continuation of wedding party description, and then some

When we arrived at Piya's brother's house, we sat on the bed with the bride and about a zillion little cousins. (Most of the Indians I know here don't have living rooms. When they have guests over, they sit on the bed, or on the floor if they don't have a bed) So we sat and talked and took lots of pictures. Finally we got the bride to smile and relax a little, but she'd quickly go back to looking sad. I did manage to get a few pictures of her smiling, which will hopefully compensate for all the ones where it looks like she's about to burst into tears. Anyway, we sat and visited for about an hour, and gave her the gift we'd bought (a yellow and blue shawl). She thanked us and quickly set it aside, like she did with all the gifts she recieved.
Then we went outside to the tent (it was basically a pandal - constructed of bamboo and fabric - without the dieties) to have dinner. Everyone else who was there by then ate at that time too. The plates were made of palm leaves, and the first thing we did was pour water on them to rinse them. Serves brought around rice and dhal, which we ate with our hands. Because we are foreigners, we were being watched by everyone, which made it even more awkward to eat in a way to which we are so unaccustomed. Its sad that its actually difficult for me to use my own fingers to perform a task as simple as eating. But it was hard for me not to drop grains of rice or get food on my face. I think part of the difficulty came from the fact that eating like that is so against the way I've been trained all my life; its bad manners. I would look up expecting to see people gawking at me for being so rude, but instead I'd see everyone else just shoveling it in.
The meal consisted of rice and dhal, potato and cabbage curry (aloo gobi), a sweet chutney with crispy chips, and spongey white sweets drenched in a sugary sauce. There was also chicken curry, but I didn't eat it because I'm vegetarian. We finished off with packets of pan (or paan), a breath freshener that is a mix of a flavored powder (in this case mint) and crushed betel nuts. It was pretty yummy. The betel nuts have addictive qualities though, and some people's teeth are stained red from constantly chewing pan. There is red spit all over everything here because of it.
We went back into the house, back onto the bed to visit for a little while longer, and then we left. Prativa and Arati had to get home, and Bobby wanted us to go all together. Huge groups of people were arriving as we were going out. So we missed the main partying, but it was still really kool to be included at all.
A few days later, Piya came to the flat to choose which pictures she wanted me to print. Last night I picked up the prints and bought an album and took them to her house. The pictures are something her family could never afford (or at least would never choose to spend their money on). So I was really happy to be able to give them the photos. They were all really excited.
Piya had gotten a photo of herself taken at a studio. She was in the same outfit she'd worn for me to take her picture last month (with the addition of a red hat that made her look remeniscent of a flapper), if you remeber that blog entry. The pose was awkward but cute. She had had three copies printed, and she gave one to me as thanks for all the photos I'd had printed for her. "You one keep." She said. I'm very happy to have it.

~m