व्याह नू हत्थ लाणा, a few miracles and an announcement

Yesterday we officially kicked-started the wedding celebrations! There was a small कीर्तन as part of the larger function, व्याह नू हत्थ लाणा. In the olden days, the wedding family had to do everything on their own- from cleaning chaffs of गेहूं to then dressing up the bride. Now, there are आटा चक्कीs to deal with the गेहूं and cooks to handle the food. There are fancy salons to dress up the brides and so we don't know what to do except call the आटा चक्की and order MP का आटा, instruct the cooks on the menu for the day and reconfirm appointments at the salon. However, the traditions still continue.

So yesterday, we did the traditional threshing of गेहूं. I mean the married women of the house (this again makes me wonder why Punjabis consider marriage as a contagious disease- a group of married women passing on the germs to the poor bride-to-be). After this, there was another traditional thing- the women (married, again) undoing the braid that the bride-to-be had made her hair into. So Monu's braid was undone. This, we guessed stems from the daily schedule where the bride is dressed up for the wedding only after the housework (including threshing the गेहूं) is finished.

There was also a कीर्तन, during which कमला बुआजी looked like a child who finds out Christmas is happening twice that year, would. Then began a series of traditional Punjabi songs that either bitch about the bride's mother-in-law or bitch about the bride's mother-in-law. In unimaginably creative ways. The poor mother-in-law is compared to everything short of a rat's ass and I cannot help but feel sorry for the poor hag.

So with the wedding officially flagging off the next natural step was to go to the mattresses. The furniture has been pushed in the corners and everywhere in the house, you will find people sleeping on mattresses on the floor. As for चाचा and I, we have shifted to the drawing room (or draa-ing room, as the old man calls it) where we are fed too!





In the short time since the wedding celebrations started, we are experiencing miracles like them Christians talk about. Here is one:



This is the famously-notorious! Mine बापू who has never EVER done anything for himself and is quite used to being waited upon 24X7 by one family member (mine mother) or another (Sonu)(if you are my family, I know you are nodding right now), actually made tea. For 5 people. Everybody had just finished drinking tea but when the opportunity of a lifetime comes your way, you don't refuse it. So out of curiosity, everybody said yes to the offer for tea, much to the surprise of mine बापू. Junior Dadi's warning glares were ignored. Hallelujah!

And in conclusion, I wish to make an announcement to the few folks who are joining us in a few days: BYOC- Bring Your Own Chappals (चप्पलs). See the चप्पल-चोरी takes the form of a continuum- X wears Y's चप्पलs, Y wears Z's, Z wears A's, A wears B's and then B will wear mine and I have to wear mine बापू's size-12, जितेन्दर-style white sandals in my size-barely-5 feet and waddle to the bathroom with mine बापू's warnings of "मेरी sandil गीली मत करना" ringing in my ears. One needs a conducive environment to attend nature's call, people. So please. BYOC.