Wedding Day Three

The third day of the wedding consisted of two functions. In the early afternoon we we to a ceremony at another hotel. This was the first time we'd seen the bride, she and her family had arrived that morning from Mumbai. There was a ceremony between the two families. A sort of greeting and welcoming to the bride's family. They exchanged gifts and promises. The gifts varied from gift baskets of food and sweets to some stunning traditional jewelry mostly for the bride's family. It was a very small room with a lot of people who were all talking at once even all the way through the ceremony and the guru's prayers but it was also really interesting to watch. The bride was beautiful, and she wore a really heavy lehenga and had jewelry put on her. I don't think this was the first time that the couple had met but they didn't know each other well. The bride also had two brother's with her and I think it must be hard on the family to have a daughter leaving to another city so permanently.
Later, around 9 that night was a cocktail party organized by Ritu Grover at a garden event center just outside of the city. It was black and red, western dress code so we all bought formal western wear previously since none of us had really brought anything that nice with us. At the beginning of the night there was a series of dances preformed by the close friends and family of the wedding couple. The couple themselves sat in a flower covered pavilion with their parents off to the side of the audience where people could come congratulate them, take pictures, and they could see the stage. There was also a ring ceremony on the stage after the performance that only the family experienced close up. The rest of us enjoyed the massive buffet and dance floor that were set up. It ended up being a really late night, I think I'm starting to get the hang of dancing to Indian songs but it was still much easier for me to dance to the English ones, I think part of it is that knowing what the lyrics are saying helps.

The bride and groom at the afternoon ceremony.

The bride's brothers (standing) after giving blessings to the groom (sitting right). The holy man who performed the ceremonies is sitting on the left holding sweets.

The grooms sister (in blue on left) handing a gift to the bride's parents.

The bride and groom at the cocktail party. 

Close family friends of the groom's performing a a dance to a popular movie song at the cocktail party.

Little girls enjoying the performances as well.

Hannah, Jordan, and I.

Happy Republic Day

Yesterday (the 26th) was the 62nd anniversary of the framing of India's constitution. All through the streets there were people sell flags and other patriotic paraphernalia like orange, white and green pinwheels and arm bans. Many vehicles and auto rickshaws had flags attached.
It was a national holiday but many schools, mine including, were in session for a few hours to hold assemblies. My school day was from 9:30 until 11. At 10 we had an assembly where a few of my classmates gave speeches, along with the principal, and a student who was chosen as a model student from the 12th grade raised the flag. One of the speeches that a boy in my class gave was about how disappointed he was sometimes in the state of India and what a dishonor it was to those who struggled for India that her people are now disregarding basic values. He touched on everything from corruption to obeying traffic laws to saving power then begged his peers to do what they could, every small thing, to turn India away from the direction it's heading. He said he recognized there was nothing that we could do to stop our elders from committing crimes and corruption but if we stuck to our values, when it was our generation's turn to take the positions of power, India could be a great country. He said that most people realize India's heading towards being a great world power, but that power could end up being a bad thing if something did not change. He said "The boat that is India is being rocked and my fear is that I may drown too. Let me take a chance and row even if the boat it full of leaks."
After the ceremony and assembly, we had snacks and then headed home once again.
The celebration also made me think about where, developmentally, India is today versus where we, the United States, was only 61 years after our constitution was signed. Not this close to being a world super power, that's for sure. 

Wedding Day Two

At five o'clock on the second day of the wedding all the women got mehendi. Mehendi is the designs that women get on their hands and feet using henna. There were women who had been hired to apply the henna. There the women all worked in pairs, one would draw the outline with henna and the other then filled it in so that one side of one hand was done then the same side of the other hand was outlined while the first hand was being filled in. The hardest part was sitting patiently while the paste was drying then not playing with it so that the color set. The evening ended with more singing and praying and of course, a meal. At night me put Vasiline on our hands so that the color darkened. It's said that the darker the color stains your skin the better your relationship with your mother-in-law will be. Because of how light my skin is the contrast stood out more, and it looked really dark. Maybe that means I will have a really good relationship with my mother-in-law...

Getting mehendi.

All the women sat on the mattresses on the floor after getting their mehendi and many of them took turns singing.

Amanda's mehendi.

All of the exchange students with Ritu Grover and the groom's mother.

Yesterday's temple became a mehendi station.

Wedding Day One

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.

The temple/ alter that was set up in the hotel. 

Ritu Grover (our exchange coordinator, left) and the groom's mother (right).

The groom dancing with his older sister.

Lohri and my Cousin's Birthday

January 13th was not only my cousin in the U.S.'s birthday, it was also the birthday of my cousin, Jahanvi, here. On top of that, is was also the Hindu holiday Lohri which is like a spiritual New Year. We had another bonfire in the street and most of the neighborhood was there. Everyone took handfuls of special snacks and walked around the bonfire, throwing the food in. This represents burning all sins, mistakes, and ill feelings from the previous year and restarting. The snacks were popcorn, sesame based snacks, and little sweets. People also ate handfuls of them. Around 11, we finally went up for dinner at my aunt and uncle's where we had a birthday dinner fir Jahanvi. After the cake was cut, as tradition, the birthday girls was fed by each person and they were fed in return. When my sister, Ipshita, went to give Jahanvi her cake she smeared it all over her face starting a cake fight. By the end of it, we had cake in our hair, all over our faces, stuck to our socks from the floor, and on our clothes. It was a very fun and crazy night.
The next morning I left to go to the wedding and the hotel where we were staying the next four days.



Today, the 23rd, the exchange students joined one of the Rotary clubs and many people all over the city at one of many stations set up to give polio vaccinations to the slum children. We set up in a small, lower class school in a much poorer part of town. Announcements were made with a blow horn from an auto rickshaw that drove through the streets. We each helped out a different Rotarian. I worked with a woman doctor who alternated between giving pregnant women brief check-ups and prescribing minor medicines to mothers and children for aches, pains, coughs, and things. There was one young women who was pregnant with her fifth child and the doctor told her that she needed to stop having kids. I got to hear the heartbeat of one of the babies too! The room where she did the check ups was a small, empty, concrete class room with no glass on the windows and the women lay on a metal bench.
Hannah helped give out prizes and toys to the children who had gotten the drops. Nikolas and Jordan helped to give the drops to the children. They only had to have any child under 5 swallow a few drops. Jordan also spent some time helping a male doctor who was also there. It was really fun and really cool. This kind of thing was something that I've wanted to do since coming to India.