2 Weddings 1 Week

Last week I got my first taste of an Indian Christian wedding reception. Then 3 days later I got my second taste. The two weddings were of people from very different social strata and therefore whilst having a similar basic structure were very different. The first wedding reception was between an Indian and a Sri Lankan both of whose fathers or grandfathers were pastors heavily involved in massive ministries. Therefore at times it felt as much a union between the ministries as it was between the two young people sitting in the middle of the stage. Adding to the Christian conference feel was the fact that the front 2 or 3 rows of the auditorium/theatre in which we sat were full of pastors and at least 6 or 7 of them got up to share at length in English. Clearly no expense had been spared as hundreds were fed, there was a 24 piece band and a number of musical items and the decorations were pretty incredible. This was on top of the money that had already been spent on a ceremony in Sri Lanka and the incredible decorations and outfits. The wedding couple changed half way through the ceremony to show off an extra set of expensive threads. The queues for the food were incredible but eventually worth the wait with bhiriani and tandoori chicken. However, my favourite part of the wedding was the ‘toast’. Christians in India don’t drink so they’d come up with a novel interpretation of the toast in which an old man who knows somebody’s grandfather gets up and talks about the families. For this wedding an old fellow talked at incredible length about the ministries of the couples respective grandfathers. All without raising so much as a glass of water to his lips.

The second wedding was a much more low key affair in the grounds of an old Church of South India church. Again we sat in rows of seats facing the stage but this time the speeches were quick and a mix of Tamil and English. Again the ‘toast’ made me smile with its old man talking about the families. Despite the fact that the speeches were still going as soon as food started to appear people got up from their seats and filed out to join that queue. There wasn’t enough seats to serve everyone their sit down meal so about a 100 or so people sat down side-by-side at a time. As I sat there silently shoveling food into my mouth trying to keep up with the largish Indian men on either side of me and ignore the person who was already behind my chair waiting for me to finish the thought of pigs at a trough kept popping into my head. Not that the food, bhiriani of course, was excellent and Angela’s relatives made me very welcome.