Sorry, no sari!

It's a funny thing. To walk down the street in a foreign country and suddenly realize that you know where you are, you know where you are going and this is where you live. This came to me last week as I was walking to meet my fellow knitblogger friend, Rima. And it really is true, I am starting to feel at home. Not always, but sometimes, yes.

Part of that feeling is that we are starting to make friends. I have on several occasions seen people who I have previously met while I am out and around. This is a bit amazing to me in this city of many millions, but there you go. It is a small world after all!

So, we were invited to a wedding. Actually, not the whole wedding, just the reception. We felt very honored to be invited and when we were there we were treated as very honored guests. As we entered (Standard Indian time = 1 hour late) the bride (a co-worker of Bryan's) and groom were just entering. We were shown to our seats as they walked up to a stage and took a seat on a dais. Soon they were standing and a procession of men came on the stage, offering congratulations and then posing, very seriously, for photos and video. Right after them, we were ushered up onto the stage along with the bride's mother and brother (I think...) for the same ritual. I'm afraid I was not able to look very serious as I was enjoying the experience so much.


We were then quickly escorted downstairs where we were served a traditional South Indian wedding dinner. I wish I had a photo that I could share, the food is distributed in specific places on a banana leaf and as in all of South India (to my knowledge anyway) you eat with your fingers. No utensils. Rice, Raita, Sambar (hot spicy tomato soup), etc... eaten with fingers. We did exactly that and I think we even looked fairly okay doing it. It isn't entirely fair as Anna and Bryan both get to practice this every day in their respective cafeterias while I am usually dining on leftovers or peanut butter and banana sandwiches! Anyway, we ate slowly, but finished most of our several servings and then washed our hands and proceeded upstairs for conversation while the wedding procession (of the guests onto the stage as mentioned above...) continued.


We chatted with several people and I flirted with some of the kids...


Somehow, I am a kid magnet and these dears very much enjoyed me taking their photos and then showing them to others.


The other interesting thing about the wedding was that the men were not necessarily dressed up very much. a little, but not much. But the women? The saris were absolutely stunning and they were wearing a lot of beautiful jewelery as well. Even the young girls were in their finery:

Isn't she cute?

So- would you like to see what I wore?

Yup, me-not ready for a sari yet!