The wedding season is on in India !!(yes we have a wedding season ! ). By a rough estimate , about 10 million Indians get married every year ( that’s more than the total population of many countries !!).If one hasn’t experienced a Indian wedding – one hasn’t experienced much in life .
I have been invited to hundreds and thousands of weddings .Its not possible for us to attend every wedding and sometimes there are invitations from 5 or 6 friends,students or relatives for the same day and at the same time .The only way out in such a case is to do “wedding hopping” from one to maybe 3 weddings !!
This year also – we have been invited for many weddings . However there are at least four that are a must and with which we are not going to compromise by hopping .Where a day is clashing , we will be attending either the “sangeet”, the “wedding”, or the “reception” of one or the other . For some of you foreigners who may be reading this – “sangeet”, is a pre wedding ceremony , and “reception”, is a post wedding affair .!
My good friend Neera Thapars daughter is getting married this weekend and we will be attending the wedding . Maybe , we might squeeze in a few minutes for the sangeet – which is really the fun part of the wedding scenario – lots of dance , music , drink and snacks !!.
One of our seniormost teachers ( and a founding one at that ), Rachna Grovers daughter and our ex student , Sakshi is getting married on the same day in Jaipur as a close relatives son in Delhi.!. It was a tough call to take , but we have decided to attend Rachnas daughters wedding and Taruns’…. ( Kumar Bhaiyyas son), sangeet in Delhi .
We are flying to Bhopal to attend the wedding of a dear friends’ son’s wedding .Sumeet Ponda is a celebrity in Bhopal – but I know him since the days when he had just got married and was all of 25 years old .He is a well known educationist and runs schools , colleges and management institutes .We have known his family for more than 25 years and I call his mother , “ Mom”!!. Sumeet is a Gujju !
Gujerati weddings are more sedate than the north Indian ones .Since I lived in Gujerat for a few years , I am familiar with the customs .They can get very elaborate .Many pre marriage rituals like Chandlo Matli , Gol Dana ,,Mandap Mahurat ,Pithi ,Mameru ,and Sangeet Sandhya or Sanji , add a lot of vibrancy to the occasion . We will be attending the Sanji where Sumeet has organized a Dandia !!.We will also attend the wedding ! Gujerati weddings are strictly vegetarian and non alcoholic .
North Indian weddings are on the other hand , raucous ,noisy with band, baaja, and baraat, and flashy !! They start off sedately with a few youngsters dancing hip hop style to the tunes of “aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai”, or “tequila”. But as the liquor starts taking its toll – everyone jumps into the boxing area !! The bridegroom is made to dismount the horse and shake a leg or two himself !!.In one wedding of a mate of mine at Rai , we went to Faridabad and everyone was on cloud nine . So much so , that one of our most loved gymnastic coaches , took off his coat and started to do cartwheels and push ups on the main road !!When we asked him to put on his shirt and coat , he very matter of factly replied ” yaar garmi bahut hai”!!
Punjabi weddings are incomplete without alcohol and non vegetarian food .And sometimes non vegetarian food can have as many as 25 non veg dishes !
Punjabi weddings also bring into the fore egos !! I remember attending a close relatives’ wedding at a upmarket club in Delhi where the “ladkaa”, walaas , refused to eat or drink because the boys father did not find Johnny Walker Black Label being served ( .It was a status drink 30 years back ). After 2 hrs , a bottle was arranged and the bonhomie restored .!!
In India – weddings are not just weddings .The are a mirror of the lives and backgrounds from which we come .They reflect the family traits and family politics is a integral part of any wedding get togeather .
I love them !! I love to dance in them ! .Tequila !! Things only cool down after the “jaimaala”, to the inevitable tune of “baharon phool barsaaoh , mera mehboob aayaah hai”.
Sadly , things have changed a bit over the years .The weddings have got less noisy and more formal .But then everything has changed – hasn’t it ?!
