A lovely Indian wedding
Originally uploaded by lools.
We were busy all last week attending my brother-in-law's wedding. Pictured above is the beautiful couple on their wedding day at the official Hindu ceremony.
The bride had her childhood dream fulfilled by getting married in her parent's home, Raut House, which is considered a heritage home in Bombay. It was built at the turn of the century and has been preserved beautifully. The architectural style is considered vernacular meaning it was not designed by certified architects at the time. Maithali, the bride, is an architect herself and had gone all out to restore the house to all its traditional glory.
It reminded me of some of the lucky folks in Manhattan who have beautiful houses in the West Village or the Upper West side in the middle of the teeming metropolis. What a luxury to have your own private oasis in the midst of all the urban chaos. It certainly felt surreal to be in Mathali's house and hear the birds chirping on trees instead of the loud honks from the public buses and the screeching of cars about to have accidents.
The actualy ceremony itself was an abridged version of the usual rites and rituals. Within an hour the deal was done and we were all toasting the newly married couple. As I write this, they're on their way by train to Rajasthan for their honeymoon in Neemraana, an ancient fortress.
posted by lulu at 10:49 PM
1 Comments:
it was a fabulous wedding.very colourful.a fusion of two communities.the tamil iyengars and the maharashtrian rauts.so you had the iyengar priests as well as the bhattji on stage.you also enjoyed the nadaswaram as well as the shehanai.it was best of both worlds.
there were quite a few foreigners.friends of raghavans,gopalakrishnans and lulu.i was very impressed the way they adapted themselves to the south indian way of dressing.veshti,jibba,angavastram,et al.they were keen to apply the vaishnavite caste mark on their forheads which the tamilian priest gladly helped them to wear.and they all looked holier than the pope!.many of them wore the maharashtrian turban(petha?) and looked very elegant.
the traditional and elaborate marriage ceremony is now getting replaced by a modern and short ceremony.a cross fertilisation of best practises is taking place adding to the inherent richness of the local customs and rituals.shorn off the orthodoxy,marriages these days put less strain on the wedding couple.everyone is happy.the priests,the boy and girl,the bandwallah,the caterer etc etc. it is a win-win situation for one and all.
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