Day 7 - The Wedding Ceremony

The final day arrived and we had to get out of bed pretty early - which was not ver easy after the night before. But we mastered it well - as you can see on this picture - this is how we arrived at the scene of the wedding.

How embarrassing - Estelle and Nat wearing the same designer dress. Thank god the Cosmo people were not around, otherwise this would have made the news. Anyway, after a short posing session on the red carpet for the local press and camels the guys headed down to the tent to get the turbans attached to our hot heads. Actually now that the whole thing is over, I can tell a little secret. Basically the turban not only looked cool but it contained a miniature cooling device so that the felt temperature sank below the official 35 degrees to a mere 34.9 degrees of Celsius.

This is how the turban looked like a the locals - here is a pic of some guy with a cute little boy that got a lot of attention not only from the girls of Europe but I guess also from some of the matchmakers I guess.

Here is Paritosh's cousin Niranjan wearing a turban groovy style. He would loose it later in the fight for the shoes ...

Now that you saw how the locals looked with the turbans, here is an impression of Christian, Eugenio and myself trying to look cool with the turbans - I think you all agree with me that we failed miserably. I for myself will not try to pose with a rose ever again - I don't see how this can look anything but gay...

At least the girls looked good. Preeti wearing the family jewels, Blanca, Estelle and Simone the beaming trophies of their endless hours spent shopping in the city the days before...

The prince - I mean Paritosh - in the meantime was put on a horse and rode to the wedding carpet. There is a nice tradition around the arrival of the groom to the wedding ceremony. In older times the family of the groom would travel from far away to the wedding, so in modern times this is represented by the groom sitting on a horse and riding towards the entry of the main hall of the ceremony. It was basically a 100 meter ride, where people danced around the white horse with Paritosh, surrounded by some local musicians and everybody that felt like dancing.

Here is a nice shot from inside the tent when Paritosh arrives at the end of his long and tiring travel on the white horse. The carpet was made entirely of flowers!

He was lifted from the horse (well, you don't want any grooms flying off the horse at a wedding) and then we waited for Kasturi to arrive. She arrived with her friends supporting her, protecting her from the sunlight. She looked very beautiful. A WOW went through the people waiting when she appeared. That is her father in next to her by the way.

They were standing there for a while and then made their way into the shades in the tent. Kasturi and Paritosh made their way into the middle of the tent and a cloth was held between them.

At this point Paritosh had to take off his shoes, which were given to Niranjan to protect with this life. The shoes are an important part of the wedding. We were told that there is a small game going on between the groom's and the bride's friends. The friends of the bride need to take the shoes of the groom from the friends. Should they succeed to get the shoes, they can demand anything after the ceremony and the married couple has to give them whatever they demand.

And so, needless to say, a fight broke out for the shoes that got everybody's attention and only when some of the elderly folks told us (yes, Eugenio and myself also rushed to fight) to stop it because we disturbed the wedding, did the fight stop. That was the moment, when the friends of Kasturi snapped the shoes in the end. Bastards!

Kasturi looked at us for the first time on this day. She looks very beautiful on this photo - her smile even nicer when you consider the 9 kilos of Sari and jewelry she was wearing. Especially that thing pinched in her nose must have hurt I guess. These are the moments I am glad I am not a woman ...

I wonder what Blanca was thinking during these moments. Something along the line of "I am sooooo going to get married next year" probably. We will never know ...

After the cloth separating Kasturi and Paritosh was there no more, they sat down for a while and people went to take some pictures of them before the ceremony commenced on the stage.

I am not exactly sure about what exactly happened next but I remember being told by an old friend of Paritosh's that this was the saying goodbye to Kasturi from her friends and family and welcoming them as a couple ceremony. The stage was filled with Kasturis friends and family on one side, and some of us on the other side. This involved some strings around all the people on stage.

You can see that Kasturis sister Amruta is not very happy on this picture. Some of the friends were fighting with their tears actually. In older times this was a real saying goodbye for the bride's family as she moved in with her new family right after the wedding - sometimes on the opposite side of the country.

After several more or less short ceremonies which involved family members, fruits, spices, rice, fire and some water Kasturi and Paritosh made their way around the fire seven times and the wedding was official. The below photo was shot during their 4. round - as you can see, Kasturi has overtaken Paritosh, who was leading the first three rounds. Actually there is a nice story behind this tradition, as every round corresponds to a phase of life. The first three are lead by the groom, the later by the bride. There you go - we knew it all along, didn't we?

Here is a photo taken after the seven rounds - everybody is happy now that the tiring ceremony is over - I guess Kasturi's friends are happy about the enormous amounts of money they are going to get for the dirty shoes of Paritosh ...

Shortly after the wedding we all went home to relax and get out of the traditional clothing. In the evening there was a final reception, with the now married couple on stage and everybody congratulating them. For me this was the last evening with everybody in Pune as the next morning at 5 AM I would be picked up by a Taxi to fly to Delhi and spend the second week alone as a tourist. Thanks everybody for all the fun and all the things we experienced during this very short but very enriching week!

Click here for all the pics shot during this day ...