Tambram weddings and the chronicles that follow

Hosting a wedding has been my best life experience till date.Seriously...There is a lot of work that goes into it and when everyone convenes you actually begin to appreciate and love your (large) family.This wedding was really special because it was my brother's and for the fact that his wedding was the first of our generation.Half my family lives abroad and the wedding saw almost all of them descending down for it.It was probably two weeks of sarees,Veshtis,Vethala paaku,Lots of paayasam and vadai(banana leaf sapadu),Mehendi and homams(trust me that smoke is torturous)Lots of fun I tell you!and lots of these too :-

*Your parents take the wedding as an oppurtuinity to remember the extent of your family.There cannot be something worse than leaving out an onnu vitta chithappa or mami from the guest list.absolutely forbidden!To ensure this weeks were spent in figuring out where they were and tracking them down.and at the end it also resulted in me welcoming hundreds of people not knowing who they were.cheery "Vango Vango" followed.

*My brother's early marriage sadly ensured in a lot of our long lost neighbors who had been contacted to shriek over the phone and to ask my dad if it was me getting married.Ya right.seriously why is everyone in such a hurry anyways?

*Dad thought it would be really cool to yell "Heyy Mappilai" at the airport when he walked towards us(lots of foreigners..lots of weird looks).My brother also thought it would be the coolest thing to wear an "Iron Man" tee and a spiderman cap worn backwards on his flight here..Yes it was him who got married.

*Old maami(teary eyed): "Poorvaja..I cant believe you are going to get married next!"
Me:"see I dont have a boyfriend yet so i really do not see that happening in the near future"
(*Mom shoots death glare*)

*All your well read NRI uncles deem this as perfect to ask you about your future plans.Conversation as follows

Uncle 1:"So pooji ..whatcha gonna do next?Any plans of coming to the U.S?"
Me: "Oooh Ya..Berkely or some college has a good journalism programme.And guys in San Fransisco are supposed to be really hot.But an Indian college with cute guys totally works too."
(*Dad looks horrified and mom says "Poorvaja dont be so desperate"*)

*All my cousins range between ages 3 to 10.So there were about 8 of them in the house and i now officially hate anything to do with Pokemon and Oggy and the cockroaches and Chotta Bheem.They are all little angels though!!

*My 8 year old cousin sat me down and thoroughly explained to me the tax policies of the democrats and the republicans in the U.S.It all ended in me asking him if Obama was a democrat or a republican.Trust me...Kids these days..they know way too much.Another cousin of mine was most excited when he saw that we ate on banana leaves.He asked me if we had to eat them as well.

*Smoke should be banned from Iyer weddings.Me complaining about it got me an hour long lecture about the benefits of "homam smoke" from my grandmother.The overly long wedding ceremony and the clouds of smoke that came with it saw me running from the stage every 5 minutes with watering eyes.Most people mistook it for me being emotional that my brother was getting married.Yeah..right.

All in all..I cant wait for the next wedding in the family.(Next person who says "ITS GOING TO BE YOURS" gets shot..no kidding)