We were told that if you're patient, then you'll enjoy India. This proved true on our first day of wedding events. We arrived on time to the airport to be joined by 60 friends and family of the bride. Rob and I were worried that we might have too much luggage. Then we saw our group's growing mound of suitcases, bags, and boxes and breathed a sigh of relief. This was not a group that traveled lightly. Plus they had wedding decorations and gifts for the guests to bring along. And I think every woman had at least 5 saris with her, including all the bling that goes along with them. Each sari is 5 1/2 yards of fabric. The Hummel suitcases were a drop in the bucket. Above is Namit's father, who everyone calls "Uncle," standing next to the Prime Focus van.
Above is the beginnings of our group. We met each and every one and diligently copied down names and relationships so we could sort everyone out. Names like Neha, Neesha, Arjun, Ankita, Aneesha, Ami, Akshay, Ashkibar, etc. We almost always got it wrong at the start, but we're getting better with practice.
I just love unfortunate uses of English....
Here is Rob with Shilpa, Namit's assistant and our life-saver.
When Rob went through security, they spotted a U.S. half dollar. The security officer asked what it was and Rob explained. The officer asked why Rob had it and Rob said it was for magic tricks. The officer said, "Show me." (Note that for a long, complicated reason that I won't go into, we were travelling under the names of Johan and Anita Abraham, since the tickets were not issued in our names, so we were trying to avoid causing any extra attention to ourselves.) Rob performed one trick and the officer said, "Another." He'd still be there today if Rob hadn't said, "Are we done here, sir?" We made it through security with no more questions asked, loaded on to a bus to take us to the plane, which ended up being no more than 20 yards away. Just getting one's own bags at baggage claim can be challenging so imagine finding bags for 60 people and you can imagine what our arrival looked like.
We piled on to a waiting private bus for the drive to Ludhiana, which is where the groom's family is from. Rob and I are the only westerners in the bunch. Each of the children is matched by one or more nannies, some of whom didn't look much older than twelve.
Below is Namit's wife, Ami, with their eldest son, Artun.
Shilpa's daughter took a liking to all of Rob's voices and sound effects, so she sat on his lap while he made noises and put her shoes back on her feet about a zillion times.
This is what the traffic looked like for most of the way.
And this is what we saw along the sides of the roads for most of the way.
At one point we were following a bus with brightly colored fabrics on top. Soon we realized those were women.
Each scene outside our window was like watching a movie, with scenes that made me want to stop the bus so I could take it all in.
I love the scene below with the Sikh man on his cellphone in front of the billboard with men selling chickens in the distance.
We thought that we were headed to the hotel to relax and get ready for what was inexplicably called the "Youngsters' Cocktail Party" that evening. However, this is where we landed - at a large home covered in lights and flowers. It was the groom's family home. And we were there to have lunch, though our plane was late so it was closer to dinner. I will stop here, as I need to get ready for the ring ceremony tonight. It's scheduled for 8 pm, but everyone says that means it will start after 9 pm. Indian Standard Time. The wedding celebrations have been beyond wonderful, and I'll fill in those details tomorrow.
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