Part 1: Tumeric Bath Friday

Warning: we are making up our own names for the various elements.....

Friday marked the beginning of the three day wedding festivus, and the imported guests where pretty excited. At around 11am we made the short trip to the Sharma household and the first impressions did not disappoint. Everybody told us that Indian weddings are all about the colour, and the temporary entrance to the house left us in no doubt about which house was the right one!

 

The other thing that went exactly as we expected was that proceedings proved to be pretty fluid, with even the Bride & Groom not having much idea of what or when each part of the process would happen.  This didn't matter to us at all, as it gave us an opportunity to mingle, and equally as importantly, sample both the breakfast and lunch menu.

The caterers (think 15+ people) had set up a makeshift kitchen under a temporary cover between some trees in the front yard, and seemed to be permanently cooking vegetarian Indian cuisine which was delicious. Breakfast was fresh roti stuffed with potatoes and served with spicy pickles and yoghurt, and lunch was a spread of bread & curried and flash fried veggies.
The bride and groom were not allowed to eat until after the Haldi ceremony (not surprisingly, they were in a bit of a hurry to get the show on the road :))

The Haldi ceremony began with Vik being 'cleansed' by the married women on his side of the family.   The cleansing ingredients included turmeric, sandalwood, rose water (and something else we are not sure what).  They signify purification, and warding off evils as well as make the skin glow.  We have to admit we were a bit worried about Marisa turning orange with her fair complexion.  The number 7 seemed to have featured strongly. There were 7 women doing the cleansing, each repeating the process 7 times.  He didn't look all that cleansed to us at the end and needed a shower

    

Then, it was Marisa's turn:

   

Unscathed, the couple are now ready for parts 2 & 3