A friend dropped by, yawning because he's been going to weddings every day. The mahurtham (wedding ceremony) is usually at about 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, because that's the most auspicious time; then there are receptions, and processions to temples (for Tamils) in the evening; and more informal gatherings like mehndis (originally North Indian, but now adopted by some Tamils) during the day. He said, "I haven't slept for days, because I have to get up at 3:30 every morning to get ready to go to the mahurtham. And my wife is refusing to cook -- she says we'll eat at the wedding." I said, "But wedding food is usually pretty good." He said, "Yes, but you can't eat all that more than once a day," rubbing his stomach.
Ramesh disapproves of, and refuses to attend, weddings: he thinks they should be private affairs, not huge productions with just you and your 500 closest friends (this is the definition of a small wedding -- the big ones have thousands of guests). Our friend at first defended weddings, but then began to laugh and agree: "The main thing is that we meet all the relatives whom we don't really want to see, but are obliged to meet occasionally. We greet them, say insincerely, 'You must come home sometime,' and leave quickly before they have a chance to accept."
There's a rush of weddings right now, because the Tamil month of Adi starts this weekend. Adi is inauspicious for new beginnings, so people with wedding plans are in a hurry to get them over with before it begins.
No comments:
Post a Comment