ervin’s piece of web

From the 9th to the 14th I’ve been near Mumbai to attend
Pradeepto’s wedding. I didn’t spend time to visit Mumbai itself
and shared all my time between Panvel and New Panvel.

I of course, once again, enjoyed the food… Maybe even a bit
too much, I expect to come back home with some extra weight!
I think it was hard to avoid some of it anyway, during the week of
the wedding you end up with more meals than usual here.

I attended as many rituals as possible for Pradeepto’s wedding.
Indian weddings are much more refined and complex than what we can
find in western countries. You have to get through several rituals
before the wedding, the ritual for the wedding itself is several
hours long, and the day after there’s a few more rituals… At least
that shows an true dedication.

One thing I found interesting is that during the rituals the
atmosphere is less solemn that what we have in western countries.
So that’s an interesting contrast between this particular atmosphere
and the very complex and meaningful ceremonies. The best picture
to show this is our own Pradeepto acting like a geek during the
wedding ceremony:

My only frustration while attending, is that I couldn’t get the
meaning of all the rituals, but I learnt a few interesting things
nonetheless. Also, you have to keep in mind that this was a Bengali
wedding, and depending on the region, weddings can be different in
India (different rituals, more or less people coming, etc.).

So congrats to the new husband and wife: