An Indian Village Wedding! June 5-10th

 

Now these are the big days of the wedding. That red, white, and blue  tent is the tilak (ti-luck) reception tent for the pre-wedding public village dinner. Over five hundred, 500, 5x100 village people will be eating traditional Indian food under it.

Right now I am on the Affour village house roof taking a pic of lights that took ten men three 3 3x1 days to build, and they took it down the day after. It is in a rainbow of colors.

3 cousin selfie. 

Remember the tilak? Well right now here are the hundreds of people (that I promised) eating their traditional Indian food.

An array of kids (maybe 3 -10 years old ). How wonderously wonderful.

Sneak-peak of the inside of the tent with chandeliers.

Selfie with village kids on da roof

The groom and the tilak:the tilak is a pooja for when the bride's family gives the presents to the groom but the bride isn't allowed to be there

A toaster!!!! 

Here are some of the sweets, nuts, and fruits given in the tilak. 

Some other things that the groom got are: Pots, pans, dishes, a refrigerator, A/C Cooler, a big dresser with mirror, and a bed.

That night, we stayed up late, by late I mean 4:30 in the morning, but I got a picture in that 5 hours, and because of the red flash, Kate chachi has devil eyes. Also, my mom and Guddu chacha are there with Victormama and Jo-Jo. 

This is the Lego creation I made that night. It is a police ship with two men and one with a rocket launcher. It's sitting in between two bottles of mineral water. For the next two days everyone was sick and stayed in the hotel. I had heat sickness.

A few days later, we went on a trip to another small village in Bihar called Dehudi which is where my father was born and raised. On the way, Yogi, Shekhar and I drank some Apple Fizz, which is an apple drink in India. It's pretty much apple soda. 

After the car trip, we got to the house in Dehudi where my father is from to visit Dadaji, Dadima, and some of my phua-s (aka aunts). This is us with Kanti Phua and Santosh chacha

I recall when I used to come to this house, I always loved to take a bucket bath with the hand pump in the middle of the house. And that's exactly what we're doing.

Santosh chacha is giving us a bucket bath, and he snaps his wrist on the bucket so it creates this jet of water. And it's soooooo fun!

This is Kullu, my cousin-sister, and Gulgul, her cousin playing with pinwheels that I gave to them. 

This is dadaji holding Ashish, my other cousin, Santosh chacha's two year old boy.

Someone there did mehendi on my mom's hand since she was going to a wedding. 

I got some mehendi too. This says "Arjun" in Hindi.

Yogi and Shekhar also got mehendi. They got the same thing as me - they all got their names written and their pinky covered. This one says "Yogi"

This is the day of the Wedding! Here are some of the wedding gifts in the village house.

Bhutti chacha is getting another turmeric massage. All the women in the household rub turmeric paste all over him. The bride gets the same treatment at her house. It's to make the skin soft and shiny. 

Another ritual before the wedding is eating rice with yogurt and sugar. This food is the food of the unmarried, so Bhutti is eating is last meal before the wedding as a bachelor with young boys. There was a big, long mat, that only stretched for the other kids. I was at the end, crouching on my knees which hurt.

Suddenly, the band appeared outside the village house and started playing some music as a woman brought in some of the puja items for the wedding ceremony.

Here is a close-up of some shakers

Kate chachi and her nice Indian dress with Rishi and me in my Indian kurta which I'll wear to for the wedding.

These are not women. They are men who identify as women. They're called hijras. They have a very important role in the wedding ceremony. They dance around, and and they go around to people and ask them for money. If they don't get money, the curse the marriage. 

Here is one of the hijras dancing outside the village house to the band.

This is one of the hijras asking Victormama for money. He gave her money.

Here's the other hijra trying to get money from him, but Victormama doesn't have any more money.

'

Next to the new A/C Cooler (remember the tilak?) is mommy and Victormama in their awesome sari (sorry) and kurta.

Now one of the most important parts of the wedding is the baraat. In front of your eyes you will see a palanquin it is man-carried carriage, but it is not carried from underneath. There are actually two big branches on the front and back carried by four men. The groom is in there along with Rishi and Aditya. They are supposed to carry the groom all the way to the bride's house, but it is too far, so they'll bring him to the nearby temple so he can be blessed by the gods before leaving for the wedding. Hundreds of people and the band and DJ with sound system  will walk behind him in a parade. We'll all dance when we get to the temple.

Here is the cart carrying the huge loudspeakers during the parade 

This is Jo Jo scrunching up my face making me look cute. The village women made her wear a sari. Behind me everyone is dancing.

After the temple, a huge line of 15 cars brought everyone to Chhapra, to the bride's house. This is the decorated marriage car carrying the groom. It says "Janardan weds Jyoti." Janardan is Bhutti chachas real name.

At the temple, the baraat continues in a big parade which now includes fireworks, dancing, and lights.

Add caption

Fireworks!

This are some of the lights carried by the band party

This is the entrance to the bride's house. The parade was split into boys and girls. The girls got to ride in the cars, and the boys had to walk. Here are some men dancing as they enter the lighted entranceway.

 Another puja for Bhutti chacha! Right now he is in the namaste pose, and he is praying to the gods for a good wedding.

The Bride arrives! Me and Shekhar are sitting next to the bride and groom while my mom takes a picture of us. 

I'm taking a picture of my mom and Shekhar with the bride and groom. 

The actual wedding takes place after this, all night long. Most of the people go home after the reception part, and don't stay for the wedding itself. (We didn't stay)
The wedding bed is set up in the village house. People decorate it with all kinds of flowers. 

The new bride sits in a room for a whole day while people come and meet her. She has to keep her face covered. The next day, she made everybody tea. 

