Summer Wedding

It has been an interesting last couple of days. I went to an Indian wedding on Sunday. A friend from high school was getting married and a bunch of us from high-school decided to attend the wedding (free and awesome Indian food being a very strong motivating factor for some). Of course, we couldn’t just walk into a wedding empty handed. So, two days before the wedding, a friend met me online and we started brainstorming ideas for a suitable wedding gift. Now, the last wedding I went to, I gave the bride lingerie for two reasons – a. she wanted it and had told us so herself(even her size) b. we gave it to her at a wedding shower amongst many other women and no men. Since there are no wedding showers before a wedding in India and I didn’t know my friend’s size, lingerie was out of the question. Certainly, the appropriateness of the gift in an Indian setting never crossed my mind even once: P. I came up with another brilliant suggestion of a mixer-grinder set – “Sumeet” brand name at that and my friend pooh-poohed the idea right away. Come to think of it, I myself can’t fathom why I thought of such a clichéd and disastrous gift – what was I thinking? So much for all the feminist learnings in college! I finally settled on gifting the couple a wall clock – appropriate, practical and more importantly, gender neutral.

I should mention that my friend she is a Christian, so the ceremony was the same as in the US with a few Indian tweaks of course. As for the wedding itself, I am sure it was beautiful. I wouldn’t know since we made it in there just before the couple took their vows. Just for the heck of it, my friend was really keen on objecting when the priest asked “If anyone should have an objection, speak now or forever hold your peace.” By stroke of luck, we sauntered in really late (I believe the correct term for such chronic lateness being Indian Standard Time) and my friend couldn’t give it a shot. Oh well, the bride is certainly happy not to have to kill her friend on her wedding day. Even though we didn’t attend most of the ceremony, I have to say that what we did witness was wonderful. The bride looked radiantly happy and so did the groom – they couldn’t stop smiling.

One thing though, summer weddings, especially in Bombay, are a bad idea. All throughout the ceremony, I was fanning myself with my scarf and wondered how the bride was faring under the several layers of chiffon that she wore. She seemed to brave it quite well. Even the beads of sweat on her forehead seemed to be a part of her ensemble. Or maybe I was just hallucinating in the heat. Even though I am such a big fan of dancing, I couldn’t get myself to dance over there – I was afraid I might faint from heat. Not to mention, I was rather amused watching all the uncles with their jiggling paunches of prosperity swinging their arms up in the air and dancing to the music. My friend and I simply sat in our seats and “screwed in light bulbs” to the beat.

Now eating hot Indian food in such hot weather was certainly a not-so-welcome idea but when I saw the spread, I felt like a hungry tiger eyeing its prey. There was butter chicken, paneer tikka masala, tandoori chicken, and other dishes that were mouth-wateringly delicious. An, the fare was topped off with the traditional Indian wedding dessert – slabs of vanilla ice-cream with a trickle of chocolate syrup on top, served on a tea saucer. Aaah, yum!

Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I still cannot believe that one of us is married –what is the world coming to? My parents have been talking about looking for a boy for me for some time now. This wedding got them asking me the same question again. I have been fighting it tooth and nail, but watching my friend getting married made me realize how close I was to the event happening in my life as well. I am not ready to commit to an apartment, much less a partner for life. At the very least, I do hope that I hae as much of a say in my marriage as my friend did in hers.

Congratulations to the happy couple!