The wedding, which lasted for four days, was arranged over a website by a guru. The newly wed's astrological signs, castes, religions, and social statuses matched.
On the 14th we attended the first function of the wedding. It was an evening pooja and prayer ceremony to call the gods to the wedding and to bless the groom. The bride was not even in the city yet, it was just the groom's side. Close family members sang prayers to the groom. It was a long ceremony but it was also not extremely formal. There was singing and dancing and music and people chatted with their neighbor throughout the whole thing. We sat on mattresses that had been set up on the floor and there was a flower covered bower tent-y type thing that was set up on one end where a temple had been set up. People gave a lot of money to the groom and his family, it was given as a blessing by waving the bills around the person being blessed's head.
Of course, like any Indian function, the night ended with a meal.
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| The temple/ alter that was set up in the hotel. |
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| Ritu Grover (our exchange coordinator, left) and the groom's mother (right). |
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| The groom dancing with his older sister. |
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