Throughout the afternoon of the 15th August, swarms of people gathered along the beach of the Bay of Bengal (Pondi's sea front) for what promised to be an exciting celebration! Events kicked off in the early evenign, as a govenment minister was driven down thgough the city, past many a building covered from top to toe in beautiful lights for the occasion. He gave a few waves to the crowds and signalled the start of the longest fireworks display i've ever seen!
As this ended, everyone flocked to a stage area which had been put up along the beach strip to watch a most beautiful performance. I really dno't know enough about the musical traditions of Tamil Nadu to know what exactly the perfromance was of, but it was like a piece of theatre expressed through dance. The three (really beautiful) dancers were performing alongside a violinist, singer and Tabla player. They were all very heavily made up, which meant their facial expressions were completely set throughout the piece. AS they danced, one foot always marked the beat of the music, even as they sprang about all over the stage! Their lower arms seemed to move in a totally detached way from the rest of their bodies, while their heads and necks were always at impossible angles - such exact movements presenting the complete opposite to the incredible Indian head wobble!
It felt like the whole city was out to enjoy the celebrations, and i've never seen such an incrediblt array of beautiful saris all in one place.
This explosion of incredible fabrics were seen again at Saravanan and Pradeepa's wedding (friends of Xavier and Anto at the PCTC), which took place on Friday. THe previous day, holly and I were taken sari, bangle and shoe shopping by Ronney, a friend from the village. She helped us to find quite simple but gorgeous saris (red for hol and turquoise for me...or teal perhaps,lorna?!), and she stiched the blouses for us herself. The edges of the saris, and all the measurements were done at the vocational training centre in the pctc, which was very special for us both.
The mornign of the wedding, Ronney had us up at 5am to get ready! WE arrived at the wedding in time for the breakfast, which took place in a huge hall filled with 300+ people, all eating from huge banana leaves. Anto was very mocking of how few people get invited to weddings in England! S we found seats and were given our leaf, a long 'production line' appeared, of men with various plates of amazing food - huge amounts of curry so early in the morning!
After being fed and watered we went up to the ceremony - again hundreds of people packed into a hall, with the couple now seated on a stage. They were surrounded bt a kind of trellice, covered in lights and flowers, and sat in front of a small fire. Another man sat with them, chanting and making offerings of oils into the flames. Throughout the ceremony, a group of 4 musicians (2 drummers and 2 imstruments that looked similar to a very long oboe) played, with increasing volume. This reached its peak, as handfuls of what looked like rice were dispersed among the crowds, and everyone stood up to throw it over the couple!
Sadly we were unable to stay for the post wedding party, which I imagine would have been amazing with so many people there. But we both felt so incredibly privilidged to share in this beautiful ceremony - definitely an unexpected bonus to our travels!
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