Tonight was the first celebration of the wedding, a cocktail party hosted by Nehas family. But this was no cocktail party. Instead, it was a lavish party and feast at one of Ludhianas many wedding resorts that the family rented out. After an elaborate ritual of dressing, which Ill describe later, we rolled up to the entrance and were greeted by people with platters of white flower garlands and small clay cups of grape juice. There were fountains and scattered rose petals all over the entrance gate and we entered to find an enormous grassy enclave decorated with tents and firepits and upright lamp heaters and a big stage and dance floor. This scene, crowded with guests in glittering jewel colored sarees and festive decoration with the moonlit sky as a backdrop, could have come straight out of a fairy tale. There were bellydancers in next to nothing writhing around on the stage, an ambitious fire eater who walked on flaming coals, and lots and lots of dancing to modern Indian music with techno beats.

Whoa, good thing I saved this on the hotels computer, because the power went out. Power outages are a common thing in India. It seems to go out at least 3 times a day, reminding me that yes, despite the luxury that Nehas family is showing me, I am still in a partially undeveloped country.

Back to the party

I was going to write down all the food at the wedding, but I realized I would have needed to write down the names of over 75 different dishes, ranging from Chinese to Lebanese to traditional Indian cuisine. The curries and dals were excellent- all in richly flavored sauces and many with cream, as is typical of this region of India. My favorites were the butter, flaky paratha which was made on a giant skillet on the spot and the patissa  which is a dessert candy whose texture reminds me of Butterfingers but is white and cut into small one inch squares and decorated with ground up pistachios. Given the food line and the number of guests- something like 500- you can just imagine how much staff they had hired to clean up, cook, and entertain. At the wedding were also the bangle guys and the henna guys. At any traditional party, women wear colorful stacks of bangles on both wrists. I suppose at lavish parties, the bangles are provided for you. The bangle guy clucked at my simple metal bangles that I had purchased earlier in the day and barely managed to squeeze over my big hands (who knew I have the biggest hands in India- and my hands are relatively small in the States!). He wrenched them off, a feat I was dreading, and gave me two sets of beautiful glass bangles to match my outfit, a mustard green saree with blue sequin work all over. Later in the evening I had my hands done with henna in an intricate flowered design that took over an hour to dry and left my hands stained a dark orangey brown the next day.