Since our four day weekend is coming to a close, it seems fit to sum it up with post.
Yesterday I didn't set an alarm (best way to start the day!), and slept in a bit. After I finally got up and moving, I headed out to Commercial Street to do some souvenir/gift shopping and to pick up Kristen and I's sarees. This was a semi-momentous occasion because it was the first time I went out on an outing by myself- I had taken an auto alone before, but never gone out for the day on my own. I'm glad to say, there weren't any issues, and I was even able to successfully navigate as I needed to (any of you who have ever had the misfortune of trying to get around with me know that this is quite an accomplishment). Anyhoo, I spent nearly five hours out shopping, which was enjoyable, but still tiring! I found lots of goodies to bring home, and picked up both Kristen and I's sarees, which was also exciting! I had my auto drop me off near the grocery store on the way home- then I proceeded to make a little bit of a scene in the grocery store with all the shopping bags (the grocery store is about 150 square feet... and I had like 6 bags) but I managed to get a few things to fix myself dinner.
I came back to the apartment and then tried to learn how to tie my saree by watching multiple youtube videos. Major fail, right there. There are three parts to the saree, the blouse (which is the half-shirt type thing that is skin tight), the petticoat (the floor-length skirt that is never actually seen) and then the saree itself, which is god-knows how many yards of fabric that gets tied in a particular way, which the saree gods have decided I am not worthy to comprehend, apparently. Oh well. After I surrendered to the saree gods, I went and made a simple dinner and then got to skype with some of my favorite Woosterites for the first time since I've been here, which was wonderful. It was a skype-filled evening, because then I skyped my mom and showed her some of the kurtas I bought her while out shopping and we caught up on the goings-on for each of us over the last week. I turned in early last night, since we all agreed we would get up nice and early to start the process of getting dressed for the wedding!
I woke up this morning, showered and all that jazz, and then was ready to figure out how to tie the saree by 8am (the wedding was at 10am). I had gotten on the blouse and petticoat and then went up to Amanda's room so we could try and figure out how to tie our sarees together. Once again, it was a fail. We went and asked Ratna, one of the staff here at the apartments, if she could help us, which she was kind enough to do. It took about 10 minutes to get each of us tied, and it is safe to say that I could have never figured it out on my own, at least not in one day. There is so much wrapping, pleating, tucking, pinning, undoing and redoing that it would have been waaaay too much for us, rookies, to try and tie our own sarees this morning. After we were all tied up, we donned our bangles and bindis, had a bite of breakfast, and then all four of us went up to the roof to take pictures. We were running a little late, so we took a few pictures (I uploaded one below) and then ran out the door. Let me tell you, we had a heck of a time finding an auto that wanted to take four obviously non-Indians in full Indian attire to a wedding. But we finally did find one, and after carefully piling into the auto, we headed off to Rams' an Sujit's ceremony.
We got there just a couple of minutes late, but that was not an issue at all, because, as we quickly learned, Indian weddings are very casual. The ceremony was taking place on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the room but people were sitting and walking around the room (which was beautifully decorated with orange and yellow flowers) talking to everyone, watching the ceremony, drinking some juice, and whatever else they felt like doing. When we walked in, we immediately saw everyone from our office there, who we talked to for a few minutes, and they complimented us on our Indian clothing, which was funny since they still all looked much nicer than we did! Then we saw Aruna Ji and Pani Uncle, who facilitate all the CSIM lectures that we attend on Thursday afternoons, because apparently, Rams and Sujit met at CSIM when they were both working there. It was surprising that we actually knew so many of the people at the ceremony, but it was definitely comforting; there were people there watching us to make sure we didn't accidentally do anything inappropriate. Aruna Ji explained a lot of what was going on during the ceremony, which was very interesting.
For a majority of the ceremony, Rams and Sujit were sitting on the platform, and they were surrounded by family and others, as well as a fire and incense. They were completely decked out in flowers and jewelry, and throughout the whole event there were multiple photographers taking hundreds of photos. At one point, everyone from Hippocampus got up on the platform and took a picture with Rams and Sujit- I hope we can get our hands on that photo somehow! We watched the ceremony for a bit longer, and then Manmohan, who sits at the desk across from Maria and I at work, told us we should go and eat. Everyone was leaving the room where the ceremony was finishing up (they were mostly at the photo-taking stage) and walking to the neighboring room that had many long tables set up. At each seat was a large banana leaf, and Manmohan told us that at weddings you don't use plates or silverware (which we are getting used to), and that the leaf served as our plate. We each had a glass of water at our seat which we used to wash the leaf with, and then a huge line of men walked by, each with a pail of a different kind of food- there was soooo much food. Apparently we were so slow to finish our food that everyone assumed it was our first time eating with our hands, which it wasn't, but oh well! We met Sujit's mom, who was so kind and welcoming, she even knew we were working at Hippocampus! After the meal, we washed our hands and then there was a small table which had breath fresheners (of sorts) on it. There were two different kinds of breath fresheners, one looked a lot like sprinkles you would put on ice cream and the other looked a lot like whole spices. On the table there were also leaves, so you took a leaf, spread a bit of a paste on it, and then sprinkled either the sprinkles or spice looking mixture on the leaf, folded it up, and chewed it for several minutes- it was very chewy and tasted very strong, but it was interesting!! Then we were able to quickly say hi to Rams, and then the event was basically over. On our way out, Rams' mom was handing out coconuts as gifts to all the attendees, and she also thanked us for coming- again, she was so friendly and gracious, it was wonderful. Then Lily offered to take us back to the apartment since it was on her way home, and so the four of us once again piled into a vehicle, oh-so-carefully so as not to unravel the sarees, and before we knew it, we were home!
The rest of the day has just been taking it easy- I even took a nap, which I haven't done since I've been here. And tomorrow it is back to work, after a very pleasant four day weekend!
