Delhi... and WEDDINGS!!!

All right, so tonight, my mother dragged me to the wedding of her friend(acquaintance)'s daughter. I did not expect to know anyone there, and certainly did not want to go, but my mother wants met to "socialize" (why she won't let me do that with my own friends is beyond me!) so she forced me to tag along.
Anyhow, to my surprise, the mother of the groom (my mum knew the mother of the bride) turned out to be my ninth grade math teacher. Which meant that I "ran into" a lot of high school teachers and had to exchange the usual pleasantries (the "where are you going to college?", "what course are you studying?" "Do you like it there?"... just the usual). Thankfully, it was much better than I would've dared to imagine in my head. I suspect my mother already knew that the groom's mother had been my high school teacher, which might be really why she dragged me here (because she knew I was not likely to visit my high school and the teachers; but I just want to put that phase of life behind me. Anyhow).

So, Delhi weddings (I think most North Indian weddings, Punjabi ones in particular) are spectacles in their own right. This one was fairly regular by Delhi standards: the Punjabi food, the Rajasthani food, the "South Indian" food, the "Chinese" food, the chaat, the several different types of desserts and hors d'oeuvre (though no one here calls them that) , the over 500 guests, most of them only vaguely known to the hosts, the loud music. And did I mention the girls? Oh man, the girls were just so gorgeous. And there were so many of them, the pretty ones, that is. The bride looked spectacular as did her younger sister and a lot of her friends. Certainly reason enough to have stayed there much longer than I did, but I can't really use "I want to ogle at pretty girls" as an excuse to get my parents to stay longer, can I?

Now, one very interesting thing about Delhi weddings is how people dress. Winter weddings, which are much more common than summer weddings, are all right, because the weather is usually bearable (though sometimes it can be frigidly cold). However, summer weddings and the way people dress becomes a total disaster. Women will be decked out in heavily embroidered saris and salwar-kameezes and chaniya-cholis, with pounds of jewelry and more often than not, inches of make-up. How glitzy one's outfit is, is supposed to be some sort of status symbol. Such a shame. The men go to the other extreme. There were men at tonight's wedding dressed in sports coats, Hawaiian shirts and eve ratty jeans t-shirts! Seriously, faded jeans at a wedding that is not Harley-Davidson themed? That's definitely wrong! How difficult is it to be appropriately dressed even if ti is a million degrees Celsius out? The least they can do it wear a wrinkle-free linen or cotton dress shirt. And plenty of deodorant, for goodness' sake!

Anyhow, the wedding brought up the topic of my own wedding in the car. Because, of course, the daughter is now almost 19, and needs to be married in the next six or seven years. Now, I have already clearly told my parents that I will not have an arranged marriage, though they did not take me seriously. Besides, I am beginning to think an arranged marriage may be the best option for me (for my American friends, in case you want to understand this phenomenon of arranged matches in its entirety, ask me) since when it comes to a love match, I do not foresee the notion of my wanting to marry person I could only marry in six countries or two US states (at present) going down very well with my parents, if you get the gist of what I am saying.

Well, marriages are complicated things, but the wedding ceremonies are usually fun events. Too bad that I don't want a ceremony at all (though, really, there is no way around it -- my parents simply must have a grand celebration for their only daughter's wedding due to social obligations). Oh dear, Delhi's great middle class and its social dynamics. Sigh.