The day before the wedding (Friday, July 8)

We had to wake up very early to pick up about 30 guests at the train station and bring them to their hotel where they will be staying. These guests come from different parts of India and were not in Rajasthan. Those who were locals excluding the bride’s extended family, I believe only came for the wedding on Saturday night and were not part of the ceremonies that lasted 4-5 days before the big day.

So we picked up the guests at about 7 am since their train came late and helped them carry their luggages and brought them to their hotel. I cannot tell you how sleep deprived I was. We came back to the house at about 8:30 for breakfast and then chill for a few hours while the women were engaged in all kinds of ceremonies on the first level. Mehndi were done for women and men too if they want...but not many men that I know had any mehndi done. They were all probably so used to it. I was pretty lucky to know Vaibhav who is a relative and so I was able to see all the process that was going on if I wanted to. I accompanied the bride and ten other women to a Jain temple where the bride used some kind of red ink to draw a swastika on both sides of the temple entrance. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the entire family is Jain and all the cousins, including Vaibhav. I’m guessing that all of the guests were also Jain.

Women had mehndi done (They cannot use their hands for the next 3-4 hours). Mehndi was done in the lobby of the main building.

The bride's mother (Anita). She's really a wonderful person...very excited and probably slept for a few hours every night before the wedding. She would come into the living room at like 5 in the morning to wake up Abhinash and her own son to help her with all the miscellaneous things that had to be done.

The beautiful Priyanka. She's really sweet and I felt so privileged to meet her. I actually met her when I came in at 11 o'clock on Thursday. One of the family member asked her to come down just to meet me when I arrived. I felt really honored.

There are 2 beautiful girls in this picture: Rimpy, sister to the bride and I believe is 20. Kaneshka, a good friend of the bride and is 23 and getting closed to finishing her studies in business. Both girls study business.

The others are Vaibhav in the black t-shirt, Deepak, a really good dude, Anu, the sweet girl in the 9th grade, and Abhinash (the one who is right next to Rimpy) who lives in Assam and works in the marble business.

A quick note on Jain. Jain is not Hinduism...it is a heterodox religion like Buddhism. Founded by the last of their guru Mahavira (tradition says that there were 24 gurus before him) who was a contemporary of Buddha. Jain monks practice pretty severe asceticism. Eating once a day and wear no clothes whatsoever...completely naked. They also hold a broom to brush away any animals so as not to step on them. 

So I accompanied the bride to the temple and watched her draw two swastikas, one on each sides of the entrance. And when we entered, the bride was praying for the future happiness of the marriage. We spent about 20 minutes there and afterwards we drove back to the mansion where the women were debating whether I should get mehndi first and then have lunch...but one of Vaibhav’s cousin said that since I can’t use my hands for 2-3 hours when I applied the mehndi because I have to wait for the ink to dry, we had lunch. Then I went in to the main building where the mehndi was done, told the women that I was going to take a shower, came back 20 minutes later feeling refreshed and was ready to get mehndi done for my hands.

The bride and her retinue heading out to the local Jain temple.

Before she entered, she drew a swastika on each side of the entrance.

Praying for future happiness.

the Jain statue that all the ladies were praying to.

For the bride and groom, they had to apply mehndi on both their hands and feet and not only that it seems like they also dip the third part of their fingers in mehndi or something. It was really dark. At first I wanted mehndi done on one hand but with the encouragement of the bride’s mother I also did my other left hand. Some tried to persuade me to do my feet as well but...I thought there was no way I’m gonna make it seems like I’m going to get married...although let me tell you it was very tempting. There were a number of beautiful girls there at the wedding.

With Vaibhav's mom....a really sweet mom and I love her to death.

 After mehndi, I got to know other ppl and we also prepared for the dance which happened in the evening. And let me tell you even though I don’t know a darn thing about dancing..I tried to shake whatever I could shake...I think the girls gave me credit for at least trying unlike Vaibhav who was nowhere to be found. I told myself that you can’t lose if you put in effort. The dance began at 6 and lasted until 10:00. Then we had dinner...and I talked to one of the bride’s friend (Kaneshka). She is 23 and studying business...a very sweet and beautiful girl. You know a lot of ppl really looked up to western culture especially Americans. We are the richest country on earth...and so it seems like everyone wants to know about American life and about me.

They made me wear really tight jeans which is very stylish here in India and an orange-yellow shirt for the dance...I looked pathetic, but what the heck. Only once in a lifetime. I wish we drinks at the wedding....so that ppl would get drunk....but that didn't happen. We could have used a little more rowdiness...but everyone was sober and a little shy even on the dance floor.