Tania Attends A Wedding
Tania's family had just arrived at the house where Aunt Poonams's parents lived in Bangalore. It was an actual house, 2 storeys high with 6 bedrooms and a backyard. Tania was awestruck. She had only ever seen apartments before. Never a house with a staircase on the inside. So cool!
Aunt Poonam was back from Baltimore for a few weeks. She was getting married. She was thrilled to see Tania and her baby sister Sonia. She had never seen Sonia before and Sonia was almost a year old!
Aunt Poonam was Papa's cousin and Tania called her "Poonty". Aunt Poonam had visited Tania a few years ago in Bombay. Tania was only a year and a half and had a hard time saying Poonam Aunty. So she shortened it to Poonty and that stuck.
The wedding was not till the next evening but there was a lot going on. Poonty's mother, who Mama and Papa called "Chachi", was getting Poonty's trousseau ready. There were beautiful sarees, salwar kameezes, jewellery and crockery sets. Mama contributed a cute Japanese tea set. All of it had to be gift wrapped. Tania helped Chachi by handing her pieces of tape and ribbon.
Tania was not usually shy. But there were almost 20 people in the house, most of whom Tania had never met. All of them except Tania and Sonia were adults. So Tania stuck to her parents and Poonty. After lunch Poonty told Tania there would be a Sangeet ceremony in the evening.
Tania looked puzzled, so Poonty explained "Sangeet is the Hindi word for music. A Sangeet ceremony is done before the wedding. The bride gets together with her family and friends and they all sing and dance. It is a fun and relaxed celebration."
In the evening everyone got together in the large living room. Tania was dressed an an adorable ghaghra-choli Mama had bought her for the occasion.
Chachi had arranged for some snacks and drinks. Everyone was munching, chatting and drinking. The atmosphere was festive. Tania went to find Poonty. She found her sitting in a corner and there was a lady drawing some pretty designs on her hand with a brown paste. The paste was being squeezed out of the tip of a plastic cone, like the icing cones used to decorate cakes. Tania asked "Poonty what are you doing?"
Poonty said "Oh this is mehendi. It is a paste made from the extract of a plant. This nice lady can make lovely designs. I have to let the paste dry. After that it will crumble and fall off but an orange print of the design will stay. Tomorrow it will become dark brown. It is a tradition for brides to wear mehendi designs on their hands."
Twenty minutes later Poonty's mehendi was done and it was gorgeous.
Mama and Papa got mehendi designs on their hands too.
The sun had set and people were moving in to the backyard. Poonty's father, 'Chacha', had the back yard decorated with pretty,
colourful, twinkling lights.
Chacha had arranged for a DJ. The DJ played peppy Hindi songs from old and new movies and a few Abba songs as well, including Tania's favourite 'Super Trouper'. Although Tania loved to dance, she was feeling a little intimidated by all the adults there. Papa noticed and asked, "Tania, will you dance with me?" Thrilled, Tania joined in. Papa danced with Tania for a long time and her ghaghra flared out beautifully when she twirled. Later Mama and Poonty danced with Tania too. Tania enjoyed the evening immensely.
Next morning Chacha and Chachi were getting ready for the haldi ceremony. Tania said, "Mama, I thought haldi was that yellow thing you put in food. So what is a haldi ceremony?"
Mama replied "Haldi, called turmeric in English, is indeed the yellow powder we put in Indian food. But turmeric is also supposed to be very good for the skin. It helps to clean the skin and make it soft and bright. So during the haldi ceremony we will put a paste made of turmeric powder, sandal wood powder and milk on Poonty to make her super pretty."
Poonty came in to the room and sat on a small wooden stool. Chachi placed a bowl of haldi paste in front of her. Everyone took some
paste and applied it on Poonty's hands and face. Tania took a lot of paste in her hands and rubbed it all over Poonty's face and said, "This is so much fun Mama. It's like haldi Holi!"
Chacha had arranged for a big car to take everyone to the wedding hall in batches. Chachi, Poonty and Poonty's best friend Rashmi got there early. When Tania arrived there with her parents and Sonia, Poonty was fully dressed and looking so amazing in her gorgeous red saree and gold and diamond jewellery. Mama said, "It is tradition for the bride to wear a red saree with gold thread work."
Tania looked around the hall. There was a podium decorated with flowers. That is where the wedding ceremony would take place.
Rashmi and another couple of girls who were Poonty's cousins approached Tania. Rashmi said "Tania, we need to steal Aditya's shoes. Can you help us?" Aditya was the groom.
Tania was shocked. "What!" she exclaimed. "No! Of course not. Stealing is wrong."
Mama heard them and intervened. She said "Tania, what they mean is they want to hide Aditya's shoes. It is a wedding game. Aditya is supposed to take off his shoes before he goes to the podium and it is a tradition for the bride's friends and relatives to hide the groom's shoes. There will be someone there to guard the shoes. So it won't be easy. "
"Oh a game!" said Tania excited. "That sounds like fun."
Relieved that the ethical issues were resolved, Rashmi said, "Yes and we think it's a good idea for you to do the hiding because you are small and won't be noticed so much. They will be watching out for us."
Tania agreed and was quite excited about her mission.
Everyone gathered together to receive the groom at the entrance to the hall. Aditya was on horseback in the midst of a band playing. His face covered with a curtain of flowers and decorations. Aditya's family and friends were dancing and bursting fire crackers. It was quite a sight.
Soon after Aditya entered he took off his shoes and climbed on to the podium. Members of the two families were greeting each other and everyone was busy. Tania decided this was the best time to take his shoes. But then she realised that there was a man guarding them. She wondered what to do and came up with an idea. She went to find Sonia and told her something.
Aditya's 20 year old brother Arnav was all alone, guarding the shoes dutifully, on his father's instructions. Suddenly he found little baby Sonia tugging his pants, bawling loudly asking him to find her mother. Quite unfamiliar with babies Arnav was at a complete loss. He tried to calm her with soothing words but that only resulted in shriller screams.
Flustered Arnav picked up Sonia and dashed off to find Mama. In the 3 minutes that Arnav was gone, Tania easily grabbed Aditya's shoes and triumphantly handed them to Rashmi. Poor Arnav returned to find the shoes missing. Tania told mama and Rashmi about her devious plan and they giggled.
Tania was allowed to sit behind Poonty on the podium during the wedding and got to watch the proceedings up close. Poonty and Aditiya had to put some mixture of food items in to the fire and walk around it 7 times and repeat some Sanskrit words the priest told them to. The ceremony was quite interesting. Rashmi gave Tania one of the boxes of chocolates that Aditya had given Rashmi and Poonty's cousins to get his shoes back.
After the ceremony everyone had dinner and then Poonty and Aditya left for Aditya's house in a decorated car.
Tania and her family returned to Bombay the next day. What a wonderful time Tania had at the wedding!
