Hindu Wedding

Its  wasn't a good day to leave the house without a camera I was thinking whilst I watched an immaculately dressed bride pour water from a brass tea pot circling 3 times around the groom in the blood stained courtyard of the Hindi temple. Not a good day at all ,but as we left the house this morning to fetch Boise milk we wernt expecting for Sorgorm to be off school in his best clothes. So exciting for the kids as trips with Sorgorm invariably result in four-seat-wooden Ferris wheels,  dipping in and out of peoples houses tasting roasted soy beans, guavas, oranges and on one especially exciting trip- two sticks of sugar cane. :-).

"Aza zani beebar. " he announced. Today we go wedding.  . "Right oh" I said, hoping that cultural differences would forgive my lack of shower for 5 days and the fact that In was now clutching a  pot of buffalo milk and a hat that I had just used to wipe the wee wees out of Luke's shoes. I suspected not.

Nevertheless moments later we were in the bridegroom's courtyard surrounded by snazzily dressed men and beautiful red sparkely saris. Tara's eyes were popping out of her head and Lukey was beating the top of a  pot of Freshly slaughtered buffalo curry with a dirty stick and getting dirtier looks from the bridegrooms family. I made my excuses and claiming that I needed to stash my pot somewhere we escaped the courtyard and made for home.

But today the kids were on the go slow. Lukey wet his crock in a puddle and after getting no sympathy from me turned to his Tara mummy who went through a extraordinarily intricate and complicated method of drying his shoe by stuffing both crocks with ferns and emptying them again only to fill them both again, delighting Lukey.

We were still on the path 15 minutes later when the grooms procession  found us and Sorgorm jumped out of the wedding train to collect us. Both kids holding his hands we  gained  ground on the bridegroom and followed him and the best man who was holding a parasol over his head into the temple.

We paused for a family photos, Tara and I ducking behind the crowd and Lukey and Sorgorm standing boldly on the front row, paused again to place tika and flowers and money at the temples back door, and then processed into the temple courtyard.

The temple looked very different to the last time I had glimpsed it in the dark, filled with people and beasts waiting for the ritual slaughter that heralds the start of Dashain festival. I sat in the same spot that I had that night when I had stroked the soft nose of a Buffalo calf contemplating his tika. Wondering was it really possible to ritually slaughter so many animals in one night....

The bright red saris and sparkling  jewelry of the brides family in the sunshine was a stark contrast. Luke and Sorgorm disappeared, whilst Tara and I held  on for another glimpse of the bride. We caught up with them eventually,raiding the  refuse behind the temple for ends of sugacane and later made a smart exit after
Lukey was thrown out of the Hindu temple twice ( for not being Hindu) but not before I was able to glimpse the ritualbathingf the couples feet by the sadu and family.

We were still welcome for lunch  and I munched happily on meat and curry while Luke pored is water into his rice and back again, eventually feeding it to the dog.

:-)