Balls
also a wedding
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":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waheguru, as well as "satsriakal":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sat_Sri_Akaal. 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":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pani_puri. 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.
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":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waheguru, as well as "satsriakal":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sat_Sri_Akaal. 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":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pani_puri. 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.