We were wedding crashers last weekend! Aren't we wild and crazy? In my dreams. What really happened was that a friend of our friends Suyash and Cheryl was getting married, and they got us an invitation so Sarah could see a Tamil Brahmin wedding.
Sarah, Evie and I went to the mehendi and sangeet party, where we were met by this enormous Ganesha.
Inside, all the ladies were gathered on the wedding dais for mehendi. Here's Evie getting hers done. That's Cheryl in black.
Here are Evie and Cheryl comparing designs. Evie's getting pretty good at holding her hands still for the half hour or so it takes the henna to dry.
After Evie's had dried a bit, I took a turn.
After getting our mehendi, we settled in for the sangeet. My only other experience with a sangeet was pretty traditional. The female family members sang songs for the bride and groom, substituting some of the lyrics with jokes and advice. A couple of cousins danced, and then the dance floor was opened and we all got up and danced for a while. It was really low key and really fun.
It's hard to describe this sangeet, but it certainly wasn't low key. There was stage lighting, a fog machine, an emcee, and a sound system that was far, far too loud. The family had hired professional karaoke singers (I had no idea this was a profession) and this weird dancer from Rajasthan (more on him later) to perform along with all the cousins and aunts and uncles who danced and sang.
Evie was in awe ...
Some of the older aunts and uncles performed traditional music, but most of the younger crowd did lip-syncs and dancing to Bollywood and Kollywood music. It was a little like a ward talent show on steroids.
By far the strangest thing, though, and probably the weirdest thing I have ever seen, was the Rajasthani dancer. He had three acts. The first was the tamest. He danced around, balancing what looked like bicycle wheels on his nose, head, fingers and so on.
Act 2 was almost unbearable to watch. He swallowed ten razor blades and then danced around gagging and spluttering for awhile. Then he guzzled about a liter of water, spitting some of it across the room. Then he swallowed a long piece of string. After more writhing and coughing, he pulled the string out again, this time with the ten razor blades tied to it. Who comes up with this stuff? And why?
The best part of Act 2 was watching Sarah's face. She looked more and more appalled, her jaw dropping lower and lower. She told me later she was wondering if someone should run for help. The funny thing is, most of the audience wasn't paying any attention at all. They were visiting and talking together, eating cake, wandering around. Not many people were even looking at the horrific spectacle before us.
As soon as I realized Act 3 was going to involve fire, I started looking for the nearest exit, just in case I had to carry Evie out of an inferno. The good news is that the nearest exit was 10 feet away. The bad news is that it was padlocked. Oh, how Indian!
So for Act 3, the dancer set his head on fire and danced around while brewing a pot of tea. Yes. That's what I said. He brewed a pot of tea on his head. It seemed to take a couple of hours. And then when he was done no one wanted to drink the tea. It was so bizarre!
The groom made things especially entertaining for Evie, because he flirted with her the whole evening, trying to get her to smile at him. Evie took this fantastic picture of Sri Krishna with his mom cracking up beside him.
It was a fascinating evening, to say the least, and oddly enjoyable. I'll close this post with pictures of Sarah's and my hands as they looked a couple of days after the party. Beautiful! I find it hard not to stare at my hands every time I have mehendi done. I love India!
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