Adventures in Africa: The adventures go on - an engagement party in India

Ravi and Jasleen met and fell in love in Edinburgh.

I was in India for one month, and as usual, I took the opportunity to connect with the Filipino VSO volunteers. The main purpose of the trip though was to attend the wedding of an Indian couple who were at school with my daughter. Their friends travelled from Vienna, Germany, the UK and we rendezvoused in New Delhi.

Traveling with Generation Ys is a great learning experience.

Most of our pre-departure preparations were on researching for the appropriate attire for the 4-day wedding celebration, calibrating our post-wedding travel itinerary, and booking trains and hotels. For the main wedding ceremony, ladies will have to wear an Indian saree, with a blouse and a petticoat and we had these made on the eve of our departure for the venue.

A Venus de Milo in glittering exquisite saree?

Since there were 4 of us ladies, the tailor had to work until 11:00pm right under our noses because we were to take an early morning train. Well, at the first fitting the measurements and the materials were all interchanged so he had to re-do everything. While nervously waiting, we learned how to put on the saree – which is some 5 to 7 meters long of unsewn cloth draped around the body.

The shopkeeper had to give us a ride back to our hotel.

We were all excited to board the 4-hour train ride to Rudrapur. The welcome party was very warm. There was drumbeating, a garland of marigolds and the traditional bindi (red dot on the forehead).

Decorating the forehead with bindi.

I noticed a lot of waving from the ladies in the bride’s family only to realize that they were actually just drying their arms and hands that were newly painted with heena. It takes two hours to fully dry the paint and we shortly found ourselves waving too.