Harpreet's Shaadi

I came to Chandigarh because my good friend, Harpreet, was getting married. We had worked together on a project at CEPT when I came to India in 2005 on CapAsia and since I came back last year, we had kept in touch through email pretty regularly for people on opposite sides of the globe. So I was really excited that I would be here, in the country, and could come to his wedding.

I actually just attended the reception, as the actual wedding was in Jalandhar. I planned on wearing my new, blue sari for the occasion. I had been all over town before trying to find a place that sold ready-made sari petticoats. I could have had one sewn to exactly match, but didn't feel like going to that trouble! But I thought, with the number of women wearing saris, it would have been easier to find a ready made one! Finally I found a shop, and they actually sold very nice, quality ones. The women went through the stacks to find the right color and size. They helped me try them on and pulled out darts there to make it fit better and hemmed it while I waited.

As Rashmi had helped me tie my sari at home for pictures, I was pretty confident that I could do it alone. Accomplishing the feat of wrapping myself in 6 meters of fabric I think took about an hour! As soon as I got one part right, I had to re-fix another part, but finally it came out right. I added a red, jeweled stick-on bindi to my forehead, and was ready to go. As I locked the door, the hotel workers saw me dressed up, and was excited to go tell the other workers that I was wearing "Indian dress."
They obligingly took my picture before I left. When the autowala dropped me at the party plot, he told me he couldn't express how pretty I looked in Indian dress.

Even though I ended up being about an hour late because of putting on my sari, the bride and groom had not arrived yet. I was quite happy to see that the reception was inside, in a well air conditioned room as it was soo humid! Overall I was happy to notice that the Punjabis seemed to use A/C much more than the Gujaratis. As I entered the room, I was greeted right away by Harpreet's father and brother. His two younger brothers are identical twins, and I had to admit to him that I wasn't sure if he was Sunny or Hunny. He admitted that most of the relatives couldn't even tell them apart. I guessed correctly that he was Sunny and had worn matching yellow shirt and turban to make it easier, while Hunny wore pink.

Some of the other relatives had me sit with them while we waited for the couple, and servers came around with soft drinks, spring rolls, fried veggie nuggets, and hot chocolate. Finally the couple arrived and sat on a special dais to receive guests and take pictures and receive gifts. The bride, Simpreet, looked beautiful in a really lovely pink and mint sari and the traditional forearm full of red and white bangles that a bride must wear during the initial stage of being married.

Later on, some other friends from CEPT arrived, so it was nice to have some friends to sit with. There was a small dance floor in the front which mostly the children were using. They were pretty cute. I took some videos; one little girl really had some moves! Our group ate dinner there late. There was daal, rice, and other typical Indian foods with areas for veg and non-veg. I had some of the chinese food.

We stayed late, and I didn't get back to the hotel til 1 am. By this time I had had to re-adjust my sari multiple times, and I was not looking nearly so good as in the beginning. If my roommate had been there, she probably would have scolded me for pinning and unpinning the fabric over my shoulder. Hahaha, several times while wearing my salwar suit and see me holding up the corner of the tunic with one hand, she would make sure I stopped. My train for Delhi left at 6:45 am, so I didn't get much sleep at all before I had to get up.

I took the train to Delhi and met Rashmi's boyfriend at the station. She had some gifts she'd asked me to give to him. With him, I rode the Delhi Metro train for the first time. Overall, it was impressive, however to get a single token for one trip the line was a 15 minute wait, and to get through you had to put your bags through a screener like at the airport. The train and stations were clean, but as are most things in india, the cars were very crowded. Finally I took my flight back to Ahmedabad exhausted after the travel and walking around Chandigarh for the week.