So the wedding season is in full swing and this week I have had the honour of being a guest at two very different weddings.
The first was the much anticipated wedding of one of the Indian doctors working in the Hospital here. He is a Catholic from Kerala and in January via many happy coincidences he was introduced to a very lovely girl from a very suitable family and they got on like the proverbial house on fire. This prompted much teasing from all of us of course as he was soon spending all evening, every evening on the phone getting to know her and after a short while planning the wedding. Forget Prince William, he really has not had a look in here in this corner of Tamil Nadu, the only wedding we were interested in was to take place on Monday 25th of April in Cochin.
The invitations arrived amongst much excitement, well much excitement for me as this was the first formal wedding invite I had ever received. My outfit I was quite settled on, my favourite salwar kurta in orange and purple, the only concern in my eyes was what present to get the happy couple. I had big plans to find a nice gift while travelling in the North of India but for some reason nothing seemed quite right. My friend the American paediatrician and I were going to split the cost but what to get? Other friends had gone down the classic route of home wares, for example two of the guys had bought a very handsome electric kettle, but I was stumped. Eventually in true last minute style, once we had arrived in Cochin I decided upon a nice French press coffee maker from café coffee day and a pretty painted photo frame from fab india.
My little sister Harry is still in the country and because of various friend overlaps with the medical students and “oh what a small world” moments it was possible for her to come along to the wedding. Travelling down on the Sunday night meant that we all got a little much needed time to relax in beautiful fort Cochin together, friends from the charity, medical students and Harry and I. We wondered around in the ridiculous heat, thoroughly enjoying ourselves but unable to shake the slight feeling that we were in some sort of Butterfly house/ tropical botanical gardens. The air was wet and heavy and the instant you stepped outside there was a noticeable beading of sweat which would form across foreheads and top lips. Luckily we remembered some of the more chilled out hang out spots from our last visit. We had a delicious breakfast involving lots of fresh fruit at the Kashi Art Café and then after some light shopping we found our way on Harry’s recommendation to the Teapot café. If anyone is going to Cochin soon I suggest a nice cold glass of ginger sweet lime and a slice of cake. The high ceilings and relaxed atmosphere were exactly what we needed.
Fully refreshed we went to prepare ourselves for the wedding. Dressing in very elaborately embroidered salwar kurta for the ladies (yes we were a little overheated) and a strange combination of outfits for the menfolk we were with. This ranged from shirts and trousers to a Lungi worn by my lovely friend the American anthropology student. A lungi for those who don’t know (including me until recently) is the name for the traditional attire worn on the lower half by many Indian men, it consists of a length of cotton fabric wrapped around the waist and then either left to hang long down to the ankle or flipped up to create a shorter garment for coolness or ease of walking. That my friend wore this is perhaps testament to the fact that he has been in India too long, although as he pointed out it is pretty practical in the heat!
The wedding itself was in a large modern Catholic Church in Ernakulum and involved a lot of singing hymns along to what sounded suspiciously like Keyboard demos from the electric organ. The happy couple looked so ridiculously happy and well matched and although significant language barriers forbade me from actually understanding what was said it seemed to be a beautiful service. The reception was (thankfully) held in an air conditioned meeting hall nearby. It was such a relief to be somewhere cool by this point as I realised that my outfit in true Indian style had been dyed with dye that had no intention of staying on the cloth and with all the sweating I had started to go an interesting shade of purple. The reception had even more people present than the wedding itself and was a very jolly affair with everyone wandering about chatting and some pretty delicious Keralan food at the buffet counter. Before long the time had come for us to make our sleepy way homeward in the big minibus, back up into the mountains.
On eventually arriving back at the accommodation in the early hours on the morning I was a little surprised to see that my bedroom light was on. One of the medical students reminded me that on leaving there had been a power cut and I must have accidentally left the switch on. I also noticed that my window had blown open. A minor annoyance at any other time but unfortunately due to the thunder storms recently a rather epic problem. Let me explain. In spring and autumn, usually after a thunderstorm you will get termite swarms. Literally thousands of king and queen termites with wings take to the skies on one night. They happened to do this on the night I was out. Hundreds and hundreds of them attracted to the lights in my room had flown in and promptly shed their wings and started crawling around in my stuff. When I arrived home my bedroom looked like a cross between a horror movie and a biblical plague. I was stunned, I had had such a great time away but now my room was full of creepy crawlies! Unable to deal with it all on Monday night I just went to bed in a spare bed in another part of the house. When the housekeeper arrived the next day she bravely did battle with the insect hoard and I am relieved to say that my room is back to normal now.
This is a very long blog, I am tired of writing so I am certain you will be tired of reading it. I will stop here for now. Wedding fun, dying myself purple and having a plague of termites is as much as I can deal with right now. I will tell you about the second wedding in one week next time.
Lots of love.
A x
The boys looking dashing.
At the reception.
The Happy Couple.
The termite swarm!
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