It's Wedding Season

My friend got married recently. Indian weddings in India aren't the same as Indian weddings in America. Or weddings in America in general.

• Indians like to invite everyone to their wedding. Friends, coworkers, friends of friends and coworkers, the mailman, the guy who made the jewelry. My cousin is getting married and I can invite however many people I want. Usually a couple hundred people attend a wedding.
• Because so many people are invited, they have dinner in rounds, or sitting, as they call them. First sitting is the best because you're eating from unused plates and spoons and bowls and stuff. Second sitting, well, you'll notice the difference. Yuck. SO when dinner comes around everyone tries to get the first sitting. I usually succeed. I'm small, I can run between people's legs and get to the table quick.
• The chairs are generally those ugly plastic chairs. Sometimes they cover them, but mostly the first two or three rows are nice for family and closer people. And plastic for everyone else. I mean, there are SO MANY PEOPLE, it's hard to accomodate.So I understand. No matter how rich one is, if there are a lot of people invited, there will be plastic chairs at 99% of the weddings.
• If you try to make it a small, personal wedding you might get death threats and a million "HOW COULD YOU!? We're practically family!!"'s from the mailman or your grocer.
• Food is served late. I mean 10:45 PM late. I mean the other day I arrived at 9:45 for the wedding. NINE FORTY FIVE PEE EM, people. And I was right on time. I am a sucker for punctuality, but not when it applies to weddings here. I will not sit there and starve. I'd rather have my first dinner at home, then my second dinner 3-4 hours later. But the food is also delicious. It's usually worth it.

Now for the better part of the weddings:

• Anyways, the stage usually is really festive and flowery and pretty. The bride here sits on a pretty velvety thing on the stage that's embellished in gold stuff. I don't know what it's called and I don't have a pic. Later on because probably her feet are all cramped, they get her a chair to sit on. Here's the stage. And the chair.

 

• Here, Muslims wear something called a Khada Dupatta. It's basically wearing a long top and pants and then being wrapped up in 6 meters of fabric. I used to hate it but now I love it. Even though I find it difficult to walk in. Only royalty used to wear these dresses, and I like to think of myself as such. So I shall wear this dress. Seriously, though, with jewelry, and if you wear it right, it looks grand. The first photos is a really simple, non-bridal one. The second is a bridal one. But the brides here wear heavier ones this is also pretty light in comparison and I can't find a heavier one online and I don't want to post photos of my friends up here for religious reasons as they aren't covered up properly.

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  Oh, and she also has henna on her hands and feet. Usually up to the elbows and a mid-calf. 
  
  
  
  I think that's pretty much it. I haven't really shared my India experience yet, and I have lot of things to write about, but don't know where to start. So I thought I'd start with something cultural before I get into the people and other things that make me want to strangle this country. Byeee. 
  Oh, and I have a bad habit of complaining. So if I complain, which is ALWAYS, please slap me. or at least remind me to shut up and be grateful for everything in my life. :)
  
  
  *Oh, and the two pics of the stage are my photos and the others are courtesy of google.
  ** I did something and the alignment of the post is off and won't fix itself. Sigh. Bye, again