Another Wedding

This past Sunday (November 6), I got to go to yet another wedding. Actually, let me rephrase that: I got to go to another wedding reception. I did not attend the actual ceremony; as we’re already established, it’s the party that’s important! I would have liked to see the actual wedding, though, because this was a Hindu wedding. Still, the party was a fabulous time, and there’s enough to say just about that.

The reception was held in the large gymnasium at UCC. It was beautifully decorated, although not quite as elaborately as the wedding I’d attended the week before. We arrived at about 12:30, and for about half an hour, I was taken around and introduced to a lot of important people who I will probably never remember. Once we had made the rounds, we went to meet the bride and groom. They were seated on a stage (in thrown-like chairs), and, as guest came to greet them and offer congratulations, they posed for pictures and handed out candies. Again, the bride was beautiful, dressed in bright colors and adorned with even more gold that the first bride I saw.

As the newlyweds continued to shake hands and smile for photos, we got to eat one of the best meals I’ve had since coming to India – perhaps one of the best meals I’ve ever had. It was served in traditional Kerala style, which means on a large banana leaf. This traditional Kerala style meal is really quite something:

One-by-one, servers come around with buckets of food and plop small piles onto your plate – err, banana leaf. And there is a very specific place for each item of food, as well as a very specific order in which to eat the food. By the time all of the servers had visited our table, we had over 20 items on our leaves. Of course, there is rice, and then there are lots of things to mix into the rice and to mix with each other. You end up trying a lot of different combinations, some better than others, until you’ve eaten so much you think you might burst open. But wait! There’s more…

THE PAYASSUM, OF COURSE!!!

I’ve talked about payassum before (Onam celebration), so all I really need to tell you at this point is that we got two different payassums at this wedding reception. One was brown and was plopped down on the banana leaf to be eaten with the fingers. The other was white and was served in a cup to be drunk. I was really too full to eat either of them, but I absolutely did not care. I finished them both in record time!

And when our meal was over, we left, and the poor bride and groom remained on the stage, smiling prettily, passing out candy, and certainly wishing for some payassum. (At least I would be.)