What a circus. I’d give this tamasha 6 months. Oh well, it kept 1 billion people occupied for 3 days.

One of the things said in sanskrit during a traditional wedding is “may you be the mother of a thousand sons” — Not to be confused with a book of the same title (hundred substituting for thousand). And then the rest is about may you have lakhs of cows and lakhs of other stuff.

But perhaps even the priests don’t know what the sanskrit meanings are half the time.

These traditional type sanskritic blessings are all the rage amongst westerners trying to be “vedic” in cults like ISKCON and others.

Like I said above — some people (in the west) converting to religions really don’t know how to distinguish the progressive from the archaic, and take archaic cultural stuff from thousands of years ago to be “spiritual” just because it’s in an old language or part of an old custom.

Even then I imagine a woman might still go through with the rituals on the basis that it keeps people (whether her in-laws or even her parents) happy. Some might not of course. An analogy is the touching of elders’ feet. I see it as a nice, respectful gesture when done once in a while, like on special big occasions, etc. But some families go way overboard with it (in my opinion), and on the other hand, some people are dead against it…especially if one likes to think of one’s self as a complete individual, no more or less deserving of respect than anyone else, regardless of their age (many folks feel age should not automatically confer respect). Then touching someone’s feet could be a very oppressive thing to have to do. But I would say, even if you feel that way, no harm done if an occasion demands it and you do it. These are all fading traditions anyway.

JOAT, I think you really picked up on something important with that word “endearing”…at some point, rituals are performed because they are precisely that. Even people who don’t believe in the so-called “science” behind them, do them because it makes them feel good. In most cases, I think it’s harmless. It’s a connection to family/culture. But obviously there are some rituals that are rooted in a oppressive patriarchal tradition, and then you have to ask the question–is it okay to do this, knowing what it is meant to represent, because I don’t buy into those ideals so it doesn’t have that meaning for me? I don’t know what the answer is, but I think it’s something important to think about.

Congrats on your impending wedding. I highly reccommend Sonia Kaur’s website. It was super helpful during my own wedding planning, and sometimes I still lurk there. I miss it! There’s a remarkable diversity of desi brides-to-be on the site and it makes for some very interesting reading.

Did anyone else notice how tired he looked on the trip to Tirupathi? Maybe Ash is like a preying mantis in the bedroom! My boy looked exhausted and his ind-fro was in full effect. Ash looked nice and simple the next day.

I wonder whether its just human nature to find flaws just because something seems too good to be true.

Its a wedding!!! Nothing sinister folks! As naive as this sounds, let’s just assume they’re in for love until the divorce papers get publicised =)

And Bachan jr is thinking… I can’t even shave for my wedding lest people know how I really look so she jolly well better look that good under all that makeup because I’m counting on her to make our kids look human.