Woo.. what a wedding.

Alright, well, I'm not exactly sure how long the vows took, but they seemed to last about an hour or two. I was sort of walking in and out for most of it, along with about one or two hundred other people. I think my uncle was exaggerating at 400, unless that's how many are arriving for the eating reception foofraw thing, which would not surprise me. It was sort of almost informal, actually.. people sat down to watch the vows, and then wandered upstairs to eat, and then stood around and smoked, walked back in to watch the vows.. I don't think anybody actually stayed for the entire thing, except maybe immediate family, and even they floated upstairs for a quick bite come the middle.

Speaking of informal, woo.. my uncle (the one whose daughter was getting married) told us to get sarvanis, which is a special sort of four-piece suit with long kurta, loose pants that come up to your bellybutton, coat and long dupatta scarf, all of silk, so we did. And also leather chappals, which are sort of a nice looking sandal, only Ryan decided that he shouldn't mess about and went for the black red and gold ones that curled up at the toes into a point, and he says he's going to use them for house shoes when he comes back. So suffice it to say we were pretty decked out... and then we arrived there and my suspicions that we were totally overdressed came true, because everyone else was just wearing kurtas and pants, or sometimes even just shirts and pants. Well, the guys, anyways. The women were of course splendid, because if they weren't, well, the world would stop existing if Bengali women were not splendidly dressed. So we were sort of the snazziest there, I guess.

Everyone was shouting, but that's not really anything special because that's how Bengali people talk. I think it helps if you think of them as Italian.. they love shouting, eating good food and all sorts of art stuff. You can never really tell if it's an argument or a conversation or a fight.

The vows... now they were something. Essentially the bride, Dola, had an amazingly painted and jewelleried face, hands and feet, and also a magnificent suit, and had to hold a sort of cylinder thing which I can't describe, and the groom, that's Goldie, had a very tall but magnificent hat and a worried expression, and had to hold a sort of spoon, and the priest did a lot of the talking, and at one point they lit a fire in a tray of sand right in front of them, despite it being a hot night with no fans because that would blow around the jillions of insects that were attracted to the light and flew in through the windows which were open because it was a hot night, etc. So they lit the fire, and then they put a lot of holy water and oils in it, which made it start smoking and carrying on, and everyone had to squint, and Goldie, who was sitting right in front of the fire, looked like he wanted to cry, but they carried on for half an hour for the fire and the room got kind of dim through the smoke, then I went to eat.

Then they had to do several things like roll a stone over paan leaves with their feet, and throw some grains into the fire and also a banana, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what any of it symbolised. Probably fertility, I imagine. I think most wedding rites could be condensed to "Alright, here you go, this is you and this is you, you're married, I hope you have a good time and a couple of babies", but everybody wants to add their own flair.

Also note that for the duration of this trip, I've become "Basu Roy", because that's what Indian people seem to hear my name as. It's a good Bengali name, although Basu is usually a last name I gather.

Weekly Indian Feature: Stray Dogs

Stray dogs are everywhere. And I mean, with the same frequency that you'd see garbage cans in Canada, only since they don't have garbage cans in India they settle for stray dogs, which actually do the same job, sort of. I don't know how they survive. Sometimes people put out old rice for them, but I guess generally they eat garbage. I always feel like petting them, only they always turn out to have some skin disease or are more interested in humping, fighting or playing with one another, so it's really all immaterial. Canadian streets are going to feel very empty.

-Basu