The USS Quad Damage

Today was Anu’s wedding, Day 1. The wedding goes for two days (on and off). The first party is the “wedding” part, which takes place during the morning through the day. This is organised by the girls’ family. The second party is the “reception” part, which takes place the next night, and is organised by the boys’ family.

The wedding part starts with people gathering at a hall or equivalent place, where there’s food, music, and other fun things. The music had way too much bass. This is worse than Leb bass, it was freaking ridiculous. A lot of people in India have this whole way too much bass thing. When you complain they calmly explain it’s “because they have this thing called a sub-woofer”. Nice.

OK after the pre-wedding reception bit we head to the Gurdwara, where the wedding will actually take place. The wedding was a Punjabi wedding as opposed to a Hindu wedding, so the process was a bit different. We basically sat there with the bridal party sitting at the front. Then they (and us in some places) had to bow their heads to the ground.

As per the normal Gurdwara fare, we sometimes had to say waheguru ji ki fateh, as well as satsriakal. Then the couple walked around the pedestal four times, pausing in between for the guys to say some things. Unlike Hindu weddings, instead of tying the guy’s sash to the girl’s sash, the girl simply holds the guy’s sash. I like the symbolism of this a lot more. It feels more voluntary. Being the girl’s cousins, we stood around “supporting” her as she walked around.

Afterwards, we went back to the reception area and had some food. I was on the prowl for Golgappas. This is pretty much the reason I’m in India. I was holding off on them because I may have gotten very sick from the stuff you can readily get on the streets. Because this was at a wedding, I expected the quality to be a bit better.

They had no Gol Gappas. I was mortified. The rest of the day was a blur as I thought about my time here, about how we spent our whole time here getting 90% of the way to doing something, and not getting it done. Curse this crap. Luckily, my older cousin sister was there, and she’s pretty awesome. After the wedding, and some tea, we went out for some Gol Gappa at a reasonable joint near where we lived.

Worth it.

Today we went to Anu’s parents house to get Henna tattoos. It is a tradition (among women) to do this before one of them gets married. Here I will reveal some interesting facts about henna tattoos.

Before they apply the henna to your skin, they put a bit of oil on it. There’s also “things” you can do which will make the henna darker. For some reason the henna turns out much more vivid on the palm of your hand than on other parts (even the back of the hand). This might be oil related. Some people have skin which will naturally make the henna darker. Applying more henna will also make it darker (at least, there are techniques unrelated to your body which will make the henna more vivid).

Watching women getting henna applied is great for photos, because they pretty much don’t move the entire time. People move around a whole lot normally, so a moment in a picture is seriously something that exists for less than half a second. Serendipity is required to get the right shot. With Henna tattoos, everyone is effectively a statue until the Henna dries.

As the henna tattoo dries it will get darker. The same thing happens on the pattern left on your skin. It starts off bright red and eventually darkens to black, then fades. Before it dries, henna is basically a paste. If it touches anything, it will stain. If you move, say, your finger, the henna will move about a bit, which will ruin the pattern.

The end result is a bunch of women sitting in a room, chatting, and trying not to move. For Anu, the wife-to-be, she not only has to keep her hand still, but also her arms, her feet, and her legs. She was getting sore, and would have gotten cramps if she didn’t move a little bit. She basically looked like a mummy the entire time. Because the Henna is on your extremeties, you can’t do anything other than talk.

This leads to some fun times, as people undergo various contortions to do every-day activities, like drinking. Anu was completely helpless, and needed someone else to do almost everything for her, including moving pieces of plastic around so she wouldn’t stain the sofas or ground. The Tattoo artists were a bit crap, and were watching the clock more than what they were doing. Ultimately, I’d have preferred they charge more and work on their customer service.

Before removing the henna, a bit of lemon water syrup thing is applied to the skin, and left for a little while. The immediate result is a little bit, or very, red coloured skin on the places where henna was applied. Within a day, these will become dark, almost black.