Attending Marriage in Family

Hari Mamaji's son Toshu Bhaiyaa married in Sage Chapel in Cornell with Rebekah. It has been long since I felt close emotionally and physically to so many family members at one place .. which is usually has been possible only in a marriage. The last one was my own sister's marriage eighteen months ago.
First an Indian style marriage at 1pm with vows recited by Pandit Jeffery D. Long which got Rebekah to almost cry with emotion. Later an American style wedding with walks of parents and bridesmaids and groomsmen followed by the ring ceremony and the throwing of some kind of seeds .. u can see I have not attended many weddings in my life ... honestly speaking never understood the whys of customs! Few of them are getting clearer as the priest Jeffery explained the reasons behind the vows and translated each Sanskrit shloka in English. Followed by reception with dinner and speeches from close ones, and finally champagne and dance!

I felt overwhelmed by the care bestowed upon me by those I have met only twice or thrice in my life and how they knew more about me than I had assumed. I was somewhat amused by a number of direct questions on my 'single-hood' and 'future plans' .. I replied to all such inquiries with my smile and the half-truth 'it's just laziness' answer :) Well, the even more intrusive question from ladies which I have been procrastinating for countless years to answer: "Tumhe kaisi ladki chahiye?" ('What kind of girl do you want?') :-O ... this got me thinking and later into shirking some laziness and a phone call from me ;) .. but I digress!!

Something weird happened ... a major faux-paus ... I usually know more family connections than my siblings .. this time I didn't even know that my cousin, the groom is Gandhiji's great-great grandson! Worse still I asked his grandfather his name, and not once but twice! Repeating it here so that you don't make the same mistake :) Toshu Bhaiyaa's grandfather's name is Arun Gandhi, grandson of Gandhiji and now working for non-violence. My father is pretty sure I was the only one in this marriage who asked him that as my father commented with a boisterous laugh when I told him this on phone today morning! :) Even he is surprised how I didn't know that .. maybe my parents had assumed that I tend to know anything anyways and always before everybody else .. wht's the need of telling me!! :) Ahh .. talk about rising expectations ... some other blog entry!