Two of the teachers here at Nirman just got married and we
were lucky enough to be able to go to both the wedding here in Banaras and the
reception in Kerala, a state in the very south of India.
My favorite part of the wedding here was the groom’s procession
beforehand. We met the procession a short ways from the grounds where the
actual wedding took place. There were a line of people carrying large decorated
lights and a live band and then all of us followed behind them. A lot of their
students went and they were all dancing like crazy and encouraging us and other
teachers to dance with them. The groom (our friend Jay) and his mother followed
behind the procession in a car covered in flowers. Traditionally he would be
riding a horse which I thought would be more exciting. Once we got to the
wedding grounds the band did an exciting finale and they set off fireworks! I
want to have all of that at my wedding!
The actual wedding was much different than weddings at home.
The bride and groom sit on a stage at the front of the grounds for the entire
night and people can go up and take pictures with them. When you’re not taking
pictures, people walk around and eat (there was a ton of food!), talk, and
admire the bride. Jay and Tanya had to sit on that stage for at least 4 hours
though! They looked exhausted! We finally left around 11:30 but the wedding
ceremonies, which just includes the family and close friends, apparently went
until 6 am!
The following week we left for Kerala. We took an overnight
train to Delhi and then flew from Delhi to Coimbatore, which is about a 2 hour
drive from Jay’s house in Plakkad, Kerala. Jay’s entire extended family came in
for the reception and we got to spend a lot of time with them. He has a bunch
of cousins around our age so that was a lot of fun! The reception was very
similar to the wedding but without all the ceremonies! Also, it had the added
bonus of bad elevator music playing the whole time…
Kerala is very different from anyplace else we have been
thus far in India.
It is very green and much more environmentally conscious
than other parts of the country. They speak Malayalam , which is completely
different than Hindi and also eat different food and wear different clothes! I
was a little worried about the food because I haven’t been the biggest fan of
the South Indian food that I have tried in Banaras, but it was SO much better
there! Most of the men in Kerala wear long pieces of fabric tied around their
waists like skirts and often walk around without shoes on, it seems so much
more relaxed!
We spent most of our time with Jay’s family. We all went to
a hill station and tea plantations and to see Jay’s family in the “village” and
his ancestral home. Their idea of a village is much different than the Banarasi
village! Here the villages are much poorer and are filled with animals and
fields. His family’s village home is a beautiful house surrounded by palm trees
and close to a gorgeous stream. I would love to live there!
It was hard to come back to Banaras after being in such a
calm and beautiful place! But I am happy to be spending my last couple of weeks
here in the place that has become home!
