I will be leaving India in about 36 hours. I feel ready to go, but as I explained before I think that's mainly just because that's the plan, so once the departure date started closing in I mentally/emotionally started checking out a bit. This is not unusual for me when I travel anywhere for more than a couple of weeks. I've done better than I expected with the crowds, etc here but then again I've been largely sheltered from them > usually just observing from the inside of a car. But I've hit a point where even that is starting to wear on me. I have not yet been out at any point in time, whether it was 6am, 10am, 6pm or midnight, where there have not been huge masses of people out and about. Seeing the poverty in Mumbai sort of "in my face" really wore on me emotionally as well. I know that it exists everywhere, but it seemed more visible and therefore more prevalent there.
On a lighter and super cool note, I had the awesome opportunity last night to attend part of an Indian wedding. It was the wedding of a very close family friend of one of my colleagues. For those of you that don't know, Indian weddings are a BIG deal.... and they don't just occur on weekend nights - they are all throughout the week, especially during this "wedding season". An ideal night is selected for the couple based on alignment of the stars, or moon, or zodiac signs or something like that. I haven't quite caught on to that piece yet - but I know there's a method! The weddings often occur in a HUGE (often open) "tent" (think Oktoberfest sized "tent" for those that have been there!) When I arrived, there were approx. 400 or 500 people milling around. There was food EVERYWHERE. On one side of the tent were "appetizers" and on the other side was the "dinner" (they opened the dinner/dessert section a bit later than that appetizers section). Of course I tried 3 to 4 appetizers and was completely full by then so never got to the dinner section, other than to check out it's vast array of options. The event supposedly started at 8. I arrived around 10 and the bride and groom were no where to be found. Around 10:30pm fireworks started going off nearby, which was an indication that the groom was making his way to the tent. He was seated on "throne" at the end of a procession that included his party dancing constantly with lots of lights and loud music. I have a very short video (and a number of poor quality pics) so that you can hear the noise from the music and get a feel for the procession. It took about an hour for him to make it about a city block! At that point I had to leave, so I never even got to see the bride arrive but I did get a shot of a poster that was up of a picture of the bride and groom together. The brides father pays for the wedding, and also gives a large sum of cash to the groom/his family, this is essentially his daughter's portion of her inheritance. So when the father passes on, his "estate" will actually be divided only amongst his sons. It's traditional to offer the father of the bride an envelope with cash in it, I think between $50 and $100 (which is ends up covering your cost of being there, which is often about $70/person or maybe even more!) Below, I'll post some pics and that video that I mentioned. Sorry they are such poor quality - I elected not to take my iPad to the wedding, but I immediately regretted it. The quality on the iPad is much better than on my phone. Anyway, I'm also posting a picture of a small container that I received on the flight back from Mumbai that had cashews in it. Notice what's written on the front - I felt like they'd personalized it for me! :-)
The groom's party outside proceeding down the street dancing
That's the groom sitting in his carriage at the end of the procession
Here's the video just to give you a small/short taste of the loud music of the groom's party
Just inside the wedding "tent"
Some of my colleague's relatives in their gorgeous sarees
A poster of the wedding couple
This Audi is the wedding gift. Nice, eh?
On a lighter and super cool note, I had the awesome opportunity last night to attend part of an Indian wedding. It was the wedding of a very close family friend of one of my colleagues. For those of you that don't know, Indian weddings are a BIG deal.... and they don't just occur on weekend nights - they are all throughout the week, especially during this "wedding season". An ideal night is selected for the couple based on alignment of the stars, or moon, or zodiac signs or something like that. I haven't quite caught on to that piece yet - but I know there's a method! The weddings often occur in a HUGE (often open) "tent" (think Oktoberfest sized "tent" for those that have been there!) When I arrived, there were approx. 400 or 500 people milling around. There was food EVERYWHERE. On one side of the tent were "appetizers" and on the other side was the "dinner" (they opened the dinner/dessert section a bit later than that appetizers section). Of course I tried 3 to 4 appetizers and was completely full by then so never got to the dinner section, other than to check out it's vast array of options. The event supposedly started at 8. I arrived around 10 and the bride and groom were no where to be found. Around 10:30pm fireworks started going off nearby, which was an indication that the groom was making his way to the tent. He was seated on "throne" at the end of a procession that included his party dancing constantly with lots of lights and loud music. I have a very short video (and a number of poor quality pics) so that you can hear the noise from the music and get a feel for the procession. It took about an hour for him to make it about a city block! At that point I had to leave, so I never even got to see the bride arrive but I did get a shot of a poster that was up of a picture of the bride and groom together. The brides father pays for the wedding, and also gives a large sum of cash to the groom/his family, this is essentially his daughter's portion of her inheritance. So when the father passes on, his "estate" will actually be divided only amongst his sons. It's traditional to offer the father of the bride an envelope with cash in it, I think between $50 and $100 (which is ends up covering your cost of being there, which is often about $70/person or maybe even more!) Below, I'll post some pics and that video that I mentioned. Sorry they are such poor quality - I elected not to take my iPad to the wedding, but I immediately regretted it. The quality on the iPad is much better than on my phone. Anyway, I'm also posting a picture of a small container that I received on the flight back from Mumbai that had cashews in it. Notice what's written on the front - I felt like they'd personalized it for me! :-)
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