7 Days of Indian Wedding

Rukmini & Joseph's Wedding

We are currently at day 6 of the festivities for Rukmini and Joseph. While day 4 was the Hindu wedding, the other days have been filled with small ceremonies at the house of the bride's family. The house was beautifully decorated with marigolds wrapped around the staircases and hanging from outdoor patio. The floors were painted with red and white designs meant to symbolize blessings for the new couple and there were white lights everywhere, representing the couple entering the light together. On day 3, there was a dinner for the bride's last evening in the home. All of the bride's family and friends came over and many family members became very nostalgic about all the memories of Rukmini as a child. On the afternoon of day 5, there was a luncheon for Rukmini's last day in her parent's home before she moved in with her husband's family. There were private blessings given to the bride before she and her husband went off in a flower-decorated car towards the groom's home. Since then, the groom's side has been holding many parties for the couple in their home.
As the wedding on the evening of day 4 was being held at the army base Fort William, Rukmini's family had to go through all of this red-tape to get a security clearance for us foreigners to be able to attend. While they secured permits for us and we were supposed to travel in a specially marked car to the Fort, the security did not even check our permits or who was in the car and just waved us through. The wedding was held in a beautiful outdoor space decorated with dangling lights, colorful fabrics and more marigolds than one could count. The groom wore a dhoti, a rectangular piece of unstitched cloth, usually around 7 yards long, wrapped around the waist and the legs, and knotted at the waist, and a traditional scarf. Atop his head was a white-tiered hat that is traditionally worn at Hindu weddings. To begin the ceremony, the groom stood in the middle of the space on a pedestal and the bride's female family members circled the groom 7 times pouring water around him to purify the space. After the women blessed the groom, all of the bride's "brothers", brothers and male cousins, carried out the bride on a carpeted platform. As she was being brought towards the groom, her face was covered with two big leaves and, when she was brought before the groom, a white fabric was pulled over the two of them. S was given the honor of holding one of the corners. The bride was wearing a colorful red sari, was drenched in gold jewelry and had a large circular nose ring which was connected by a chain to her left earring. During this time, after the bride uncovered her face, the priest began giving blessings as the bride and groom exchanged floral garlands with each other several times. After these exchanges, the bride and groom were brought over to the mandap, a canopy where the ceremony was to take place. As the hour and a half ceremony was in Sanskrit, we clearly could not understand it but the ceremony was elaborate and full of tradition. Throughout the whole wedding, older women were blowing conch shells, meant to ward off evil spirits. The dinner was a non-veg, veg and Chinese buffet, complete with carts full of Indian sweets, and over 450 people came to celebrate this event. The wedding was dry but some male party attendees snuck into the parking lot for a glass or two of scotch.
Tomorrow is the last day of festivities and we will be attending their Christian wedding, held by the groom's side of the family. It will be at the Tollygunge Club, a very nice golf resort where S and I have been staying for the last few days with the Duttas. When we have not been attending the various different events for the wedding, we have taking golf lessons, playing some tennis and enjoying the calm of the club, which is in stark contrast to the loud and bustling streets of Kolkata.
We have had such a great time with the Dutta family and they have been so generous to us over the last few days. Many, many, many thanks to Rono, Shomik and Priam!!! They have also introduced us to all of their family, who have been as equally warm and kind. One of Shomik's aunt's is lending me a sari to wear for the second wedding.
After the wedding, the following morning Steve and I will be taking a bus to the Bangladeshi border of Benapole, where we will then head to Khulna to spend the night there. At this stage, we intend to spend around 10 days exploring Bangladesh.