Delhi wedding

A Hindu Indian wedding is a fantastic thing, and if you are used to the sort of weddings South Africans have, impossible to imagine. For a start, it runs over five days with a number of different ceremonies, hosted by different people at different places for specific reasons (I will try and describe these, but my memory is a bit blurry, so this will be the gist rather than Wikipedia accuracy). What these have in common in our experience was that each one was a fantastic, beautiful party. I’m not sure what I expected from India, perhaps a lot of people being very spiritual and meditating or something, but this was not that. Fantastic warm people, not sure what I expected, fantastic galaxy-of-flavours super-spicy food, as expected, but not imagined. What I neither expected nor imagined was the way that Delhi can party – and by this I mean a couple of hundred people dancing from start to finish. I did not take my camera to all the events , the first of which is when the groom’s family hosts the bride’s family – such a pity not to have taken it – it was on a farm (which I would probably describe as an estate) in Delhi – it was visually out of this world. The party started at 9am, we had dinner at 2am, and the dance floor was cooking from start (Aiden and Evan and other little kids to begin with) to 4am finish. I got to bed at around five. The second event involved the bride’s extended family visiting the groom’s home to bring them gifts. Within this there was some really lovely symbolism, for example the bride’s brother and the groom sit together and the brother feeds the groom and vice versa to demonstrate their acceptance of one another. It was so beautifully gentle and without machismo, which is a loathsome world problem I think. 

The photo above is of our lovely friend Vandanna, her little boy Veer, and her two nieces (daughters of Vandanna's brother P.C. who we stayed with in Delhi) Pria and Poluk at the third event at the bride's extended family's home, the henna ceremony.  This is when the groom's family takes gifts to the bride's family, and the women have their hands died with beautiful henna patterns in the course of the evening.

The party gets going, cool lights and smoke machines, on the outer edge of the dance-floor.  You can see some of the henna patterns on some of the women's hands at this stage.  The music is very groovy, India style hip hop Bhangra mixes, very cool to dance to.

Ange with Aiden and Ev at the beginning of the last night, before the main ceremony.  Aiden and Evan were completely wasted because we had just woken them up - India weddings require improvised sleeping for little ones.  The start of the evening was incredible, marching bands, horses, groups of drummers, and colour colour colour.

As I said in an earlier post, India really knows how to party - this is the parking lot outside the main reception venue, and as you can see people were really going for it already - woooohoooo.

With the party raging in the parking lot already (spontaneous fireworks, drummers, marching band, mobile bars appearing along the way, and a lot of people really getting down to some serious grooving, you arrive at the venue entrance, it's wonderfully loud and colourful - this guy from the band was absolutely cooking with his shakers - colour and sound in wonderful waves.

The groom, Vandanna's lovely brother Sonny, had been through a marathon of parties and events and being in the limelight, always super-gracious and polite and warm (I think this takes real human endurance, because we are talking about a huge number of people that he has engaged and talked to and laughed with - over five days - add to that minimal sleep - perhaps this is a secret agenda of the five day wedding - if the person you are marrying remains warm emotionally and cool in temprament then the future is bright.  Here he is on the left and below, big smile no doubt, in beautiful clothes in the thick of the dancing and party and drummers and people, on his way into the final function. 

And then you are inside - star-spangled,  fantastic and beautiful, on a lovely warm-cool night.  We had the absolutely best time Josh - India - I really hope to go again (and again) and I would so recommend going if you ever can - it's like Africa without the edge, and China with souped-up heart and soul.