Thursday March 4, 2010

The priest was here not just for the brother/sister puja, but for the celebration of Arun and Smita's 25th wedding aniversary. Here cousins are considered as siblings, so there were several men honoring their "sisters". Blessings of marking the forehead were given by both brothers and sisters, saris were presented to the sisters, who then put silk scarves around their brothers' necks. There is another celebration during the year when sisters tie a string around their brothers' wrists to remind them to always protect them. This puja took about 15 minutes. The "dining room" had been emptied of the little furniture that was in it and thin pads or sheets covered the floor. People crowded in covering the whole floor. Everyone was comfortably sitting cross legged on the floor. Everyone but me that is. I was sitting there, but definitely not comfortably.
A small table had been set up in the front of the room where the priest sat. Smita Bahoo and Arun sat in front with everyone else behind them. Then Smita Bahoo motioned for me to come sit next to her and suddenly I was part of the puja. The priest began reciting the long prayers prescribed for the occasion while flowers, milk, ghee, red and gold thread and other things were were offered to the little statue of one of the Gods. These priest are of the Brahman cast and are educated from a very young age into the priesthood. The amount of things they have to memorize is mind boggling. Every once in a while I was handed flower petals to throw onto the altar. This went on for one and a half hours. Very interesting and beautiful and also very painful. But once again my sense of duty to this family overcame my pain, and I sat there for the whole time. JP on the other hand skedaddled out of the room as soon as he could and comfortably stood in the doorway for the whole ceremony.
The party on the roof began after the puja ended. And what a party it was. There were about 250 people there having a great time. The women, of course, looked beautiful. Most of these people are related and know each other very well. The women gathered into groups, often divided by age. The men did the same. It was very evident that these people really loved each other and were enjoying seeing each other again. The cooks were busy keeping the buffet items filled and continued cooking to keep everything fresh. Loud music and bright lights added to the festivities. Gifts were given to the couple and a three layer cake was cut. Each layer of the cake was supported by upright rolls of hard candy. The cake was one of several presents presented to the couple by Arun's coworkers and was delicious. JP gave them money which will be used for a trip to Bhopal to visit Arun's friend, Punkage. The party continued until about 1 AM.
We are ready to go with Smita to the jewelry shop to purchase a gold pendant for one of JP's bridge buddies. I'll continue later today.

Peace,
Nadine