Turns out this morning’s ceremonies were more the familial
aspect of getting the bride ready. They put puspu and kum kum (the yellow and
red powders we use) on her and then everyone offered their blessings. It also
meant a lot of pictures and prolly the first of many extended crying sessions
since our first little girl is off getting married. It’s afternoon now and a
bunch of people are asleep cuz our meal’s have been getting progressively
fancier and heavier as the wedding nears. It’s been yummy but nasty feeling
like I said… today I resorted to doing stairs for a while. Wasn’t much but it
helped a bit. I’m gonna be in horrible cardiac shape when I return :-/ I wish
there were more opportunities to do some form of exercise.
They’re still
working on Pinku didi’s (the bride) henna; the guy works fast and yet its been
about two hours. She has henna on her hands to about half-way up her upper arms,
actually almost her entire bicep. And that goes on both arms and her feet. It’s
so detailed and looks incredible, I’m excited just to show you pictures of it.
They even have some mahendi oil they put on first and the lime mixture for
after to darken it. The rest of us who aren’t asleep are watching or doing more
wedding prep. My sister’s dancing and after she’ll get some henna too.
Random but, I was telling Steph about our hotel today and
about the cooks working for us. Because of the wealth gap and how cheap labor
is here, it really is possible to buy just about anything. In the Western world
everyone is self respecting and it ‘s not that people aren’t here, but conditions
and wages are so demeaning that many rich people often seem to think they can
hire people’s souls. And sadly it’s almost as if they can, it really is
horrible. The cooking staff for example doesn’t even go home, they cook, clean
and do a few other chores all day and then they usually sleep here in the
living room or hall. And for meals they go sit out on the floor in the hallway
outside the flat while we’re at the dining table or couches. To me it’s
disgusting that they have to do that but to everyone else it’s just expected.
And that’s far from the worst of it; our family is upper middle class but a lot
of rich people have servants for nearly everything. India could be so much more
if all its people were better educated and better valued.
-Sanj
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