2 Jul 2010 ( Friday) dawned bright and clear.It was a Friday.
Sudha and I got up early.Varsha was already up preparing Akkirotti for us.
We had a cup of coffee and Narasimha sat chatting with us way beyond his normal departure time to Office.
All of us got ready by 9.15 AM and then we ( Sachin, Madhura, Sudha and myself)left for Mahwah in Sachin's car.Mahwah lies in the north of New Jersey and it took us almost 90 minutes to get there.The Hindu Samaj temple where Anand's wedding was to take place is set in lovely surroundings with greenery all around and a hill in the background.
The others were already there and all of us males were appropriately dressed in churidar and kurta.
The barat was slightly delayed since the Sardarji drummer had got held up in traffic and had not yet arrived.He duly came at 11.30 AM accompanied by another person holding a magnificently decorated horse.Anand mounted the horse and all of us danced Bhangra style for a short distance up to the temple.
The South Indian style wedding ceremony started at 12 Noon.Before this, Rajani supervised the Gowri Pooje by Tina.After Kanyadhana, saptapadi and kalungura fitting which got over by 2.30 PM, we all adjourned to another hall where the entire atmosphere had changed.Round tables had been set up and we were all allotted table numbers based on the confirmations we had sent earlier. ( Totally different from the Indian scenario where the host wouldn't know whether 1500 guests would turn up for the wedding or 500).
The buffet was served on the first floor and there was an orderly queue for the buffet based on table numbers--- not the kind of mad and unseemly rush we see here in Indian weddings.
The bride's mother , sister, grandparents as well as Omprakash& Sudha, Suresh & Uma, Aamod and finally Anand & Tina made a grand entrance and were introduced to the guests.
There was a short screening of snaps from Tina & Anand's childhood till they got together and then the wedding cake was cut.Anand& Tina had a dance together and then the floor was open to the guests.
It was around 4.30 PM by the time we said our goodbyes to Omprakash, Sudha and all the other cousins, nephews, nieces and Chambi and then we were on our way to Towaco to Renuka's house.It was our first experience of an Indian wedding in America and we felt that there was much to learn from this experience.
We reached Towaco at around 6 PM.Sachin and Madhura changed to normal dress since they were going to Manhattan to meet Sachin's friends for dinner.
Harjit left for Newark Station to receive Meghana who was arriving by train from New York. Angad was home for the holidays.
We sat on the deck at the back of the house and chatted away.Meghana and Harjit arrived at 7.30 PM and we continued to chat away in the living room in convivial fashion.
Renuka and Harjit have a heart as large as their home and we felt completely at home there.They showed us albums of their trips to Spain and Italy and made us more determined than ever to do Europe sometime in the near future.
Sudha was fascinated by the conversation between Meghana and Angad, especially their true-blue American accents.
We sat down to a lovely dinner of Pav bhaji and vegetable palau. Angad had just celebrated his birthday on 28th Jun and we had a cake cutting ceremony after dinner.
It was 12 midnight by the time we finished and it was time for us to retire to bed.
That was the end of Day 22.
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