Menoptimism; The Wedding Part One

One of the main reasons for coming to OZ at this time of the year was that of my dear

pal Emm's elder son (honorary nephew) getting married. I knew Shalindra from his 7th year and his younger brother Anook from his 3rd. Both are very fine young men now. Shalindra, now in his 30s took his time getting to this!

The venue was the Sargeant's Mess (name from the original use of the place from early days). Outstanding! There had been an elegant mandap (bower) set up, theme was pink ,white, crystal and gold. The day had dawned bright autumnal, with a strong, brisk breeze. Boats of all sizes plied the harbour in the backdrop and views to South Head and Vaucluse and Rose Bay were clear and fresh.

This was a morning ceremony and was in the Hindu Vedic tradition (Sri Lankan style with a hint of the Aussie). Proceedings began at 0930 with guests gathering and enjoying some delicious vegetarian bites and juices or hot drinks. The ceremony itself was held outside as the tradition includes a lot of flame (therefore smoke) and cracking of coconuts! Lots of prasaad food is laid out for blessing and delivery to various official members of the function.

During the first hour the pandit (priest) goes through rituals of cleansing and blessing of the groom on his own. Then a female member of the groom's family brings the bride to him (in this case it was Emm's sister, Ess). The pandit now does cleansing ceremony for her then goes through the initial stages of introduction and announcement (this comes from the days when the two would likely not have met beyond their matching date!), at the end of which he checks with the parents that they are happy with the match and arrangements. All applaud when the response is yes!

One hour over. Now the bride goes away with the female members of the celebrant group and is dressed in full marriage sari. during this fifteen(ish) minutes, guests can chatter and stretch and enjoy the music. The remainder of the ceremony is the actual bonding ritual, with exchanges of items, including floral malas, the talii (wedding necklace) and toe-rings. Then there are pranaams to spiritual teacher and parents and everyone moves on to feasting mode!

Seven coconuts gave up their auspiciousness throughout proceedings.

Ess leads Aruni to her man

Shali glimpses his bride

Swami-ji grins approval. Srikarananda-ji was my first teacher at the
mission and is very dear to us all.

Guests admire the bride

Brother Anook and his lady Lisa watch on lovingly

Things get going!

Emm and Enn looking a tad tired, but glad it is going well.

To my left is a dear friend, G, and behind me her hubby, also G. To my right is Mohini-aunty (who gave Emm to Enn at their wedding and is wearing the sari she wore then!). To her right, in the turquoise, is my pal Meena and to her right, Laxmi-aunty and Janvi-aunty. Behind Meena are Janvi's daughter and SIL and then - of course - the bride and groom. (All these relatives are from Enn's family)

(The above may not be in exact order of occurrence, but one of the 'joys' of working through the YAMroid is having it rearrange everything unbidden and then having to treasure hunt the things I want...sigh...)

The feast was full vegetarian, with savoury rice, five different curries, delicious sambals and chutneys and papadams. Sweets were creamy, choclaty affairs which I had no trouble avoiding - but did enjoy the fresh fruit. Then it was all over... for this one. 

💑