weddings

Dear Charlotte,

Oh my goodness, how I wish you were staying with us this week here in India. It is incredible, in our neighbourhood there have been THREE massive weddings over the past couple of days and each one has been more spectacular than the last. You would love, love, love these weddings. First of all, you have to imagine the parks they are in. All the houses in our neighbourhood face towards lovely rectangular-shaped parks that are nice and grassy and filled with flowers and tropical shrubbery. Then, before the wedding, the tent people come and construct the most beautiful Princess tents that you could imagine. The one we saw tonight was stunning. It covered the whole park, and the tent was made of sheer, see-through brilliant pink and orange material. Inside, there were fancy glass globe lights and glittering chandeliers strung from the top of the tent. There were hand-woven carpets, carved wooden beds embellished with sparkles, and table after table for the guests to sit and eat at. Everything was decorated with beautiful flowers. Then, you wouldn't believe it, Ji and I were eating our dinner at around 8 pm, when we heard the noise of a BIG BRASS BAND playing outside our house. We ran outside and guess what we saw? A complete marching band! All the band members were in fancy-dress uniforms, and they were playing the socks off their trumpets and cymbals and drums and shakers. It was fantastically loud and exciting. The band was very, very slowly marching with the wedding guests dancing up a storm inside the circle the band made. Holy cats were the guests handsome and beautiful! The ladies were all wearing the most stunning silk clothes, all just absolutely covered with gems and sparkly rhinestones and spangles. The men, who were very tall and exceedingly dashing and handsome, were wearing smart black suits and long red scarves, and they were dancing like crazy! It was already dark, so the whole party was followed by a truck carrying a massive generator, and there were electricity lines strung out circling the dancers, so that these guys could carry very, very bright fancy silver lamps to light the way. And to top it all off, at the end of this mad parade came the groom. On a WHITE HORSE!

I am trying to convince Ji to get married to an Indian girl, but he insists Canadian girls like him better. What do you think, could I convince his future wife to have an Indian wedding whether she's Indian or not? Cause I'd really like to see Ji on a white horse surrounded by a brass band and a bunch of wild dancers one day.

[Delhi-19-February-2007]