Yesterday I didn't set an alarm (best way to start the day!), and slept in a bit. After I finally got up and moving, I headed out to Commercial Street to do some souvenir/gift shopping and to pick up Kristen and I's sarees. This was a semi-momentous occasion because it was the first time I went out on an outing by myself- I had taken an auto alone before, but never gone out for the day on my own. I'm glad to say, there weren't any issues, and I was even able to successfully navigate as I needed to (any of you who have ever had the misfortune of trying to get around with me know that this is quite an accomplishment). Anyhoo, I spent nearly five hours out shopping, which was enjoyable, but still tiring! I found lots of goodies to bring home, and picked up both Kristen and I's sarees, which was also exciting! I had my auto drop me off near the grocery store on the way home- then I proceeded to make a little bit of a scene in the grocery store with all the shopping bags (the grocery store is about 150 square feet... and I had like 6 bags) but I managed to get a few things to fix myself dinner.
I came back to the apartment and then tried to learn how to tie my saree by watching multiple youtube videos. Major fail, right there. There are three parts to the saree, the blouse (which is the half-shirt type thing that is skin tight), the petticoat (the floor-length skirt that is never actually seen) and then the saree itself, which is god-knows how many yards of fabric that gets tied in a particular way, which the saree gods have decided I am not worthy to comprehend, apparently. Oh well. After I surrendered to the saree gods, I went and made a simple dinner and then got to skype with some of my favorite Woosterites for the first time since I've been here, which was wonderful. It was a skype-filled evening, because then I skyped my mom and showed her some of the kurtas I bought her while out shopping and we caught up on the goings-on for each of us over the last week. I turned in early last night, since we all agreed we would get up nice and early to start the process of getting dressed for the wedding!
I woke up this morning, showered and all that jazz, and then was ready to figure out how to tie the saree by 8am (the wedding was at 10am). I had gotten on the blouse and petticoat and then went up to Amanda's room so we could try and figure out how to tie our sarees together. Once again, it was a fail. We went and asked Ratna, one of the staff here at the apartments, if she could help us, which she was kind enough to do. It took about 10 minutes to get each of us tied, and it is safe to say that I could have never figured it out on my own, at least not in one day. There is so much wrapping, pleating, tucking, pinning, undoing and redoing that it would have been waaaay too much for us, rookies, to try and tie our own sarees this morning. After we were all tied up, we donned our bangles and bindis, had a bite of breakfast, and then all four of us went up to the roof to take pictures. We were running a little late, so we took a few pictures (I uploaded one below) and then ran out the door. Let me tell you, we had a heck of a time finding an auto that wanted to take four obviously non-Indians in full Indian attire to a wedding. But we finally did find one, and after carefully piling into the auto, we headed off to Rams' an Sujit's ceremony.
We got there just a couple of minutes late, but that was not an issue at all, because, as we quickly learned, Indian weddings are very casual. The ceremony was taking place on a slightly raised platform in the middle of the room but people were sitting and walking around the room (which was beautifully decorated with orange and yellow flowers) talking to everyone, watching the ceremony, drinking some juice, and whatever else they felt like doing. When we walked in, we immediately saw everyone from our office there, who we talked to for a few minutes, and they complimented us on our Indian clothing, which was funny since they still all looked much nicer than we did! Then we saw Aruna Ji and Pani Uncle, who facilitate all the CSIM lectures that we attend on Thursday afternoons, because apparently, Rams and Sujit met at CSIM when they were both working there. It was surprising that we actually knew so many of the people at the ceremony, but it was definitely comforting; there were people there watching us to make sure we didn't accidentally do anything inappropriate. Aruna Ji explained a lot of what was going on during the ceremony, which was very interesting.
For a majority of the ceremony, Rams and Sujit were sitting on the platform, and they were surrounded by family and others, as well as a fire and incense. They were completely decked out in flowers and jewelry, and throughout the whole event there were multiple photographers taking hundreds of photos. At one point, everyone from Hippocampus got up on the platform and took a picture with Rams and Sujit- I hope we can get our hands on that photo somehow! We watched the ceremony for a bit longer, and then Manmohan, who sits at the desk across from Maria and I at work, told us we should go and eat. Everyone was leaving the room where the ceremony was finishing up (they were mostly at the photo-taking stage) and walking to the neighboring room that had many long tables set up. At each seat was a large banana leaf, and Manmohan told us that at weddings you don't use plates or silverware (which we are getting used to), and that the leaf served as our plate. We each had a glass of water at our seat which we used to wash the leaf with, and then a huge line of men walked by, each with a pail of a different kind of food- there was soooo much food. Apparently we were so slow to finish our food that everyone assumed it was our first time eating with our hands, which it wasn't, but oh well! We met Sujit's mom, who was so kind and welcoming, she even knew we were working at Hippocampus! After the meal, we washed our hands and then there was a small table which had breath fresheners (of sorts) on it. There were two different kinds of breath fresheners, one looked a lot like sprinkles you would put on ice cream and the other looked a lot like whole spices. On the table there were also leaves, so you took a leaf, spread a bit of a paste on it, and then sprinkled either the sprinkles or spice looking mixture on the leaf, folded it up, and chewed it for several minutes- it was very chewy and tasted very strong, but it was interesting!! Then we were able to quickly say hi to Rams, and then the event was basically over. On our way out, Rams' mom was handing out coconuts as gifts to all the attendees, and she also thanked us for coming- again, she was so friendly and gracious, it was wonderful. Then Lily offered to take us back to the apartment since it was on her way home, and so the four of us once again piled into a vehicle, oh-so-carefully so as not to unravel the sarees, and before we knew it, we were home!
L to R: Maria, me, Amanda, and Yoshi before the wedding
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