The Village Wedding

The events that led to arriving at this village wedding are a matter of coincidence, luck, and a kind invitation by a man named Ganesh. I ran into Ganesh twice in one day, and after the second meeting and some time spent in a temple together he asked if I would like to join him to see his cousin be married. Well, ok! "Why not" seems to be my phrase of the season, and so it happened that the following day I found myself being the only white woman in the very center of a throng of sari wrapped wedding goers. I walked in and the heads turned to look, then hands started to reach out and pull me far into the crowd to be smack right in front of the bride and groom. The ceremony was already underway, but that didn't stop the bride's father from excitedly questioning my country of origin, impressions of India, etc. I tried not detracting all of the attention from the ceremony at hand as best I could, but it was rather pointless. I was absolutely famous. What followed was an amazing village gathering where I joined them in eating(with my hands) rice and other unrecognizable things off of banana leaves. In talking with the bride and groom I understood that it was a great honor to have me there, even though I was a complete stranger and it was really an honor for me to be there! It was amazing to say the least, and many uproars of laughter surfaced as my camera and I played with the kids. By the way the red smear that is often on my forhead is a blessing of colored powder given in temples and ceremonies. As the Hindu deities are worshipped their is always a pot of sacred ash or colored powder provided to bless yourself with the deity.