Holy Security
In the last 40 house of being awake we’ve been through so many security checks, it’s insane. But I’m getting ahead of myself… Today was our last day in India. We woke up relatively early to say goodbye to the Patel crew. Keval invited is over for lunch at his parents which was very nice […]
Indian Reception
The last event of Hima and Keval’s wedding is the reception. Unlike a reception for an American wedding, Indian receptions have a completely different purpose and occur the night after the wedding. Because it started at night, we were able to sleep in a bit which was much needed. The whole morning and early afternoon […]
Hima is married!
Today consisted of two significant ceremonies… Grah Shanti and the Wedding. The Grah Shanti began a little after 9am poolside at the resort, beautifully decorated with orange flower garlands. I did some research on this ceremony since whenever I asked about the meaning behind the previous ones, nobody could really tell me much (but I […]
Sangeet!
Today we traveled to Baroda. We all piled into a big van with our luggage all on top…Indian Style. We also lost the air conditioning, so it was a pretty darn hot three hour drive. Upon arrival to the resort (yes I said resort), we were quickly checked in and then able to relax for […]
Did you know there is a 4…in the morning??
The whole village attended Hima’s cousin’s wedding last night, except us and her it felt like. Nobody returned to the village until 3:30am which means we couldn’t get into our house until almost 4 which means we had at most 4 hours of sleep available to us before we had to get up to pack. […]
Wedding Festivities Officially Begin!
Today finally started Hima’s wedding festivities! Haldi Ceremony and Ganesh Puja (see “Nobody Comes to India” post if you need a refresher on what that means). The ceremony was beautiful and emotional for her family. It’s always so sweet seeing emotions on people who may normally be more stoic in nature. I was even able […]
Spa Day and More Wedding Festivities
We haven’t even begun attending Hima’s wedding festivities, and it seems like we’ve done so much already. Today began at the spa… mani, pedi, and massage. We then rushed home (on an auto rickshaw!) to get ready for another Puja, dinner and then the Sangeet…all for Hima’s cousin. The Sangeet was a new experience, and […]
Nobody comes to India in December and only attends one wedding…
The next door neighbor is also getting married and we were invited (this is the third wedding now… the first one we were not able to attend). This neighbor is a relative of Hima’s (everyone is a cousin, so I will go with that). Since the weddings are very close together, all the women in […]
Lazy day
Today was a lazier day with a later start. First stop is always Hima’s for lunch. Today we had roti, rice, and a potato vegetable mix all served with curry. I never thought I liked curry but this kind wasn’t bad. We then headed to Hima’s other grandparents to spend the afternoon hanging out with […]