Jojo Mama's Marriage
DAY 1
PART 1
There were five highlights today, four of which were related
to food. Mostly, the other people shot pictures
(I was reading a Satyajit Ray book, unless I was needed in the picture) while
the decorators decorated the whole house. In the end, the house looked amazing.
The gate looked immensely grand, and the whole place was covered in plastic,
colourful flowers. To sum it up, it looked great.
At first,
everyone took a few pictures. By the way, I was the nitbor. Then the
first highlight came. It was a ceremony in which all the people older than Jojo
Mama (my dad filmed the whole thing) put Khol on his head, then scrubbed
his head with a bar of soap and finally soaked his hair with water.
Then we
took a lot of pictures. Then came the second highlight. My Dad took me
downstairs to see the cooks cooking. It smelt great.
Then we went upstairs, and the third highlight
happened then and there. There were plates laden with sweets! I had a plate of
my own, while Jojo Mama had seven plates. As you could expect, if each plate
had five sweets, Jojo Mama didn’t eat all of them.
Then, we
took some more pictures until the fourth highlight happened. We went into the
garage and ate luchi and torkari. Then we went out to get my topor
(I don’t count this as a highlight because: (1) I did NOT
want to wear topor and (2) I did NOT want to go
out).
PART 2
Nothing
much happened last night. My mum put mehndi on her hand while listening to
songs for two hours (yes, two HOURS.) and then we went to Jojo Mama’s house for
dinner. It was a short visit. Read today’s experience in day 2 part 1.
DAY 2
PART 1
On the
contrary to yesterday, a lot of things happened today. The first thing was
happening when we came. It was a puja. But when the professional cameramen
came, no one really paid attention to the puja. I observed that everyone was
too interested in taking the perfect photos. The cameramen moaned that they
didn’t have a seat in front of everyone, resulting in worse photos. But
luckily, they found the perfect angle.
Next, we
ate breakfast. I ate muri ghugni for breakfast. After this, came the
longest ceremony of all. It was called Gaye holud, and there were lots
of preparations for it (such as, breaking up long wooden sticks for a fire and
roasting raw grain so that it popped like popcorn). The main bit of the
ceremony was that all the people older than Jojo Mama covered his face, legs
and arms with turmeric. That’s what Gaye holud means. Gaye means
‘on the body’ and holud means turmeric. So gaye holud means
‘turmeric on the body’.
Then we
went outside to a temple. When they did a ceremony (e.g. painting five blood
red dots in the way of a dice, then putting stones or shells on each dot. Then
they put a clay bowl over each set of five dots. They did this twice. Then,
after all the woman and Jojo Mama had gone around it five times, he smashed
them under his feet.) I rang the enormous bell hanging from the temple roof. It
was a lot of fun.
Then we
went to Gangar Par (the Holy Ganges river), where they again did the ‘five
dots’ ceremony. Unfortunately, there was no bell to ring. Then they went down
and filled two clay pots up with Ganges water. I hope they didn’t make Jojo
Mama drink it, though. The water was (no offence, Ganges) totally filthy.
Then we came back. We ate quite a big meal. Then I lazed around a bit. I tried to find my story book (which I had previously lost), but my efforts were futile. In the end, my mum found it, but that was when we were coming back home. When we got home, I saw some TV, then wrote this. Like yesterday, we’re going back tonight for dinner.
Part 2
We didn’t do much last night. It was a
short visit. We just went for dinner and then came back.
DAY 3
PART 1
Yesterday, we went to Jojo Mama’s house to
get the tottyo (gifts) to the bride’s marriage hall. Then we met my Mami
(Jojo Mama’s wife). The other people talked to Mami and took photos with her.
That was pretty much everything that happened yesterday morning.
Part 2
Yesterday evening, we ate lunch and came
back home. After we came back, I wore my Dhoti and Punjabi. Last night was the
real marriage. At first, a relative from Mami’s side fed Jojo Mama Rosogolla (an
Indian savoury sweet) and then he drank water, and, by the way, this all happened
inside the car. The same was done to me, being the nitbor. Then we went
upstairs. I just sat in an empty room with Jojo Mama at first. We ate tiffin in
the room. Then Jojo Mama’s marriage started. It was the longest ceremony of them
all, and it was also the most important ceremony because after the ceremony
ended, Jojo Mama was officially married to Mami. Because it was the longest
ceremony, I got bored at times. I tried to sleep, but it was too hard with the
surrounding noise and bustle. Then we ate dinner. It was a very big meal and
lasted for a long time. We went back home later. I was exhausted so I slept
like a rock.
DAY 4
PART 1
In the morning, there were two ceremonies.
The first was a game where Jojo Mama and Mami tried to find as many shells as
possible from within a pile of dirt/sand. Mami won. The next ceremony was also
a game. Jojo Mama and Mami had to find each other’s ring in a bowl of foggy/milky
water. Then I went upstairs, played a little bit, ate lunch and came back home.
PART 2
Last night, we went for dinner. Afterwards,
we went back home.
Day 5
Part 1
Nothing happened in the morning. At night, we
went to another marriage hall (groom’s hall), but we were delayed by a bunch of
protesters en-route, burning effigies in the middle of road. In the end, we did
reach the destination. After taking some pictures, Mami’s family and her guests
(around 60 people) came. Waiters vended packets of food to all those guests. We
ate dinner after taking more photos. Then we came back and took even more
photos. Yesterday was basically a day for only taking photos. Then we came back
and slept.
Day 6
Part 1
We just ate some things at Jojo Mama’s
house. Then we ate lunch. I had to carry a tottyo gift back home which
was for me. It was an Avenger’s shirt. Then we came back home, and I wrote
this.
Conclusion: I enjoyed a lot in Jojo Mama’s marriage ceremony – a great Indian wedding
Excellent article
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