Wedding preparations

On February 20th, Sapna's brother Supreet announced that he was planning to marry his old friend Sangita.  As is customary, they made a trip to an astrologer to determine auspicious dates for the wedding.  The astrologer declared that they had to get married on March 12th.  After that there was not another auspicious day for the next fourteen years.

Anyone who's ever been involved in the planning of a wedding will know that 20 days is not a lot of time to organise everything, yet this was the task that fell to Sapna (it would have been the responsibility of the groom's parents but they're not around anymore).  Attempts to keep the wedding small quickly fell by the wayside.  As well as organising both the religious ceremony and the party, she also had to coordinate family coming both from Darjeeling and Delhi.  Needless to say, she was pretty stressed.

Meanwhile, all I had to worry about was getting dressed, which turned out to be a rather exciting prospect.  I needed an entirely new outfit.  Sapna decided that I would have trouble managing a sari, so I should get a kurta instead (a kurta is a long, sleeveless top worn over trousers and with a scarf).  Normally I hate shopping, but I was excited by the prospect of kurta shopping, especially as I was going with a group of teachers from school who know all the best places and would know exactly what I should get.

My excitement was not misplaced.  We shopped for both kurtas and saris (some of my friends were planning on wearing the latter).  We went to two different shops, one specialising in each.  The method of shopping was the same; we sat on a row of chairs in front of a large, padded display area.  Behind were shelf after shelf of folded garments.  The shop assistants laid out dozens of these fabulous items for us to peruse and try on if we wished.  They pulled out anything we asked and much more besides.  The array of colours was spectacular and the embroidery, sequins and beading magnificent, especially considering they were all hand made.  Of course, there are much simpler kurtas and saris, but we were looking at the party ones.

The picture below gives a sense of the shop.  I was just trying on a sari for fun. 

That day I bought a beautiful kurta and shoes.  The day of the wedding I shelled on matching jewellery.  Namrata lent me a bag and bought me a decorative tika.  The entire ensemble cost 5900 rupees which seems like a small fortune here but in Western terms is a perfectly reasonable £50 or CAD$90.

As well as the clothes, Namrata also arranged for a group of us to have mendhi (the name of the paste made with henna powder) on our hands and arms.  This is mine (I had the backs of my arms done as well).

The combined effect of the outfit, jewellery and mendhi was quite stunning.  But you'll have to wait until I post pictures of the wedding to see it!