Pooja+Kush
For the impatient: Pictures
Here are a set of albums I put up really quick...it's definitely not complete, but I thought it'd be nice to see them quickly!
The sign outside the Chattanooga convention center
Where to begin? at the beginning of course!
We flew into Nashville on the tuesday night before Thanksgiving; arriving about 5 minutes before the rental car company closed. We immediately started driving our luggage-laden lawnmower through rain and fog and reached the convention center Marriot at 4:30am EST. If step one was getting there, step two was sleeping for 8 hours :-)
The next day featured a quick lunch as we met and greeted family and friends from around the world. I'm not trying to be silly, it's true, my uncle and aunt came in from India! Looking at all the guests, there were Candians, Kenyans, and Indians.
Wenesday night was the mehndi party, i.e. a little get together of the bride's side to put on henna tatoos. The mehndi party also featured a neat little game involving dividing the audience into 10 teams, and asking each team to send a member to the stage to perform some feat for the entertainment of all. For example, a male-member of each team had to sing a classic Hindi song, in a girl's voice, or there was the venerable let's see how goofy guys look when trying to wear a sari.
Thursday morning was the Grh Shanti. Grh means celestial body and shanti means peace. It is a ceremony that helps account for any celestial misalignments that may exist at the time of the wedding. After this ceremony, the bride's side can begin building the mandap (the gazebo-ish structure in which the couple is married). After the end of the ceremony, we were treated to a trip through 25 years of the brides' parents' marriage. In the afternoon, the groom's side showed up in a couple of coaches and the anticipation began growing more quickly.
Come nighttime, the kids and adults were separated into their own coctail hour which was followed by a sangeet, or music party. The night featured an 8-song medely where each segment was performed by a different group of friends/family of the couple. After that, a band called the 'Music Lovers' entertained the crowd with a great mix of songs. I had never danced to a live Desi-band, I must say it's real riot! Thinking the part was over at midnight, many people went to bed. The rest of us decided to go bar-hopping and ended up at the hotel's 24-hour diner where we swamped the one waitress with massive orders of breakfast foods. An honorable mention to Nicole for piling 8 people in a 5-person sedan; that's 2 in front and 6 in the back.
Friday was let's recover from two nights of partying day...which of course did not happen. After waking up late, Shalin (aka superhost), Guru and I took a ride around town to get some errands done. I also met up with my friend fresh-brewed sweet tea. If you haven't had sweet tea from the South, you really should. Eventually, I will learn to brew my own! Friday evening started with an early cocktail hour followed by the garba. The garba event is a night of dancing garba (social circle dancing) and raas (social dancing with sticks called dandia). Although I thought the carpeted floors would burn holes through my feet, they the ended up being quite gentle :-P Not to beforgotten were awesome dance performances by stunning ladies and energetic youths. The Shalin-choreographed raas was also quality. So quality, in fact, that Guru decided he didn't even need dandia :-P
Saturday morning was the main event: the wedding. Starting with the jaan's parade through the streets (led by Heemesh), Kush's horse-driven carriage brought him to the convention center. From there, he was carried to the door. Fortunately for us, he made it through the door before his guards and so one of our ladies swiped his shoes before anybody knew what was happening; I heralded Anushri as the MVP of the bride's side :-P The bridesmaids combined with the groomsmen to do a little dance to announe the arrival of Kush and the beginning of the ceremony. There after the bridesmaids and groomsmen took their places, Kush came in, followed by Pooja and the wedding ceremony began. My duties included preventing Kush from seeing Pooja before the appointed time by use of pretty blanket/curtain, giving Pooja rice to feed the fire, and holding Kush's toe and thus preventing him from marrying Pooja without giving us brothers some assurance (read: money) that he would take good care of Pooja. As the wedding ceremony concluded massive congratulatory wishes, often in parallel, were passed along. Some such sentiments were even called in from those who watched the whole event from the internet. That's correct, this wedding was broadcast to the net for those who weren't able to attend.
On Saturday night, the couple was received, speeches were given, embarassing slideshoes of ancient pictures were shown, dinner was eaten, dessert was devoured, dancing was danced, and the former New England Patriot photographers took the last of their 10,000+ pictures of the weekend. Wedding DJ extrodinaire Magic Mike and his live dholi extended the evening as much as possible and ended with something called 'Chattanooga Choo Choo', I think. At the end of the evening we sat in an emtpy orchid-strewn room of the convention center wondering where all the time went at the same time marveling at how much had happend during the past week.
After everybody feverishly packed, they came down to the Sunday morning brunch to give a final farewell to couple. Vanderbilt's South Asian acappela group and all it's alumni plus a member of Wash U's group performed for the couple as a their tribute to the couple's union.
Hitching a ride with Heemesh and superhostess Sneha, we ran down to Nashville to: a. put my sister (that's Shivani) back in her dorm, b. to catch a flight back to Phoenix. And so my week ended as my trip to Vanderbilt's Diwali program began, with Heemesh, lol.
In any case, my best and my love to both Pooja and Kush, I hope their honeymoon in the Pacific includes chilling out, maxing, as well as relaxing all cool.
Congratulations and much love!
PS remember, step one is complete! step up!