Our Very Own Rajasthani Wonderland

I've gone to a few Gujarati ceremonies as of late, with various families. For the latest ceremony, I got the invitation a few hours before our departure. The family, who I know only through photographs and Reena's stories, picked me up at my current residence where I was waiting outside with the warm Indian breeze soothing my skin when the old car trucked down the street. I piled into the small van where I was greeted warmly by Reena's parents whose 50 years of marriage we were celebrating, Goldy, who is Reena's youngest brother, and Reena's aunt from Mumbai. In the stuffy car we drove and drove and drove into what I was beginning to recognize as a 'bad plan', as I was already falling asleep and we had stopped for directions four times.

The location that we finally arrived at was a Rajasthani paradise complete with fine miniature temples, elaborate carriages and camels decorating the lawn, and a dwarf Rajasthani man strolling around. When we arrived we were greeted with the Rajasthani equivalent of a mariachi band that followed Reena's parents around for the remainder of the night. The get away was very alice-in-wonderlandesqe with giant mushroom umbrella tables, decorative pastry boats lingering in the sweet rivulet, and signs beholding the words "laughing house this way!". This odd, nearly empty and hardly lit Rajasthani themed park was ours for the next several uneventful hours to come.

First we had puja. Now, Hyderabad is a large city, population around seven million. Every puja that I've attended, thus far, each with a completely different set of people and in different locations, has been conducted by the same leader. Each time as he is elegantly singing his prayers he naturally scans the room to see all the loyal, faithful Gujarati's with their dark hair and dark skin, dressed in their colorful, elegant saris, then he catches a glimpse of an unnaturally light colored individual wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt, making brief and amusing eye contact with the girl that keeps popping up at his pujas, standing out like a giraffe in the crowd , he offers a little smile and pauses probably saying to himself "well, that's odd" before he continues his scan of the small gathering.

It would be like the same giraffe attending a small wedding, a funeral, and a bible study all taking place in different churches in different cities. This minister scans the room seeing all the familiar faces and styles and suddenly comes across a displaced giraffe among such normalcy, pauses and smirks as if to say "ah! you again!" and "well, that's odd".

So this night, the the giraffe posed in a family photo and was a flower girl at a remake of the old couples wedding. Followed of course by the Rajasthani musical group, I lead the way to the uneventful celebration where the guests sat around looking terribly unenthused under their mushroom umbrellas with their small plates of cake. Then I sat between the couple all evening receiving all their gifts as the guests came to touch each their ankles and provide their blessings.