Hiatus

Sorry for the long break between posts! I am in the middle of the business school whirlwind, and I am packing for a return trip to Boston (brief stop there and then off to Cancun for Senior Associate Consultant Training). I promise to write when I get back--I have much to tell you about livestock, Dutch embassies, and my new friends in India.

Day 2: The ceremony

Sorry for the delay in writing: I got distracted by India...again.

Anyways, the second day of the wedding is when I debuted my fabulous Indian salwar kameez. I think I looked riduculous, but Uma (my friend Aadhithi's mother) and Mayuri (another friend who is an expert in Indian fashion) assured me it was the thing.

Let's be honest: I could not match the bride for beauty. Indian wedding dresses are an amazing shade of red. Perhaps I should make my dress red if I ever get married.

As for the wedding: it was a sikh ceremony so it took place in the morning. All the women wore colorful salwar kameezs and saris and the men wore turbans and handkerchiefs. Actually the women had to keep their heads covered as well...good thing I had my scarf to keep covered.

After the ceremony, we went to the reception hall for a huge Indian banquets. Indian food is like an open bar at an American wedding: the most important thing about the whole deal. I ate so much Punjabi (northern area in India) food I was full for a day. The final ceremony was quite tearful. The bride leaves her parents and goes off with her in-laws. If I had to live with my in-laws, I would be tearful as well.

The third day was a giant party, but I had to do business school essays instead. Alas. Speaking of....

Day 1: The Mehndi

So it turns out Indian weddings are long, complicated affairs. I went to two of the three days of a wedding this weekend…yes three DAYS. The first day I attended a mehndi, which is the female side’s family event. I told people I was related, but they just did not believe me for some reason :P Anyways, the main part of this event is a henna party. The bride gets her hands and feet decorated with henna and the rest of the female guests get their hands done.

Everyone encouraged me to participate as it was my first wedding, and I documented it all. The first step is putting on this dark, brown chemical substance (I guess that's henna). It takes about 20 minutes to apply it all.

The second step is waiting till it dries…I lasted two hours before I could not take it anymore and rubbed the dark coating off. What’s left is an orangey outline. Supposedly the heat in your hands changes the color (though I also heard it said it’s how much you love your husband) to a darker red overnight. The darker the red, the more love in the relationship. Mine remained pretty orangey so I think I don’t love my husband very much. Sucks to be him.

And the mehndi is not just hand-painting: there are traditional songs, dancing, and, of course, food. The only problem with the party is that I now have red mittens on my hands for a week or two…I have already stood up at work, rubbed my hands together and shouted “out, out damn spot.”

Other fun fact: this was a sikh wedding. Did you know that it is against sikhism to cut one's hair? That's why the men wear turbans: they're hiding long beards and hippy hair under there!

God's Own Country

I went to the Garden of Eden on our offsite this past weekend. Kerala is described as "God's own country" for a reason: it's one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (only Yosemite, Hawaii, Delphi, and the Amalfi Coast compare). As I mentioned previously, you can get way more bang for your buck in India. In Boston, they took us on a bus to an off-season ski resort in Vermont for our offsite. In India, they flew us to a tropical paradise. I'll describe one of the most incredible events I’ve ever attended below :

We left at 4:30AM Thursday morning and arrived in the afternoon. That afternoon we had team building activities outside where I meet people from the other offices in India. For our "tea break", we had a man take coconuts from the tree, split off the top and put a straw in. Fun fact: coconut milk (well, really coconut water in my opinion) tastes way better than coconut.

Thursday night, I attended an event that was WAY better than any wedding I have ever attended—we had an amazing party on a beach, where we held a charity auction (I bought two roundtrip tickets any where in India), ate a delicious dinner, and discussed the history of the company in India. This place looked better than any high-class tropical-themed wedding I've seen on Platinum Weddings. I took a picture of the sunset from the party. After the beach party, we went inside and danced until 2AM.

On Friday, we had a morning meetings (I did not sleep much). In the afternoon, I went on a boat tour of the Kerala backwaters and played in the Indian Ocean (ocean #3 for me!). Way better than a Ben & Jerry’s tour.

Friday evening was a dinner and awards ceremony. They flew in a famous D.J. who played tunes for us until 4:30AM. Then I wandered the beach with people before heading home at 6AM.

I stayed an extra night (that I paid for, of course) to recover. I spent the next two days sleeping, eating, swimming in their two infinite pools, and going to the spa (for a pedicure and massage). Fun facts: #1 Kerala massages are very different from American ones—let’s just say you wear a lot less clothing. #2 Southern Indian food is delicious and much lighter than northern food—full of bananas, coconut oil, mangos, and yumminess.

Now only one question remains: when can I go back to Eden?

Shopping for a wedding dress

Okay, don’t panic people. I haven’t gone crazy and gotten engaged to some rando in the last few weeks. I am just attending a traditional Indian wedding two weekends from now so I needed something appropriate to wear. How did I get invited to this wedding do you ask? I am not really certain actually. Aadhithi, my friend with whom I traveled in Singapore and Cambodia, had a family friend getting married. Aadhithi’s mother is attending, and asked the Mother of the Bride (MoB) if I could attend. Not only did the MoB say yes, she told me she would help me find something to wear! T.I.I.*

MoB only had time to shop on a Tuesday so I headed out of the office for this “business meeting” (don’t worry Bainees reading this, I worked in the car), driving the 45 minutes or so to down Delhi to meet her. We went to a street which has wholesale clothing stores in Lajpat Nagar. The first merchant we went to tried to charge me a fortune as I am a foreigner so we had to walk out. Next we go to “Elegance,” a nice boutique with plenty of saris and lenghas. One look at me and the attendant and MoB decide the fancy salwar kameez is the way to go (read: a dress that does not expose the belly or require intricate tying to keep on—don’t want to give people a free show at the wedding after all). MoB decides that the black/purple/gold/silver one will be best with my skin tone so that’s what I buy.

I have been informed I should wear it with my silver or gold high heels, huge earrings, and bangles. I only have a 4 inch pair of heels with me so we’ll see if I can stay upright for long (also, I will be the tallest person in the whole wedding). I don’t have any bangles which was sad for MoB, but she said she’d see what she could do (my friend Mayuri says I can borrow hers). Some thoughts on the dress: it is both the most intense and the least revealing wedding outfit I have worn. It covers me entire body (god, I am going to be warm) long-sleeved see-through arms, tight pants, and a top that goes up to my neck. Why is it intense? It’s SO sparkly and has so many patterns/things going on I can’t even describe it. In order to see the dress, you’ll have to keep following the blog!

I will meet MoB again around 2/3PM on next Friday for the beginning of the wedding events. Friday is the mendi, where the women decorate hands with henna…let’s hope it looks good on my uber-pale skin. After that, there are ceremonies on both Saturday and Sunday. Supposedly there will be 500 people there all decked out in Indian finery. I will take a lot of pictures, don’t worry. So people: any idea of a good wedding gift?

*T.I.I.=This is India (As in…“This is madness!” “No, this is Sparta er India!”)