It is the big season for weddings in our neck of the woods. Every night I see troupes progressing slowly behind a loud and raucous band. I presume that there is a big wedding hall somewhere near my place, and that they are headed there. Last night we saw some real spectacular fire-works on display. The groom’s party was all over that situation. Never mind the fact that they created crazy traffic conditions.
Today I went to a much more sober Tamil wedding – which happened in the wee hours of the morning. I was in a bad mood at having to wake up so early and all but really they are better than late night soirees on hind-sight. So this one being a Tam wedding in the middle of Mumbai, was real interesting. I for one enjoyed it immensely. There was none of the hysteria that seems to be the dominant guest in our Chennai events. None of the priest yelling at the brides mom to hurry up, or the groom’s mom forgetting where exactly the one kilo of sugar has been placed. The overall atmosphere was relaxed.
My feeling is that when this stuff happens displaced geographically as it is, there is a tendency to stick to the basics, focus on the main events and not sweat the small stuff. The priest was making an effort to explain things as the event progressed (that is a recent and excellent trend, even in the South), and although as usual not many were paying attention, at least the bride and groom seemed to get on the same page. Even the smoke and the naadaswaram were not all-pervading.
I could not spend a long time, had to head out sort of half hour after the main mangalsutra-tying event; but the 2 hours that I spent there (arguably the most important), were nice and did not leave me wrung out. Aah maybe its just the weather. December is an awesome time for weddings in India – cool so that your fat sari does not get pulped up; chilled out since everyone is anyway thinking of Christmas/New Year vacation; and just overall a wonderful note to end the year on.
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