A Hindu Wedding Reception

We attended the pre-wedding reception of Nithya, one of my village English class students, and Sureshkumar, an up and coming employee of Hyundai Motors. As is often the case, the reception was held the day before the actual wedding. Weddings are held at auspicious times, as determined by an astrologer, so they can be scheduled for times like 4:00 a.m. It was more workable for us to attend this function on the evening of Valentine's Day with two RSO volunteers, Matt and Sara Hughes Zabowa.


We were met at the entrance to the marriage hall and each woman was given beautiful flowers for her hair. Have I mentioned how much I love this custom? Indian women wear beautiful flowers in the hair most of the time. Of course, it helps that they are readily available year round.


The first order of business was to go to the dining hall for tiffin, or a light meal (always my favorite part). Unfortunately, we had eaten a huge lunch at our school principal's home and we were already overfull. Courtesy required that we eat something, so we did the best we could. The man in the foreground is Jayakumar, our excellent driver.


Two beautiful ladies in their saris. We were taken to one small room to visit with the bride and a separate room to see the groom before they both entered the main hall together.


Was there ever a more beautiful bride? I find the Tamil people generally to be very attractive. The beauty of Nithya's jewelry and her exquisite sari were difficult to capture with our little camera.


Much of the evening was used for photos of various relatives and friends with the happy couple. Is this a wedding or a funeral? For some reason people in India will not smile for official photos. Check out those gorgeous wedding garlands, the fanciest we've seen. These were made with individual rose petals. An oft-quoted Indian saying holds that "the beauty of the Indian man is in the mustache."


These two revered holy men blessed the event and all went as it should.


A few days later the newlyweds walked from the village to Rising Star with a few relatives to thank us for attending the reception. Another hopeful young couple launches onto the sea of life. Bon voyage!