What Ho!

Some more of Sonu’s marriage. These were taken by Shobhan, the eldest son of my 5th maternal uncle.

Album 1
Album 2 – Shobhan took these photos using his mobile phone which sports a 3.2 megapixel camera.
Album 3 [...]

Sonu is married!

I blogged all day from the marriage venue and it was a good experience. I realized some of the limitations of blogging from a Sony Ericsson P1i to a WordPress blog. Do check out the entries tagged with “Sonu’s Marriage” to see how they have come out.

I have posted all the photos I took [...]

After the Hatha Ganti, Sonu and his new bride sat down for a Homa (prayers to and oaths before Agni, the God of Fire).
The last part of the marriage is of course the Cowrie Khella or playing with cowrie shells. This is conducted by an old lady of the bride’s family and the game is baised [...]

The marriage ceremony includes many rituals. The marriage proper ends with the Hatha Ganti or tying of hands. The right hand of the bride and groom are tied together with ropes of grass over a coconut placed above an earthen pot of blessed water.
The bride’s sister unties the bond after appropriate payment, of course.

Time: 1:30 p.m. [...]

The Anya Sthana ceremony culiminates in four Brahmins standing around the groom and winding a long thread into a thin rope a couple of feet long.
This is then used to create a bracelet of leafs and grass. Each node is named for a couple from Indian mythology like Ram – Sita, Ravana – Mandodari etc. The [...]