Hindu weddings minus the whiplash
What looks like a huge metal headdress transpired in today's case at least to be made of paper. No worries on the whiplash front. The same was not true on the shame of standing outside the temple with a tampax string that may as well be in full view.
Needless to say the period turned up last night, so the fear of many gods was upon me, the shame of everyone knowing (not that I think it's a big deal you understand, I've had the damn things every month for the last twenty years now.) But Hindu's apparently do as a bit of old shedding bars you from a temple. luckily, turns out the temple is only for the family anyway so my mutual "look at me, here stands a bleeding leper" sticker remained firmly tucked into my bra.
The wedding itself was a little anti-climatic for me. The bride looked lovely, as did the groom, even with a sword stuffed down his back. As did the bride's brother and sister who had the exact same outifits as the happy couple on. Seems that was only because they were getting their teetch sawn at the same time as the happy couple. Two ceremonies for the price on one I think, given that the groom was an aussie, and paying.
Teeth sawing is obligatory if you want to be a hindu, and by default if you want to marry one. The Aussie chap seemed to be sweating much more than his wife and her siblings as a result of that particular excercise which I am told hurts like hell, as you'd expect.
Happy wedding day, was my first thought. You can apparently opt to do that in advance, which is what you'd think anyone would do so the big day wasn't a pain filled memory. Only with the wailing and the endless drone of the two men on a xylophone, and the chanting and the praying, and the fact that there was bugger all alcohol (and what was there was naturally only offered to the blokes - as good girls don't drink) certainly no singing, dancing, speeches or general merriment of any kind, plus the fact the whole affair was carried out in a tiny house crammed full with people in the searing heat; maybe the "bloody hell, let's just get the whole thing over with in one go" mentality, would prevail.
I took my camera and turned into the official photographer for the whole village, Small children were brought by parents from I believe in some cases the village next door, people who were not invited anywhere near the house crept round the back to pat me on the shoulder and point first at themselves then at the camera, entire hoardes of children posed very unsubtly over cars and then waited for me to notice, and at the moment when I went to take any picture, about thirty other people who were not meant to be in the damn thing ran like prize winning athletes, over the line and into the frame. needless to say I took around 750 photographs and have promised to send copies back to the village. Camera and phots are very rare so I enjoyed the whole thing immensely, despite the fact I can't speak a word of Balinese and they couldn't speak a word of English. By the end I even had people voluntarily helping me uncrowd teh pictures so I could get some half decent shots.
The camera was however intended to creat an album for the bride and groom, but the aforementioned small room crammed full of people, plus windows liekwise inhabited, made getting any photos of the not so happy couple (after the teeth bit at least - which, incidentally is to release bad spirits) difficult to pin down. I'm hoping pictures of 750 of their friends, aquaintances, neighbours and not any of the above will help dull the disapointment. The brotyher and sister were easier to pin down so maybe some of the back shots will act as suitable costume doubles at least.
Needless to say, seeing the Dolphins this morning in a tiny catamaran that had to be repaired with a bit of old fishing net to sail me back, was amazing.
My life is one long lesson (plus lots of dolphin sideshows) and I am rediscovering my passion for learning
Julie x
Needless to say the period turned up last night, so the fear of many gods was upon me, the shame of everyone knowing (not that I think it's a big deal you understand, I've had the damn things every month for the last twenty years now.) But Hindu's apparently do as a bit of old shedding bars you from a temple. luckily, turns out the temple is only for the family anyway so my mutual "look at me, here stands a bleeding leper" sticker remained firmly tucked into my bra.
The wedding itself was a little anti-climatic for me. The bride looked lovely, as did the groom, even with a sword stuffed down his back. As did the bride's brother and sister who had the exact same outifits as the happy couple on. Seems that was only because they were getting their teetch sawn at the same time as the happy couple. Two ceremonies for the price on one I think, given that the groom was an aussie, and paying.
Teeth sawing is obligatory if you want to be a hindu, and by default if you want to marry one. The Aussie chap seemed to be sweating much more than his wife and her siblings as a result of that particular excercise which I am told hurts like hell, as you'd expect.
Happy wedding day, was my first thought. You can apparently opt to do that in advance, which is what you'd think anyone would do so the big day wasn't a pain filled memory. Only with the wailing and the endless drone of the two men on a xylophone, and the chanting and the praying, and the fact that there was bugger all alcohol (and what was there was naturally only offered to the blokes - as good girls don't drink) certainly no singing, dancing, speeches or general merriment of any kind, plus the fact the whole affair was carried out in a tiny house crammed full with people in the searing heat; maybe the "bloody hell, let's just get the whole thing over with in one go" mentality, would prevail.
I took my camera and turned into the official photographer for the whole village, Small children were brought by parents from I believe in some cases the village next door, people who were not invited anywhere near the house crept round the back to pat me on the shoulder and point first at themselves then at the camera, entire hoardes of children posed very unsubtly over cars and then waited for me to notice, and at the moment when I went to take any picture, about thirty other people who were not meant to be in the damn thing ran like prize winning athletes, over the line and into the frame. needless to say I took around 750 photographs and have promised to send copies back to the village. Camera and phots are very rare so I enjoyed the whole thing immensely, despite the fact I can't speak a word of Balinese and they couldn't speak a word of English. By the end I even had people voluntarily helping me uncrowd teh pictures so I could get some half decent shots.
The camera was however intended to creat an album for the bride and groom, but the aforementioned small room crammed full of people, plus windows liekwise inhabited, made getting any photos of the not so happy couple (after the teeth bit at least - which, incidentally is to release bad spirits) difficult to pin down. I'm hoping pictures of 750 of their friends, aquaintances, neighbours and not any of the above will help dull the disapointment. The brotyher and sister were easier to pin down so maybe some of the back shots will act as suitable costume doubles at least.
Needless to say, seeing the Dolphins this morning in a tiny catamaran that had to be repaired with a bit of old fishing net to sail me back, was amazing.
My life is one long lesson (plus lots of dolphin sideshows) and I am rediscovering my passion for learning
Julie x
posted by The Gypsy @ 8:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home