PERFECT BLEND

S and I were in Boston over the Labor day weekend to attend a wedding. S's cousin G was getting married to J after knowing each other for more than 7 years. J is an American and G is an Indian (though an American by citizenship) and so, this wedding was going to be an Indo-American affair.

The wedding was a perfect blend of two individuals, two families, two cultures, two religions and two countries... I cannot stress more on the two words -- "perfect" and "blend" -- really i cannot... Changing the font to bold, italic, underline or some other color is not going to do enough justice... So, i just decided to use those words to name the blog... thats it...

Every aspect of the wedding was very well planned... Here are some salient features of the wedding --

1 - All the ladies (including the groom's immediate family and friends) were dressed in traditional Indian attire and got mehendi done on their hands... The couple's friends even danced to a hindi wedding song from a Karan Johar movie...

2 - The food for the mehendi ceremony was as versatily Indian as it could get and the food for the reception was as equally un-Indian as it could... There was champagne toast to punch bowl. There was fried shrimp as well as Indian Banarasi pan. There was chaat and pav bhaji and gobi manchurian. And then there was lasagna and garlic bread and stuffed turkey. Everyone ate their favorite food to glory.

3 - The groom was dressed in a traditional Kannada wedding attire including peta, dhoti, kurta and chappal... He chanted all the shlokas and mantras with the same fluency that a Kannadiga would... His parents were as interested and involved in the wedding ceremony as any Indian parents would be... Even they wore Indian attire and looked at ease.

4 - The bride walked down the aisle with bridesmaids (her cousins) like any american bride and she was escorted by her uncle (maternal uncle) like any Indian bride...

5 - After the traditional indian wedding was over, the bride and groom exchanged vows like an christian wedding and the head priest from Chinmaya mission administered the wedding oath. The groom's oath was one of the most touching ones I have ever heard.

6 - The reception was as christian as it gets... There was a beautiful cake, a champagne toast ceremony, the first kiss and the first dance... The toast from the "father of the bride" was very touching and if that toast brought everyone on the edge of breaking down into tears, the toast from the "sister of the bride" pushed them over the edge... There was hardly any soul in that wedding hall without a wet eye at the end of that toast...

7 - The dance after the toast ceremony started with a romantic tune and soon blasted into typical punjabi tunes... Almost everyone was on the dance floor and the newly wed bride and groom were perched atop shoulders of their friends...

The points mentioned above were just a glimpse of the entire wedding. Though everyone was looking forward to the wedding, the ceremony surpassed everyone's expectation. It was a memorable event for us too. For S and I, it was a trip down the memory lane to a unforgettable day, exactly 3 years before today. ;-)

2 comments:

Sanjana said...

I thought this kind of stuff only happened in Mush novels and movies. Sometimes it is good to be proven false. :-)

RS said...

Hey! Happy Anniversary! :-) And as for G and J - the few photos that we got to see - said it all - most of all the love for each other!

Its great to see that the families whole heartedly accepted the groom/bride and made it a grand successful wedding...