A Hindu Wedding

On Sunday February 24, we drove 3 hours to Anantapur, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, to attend the wedding of Jon's co-worker, Praveen G.  Praveen's marriage had been arranged to a woman from that town, Divya.  It was close to 100 degrees in this area.  

We both wore Indian style clothing to the wedding, and we were told that we were the best looking couple there!  Perhaps we were the most interesting looking couple.  We definitely received a lot of stares.  People even wanted to have their pictures taken with us.  The attention was rather overwhelming!

Speaking of overwhelming, there were hundreds of guests and the sights, sounds, and colors were all bright, loud, and vibrant.  The wedding was a remarkable scene with colorful outfits, many interesting rituals, and over all a great deal of chaos.  The actual ceremony for that day (Hindu weddings last 3-7 days) lasted a few hours and mostly consisted of people throwing rice on the bride and bridegroom, people pouring milk over a coconut that they are holding, and the couple tying the knot.  There was a period of time in which the wedding party paraded out to a local temple, returning half an hour later.

After the ceremony, everyone was served a delicious South Indian meal.  This consisted of roti (an Indian flatbread), dahl, rice, papadams, mango pickle, and fried plantains.  All were presented authentically using banana leaves as plates.

When we were driving home, we saw some new animals for the first time.  Leaving the wedding, we saw a giant pig foraging through a garbage heap for food, a cute little piglet running across the road, nearly getting run over by a number of vehicles, and the coolest monkey of all time!