Wednesday, December 9, 2009

After our visit to the Red Fort, we went to the first of several scheduled wedding events, the Henna Ceremony. We arrived at the ceremonial location, Chitrakoot. This is an army base with very tight security. I suppose anyone who is non-Indian is carefully checked before entering this military compound. But security is tight everywhere. In fact, everytime we drive back to our hotel, all cars go through a very secure screening before they can get inside the gate. On top of all the poverty, they have to worry about and prepare for terrorism strikes everywhere.

Bravish's fiance, Madhavi, is very charming and gracious. Her father is a former Indian ambassador who now serves as Chief of Staff to the Secretary General of the United Nations in New York city. We got to meet her entire family as well as Bravish's. Bravish's father and mother are both retired university professors. Typically, henna ceremonies are for women only, but their families wanted to include the men as well. All the women got henna tatoos. As you can see in our pictures, Lauren got beautiful hand and ankle tatoos, while I opted only for the ankle. We hope they last until we get home.

Madhavi sat still for 3 hours as the henna artists painted her arms, feet and ankles. Their artwork was very detailed and just incredible. Then all the women danced to Indian music. Lauren and I tried our best. I hope they all thought our clumsy attempts would be appreciated for our efforts, not our style.

There was a buffet of Indian street food, music, a DJ and a photographer. The women also got to choose from an array of bangles to wear and keep. If this first event is a preamble to the wedding and reception, we are all in for quite a ride.

Tomorrow is another pre-wedding activity that will be a candle lighting ceremony at Guruvayur Temple. More to come on that tomorrow. We are 13 1/2 hours ahead of Los Angeles and still are in flux with the time change. I hope we are better acclimatized by the actual wedding ceremony on Thursday, which takes place over 13 hours. --Linda