Nisha's wedding officially started at 7pm, although the groom's guests gathered at 5:30pm to start dancing down the street, a big part of the wedding festivities on the groom's side. The groom sat in a horse-drawn carriage at the end of the procession, while the musicians played in the street and the guests danced their way to the huge tent set up for the wedding. I was told to arrive at the tent around 6:50 to see this happening, but after getting stuck in traffic behind the procession, I got out of the car and joined the groom's friends. It was loud, chaotic and fun. When we finally arrived, Nishant's friends formed a line to keep him from entering, as if to prolong his last few minutes as a single, unmarried man. Finally, they carried him in.
On the female side, the guests slowly arrived on their own time, filling the massive tent beautifully decorated with flowers and chandeliers. Over 1,000 guests were in attendance. The women's saris and lenghes were even more spectacular tonight. The bride arrive after the groom, quietly making her way to the stage, looking ethereal in a beautiful pink dress so ornately decorated it weighted 20 kgs (44 pounds). The bride and groom exchanged garlands of flowers, then greeting their guests. The actual wedding ceremond did not start until 1am in the morning. Until that point, everyone just ate and chatted. The massive buffet included dozens of dishes and an army of servers passed out hors d'oeurves all night.
The wedding ceremony took place at Nisha's house and involved a series of pujas (or prayers). The bride and groom had to walk around this holy fire kept lit by ghee 7 times, once for each of seven promises they made to each other. The ceremony took 3 hours, before ending on an emotional note whe Nisha bade her family and parents goodbye and left to joing her new family.
The day after the wedding, I joined Nishant's friends on a tour of Delhi. We visited the Qutb Minar and Jama Masjid, drove by the Red Fort, Lotus Temple and the government buildings. That night, we attended an elaborate reception for 1,300 people where the bride and groom greeted people as an officially married couple for the first time.
The day after the reception, we went to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, often referred to as the greatest monument ever built for love. The Taj Mahal was breath takingly beautiful, an elegant, perfectly-symmetrical white marble structure set against the blue sky. It truly blew me away ad exceeded all of my expectations. To say it is incredible would be an understatement. We also visited the Agra Fort where Emperor Shah Jahan's palace was located and from which he had a perfect view of the Taj Mahal in the distance.
After returning to Delhi late that night, we had a late dinner, slept for 3 hours and then woke up at 4:30am to watch the SuperBowl. Watching the Super Bowl in India was definitely not something I had expected, but it was fun and the Giants won!
Jia arrived on the 5th and we left for Varanasi right away.
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