jgohil_blog

I welcomed our last day in Mumbai for a number of reasons. I was getting really tired of the over populated and equally polluted city. Since the wedding was that night I did very little during the day. The morning and afternoon pretty much consisted of laying around by the pool and on the beach wall. The wedding was slated to start at 7:30 that evening and I had just been informed that morning that I’d be requested to join in the ceremony. My part was to wear my full Indian suit, known as a ‘Kurta,’ along with a turban atop my head. Although I had seen bits and pieces of Indian weddings from various family home movies, I really had no idea about what was to take place. What I did know was that there would be a horse, loud music and men dancing. Somewhere in that fray was my place. Nobody mentioned the midget. I digress.

I got showered and dressed with enough time left over for Justin to take a few pics of me in my very Indian outfit. The silk suit was really pretty comfortable and essentially felt like pajamas in its weight and fit. The best part – read: most entertaining – was the little elf shoes that matched the outfit. They were simple little slip-ons that had pointy toes and extremely ornate embroidery with a little tapered flap that could be shaped to curl or point straight up. After a few gratuitous ‘There’s no place like home’ jokes and silly photos, Justin and I left for ‘The Club’.

We arrived there about an hour before the ceremony was to begin and met with the man would be affixing the turban to my noggin. I guess I had assumed that there would be some ready made turban which he would simply stick on my head. Not so. The ‘turban guy’ had me sit down in front of him as he proceeded to wrap about 2 yards of silk around my skull. At first he covered my eyes and my ears, but as he kept wrapping he moved it up a little with each time around. Eventually he did some sort of a tuck thing and he was finished. By the look on Justin’s face I knew I must have been a sight to behold. We decided to have a little fun with my new outfit on and found an isolated area of the parking lot where Justin taped me doing some MC Hammer and James Brown dances with my full Indian gear on. No these videos will NOT be posted to the Internet.  UPDATE: ok…. one video will be posted… enjoy at the expense of my dignity!

we made our way to the entrance of the wedding hall where the music stopped and we stood sweating profusely. Apparently this was the extent of my responsibility so I took off the turban and sat with the other guests. The next few moments were strange and somewhat anti-climactic. Justin and I were seated at one of the tables where we could watch the bride and groom sitting on a makeshift altar. The music had stopped, the guests were milling about and it seemed there was some sort of an intermission. What I found out later was that the wedding had just taken place and we didn’t see any of it. I’m not sure whether we blinked or if the ceremony was just that abrupt, but it was over and food was being served. Justin and I took a few minutes to reflect on the strangeness of it all. Not just the wedding, but our whole experience up to that point. I mean, I expected to be surprised, but I realized then that I couldn’t have imagined how and to what degree. Little did I know, that was just the tip of the iceberg. We were to leave Mumbai the following morning and head to Goa, where we would spend New Years eve.