IN: I Do, Punjabi Style

Indians do weddings big, and Punjabi’s throw the superlative of wedding parties. The final day of Ram’s wedding was one of the most surreal, entertaining, and enjoyable wedding traditions I’ve ever partook in.

The morning of his actual wedding day, started off with a wake up call at 6 am.

“Brrrrring, brrrrrring, brrrrrring,” the phone blared as it interrupted my dream.

“WTF,” T muttered as I reached to answer the rude intrusion, “is the hotel on fire???”

“Good morning Ms. Sonia, this is just a reminder that breakfast will be served until 8 am.”

“Okay, thank you,” I replied. While I questioned to my self the relevance of a 6 am wake up call. Especially considering the Indian truth that we were running on Indian Stretchable Time.

After hanging up, we dozed off for another hour or so before making our way to breakfast. We made our way to the breakfast room for 8 am, and SURPRISE, SURPRISE, we were still the first of the wedding party to arrive.

After breakfast T and I were quick to dress in our Punjabi wear, and to pack our bags. Although, behind schedule (according to the voice on the other line of the wake up call) we were still the first of the wedding party to arrive in the lobby.

We said a few of our goodbyes and arranged our cab to the airport as we waited for the rest of the congregation to arrive.

As the party swept the lobby, Ram was carried off by the women in his family only to be blindfolded before led to a waiting horse. Our party, turned into a procession that held up traffic as we danced in the boulevard and (slowly) made our way from the grooms hotel to the brides.

A marching band led the parade, as the groom took the rear. Money was thrown, to encourage luck for the couple to be wed.

We danced. We danced. We danced.

We made quite a scene on the street as we sauntered, two stepped, and hopped the three blocks. (It took our party nearly two hours to travel the short distance). When we arrived, we were drenched in sweat.

Once at the brides hotel, we were ushered upstairs into the waiting ballroom. The ceremony was about to begin.

Sadly, T & I had to make a quick escape. We had a plane to catch. Despite the chaos, we made our escape. Laughing as we ran back to the hotel. Oh what fun!

Once back at the hotel, we quickly changed before climbing into the cab. We we’re off to Dehradub, the final stop on our Indian Adventure.