For the last couple days (when I wrote this a week ago) I had been losing sleep over attending an Indian wedding. All twelve of us were invited impulsively by a professor we met with on the first day. He seemed to have invited us to be polite, but we jumped on the invitation to attend the reception. Everyone got super excited to attend; the girls got sarees and the guys bought kurtas. These items are traditional ethnic clothes. I was hesitant to buy one because for the most part everyone in Chennai wears very modern western clothes. Ten minutes before we left for the reception I jokingly mentioned to my roommate Stephen that everyone there would be wearing western clothes and we would look like overanxious tourists decked out in ethnic garb. Turned out I was predicting the future and not joking.
The wedding reception was held in a beautifully decorated tent behind a hotel in a different part of the city. However, the first thing I noticed was not the tent, but rather the reception men wearing button-downs smiling at us. Our friend from work Rajasenkar looked like he was holding a laugh in as he offered us incense and flowers. The women attending the wedding were wearing more traditional clothes (this is the case day to day too), yet all but three other men at the reception were wearing suits and standard western business-casual. Lucky for us, the social awkwardness of our dress was self imposed. After ten minutes we relaxed and it seemed as if most people appreciated that we dressed up.
The most unfortunate part of the wedding is that I felt like we took a little of the night from the newlyweds. The wedding filmer and photoman definitely took enough film of our group, not to mention the photos that were taken by the group of the group. In the end though, it was just a reception to give gifts, make small talk, and eat food. The people at the wedding were friendly and the couple was very grateful of our presence and gift.
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| Newlyweds and Bride's Father |
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| Hamp is a boss |
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| We had the most awesome van |
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