The biggest lie they tell you about your wedding is: “It’s your day.” That’s about as far as you can get from the truth. The last person whose day it is is yours, especially when it comes to Indian weddings. It is an occasion when your family is subjected to an intense scrutiny by relatives—especially those you least like—whose main agenda is to make a nuisance of themselves in general. Nothing that you want is important; everything that is supposed to be is. They call it a compromise, but that’s just a polite term for getting you do things you don’t want to.

So, my advice: ELOPE!

Anyway, the wonderful thing about a blog is that it is all about you! Belive it or not, I started out wanting to talk about an unusual wedding I attended in Bangalore! This was of Priya and Carsten Matzen, who actually got married in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 2005. Priya is an old college friend (not to be confused with my sister, who has the same name). In those days we weren’t exactly particularly close—I think we just about tolerated each other ;-)! It was when we met many years later that we saw each other in a different light and decided to keep in touch. This was achieved by infrequent IMs, mails and a single telephone conversation, given that she was in Paris at that time, and then moved to Copenhagen.

The Indian edition of Priya and Carsten’s wedding took place in Bangalore. And it wasn’t a coincidence that I happened to be there at that time! A large contingent of Carsten’s close-knit Danish family had come down as well, and I don’t believe I’ve seen that much blond hair and blue eyes in one room! The amazing thing was, they all decided to deck themselves in Indian clothes, and seemed to rather enjoy the musicians and the traditional south Indian meals. (I found myself seated next to Priya’s father-in-law during lunch on the day of the wedding. I asked him how he liked the food. He said, “Spicy!” I doubt I’ll ever hear curd-rice called “spicy”. But in all I was quite ashamed of myself because I had no idea what the food served to me was and couldn’t help scrutinizing it suspiciously. The Danes on the other hand were all tucking in enthusiastically.)

There was a reception on Sunday night, followed by a wedding ceremony the next morning. There was all manner of strange rituals, but entertaining to watch nevertheless, given the translations and explanations being provided for the Danes. (Here I must apologize to Priya and her family for thoroughly getting in the way of the “official” photographers! At the end of the day, I didn’t even get too many good photographs… :-()

Without further ado, here are some of the photographs:

Priya and Carsten display their enviable smiling muscles –>

< -- And that's me with them 😳 Wedding day: The damned chairs kept getting in the way of good angles-->

< --More wedding stuff From left to right: Priya's father, Priya, Carsten, Carsten's mother and father -->

~PD