Mosaics and Memories

Monsoon wedding

On the ninth day of the seventh month there was to be a monsoon wedding. This being the first in our family just made it all the more endearing to us.  Every detail surrounding this event had to be perfect. So the three women in our family (plus bride) decided to collectively plan this beautiful wedding for our precious child.

One little detail that I must mention - the wedding planners are located in three different countries with four different time zones and orchestrating a ceremony from 40,000 miles away.

You can see our conundrum.

But we are “missionful women”(an inside joke) and so we would embark on the voyage to Wedding Planning. Our journey would begin in January until we see the shores of India in July. In the meantime numerous emails, excel spreadsheets, lists, phone calls, nervous breakdowns, flowcharts, hugs, invitation cards, “I heart you” notes , a dozen menu changes, magazine saree cut-outs and irritable family members would pass by our ship; but we vowed to stay on course.  Onward we would go, until we reach the banks of Kerala in the horizon, the setting, for our beautiful monsoon wedding.

January and February were spent scurrying to find a suitable church and a reception hall. The cities of Trivandrum and Thiruvalla were finalists contending  for the ultimate honor of being  city to host the wedding celebrations of Gigi and  G-man (Groom-man). After two months of serious deliberations a decision was made - Trivandrum won!

And then we met March...

The parents of the bride hit the wedding preparation with such fervor and numerous weekend trips to India as if March madness had descended on us. Thus the  caterer, the decorator, the choir and music, the wedding invitations and the videographer were finalized.

By the time we’d arrived at April and May, decisions to make got harder. Why wouldn’t it? After all it involved four women trying to decide on a color scheme for the bridesmaids dresses, the flowers and our very own wedding sarees. We scoured sareeworld.com, bollywood magazines, style blogs, photographs of friends who were recently married and even hindi movies for inspiration. My sweet mother sent us email forwards with pictures of  sarees that bollywood actresses had worn to award ceremonies, movies, weddings and their very own baby showers (someone had the bright idea of sharing the pictures of Aishwarya Rai’s sister-in-law’s baby shower) in the last six months. This was the information highway and we were transmitting latest fashion trends at the speed of light.

I considered myself a recent  graduate with a  degree in Indian fashion and a minor concentration in Sarees and the art of draping. And in spite of it all, our search for the perfect saree was as elusive as ever. Cookie and I were still in hot pursuit of “the one”.

On June 30 the five of us were united and months of ‘email hugs’ turned into sporadic hugging sessions thereafter until we bid each other farewell.

Exactly five days before the wedding Cookie and I made a discovery. The elusive sarees we’d been searching for all along finally crossed our paths in the space-time continuum.  We were besotted and ecstatic all at once. We’d finally found, henceforth, what would forever be known as ‘the sarees we’d draped that monsoon day when our baby sister entered wedded bliss’.

A couple of days before the wedding, we'd enrobed our banisters with tulle and flowers for when Gigi would make an entrance in all her wedded glory. Friends and family flocked home to congratulate and wish the bride-to-be.

On the eve of the wedding, the pressure was mounting and the list of things to do just kept expanding. At that precise moment, Cookie, Gigi and I decided to leave the madness and retire to La-La Land.

La-La Land came into existence on July 8 and would belong to the three of us alone and here we would remain young single girls forever. In this land we would have the ability to fly (as deemed by Princess Gigi) because walking is a chore that young girls should not have to worry about.

 We could be on swings or climbing trees all day long and there would be orchards of dark chocolate with hazelnuts. The elves of La-La land would serve the most scrumptious varieties of magic ice-cream that never makes you fat.  A moment on your lips but never on your hips. The streams by the orchards would render the sweetest songs and occasionally belt-out hip-hop if the mood arises (Again Princess Gigi likes her hip-hop every now and then). We would giggle and hide in La-La land from the grown-ups on earth.

Alas we had to return to greeting guests and running errands. But La-La Land would remain for us to retire to whenever we need to run away from nosy aunts who always probe the question  "Why you have no man?".

And then one Saturday morning, two lovely people were joined together, to love and to hold forevermore. My Gigi was the prettiest bride ever (yes, I'm jaded and rightfully so). Two sisters looked on as one of their own went from a young lady to a wife.

Now we have a brother and my parents have a son. Let me tell you that it's a joy to add another place mat at the dinner table. Welcome to the family, G-man!