India: Wedding

Probably the craziest twist in our India trip happened when our driver, Shankar, subtly asked us if we would like to attend his friend's wedding. We all knew that Indian weddings are once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and it just so happened that while we were in Jaipur, Shankar's friend was having his wedding reception. Apparently it is completely okay to invite strangers to a wedding celebration in India, so when this opportunity was put in front of us, we immediately said YES! We had no idea what to expect, but we knew it would be amazing. We were all worried that we did not have appropriate clothing to wear, but Shankar assured us that we should wear our jeans and it would be fine. The girls all thought our skirts would look nicer, but he insisted we wear jeans, because they are actually considered "nicer" than skirts. Shankar stopped off to buy a new shirt for the wedding, and on the way to the event, he pulled over on the side of the road, and took his shirt to this little shack. We learned that in India, when you need clothes ironed, you simply find a shack like this, and a woman will iron your clothes for you right there. We found it pretty amusing!

Once Shankar's shirt was wrinkle-free, we were off to the wedding!

It all started a ways down the road from where the actual wedding reception was taking place; there was a DJ truck blasting Bollywood music, with ropes connected to a horse carriage in the back where the bride and groom sat. This was the "processional" to the reception venue. Everyone got in between the ropes and danced while we drove slowly down the street to where the main party was happening. It took about an hour to go about half a mile down the road, but we were all getting a kick out of it, as the "real" Indian guests kept trying to get us to dance with them. It seemed like the three basic dance moves could be accomplished by pretending to untwist an overhead lightbulb, then brushing a bit of dust off your shoulder, and then stomping out a bunch of little fires around you. We attempted, but it was far more interesting to just observe the fun they were having.

When we arrived at the venue, we passed through a gate while having rose petals blown all over us, and entered what felt like a huge fairground. We could not believe how many people were there. Among the thousands, there was also a huge stage with professional bands and dancers entertaining the crowds, drones flying above us filming the whole event, two different large food areas, and even more that we couldn't fully take in. We were in awe at this wedding reception. We met some other friends of our driver who were from Nepal. It was also their first Indian wedding, so we all hung out while exchanging observations of this incredible event we were witnessing!  

Since we were already tired from traveling, we decided to leave the party quite early and get some sleep. Before we left, we all presented the bride and groom with a bouquet of flowers that we brought, and took a picture with them. We thought this would seem odd to them, since clearly they did not know us at all, but as we said, there were thousands of people there, and I'm sure most of them were friends of friends! Just as we were ready to leave, Shankar insisted that Devin go back on stage and get one more picture. He did not seem to care that the family was seemingly in the middle of their own photoshoot... he simply ordered Devin to just go stand there! This picture goes down in history as one of the most hysterical and awkward pictures we have of him (but there's lots of competition from his college days). We still bust out laughing looking at it today. We don't even think they noticed him there!

One of these things is not like the other...

After hitting the markets hard our last day in Jaipur, we made the long journey back to the airport, stopping for our last roadside Chai. We arrived at the airport at about 7PM and our flight was at 5:30AM. Sadly, this is when three of the four of us were hit with our sickness. We had done such a good job of staying healthy and avoiding the bugs that we had all heard of before traveling. We must have done something wrong the last day or so, because we started dropping like flies. To say that the flight back was by far one of the least enjoyable traveling experiences would be an incredible understatement. After arriving back in Spain and still being sick a week later, we went to the international health clinic and found out that sure enough, we all had a parasite. It has taken many appointments and medicines, but a few months later, we are all finally amoeba-free! 

India was such a strong, colorful, sensory experience! We are still processing many of the thoughts and experiences that we had there. We are thankful for the opportunity to see a country in which life functions so vastly different than ours. There is always perspective to be gained when you step way outside of your comfort zone, and India was just that for us. In every sense of the word, it was a unique flavor, for which we are grateful to have tasted!