Day 23 - wedding day

Sorry, this might be a long one.

Unlike the pre wedding...thing, today was going to be a later start. We were to arrive at the wedding venue at about 2pm. Well before any of that, we had to perform a tradition that transcends cultures, international date lines and isn't even fixed to wedding ceremonies. It is almost like a dance, where the women of a house, excited by the event, boss the men about, complaining that they are never ready, then, when the men are ready, they take a further hour, now pressured by the men and peoples voices raise.

Before I got dressed and spilt something down my nicely pressed 'Kurta', a long suit looking shirt thing, (see the pictures), I thought I'd head up to the roof terrace and develop some new freckles while catching up on my blog. Previous days had featured an eagle pestering me flying about clearly staring at me and screeching, today was no different. I noticed that, like seagulls, they are watching your face and eyes, as soon as you turn your back, they swoop and in the case of a gull, they steal your Monster Munch. In the case of the eagle, your right eyeball or a tuft of hair. I thought I'd use my phones camera to act like a rear view mirror and 'pretend' to turn around to see if it got closer. Within a second the sneaky turd was swooping down on my beautiful locks quicker than Madonna jumping the queue at an African orphanage. I caught the act on my rear view camera. Click here.

Luckily my thick glossy hair, the result of marrow bone jelly and a long walk every day saved me from a nasty scratch.This is a good time to rebuff the comments that the eagle was going for what it thought was a nice shiny big egg in a nest.

Shortly after showing my video to the household, Sameep pointed out that the local Langur Monkey troop, had moved into the area to forage for food and piss everyone off, I was excited, so I went outside and video'd what appeared to be the alpha male having a piss on the steps. David Attenborough makes out this stuff is hard, but it's a piece of cake.

After the nature show, we got dressed and all hopped into the car after a pre drive photo shoot.

The drive seemed to take us all over the place, dodging Rickshaws, cows, beggars, potholes with cows in, dogs etc... I don't think I'll ever complain about the state of the roads in the UK again, I don't know what the point is that a pothole becomes a crater, but I'm pretty sure these were taking the piss. Luckily, Bollywood (Raunaq Kamdar) knows the roads like the back of his hands, I can only assume he wears gloves all the time but luckily we had a map. The venue was about 2 acres of grass, with a ceremonial stage and a photography stage set up, and the whole place ringed with catering tables. Surrounding the ceremonial stage there was settees and chairs for people to sit and watch. The bride (Palna Shah) was there and adorned heat to foot in stunningly colourful clothing. A picture might do her justice, even though I took it.

The day should go as follows, drums will start beating about 100m from the venue and the groom Udeet will dance his back doors off down the road, bribing the drummers whenever they start breaking into a sweat and look like they need a break. His entourage will be with him dancing shouting and also bribing the drummers, to make sure they don't slow down.

As they near the entrance, the brides family will greet him, various members of them will attempt to pinch his nose... don't ask me, or any of them either, it is a tradition it justs happens. He tries to keep his hooter from the in-laws claws, and eventually he enters the venue, this is where he meets his fiancée for the first time.

For the bride the day is a roller coaster of emotion on one hand she is marrying an annoyingly good looking guy that from what I hear has a promising future and a great family, on the other hand tradition dictates that she joins her husband in his home. Indian culture is very family orientated, we all take the piss in the UK about how many Indians live in a single house, but here where the houses are bigger, it makes sense. It does mean that kids stay living in the family house for as long as possible, when a girl gets married she leaves her home, family and in some cases friends too. Luckily in this case the move is more symbolic (a mile or two down the road) however it is an emotional time for the families. It is a time to reflect on the ones that couldn't make it to the celebrations, something that touched me especially hard.

I was side tracked after this but it seemed that before long they were both sat on the ceremonial stage surrounded by people, with a priest blessing them. They pass each other food and perform many other symbolic acts as well as making offerings to their Hindu God. All the while traditional wedding music is being played.

I'm a pretty emotionless person, but I was moved, it was beautiful, tranquil, joyous and I felt a massive sense of honour that I had been allowed to be a part of it, I couldn't stop taking pictures.
One of the most magical days I have experienced.

The ceremonial stage

The Bride and Groom with the Priest, doing Hindu stuff that I didn't understand.

The couple had to regularly walk around a small fire in the middle. Friends would often try and stop their mate from getting round, all a bit of a joke and a laugh.

Indian George Cloony was at the ceremony.

'My family' and the Bride and Groom's folks.

Renaissance and Raunaq having yet another picture. I just finished telling them about my washboard abs.

Obviously this wasn't the end, there was a round of applause, I'm guessing it was prompted by the priest saying they were married, and everyone started mingling and offering congratulations to the happy couple, as well as the proud parents. Now they are married, they have some food and then sit on the big photography stage. Everyone takes it in turns to stand up there offer congratulations, and get their picture taken with the newly joined family, every permutation and combination of people from the 1000 ish guests go up get a photo taken. They are literally there for hours. The emotion and beauty had given way to a slight hunger so I roared into the buffet fit for a king. The night continued with food, drink and mingling, eventually, we were all looking a little tired and we headed back to the palace.

I was a bit fed up of Renaissance being so photogenic, so I took this one as she nodded off on the way home (Sorry Renai ! )