Last Sunday the girls had anouther chance to get on their silk saris when we were invited to a wedding- Leckshmi Aunty’s (the cook/cleaner/baby sitter for our hosts) son was tying the knot with a south Indian girl. We were slightly disappointed when we got there to find out the actual ceremony was long finished- it would have been fascinating-but since the whole wedding process lasts several days there were still loads of people, food and decorations. We enjoyed a fanta with the new bride and groom and then went to the big marquee thing for some food.
It was amazing we didn’t get unwell- the food was great but it was definitely designed for Indian stomachs- we ate salad (BMS’s big no no) and mayonnaisey stuff off banana leaves (which was cool) with dirty hands (we forgot hand gel stuff- oops) and washed it down with some good old tap water. We left and spent an hour or so at a posh mall, before going to Seema and Sunny’s house (John’s sister and husband) for one of their absolutely epic dinners. We gorged ourselves on hot roti and the 5 different meat dishes they offered and then had just enough time to watch some of Godzilla on TV. Good day.
We have been thinking quite a lot about arranged marriages recently, especially since we have seen one of the of the older- and one of the not so old- girls at the village school leaving to start a new life with a man they have never met. Its been really hard seeing how gutted they were about leaving all of their friends and family, to live far away in a different village. I was slightly shocked at Arnold’s comment at the wedding we went to, that the bride was the happiest bride he had ever seen. I would have described her as polite, but not noticeably happy. Its such a shame.
I just don’t see why families but their children through so much grief over getting married- it seems to me to be so far away from what God intended marriage to be like.
Please continue to pray for our friend Sumitra as her arranged marriage gets closer.
David
