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Indian Wedding Story: Part Three

This is Part Three of a continuing series on my Indian wedding adventure. If you’re new to Gori Girl, try checking out Part One and Part Two.

Lunchtime! Tomorrow the real wedding pictures start, but today was super hectic, so you’ll be getting the pictures from the lunch before the big night, and the story of bridal preparation and nerves.

After our pre-lunch siesta, everyone returned to the community center where the wedding ceremony would be held for lunch. All I can say is yum - the caterers were very, very good!

I continued to catch up with my mom and uncle - Aditya and I enjoyed hearing about their adventures so far while traveling in India. As you can see, they both really “took” to the land, including the traditional way of eating. I stuck to using a fork - I don’t mind eating with my hands, but if I try it with rice, well, let’s just say the results are rather messy.

By this time the hall was decorated, at least in the area where the guests were eating. While the wedding ceremony wouldn’t be until much later in the day, all of the people who had traveled from outside Calcutta were already hanging around. Baba (sitting on the far left) enjoyed catching up with all his Army buddies. After lunch everyone dispersed to get dressed in their wedding finery, but right now we’ll all pretty low key.

Here’s another picture of some of my new family - from left to right, Bappa-da (a cousin), Maa (Aditya’s mother), and Jijoo (Didi’s husband - so Aditya’s brother-in-law). There were so many different family members and friends to meet that I lost track of who was who very early on. But I do remember meeting Aditya’s former math tutor and family friend, M. Auntie, who told me of his very sorry study habits as a child. I

He tried to excuse them, but neither of us were having any of it. A few more pictures of lunch are up at my flickr site, but let’s move on to the evening.

After lunch was over, I continued to hang out with Aditya, my mom and uncle, and close family members of Aditya’s. We wandered around the neighborhood, and Aditya pointed out places he had played cricket as a child. Then I began to develop a rather painful knot in my neck from a combination of nerves and awkward sari draping - the pallu (one end that hangs) was pinned in such a way that it felt like it was always about to slide down my shoulder, so I was unconsciously hitching one shoulder up higher than normal. For anyone planning on wearing a sari: try not to do this. It hurts. (Mom gave me a good back rub, which helped.)

After a suitable post-lunch siesta - ah, how wonderful it is to not have to worry about any sort of wedding planning! - it was determined that it was Time To Get Ready. I was whisked away by Bhabi and Auntie to a beauty parlor, along with all of my wedding clothes and jewelry. My only contribution to the set were some black, sandal-esque dress shoes that I had purchased in the US. I’m not the most enthusiastic shopper at the best of times, but searching for sandals in the winter during the Christmas rush for an outfit you’ve never seen when you’re not sure what look you’re suppose to be shooting for, anyways? Pure hell.

I was the big star at the beauty parlor - I don’t think they’d ever had a white client before. No one spoke English, but we got along well enough between Bhabi’s translations and hand gestures. First my hair was done up into a bun thingy, which involved a lot of pulling, hairspray, pins and glitter. (Red glitter - subtle, yet shiny!) A few red roses were also pinned in.

After that my nails & toes were done up in red polish (sensing a theme yet?). At first try the woman put on something blood red - it looked like I had attacked someone with my bare hands. I wasn’t quite sure how to communicate that I wasn’t thrilled with the color, since my hands were being pinned down, but Bhabi turned around from her own preparations, saw the color, and immediately requested a switch to something a bit darker and less, uh, violent. Given our timetable, there was simply not enough time to have Mehndi done on my hands and feet, sadly, so the nails would have to suffice.

Once the nails were done drying, I was hustled into a private room, where I put on my wedding petticoat and blouse. Then the salon’s professional sari-wrapper came in to make the perfect draping. She was pretty much The Awesome at it - I was dressed in no time with a fancy draping and perfect pleats. Then the various pieces of jewelry - anklets, bangles, bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings, and a tikli in my hair were added to the look, along with a veil over the hair. Done!

Well, not quite. We left the salon for a family friend’s house, where I met up with my mom again - now looking pretty in a sari - and yet another family friend who would help me with my bindi decoration. After I put on my own makeup - white skin requires different products and styling than brown skin - I sat down to have bindis and bits of sandlewood paint put on my forehead and face. Perfect stillness is not easy to maintain when you’re a bundle of nerves - especially with a ticklish brush moving all over your face.

But finally we were done, and it was time for the big arrival:

This series is continued in Indian Wedding Story: Part Four.

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