed to memorize are the numbers 1-6 and the colours...and i'm pretty sure that won't take me very far.
Anyway that was my day, the wedding along with a couple ice coffees and ice cream it cheered me right up!
Missing home...
1 comment:
Glad you have experienced your first indian style wedding. I was in in '01, its been a long time.
neway enjoy
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