The next day, I had a bunch of toys, and some of the toys were balloons, so here is a picture of some of the kids playing with the balloons.

We went on a walk through the village with Hemu bhaiya, and we went to the old house before the new village house was built. 

This was one of the girls at the wedding holding Rishi

During the walk, when I went to wash my feet from stepping in a sewer, I didn't catch her name, but she wanted to be my friend. 

I know a lot of you might know about loom rubber bands. I had brought some packs of rubber bands, and I started making bracelets for everyone, and I taught some of them how to make bracelets. This is at the very end of our stay in the village.

This is Tuk-tuk showing a bracelet that I made for her. 

Some of my aunts relaxing after the wedding festivities are over. 

The groom and dadaji relaxing also. 

Guddu chacha and his mom

My Cousins' Janeo (Becoming a Brahmin) Ceremony

We are in the village Affour, with my family, and village people. Here is a picture with my two cousins from the U.S. who are getting "Janeo-d." A Janeo is a yellow string that you put on top of one of your shoulders and under the opposite arm. It's connected in a loop. It means that you're a Brahmin male. I had my Janeo ceremony last year in Delhi. In the background of this picture, you'll see lights. They are for the wedding that will happen after the Janeo for my uncle Bhutti Cha-cha. 

 'Twas the night before the Janeo, and here I am with some of the village kids that were there.

 Here is the pre-ceremony for the Janeo. This is called a puja where all the food you see goes to the gods. The Brahmin priest is there to chant all of the mantras in Sanskrit. There's a banana leaf on a stick structure in the middle, with a saffron colored cloth on top.

 This picture shows my big cousin Bara Babu explaining to Shekhar, Yogi and myself what was going on in the puja.

This is all sugar, except that it's in 3 forms. There's powder sugar, tiny popcorn ball type of sugar, and crystallized sugar.

 In this basket, there are cucumbers and bananas - tiny village bananas. 

We were trying to get the flies off of the baskets of food.

This is Victormama with groom to be, Bhutti Cha-cha, my uncle. 

 Now the puja begins with the 3 boys who will become Brahmins tomorrow. My two U.S. cousins and my Indian cousin-brother, Aditya.

This is a picture of the incense holder, and it's pretty small. 

 Here are three boys, and you see that their hands are cupped to hold rice and some leaves and a ten rupee bill.

 The 3 pots represent the three boys who are having their Janeo. I like the way they are painted.

A pile of cow poo-pie...

...now getting burned by the priest

 Today Shekhar, Yogi and Aditya will each be wearing one of these cloths with their Janeo begging for money (which I didn't get a picture of, sorry) and the cloths are full of flies

 Shekhar is smiling while he can because the village barber is gonna shave his head "mwahahahahaha"...

And his eeeaaars are itching oooooooo

 All that stuff was a bunch of jibber-jabber, gibberish and slob talk. This is actually my 3rd  time having been bald because I'm lovin' it!

 Now it is Yogi's turn heeheehee

The 3 baldies

India 2015! Arrival and Picking People up June 4th-5th

If you have been following my blog, then you know that I go to India EVERY SUMMER! India is in South Asia. This year, I am going to a new part of Asia – Central Asia. But first I am going to India.

I am heading to a tiny village in Bihar which is in eastern India. My dad's side of the family is from Bihar. First I'll fly from U.S to Delhi then I'll fly from Delhi to Patna, which is the capital of Bihar after that I will drive from Patna to Chhapra which is the capital of the district, then we go to Affour  which is the village where the fun and shtuff begins! 

Find Patna and Chhapra on the map

Right now, I'm in the Newark International Airport drinking a Jamba Juice - Peach Paradise. We're waiting for our plane to Delhi.

We arrived in India at midnight, and went to a hotel called Ibis. Here I am right before we leave for the plane to Patna Bihar.

When we were at the Indira Ghandi Airport, I saw this cool sculpture that shows the different steps of yoga. One of them which is right in front of you is the downward facing dog. It looks like an upside down V.

Before our flight, I would like to introduce you to two new people that will be joining me. This is me with Jo-Jo. I'm making a funny face. Jo-Jo is from China, and I met her two years ago because of the next person you're going to see.

This is Victormama (uncle Victor). He is the one who introduced me to Jo-Jo, and also he's been my mom's friend for 15 years. He teaches music, just like my mom, and lives in Hong Kong. They're coming with us to the village for the wedding and Jeneo.

We're in Patna right now, and here is a stupid sign outside the airport that says "coke and food beter together" instead of "better."

Bihar is the poorest state in India. Here are some pictures from Patna. This is a carriage or throne that carries the groom during the wedding parade just lying in the street.

This is a busy street in Patna. There is a cart rickshaw, an autorickshaw, and two motorcycles. The roads are very bumpy.

I found a sign that says "Bonjour" which I thought was funny because it's in India.

Now we're picking up more family members to go to the Janeo and the wedding. We picked up Kanti Phua (Aunt Kanti) from her house in Patna. She's in pink on the right.

Then we went to Lovely Chachi's house (Aunt Lovely) and picked up Kullu (in the blue dress), Gul-Gul, her cousin, and Ashish, which is the baby, Kullu's little brother, and Lovely Chachi. Kullu and Ashish are my cousins.

This is Ashish and Santosh Chacha (Uncle Santosh). We all got in a jeep and headed to Chhapra.

In India, there is a famous river called the Ganges. You have to pass over the river to get from Patna to Chhapra. Here is a picture of the Ganges.

This is a selfie of me wearing Jo-Jo's hat. It looks like an explorer hat.