Living a Bollywood Movie!

We never imagined going to the other side of the world, to Canada to experience a taste of India. Now feeling like quite the connoisseurs of fine Indian food thanks to the likes of "Shiraaz" (even the name teases makes my mouth water), we had no idea of the fun we were to have at the wedding of AJ and Reema.

To try to blend in (like i could) i went shopping with Aruna for a sari. I thought shopping just for a western dress was hard, until i saw all the beautifully coloured and bejewelled sari's. It looked as though someone had been using their bedazzler they got for Xmas, as Aruna pointed out the Indians like their bling and there was heaps of it. After going from one shop to another for over two hours I actually settled for one that i saw in the very first shop (how typical is that). I bought the blouse, skirt,bracelets and necklace to blend in and not match as you couldn't go with perfectly matching colours ;at this comment I looked at the shop keeper and said "I don't think that i'll worry about looking perfect." So the only other thing to do was to learn how to put the set up on.

Here's the part when i actually used Google (amazing huh Andy?) and low and behold I now have the know how of millions other of people! The night before the wedding we were out at a BBQ, where I brought along my get-up and the girls and I played dress ups. Thank goodness for Laura and Andrea who help me get the gist of it so that the next morning at 6am I would be able to get dressed. It really felt lovely, it was colourful and thank goodness the day wasn't the 40 degrees that we'd been having earlier in summer so i felt pretty comfortable too.

So I've written so much and we're not at the wedding part yet, and you may have noticed that I had mentioned 6am. On our invitations the ceremony started at 8am about 45mins from where we were so we thought to get up at 6 with the kids to set off on time (I know how unlike me)but we didn't want to miss anything; and by 7.30 we were gone. Now this may be the time to let you know that Indians run on I.S.T, that is Indian Stretchable Time, a little fact we only became aware of when we rocked up thinking we were a few minutes late but ended up being an hour and a half early. 8am means some time before 10am. Yes nothing like getting the kids early out of bed after a late night and finding out that you didn't have to, anyway I'm still feeling good about my attire but a little obvious and standing out needless to say.

When the guests started arriving and we noticed AJ's onterage we went over to say hello. In traditional style he was to arrive by horse and was dressed in a spectacular outfit complete with a headdress that covered his face. I'm sorry that I cannot name any of these, I only know sari! With all the groomsmen dancing and clapping AJ followed behind by horse and went to an outside ceremony for a meeting of male relatives from the two families. With this part over we were all led into the temple (we all had to cover our heads with scarves) for supper. Thank goodness our kids like to try stuff and they happily went to the tables and ate some great Indian food. Soon a buzz came around that meant we were to enter the temple for the wedding ceremony, so with bellies full we moved on.

In the main room the bride and groom sat infront of an altar holding the Holy Book, as we entered the ladies moved to the left and the men to the right and the girls and i found a place on the floor to sit. Man, it was so hard to keep the end of my sari over my head, not that I was alone... every woman there shared my problem, in the end I just let it slip off and hoped that I looked innocent enough as it covered the back of my head. The ceremony was interesting with a series of prayers and the couple circling the altar four times and then they were officially man and wife. All that was left was to congratulate them and go to the supper room for lunch! Well we just congratulated and took the kids back home, as we had been there for a few hours over everybody else.

Part two, The Party/Reception

Once again for the night time activities I dressed up in my sari, we then dropped off the kids with Gary and Laura who had kindly agreed to have them over night (we are returning the favour guys I promise) and set off to party on. Trying to reduce this a little we were savvy to I.S.T. and arrived hideously late by western standards (actually more my style). AJ and Reema arrived to be seated at the most romantic setting I've ever seen, they were on a elevated floor and the speeches started straight away. All the typical greetings to families who had travelled (one sister who came all the way from a little place called Wantirna, Victoria, Australia!)There were approx 650 guests so there was a bit to get through. We had a slide show from the groomsmen and then the bridesmaids set the couple on the side of the dance floor and the 6 of them danced for the couple in true Bollywood style it was awesome and quite touching to watch. Pretty much from then on the party had started and people got up to dance.

I have never seen so many men actually dance really well as I did that night and I used to go clubbing a long time ago. It was wild fun and after getting over feeling like a fake I too felt pretty Indian and bopped around. The night was filled by routines of speciality dancers who danced as money was thrown at them, ladies danced with a flame on their heads, it was just so loud, bright and colourful and the music was quite hypnotic pretty much the same beat with a guy on a drum making the music seem alive. People were able to go and eat dinner from a buffet table whenever they wanted, so once the dancing started nothing else interrupted it, it was fantastic.

Sure enough the evening came to a close and we had to leave but we felt so honoured to have been invited. Even though we were among 650 guests we felt special as we would not have been offended if we had not of been invited as seems the case in big weddings; and knew the invite was because the couple wanted us there. Mind you Andy and I are tempted to become Indian wedding crashers saying that we are some distant cousin of the Maharajah, they are that much fun.