An Outlet: Part 6

12 May, 2019.

Today morning, I quickly started studying MA. It didn't take me much time to revise all concepts (unlike FA) so you can say I was pretty much done by the time we had to start getting ready for the wedding.

I wore my dark blue and orange anarkali, did my minimalistic make up as usual and we all got ready to leave. We arrived at the (5 star) hotel and met Amanda and her family at the "high tea area" just outside the main hall. After taking a brief glance around us, it was time for us to head out once again. Since we're from the groom's side, we were to take part in the 'Baraat ceremony'.

It's a custom where the groom's family dances and leads the groom (who is seated on a decorated horse) in a lively procession towards the wedding location. The music for dancing is in the form of a live street band which also moves along with the crowd.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been a part of a wedding Baraat. Of course I've attended weddings where we're from the groom's side but never so early to take part in a Baraat.

So we all came out of the hotel and walked a little away from the main gates. The groom sat on the horse and the procession began. The band was alright but the dancing was very lukewarm. Everyone felt very shy to dance, especially because we were outdoors on a road. Even I didn't dance but just moved a little to the drum beats. It was kinda sad to be honest. People should probably scrap this custom if no one's going to perform the duties properly.

The procession reached the hotel entrance where the bride's family awaited us. This was a mix of a Maharashtrian and a Bengali wedding so we got to see two very different wedding customs. Right before meeting the bride's family, the groom got off the horse and sat in a car. Suddenly I heard weird noises (along with blown conches) as soon as the car door opened and the bride's family went to recieve the groom. Turns out, Bengalis have a tradition to "ululate" at specific points throughout the wedding.

To be honest, it was hilarious everytime one of the older women went "ulululululululu" rolling her tongue but we gotta respect everyone's traditions. We were just amused because we have never seen/heard something like this before.

We all came back to the hall, saw the ear/nose pinching rituals twice and sat down. They had started serving the starters by then so we diverted our attention toward the food before it was time to shower "akshata" (broken rice) on the couple.

Something was wrong with my dad today. For some reason, he kept nudging Amanda's brother to start looking for a life partner at the wedding. I get that he is in his late 20s but this continuous teasing was too much for me. I felt so uncomfortable everytime dad encouraged us to join him in the teasing. I don't even want to imagine what'll happen to me when I become "of eligibile age".

What my cousin (Amanda's brother) was doing was keeping an eye on the high tea spread that had started getting served. If I didn't know better (and if he wasn't wearing traditional clothes), I would've thought he was the staff's supervisor. He's a chef by profession so naturally he'd be interested in the food being served but if there's one thing I agree with dad's nagging today is that he should give food a break. He barely gets time off from the kitchen so he should spend time doing something other than scrutinizing the food.

Amanda and I and then my family and I took quite a lot of photos. The Maharashtrian wedding was going on at the time and we had seen plenty of those so we weren't thaaaat interested in seeing the proceedings. I love exploring places (hotels in this case) wherever I go so Alex, dad and I went on a little exploring spree. Since this was a 5 star hotel, we wanted to see what all it had to offer. Dad had been to the hotel once before so he showed us the big coffee shop area, the bar/pub area, a couple of popular (and ridiculously expensive) restaurants and the main lawn. After taking some pictures, we headed to another side where there were empty showrooms filled with clothes, jewelry and Indian souvenirs. The hotel does look grand.

We then took a seat at one of the conversation areas and, well, had a conversation. We discussed about whether these in-hotel shops were even worth existing or just a waste of space, the history and evolution of the company that built the hotel among other things. We spent quite some time there before getting back to the hall and indulging in the high tea spread that was in full swing by the time we came back.

Then it was time for the Bengali wedding. The groom had to put on a long white headgear of sorts with a white cloth spread over his head. The bride arrived and had to sit on this stool afterwhich she was carried by the male members of her family. It felt amusing to watch how the members holding the bride circled around the groom amidst all the hooting and conch blowing and ofcourse the shrill "ulululululululus".

The quiet part of the wedding began and after a while, Amanda and my family headed to my house. The wedding reception was to take place a couple of hours after the wedding and since our house was the closest, we came back to rest and change into another set of clothes for the evening/night. Only, the resting was almost non existent. It took all of us more than 2 hours to get ready and get out of the house. I wore my black and gold anarkali this time and Amanda did my makeup.

We reached the venue for the second time and immediately noticed that the hall looked bigger than what it was before. Turns out the hotel had a faux wall system to divide a big hall and what we saw in the afternoon was only one part of the hall. It makes sense tho. I noticed that very few people were in attendance at the actual marriage(s) (compared to the seats arranged) but the hall was full of people during the reception.

We met more of our relatives and spoke to them. Ofcourse I tried hogging on all the starters. They were different than the afternoon spread so that was nice. I spoke to my cousins briefly about our student/work life, higher studies vs. working post graduation among other things. One of my cousins from Australia also attended the wedding. Now even if I have started mingling with my relatives, I still struggle with coming up with conversation topics. I haven't conversed much with this Australian cousin of mine but for some reason it felt very natural to talk to him.

We spoke about how the groom wouldn't even recognise us, my confusion over how we were related to the groom in the first place, relatives nudging him to look for a "rishta" as well, our travel/stay dream cities, etc, before we were called to stand in the queue for taking a photograph with the newly married couple.

After taking the pictures (both on and off stage), we went to have dinner. The dinner was good but honestly, my expectations were slightly high. It didn't feel like a "5 star" dinner spread. There is this one family who we meet every year during Ganpati at one of my relatives place. One of the guys is now a trainee chef at today's hotel. Amanda had gone to meet him (way before dinner) because they've become close but I didn't because I'm not close. She had told me that he'd be at the live counter but somehow I ended up not noticing him at all. He did meet me later on when I went to get some water bottles. Lol, he must have felt bad but I swear I didn't purposely ignore him!

We got done with our dinner, wished everyone goodbye and left for home. On our way back home, we were watching the ending moments of an exciting live cricket match so dad, Alex and I stayed in the car until the end of the match. The team we were supporting won! Woohoo!

I've changed out of my traditional clothes and it's time for me to go to sleep. I wasn't able to study today so I gotta make up for it by studying extra hard tomorrow.