Bienvenido a Miami!

A couple of weeks ago I was able to experience my first Indian wedding (and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it). Ramya's childhood BFF/former roommate Padmini got married in Miami, so we made a mini-vacation out of it. That's right- Miami on the 4th of July weekend. It was not chilly.

As weddings go, the only thing that was different from "us-people" weddings was the actual ceremony (and the groom's arrival, or "Barat"). Everything else was basically the same- mostly that I met a ton of people and had to try to remember names. And I usually suck pretty hard at names, but this time I had to try to remember ones like Bharath, Anagha, Saramati, Sandhya, etc. It's hard enough when you have to remember a bunch of Kelly and Steves, but with a lot of Indian names I don't even natively know the gender. But that's neither here nor there.

The ceremony was interesting, but it was long and complicated. And not only that, but the whole thing was conducted in Sanskrit, and I'm pretty sure the priest was the only person in the room who spoke it. As such, they passed out a little book that explained the various stages of the wedding in English (they also passed out little pieces of sugar and flowers, but I never really understood why). And because the ceremony is so long and incomprehensible, paying attention isn't necessary, or even encouraged. People were chatting amongst themselves while the priest went on and on, guests came and went, people would randomly walk up front and take pictures, etc. As Bharath put it "Yeah, you could start a poker game back here and no one would notice." There were really too many stages of the ceremony to count. They included (but were not limited to): Sitting on a swing while older women sung chants, passing around colored rice balls, eating a mixture of milk, sugar and bananas, all the guests walking up and throwing flower petals at the couple (my favorite) and taking seven steps together. Needless to say I was pretty lost, but everyone was very willing to explain things to me. I believe the most important part was when they walked around the fire together- everyone stood up and applauded, and I think this is the moment when they are considered "married."

At the conclusion of the Hindu ceremony they actually did a mini "western wedding," during which the bride and groom stood up and a woman who is a notary (who can perform marriages in Florida) does a brief presentation. This I was familiar with- it included vows, exchanging rings and all those other things I'm used to seeing at weddings. They even kissed afterward, which I understand is still pretty risque in this instance.

Of course, the wedding is followed by the reception (and the food was delightful, naan and all). Then, the dancing started. Now, I can barely dance in English so I was really starting from scratch when the Bhangra music started thumping. What the women were doing was easy to figure out: it's what I think of as stereotypical Indian dancing, what with the arms up and vague pushing hand motions and swaying to the music. This I can imitate. The problem here is that that's what the women do. The dudes, on the other hand, just kind of held their hands up in the air and kicked their feet around. It all seemed very random and disorganized. You would think this would make it easier to blend in, but it had the opposite effect- I just didn't know where to start. It got a little easier once they passed out the glow sticks (yeah baby) because then I had something to do with my hands. Anyway, I think I faked it pretty well until they switched to hip-hop music, and which point I could dance poorly in a more familiar style.

Here's the weird part: when they switched to hip-hop, all the Indian kids (and by "kids," I mean 15-30 years of age) started dancing like I'm used to. It seemed odd, but I guess that's not so much how Indian people dance as it is how you dance to Bhangra music- like you wouldn't dance the same way to death metal and bluegrass. See? You learn something new every day.

But the biggest obstacle on the dance floor was the video camera. Now, I know some people love to have footage of their special day, but I believe weddings should be still-picture only. Especially when it comes to the dance floor. This particular video camera had a very bright spotlight attached to it, so at least you were sure when it was pointed at you! I'm sure every time I'm on camera all you see me doing is shielding my eyes and awkwardly standing there, waiting for them to realize that there's no way my version of Bhangra is ever going to end up on YouTube and move on. Still, it wasn't as bad as an earlier wedding this season, in which there was a video camera mounted on a high tripod, permanently fixed on the dance floor. I mean, is there any bigger dancing buzz kill than knowing that every move is being caught on tape? I say live in the moment, take great stills, and screw the tape. But that's just me.So altogether it was a great time. We stuck around Miami for a few more eventful days, which I'm sure I'll get around to blogging about in the next few weeks!