The wedding festivities carried on through the day!
It started off with the Haldi ceremony where the groom gets his beautification done - in other words, he gets oil and turmeric (haldi) applied onto him, to get this skin to glow for the upcoming wedding. This ceremony usually ends with not just the groom covered in haldi but the rest of the attendees as well. Right after the groom was adequately smeared with oil and haldi, a haldi war raged ensuring each and every soul present gets drowned in haldi too! That included me too! Sigh!
After the Haldi war and follow up cleaning, it was time for the Janevu ceremony of the hubby's youngest cousin brother. Janevu is the official "Brahmin"-ization of a Brahmin, something all Brahmin guys are supposed to go through. So this young boy had his turn today and he seemed pretty pleased with the entire proceedings. After converting him to a true blue Brahmin, we realized that we have some free time.
So we made our way to Sangam (or Triveni Sangamam, as we call it in Malayalam), which is the meeting point of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. You can literally see the different waters of Ganga (brown) and Yamuna (green) merging, while Saraswati is supposed to be hidden somewhere below.
The Sangam visit was truly fascinating - for several reasons! The fun boat ride to the meeting point of the rivers, the hundreds of birds flying around, the puja performed in the middle of the river, watching people dip in the holy waters at their meeting point with the help of a platform set up with several boats tied together, the visit to the nearby Hanuman temple the specialty of which is that the Hanuman idol here is sprawling on the floor vs. standing upright, etc. etc. etc.
But what was most lovely was the beautiful foggy atmosphere and the resulting serene look of the waters, the calm bobbing boats and the quiet shores beyond.
Post the Sangam visit, it was back to wedding festivities. It was time for Nikaasi, the official farewell of the groom as he leaves his house to bring his bride home. Since the professional photographer didn't turn up for this one, I was picked to do the photography for the event. I must admit that I made quite a show of getting everyone to pose proper or hold their poses longer so that I can get their snaps right! How fun!
So yes, another super hectic day but a very lovely one at that!
269 more to go.
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