We had to switch hotels this morning to the hotel we were originally supposed to be in. Craig and I got up early to find a tailor to get my saree silk made into a saree and to get Craig a wedding-appropriate suit. We came across a shopkeeper who had a seamstress friend that could make my saree, so he took us up to her house - a tiny room with a table and a sewing machine, and a rack with some clothes, pots & pans, and a second room with the boy's stuff. It seems her and her 3-4 daughters all shared this room no bigger than my bedroom in my parents house, and her husband and son(s) the other room. How fortunate I am to have been raised in Canada in a comfortable house with no shortages of food or clothing! The woman said she would make my saree shirt, an underskirt and buy the material for the underskirt and lining - all for 400 rupees, and I could pick it up in 5 hours.
With me taken care of, we asked the shopkeeper if he knew of a local tailor for Craig's suit. We made it clear to him that we had to be back at our hotel (to move) in 30 mins and he said no problem and ushered us into a tuktuk the seamstresses husband was driving. Big mistake! This guy had the slowest tuktuk ever, and took us far out of the old city. We were getting nervous about the time but he reassured us we were almost there. The ride took 15 minutes. The shop was really nice and they showed us some lovely traditional suits, and were advising red since that's what everyone wears to weddings. Though they refused to give us any prices until we had chosen a fabric and taken all of Craig's measurements. Finally, we got a price - 12,000 rupees! That's nearly 200 quid, for a suit Craig is unlikely to ever have an occasion to wear it to again! Even a cotton pyjama suit was over 6000 rupees, so we left in a hurry. By the time we made it back to our hotel we were 30 mins late, down 150 rupees from paying the tuktuk driver, and still didn't have anything for Craig to wear. After moving hotels we went on the prowl for a suit for Craig, although were having no luck. Finally, we called up Ravi, the guy taking us to the wedding, to see if he knew of a good tailor. He took us to a nice shop where they recommended an Indian cut suit made with western suit fabric. We settled on a charcoal fabric with two directions of stitching so it looks like it has thick stripes when the light shines on it. Very posh. It ended up costing 5500 for the jacket and pants, with all the pockets, zippers and linings you would expect from a western suit, but with a Chinese neck and it was ready in 4 hours!
When we returned to the seamstress to pick up my saree, all her daughters were gathered around and excited that I was there. They helped wrap the saree, all the while giggling and holding my hands. Once I was dressed, they insisted that I put on all their jewelry - necklace and earrings - and fixed my hair. We got lots of photos with them before I was able to take off the saree and leave. One of them had taken a liking to my bangles and I wish I had given her some of them, but I was worried we were late so didn't think of it at the time.
At 5pm we met the group for a cooking class - we crammed all 14 of us into a room around a stove and the teacher taught us the basics of Indian cooking - the important spices, how to double recipes, and then we cooked ourselves dinner - chai masala, malai kofta, a red curry, briyani and chapatis. Yum! We left with the recipes, so we're excited to try them out again when we get back to Canada.
After dinner, we picked up Craig's suit (he looks adorable, and can definitely pull it off back in Canada!) and Ravi took us to his house so his sister and cousins could help me get into my saree - there is a lot of wrapping and safety pins involved! They also wanted to do my hair and there was a lot of fussing before I was deemed ready. Before leaving their house, Ravi's father insisted on taking dozens of photos of us with various permutations of their extended family. Finally we made it out the door and across the street to the fourth and final day of Ravi's friend's wedding. It was an arranged marriage and the bride and groom were sitting at the front of the room staring blankly ahead. No talking, no smiling. Odd. The guests were sitting and standing around, talking amongst themselves. Being white, we attracted some attention from the others and we were asked where we were from (a common conversation starter) and a woman walked up to me and started fussing with my saree - I had been helped by girls who don't wear sarees themselves and she didn't approve of some of their stylistic decisions. We even went up to the front and got a photo with the bride and groom. Love to see that one in the wedding album! Ravi then took us to another friend's wedding, this time the third day of the wedding. The actual ceremony was scheduled for 2am and we weren't up for staying that late, so we missed it. However we did stand around for a while - again the bride and groom were sitting at the front, not talking, although this couple did smile a bit.
One strange thing we've noticed about Indians - they don't like smiling in photos. All the photos we got with locals, they wipe any smile off their faces before you can snap a photo.
The wedding were an interesting experience, but not at all what we were expecting - we were expecting a lot of dancing, but found everyone seemed a bit bored. I'm not sure if this is standard for weddings in India, or it we just went to the wrong parts of the weddings for dancing.
Ravi drove us back to our hotel on his motorcycle. We were exhausted but couldn't sleep because there was a roaring party on the patio above our room - the music was louder in our room than we would ever play, and the ground was literally shaking. The party finally wrapped up at midnight.
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