Wedding recap part 2/2

Unable to sleep with air-conditioning set to freezing conditions, I woke up at 3 am along with my uncle. I wasn't feeling all that tired, but I figured that was probably just the effect of all the adrenaline flowing through my body at the time. So, as my cousin Aishu and a few other relatives began to wake up, my uncle and I went in search of the coffee guy! See, at Indian weddings, we have specific guys assigned to offering guests coffee, tea, juice etc. So getting this stuff becomes simplified. Just find the guy! Except it was 3 am and we had to look around three floors of the wedding hall to find this guy. Nevertheless, the exercise was fruitful and within 15 mins, we had hot coffee and tea being distributed to all interested parties.

After getting some caffeine in me to get my body functioning pseudo-normally, I went off to have a shower and get dressed. Well, sort of dressed...because my outfit was a very complicated style of dhoti! 15 mins and 6 yards of cloth later, I looked like I had a massive wedgie (to paraphrase my friend Robin!). The Bride was dressed in a traditional 9-yard sari, albeit only much later before the tying of the knot ceremony, which she complained was equally cumbersome! Regardless, the wedding ceremonies commenced around 5 am as a rather healthy but quite understandably sleepy crowd assembled to witness the proceedings. First came the Kasi Yatra ritual, where I am supposed to get cold feet regarding the wedding and attempt to leave the hall. The bride's father then comes after me, consoles me and brings me back to the wedding hall to marry his daughter! Quite practical right? Almost everyone has cold feet (to varying degrees) as the wedding date nears, so why not make it an official part of the ceremony? ;-)

Moving on, then me and the Bride garland each other and seek blessings from all our female relatives, whilst seated on a decorated swing. A nice touchy event, but one that inevitably drags on for too long! After more than 30 mins of getting blessed, we finally make the journey onto the wedding dais and commence the rituals and prayers leading up to the actual tying of the knot (akin to the "I do" moment in Christian weddings). I get inundated with things to do by the priest and somehow another hour or so rolls by and soon it becomes time for tying the knot! It happened too quickly to be honest...there was a good crowd in by then, and lots of cameras going off at once. But the moment seemed to pass so quickly that I had barely any time for reflection. On top of this, our priest continued to press me to do a hundred different rituals one after another! Believe it or not, it wasn't until nearly two hours after I had actually tied the knot that we were finally let go by the priest!

I was exhausted and starving...the Wife (having been promoted from bride) was clearly more energetic as she simply had to sit and look pretty next to me! We proceeded to change into normal clothes before grabbing some much-needed food. Of course, being the newly weds, we were constantly chased around by the paparazzi and the guests. All in good fun of course! ;-) Thankfully, we had a nice, long rest after having our brunch until we had to get ready again for our reception. It was relaxing for me to enjoy some downtime, get some sleep and have a chat with friends and family. The Wife was soon back at it though, having to make a trip to the salon to get beautified for the evening!

We got ready for the final round of festivities around 6 pm that evening, and chose to have our individual pictures taken right then so that we at least looked sort of fresh on camera! I'll leave you to judge how that turned out. The Wife was dressed quite stunningly in a brown sari and I was dressed in a ash-brown Indian suit. We proceeded to take our seats on the wedding dais and the guests began coming up to us in groups to wish us and take pictures. All the while, there was a popular local singer (Sowmya) entertaining the crowd with Indian classical music. It was great to spend a few minutes with nearly everyone (I reckon around 300 odd at least!) who came to the reception, but the constant talking, standing and posing took quite a toll on us. Finally, the event ended as we were among the final few to have dinner.

We got a little bit of sleep that night, before having to wake up in the morning and pack up from the wedding hall after two days of hectic activity. I might have whined a bit in both of my blog posts, but it was a thoroughly beautiful and enjoyable event. Being able to share this moment with lots of my family members and some close friends made it even more memorable! Thanks to everyone who made this wedding so special! And words are simply not enough to thank both sets of parents in particular for their amazing efforts!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

If you'd like to see pictures from our wedding, here are the links...

Part 1: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/aishuswami/ManojAishwaryaWeddingPart1#

Part 2: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/aishuswami/ManojAishwaryaWeddingPart2#

ENJOY!