What was all the noise I could hear from my hotel room? Oh, just another Indian wedding.
I watched as the bridal party and relatives walked by in their finery to assemble on the street corner. This was no mean feat as we had been blessed by a deluge of rain in the afternoon which left the road covered in mud. Pretty shoes and elaborate saris had to negotiate through mud, cow-shit and hectic traffic.
On the next corner, a block away, a truck was off-loading its’ contents of wedding entertainers. This comprised of a group of ladies who were to carry fluorescent chandeliers on their heads, a generator to light up their heads and a singer with all his musical equipment.
Eventually the music got under way after the Indian equivalent of Testing 1 2 3….. Testing 1 2 3. The generator swung into action and the heads lit up, but one could only flicker. This gave the effect of a disco head; god knows what kind of head-ache the bearer would end up with.
A beggar lady and her two kids took the opportunity to muscle into the action. She knew only too well that someone would give her alms- if only to get rid of her. I watched with bated breath for her to trip up the chandeliers or even disconnect the singer from his amplifier. This amplifier would give the decibel level of a rock concert its run for money. Alas, it didn’t happen and I felt very disappointed.
The procession ground to what I thought was a premature halt outside a lodge. Could it be that the generator gave up, the singer fainting with the excitement, or the bride bolting? More realistically it was probably someone in the group demanding more money. Obviously someone coughed up as the chandeliers again sprang into life and the disco queen discoed on and the singer did his Indian yodeling interpretation.
This being an Indian festival day, and an auspicious day to get married, could account for the haste in which the chandeliers, drums, amplifier and persons were piled back into the truck. They would be racing off to the next engagement; there would be many weddings today. The entertainers can demand large fees on these auspicious wedding days and no family would lose face by not having this fanfare.
So the wedding party arrived at the hotel, no doubt hot from the humidity and the heat generated from fluorescent chandeliers. Especially as the men were sweating it out in Western style suits and the women in volumes of heavily embroidered saris.
