For the past two weeks, my mother has been on me to write up a description of my trip to India, but I’ve been ridiculously busy in the two weeks since my return. Basically, my trip was split into two parts. The first was five days of sight-seeing and bouncing around a few cities with five other people to get the lay of the land. The second part was four days of wedding celebration activities in Jaipur for two of my MBA classmates (Nandini and Peter), which ended up being the most BIG-BALLER experience of my life. There was so much to write about from the trip that I’ve been terrified of the prospect of the amount of time that it would take…that is, until a friend alerted me that another wedding attendee had written a long blog entry about it. Since that person did such a good job of describing it, I decided to link to her site to give y’all an idea of what went down during that wedding weekend. I’ll have to take some time to write about the pre-wedding travels later on, but I hope this will do for now.

Before directing you to the story, I thought I’d share some pictures that I took during that wedding weekend to provide some context for what you’re about to read. I took well over 300 pictures over the course of the weekend in Jaipur, but many of them had other wedding guests in them and I’m not certain that they’d want me broadcasting their images on this blog. So, I’ve included a link to an album of what I saw during the weekend that don’t really have many specific people in them. –> Photos of the sights from the wedding weekend

OK, now let’s get to the real deal content for this entry. The writer is a woman named “GV” that I don’t remember meeting during the trip, but she’s a heck of a writer and gives really vivid descriptions of what went down. Here’s the LINK TO THE ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING WRITTEN BY GV: http://thesecondfiddle.blogspot.com/2009/03/wedding.html. I just want to make sure I direct you to her original posting to boost the hits on her site. She wrote up a great description of the weekend and I don’t want to jack her content without giving her credit for it. So, without further delay, prepare to learn about the wedding that puts most other weddings that have ever happened to shame…

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GV wrote:

“This post is long overdue. I’ve been looking forward to writing about this wedding since before I even arrived in India. I have always wanted to go to an Indian wedding, and though I was skeptical of the company, I never doubted for a second that I would thoroughly enjoy the experience. My gut instinct, as usual, was right on both accounts.

Before I continue, an apology is in order. To the many people who had requested that I take tons of pictures at this wedding, I have failed you. It’s not that I did not make every effort to document the obscene lavishness of this event, believe me I did. The problem is that my camera did not make it back to Hyderabad with me. I prayed to God and St. Anthony that it would return. I came very close to having an anxiety attack over it, and even contemplated changing my flight so I could stay back and look for it. My gut instinct, the same one that’s never wrong, tells me that I did not misplace it, but rather, it was taken from me. I have a good idea of where that camera is right now, but there’s nothing I can do about it except let it go and move on.

Nevertheless, I’m still very sad and also very cameraless for the remainder of my trip. Without pictures, it’s almost impossible to convey just how over the top this wedding was. Regardless, I will attempt to paint a colorful image of what was truly a once in a lifetime event.

I flew in to Jaipur after a long day of work last Thursday. I had a chance to sleep in on Friday for the first time in a while, which turned out to be the last good sleep I would have that weekend. Around noon we all went over to the famous Rambagh Palace hotel for the Ghar Ki Mehendi where Nandini, the bride, had her mehendi done (a sort of skin dye covering her hands and forearms in intricate designs). This was the first of the weekend’s many huge buffets. Fortunately, I had a chance to work it off that afternoon at dance practice.

Sangeet is a ceremony where guests of the bride and groom perform choreographed dances as a way to bless the bride and groom. It’s also an opportunity for people completely devoid of dance experience to make complete fools of themselves. Apparently Peter & Nandin’s families had been practicing for months, which made sense considering that the sangeet consisted of over 40 routines and takes place in front of all 750 guests. On the contrary, we had about an hour. I was performing in a routine with female ‘friends of the bride’, even though most of us had just met her. We learned a two-minute routine to music about how much we’ll miss her and what a treasure she is. It was actually really sweet and fun to be a part of, despite the fact that we were sweating like crazy in a tiny room with tons of windows and no air conditioning.

I had the afternoon to rest before heading to the Royal Experience, which the schedule describes as an ‘intimate gathering for family and close friends’. When I was packing for the weekend, I was really worried about what to wear to this event because I had pictured something along the lines of the typical rehearsal dinner in the U.S. Evidently, in India, “intimate” means about 250 people, another huge buffet, and a crazy dance party to a semi-famous bollywood singer. Looking back, I should have taken it easier on the wine and dancing that night, considering it was only a preview of what was to come.

Thanks to a little over indulgence, I was a no-show for the both the 6:00am blessings at Govind Devji Temple and early morning dance practice. I did lay in bed reviewing the steps in my mind, which I felt made up for my absence. I ate pizza for breakfast and squeezed in a 20 minute workout for good measure. It didn’t take me long to get ready since I had completely blown out my curling iron using the wrong voltage or converter or who knows what the night before. Despite the hangover, lack of sleep, and messy hair I managed to pull myself together for the evening’s events. It’s a good thing I was wearing designer Indian attire because all of the gossiping aunties only noticed my salwar camise. Money well spent.

