Sunday, September 29, 2019
He didn't get left behind, after all. It should have occurred to me earlier to search for the marble elephant in a marble room.
Asha and Vineet are now married. They were already married, but now they still are.
Here was my view of the beginning of the ceremony:
After a while, the staff began bringing in chairs, so by remaining standing I got a better view of what was going on. Asha and Vineet were sitting on a bench opposite a small fire. On the other side was a priest with a microphone.
I should mention that the wedding couple are not visible in the video (they're off to the left), and that the shaking image is due to coffee.
This ritual likely had a deep significance for a few attending, but not for the bride or groom.
At Indian weddings, women have henna drawn on their bodies in a style known as mehndi. Here is Asha the bride:
Here is Asha the cat:
The mehndi artist applies the henna as a paste, carefully decorating the skin as a pastry chef would.
Immediately after, it looks like this:
The women then are unable to use their hands for well over an hour. It was hilarious.
After the henna has dried and been scratched off onto a torn piece of newspaper, the stained skin starts to gradually darken from a iodine orange to a deep red brown. Here's Andrea a day after:
Speaking of Andrea, check her out. She borrowed this sari (saree) from the groom's mother.
I was wearing my blue suit. You've already seen it. If you really want to see more, then I refer you to any of the ten million photographers hired for the wedding.
Oh, I just remembered the band that played during the first event. They were told to turn down on at least two separate occasions, but the Force was strong with them.
Later that evening, a different band played Hotel California. The guitar solo was on point. The vocals were better than I could do.
Here's what you can see from my room:
and here's what you can see from the pool:
and that's about all I shot.
Reading the complimentary Hindustan Times this morning over breakfast, I was surprised to see no fewer than three rape-related articles. Now, I know that newspapers tend to focus on the morbid and sensational, and that 1.3 billion people live in India, but still:
In the novel I'm reading, a shelter for battered women and themes involving abuse, rape, and incest feature prominently. I'm not sure what all this is trying to tell me.
Here is a marble elephant.
At eight o'clock I'll be meeting a new friend for dinner and then getting up
rather early tomorrow for a flight to Kerala, where the second half of
this trip begins.
