Cool! ~ I like Hindu food. They are vegetarian of course but make marvelous curries and their pasties are to die for.
I was once invited to a Hindu wedding ~ It lasted all day!!!
The reception and the wedding seemed to take place at the same time and only toward the end of the event is the bride produced and "presented" to the husband. Meanwhile everyone just mills around talking and eating as the two fathers go through a ritual "public" bartering with a priest as a sort of umpire. When the deal is done the father of the groom calls his son forward, the father of the bride hands the girl over to the father of the groom who then gives her to his son.
I was fascinated by the whole thing and my friend who had invited me (Uncle of the bride in fact) asked his twin daughters (both lovely creatures aged about 16/17 wearing gold saris) to help by translating for me and generally make sure I was kept stacked up with food and information about what was happening. These two lovelies spoke with London Accents having been born and bred in North London and made sure I got a good education into many of the customs that the ceremony involved. When I told them that all the formalities were very impressive but I was somewhat disturbed by this "selling" of the bride from one family to another and that I was too western to accept an "arranged marriage" as a concept they laughed until they cried. They then kindly explained that this ceremony was to keep the "Old folks happy" and that "the Bride and Groom had been screwing one another for two years".
All in all an eye opening day.