Saturday’s events were held at the famous Jaigarh Fort. We started with ‘high tea’ where there was some sort of theatrical performance that I think was about the history of Jaipur and somehow also about Peter & Nandini, but I really couldn’t follow it. It was actually in English, but no one had any idea what was going on. It was kind of like a cross between the Renaissance Fair and an English tea party. There was a really cool dance troupe that performed intermittently, but every time the Gandolf-looking guy started talking I went back to chatting with my new friends, Jo and Kate. They were fabulous, by the way, and made my whole weekend.

From there we moved to a different section of the fort where we settled in for a concert under the stars with the famous classical musicians Pandit Jasraj and Hari Prasad Chaurasia. To translate, this would be like having Yo-Yo Ma and Andrea Bocelli entertain your wedding guests. It was an incredible performance of improvised musical banter between the sanskrit vocalist and classical flautist. I curled up under a blanket (the first of many gifts designed with their wedding pattern) and I let myself completely relax into the meditative rhythm for well over an hour. I could have listened to them all night and when it was over I felt I was waking up from a deep sleep (as opposed to the people I was sitting next to, who actually did sleep through most of it).

We walked through a tunnel that revealed an unbelievable scene on the other side. The fort isn’t actually open after sunset, so they illuminated it with thousands of candles and staged lighting. It was beautiful. There were tables and tables of food and drinks and desserts, plus a huge stage for the first sangeet. It was incredibly entertaining and a brilliant wedding tradition (watch out friends and family, I just may steal this idea if/when that day comes).

Around 11:00pm we boarded buses back to the Rambagh Palace where the real party started. Actually, there were four parties, each with their own theme. The first stop was ‘Romance with Lady Luck Casino’ for a drink at the famous Polo Bar, then onto the front lawns for ice wine fondue, ending up at The Steam Engine for lounge music and more crazy dancing. Unfortunately, I missed out on the opera and piano party featuring Puccini’s classics. Honestly, there was so much going on throughout the entire weekend, at some point I had to give up on trying to see everything.

I probably went to bed around 3ish that night, and barely rolled out of bed on time to make it to the brunch for the second sangeet. This was my big Indian dance debut, and my last chance to get mehendi, which I was so excited for until I realized how difficult it is to do anything when your hands are covered in wet paste. It dried into a really cool pattern, but it has since faded into something vaguely resembling leprosy.

After another huge meal I headed back to the hotel to shower and rest before the wedding ceremony. Yes, that’s correct, everything up until this point was simply leading up to the main event. I got all decked out in my lengha and looked ambiguously Indian, according to my new friend Tarun, which I was proud of. We arrived at the City Palace for the baraat, which is basically a wedding procession for the groom with a full marching band and all of his guests dancing in the street. Peter rode behind us on an elephant that was painted all sorts of colors and all of the men were wearing bright red and yellow saphas, which look kind of like turbans with tails. It was the most colorful and most ridiculous wedding procession you could possibly imagine, which is the only way to describe it.

I know most people would agree that long wedding ceremonies are painful to sit through, but this one was one for the record books. I took one look at the half-inch think program and decided to make myself comfortable. Three hours later, they were finally married. The sun had set, the palace was lit up, and my ass was really sore. It was truly a beautiful ceremony and enjoyable as a ‘learning experience’, but to say it was long is an understatement. Epic would be a more appropriate description.

We then made our way to a special tea with French pastries and chocolate. This was the appetizer, actually, which I also thought was brilliant. There were other hors d’oeurves, but they were overshadowed by the chocolate fountain and cheesecakes. The party moved to the front lawns, also carefully lit by thousands of candles and decorated impeccably. We had cocktails and watched a Flamenco Ballet before dinner. After stuffing my face at another buffet (probably the sixth or seventh at this point), I hit the dance floor with my new friends. We tore it up to an up-and-coming (or possibly down-and-going, I’m not sure) Bollywood singer. I have not had that much fun dancing in a long time. The music is so easy to dance to, and no one cares what they look like. I was a sweaty mess by the end of it, but everyone else was too. People here know how to have a good time, which is one of the things I love most about India.

I stuck around a little while longer for the casino party and DJ lounge, but my flight was leaving in a few hours and I had to get back to pack my things. I slept for about 45 minutes that night before flying back to Hyderabad and heading straight to work. It was a rough start to the week, to say the least, but completely worth it. Believe it or not, I actually left early. I missed Monday’s activities, which included a Yoga session led by a priest, a Japanese tea ceremony, a grand royal procession, and elephant and horse polo at the Royal Jaipur Polo Ground.

The whole event was incredibly organized and well run. I suppose that’s what happens when you own an entire city and form a small corporation to plan your only daughter’s wedding. It was a weekend to see and be seen, with some of India’s most prominent figures. Despite the fact that I didn’t know who any of them were, I still felt like I was living in an episode of Extreme Makeover, Indian Wedding Edition.

This was one of those isolated experiences that make you feel as if the entire outside world has ceased to exist. It was almost like being at camp, going from one organized activity to another and becoming fast friends with perfect strangers. I feel really lucky to have been a part of such a modern day fairytale, even without the pictures to prove it.”