Arrival in India

The first we saw of India was as we were coming into land at New Delhi. Though it was light by the time we arrived the smog prevented us seeing much of the ground. And this layer of smog was constant in Delhi and noticeable all the way up to the Nangal Dam where we are now staying. The pollution in the countryside, though, is from the numerous fires as crops are burnt off. Vicki’s [sort-of] wishing she didn't have to breathe.

We were very impressed with Delhi airport: clean, modern and plenty of staff to help. The Metro line into the centre of the city is superb too. We took it to the end of the line which is next to the main train station. Then the shock started! Coming out of the modern Metro exit you find yourself across a road from the train station. By “road” we mean lots of lanes heaving with traffic, rickshaws, buses and taxis parked everywhere (it is a train station), and the usual stalls, thousands of people (and dogs), toilet smell, broken pavements, obstacles to wheeling cases everywhere. Welcome to India! Quite a mission to get across and locate where our train was to depart later in the day.

Once on the train Vicki started making a list of all the things we'd witnessed in the few hours between arriving in New Delhi and darkness. It's a list of contrasts, sometimes disturbing. Women in beautiful, colourful saris; horns sounding almost continually; spitting; fast and bumpy motorised-rickshaw rides; persistent shopkeepers; the train station and platforms with many families 'camped' on the floor; one mature and one elderly woman yelling at each other and then hitting each other with a large and solid stick; cattle and dog excrement everywhere they had access; smiles; maimed beggars; plastic rubbish everywhere (other than one tidy village we passed in the train); narrow, tiny brick houses, four storeys tall. Other items on the list we've talked about in more detail elsewhere in this post.

We deposited our cases in the cloak room, hopped into a motorised rickshaw, and headed for Connaught Place. A few shops later I had my “wedding outfit” – a long shirt and baggy white trousers. Though there were beautifully embroidered silk outfits I stuck with a plain (and cheap) one as it’ll only be used for this one occasion.

The Janshatabdi Express to Nangal did not look too promising as we waited on the crowded platform. It was locked up and the on-board toilets were reeking. But at least it was there and it did depart on time. We had booked our tickets online so it was a hassle-free experience, however the reality of the compartment was somewhat different to the photos on the Indian Rail website! “Very tired” would be kind. But the seats turned out to be comfortable, the air-conditioning worked well, we had a fan above our seats, it wasn’t crowded, and it was clean. Part way through the trip a chap came through and mopped the floors with disinfectant. So all was good, only a few small cockroaches.

The journey was smooth and comfortable and, though we were running nearly an hour late at one stage, we arrived only 15 minutes late. The views of the cities, towns and countryside are so interesting, but as we were really, really tired from the travelling and lack of sleep, we struggled. Every few minutes someone would wander through the cabin selling food or chai. Vicki had found a website where we could select a restaurant along our route and order a meal. So when we pulled in to Chandigarh station a man duly arrived at our seats with a hot meal. Delicious it was too.

Rooftops from the family house

We had booked into a hotel near the station at Nangal as we knew we were arriving late, and possibly very late. Then we could meet up with the family in Santokhgarh (about 10kms away) the following morning. But Vicki's sister, Julie, rang us and offered to pick us up as she was already there with the rest of her family. It was great to see them and we took a short detour to our hotel to cancel before heading to their place. Once again the website pictures of the hotel differed somewhat to the reality and I was glad we didn’t stay there.

The next day was spent socialising with the extended family, all so friendly and we were being treated as royal guests. We weren’t able to do anything to help, just sit back and relax. As we had expected, we're unusual enough in this small town that everyone wanted to smile, say hello, or shake our hands. The little kids were always coming up to us and offering to shake hands.

Our purpose for being here is the wedding of Vicki’s niece, Katherine, to Piyush. Though they both live and work in New Zealand they were marrying in India. Piyush grew up in this village of Santokhgarh and his parents and younger sister live here. His family are relatively wealthy by local standards as his father is a government engineer. For the wedding they have sent out something like 150 invitations but they expect everyone to bring four or so others with them, hence the event is to cater for 600. In the morning we went to visit the wedding venue. It didn’t exist back in March when Piyush’s father paid for the wedding! He is a very religious man (goes to the local temple to pray at 4am each morning) but this must be testing his faith. When we saw it there were workmen everywhere and it looked like a lot of finishing was still needed. The project manager assured us it will be ready tomorrow for another function the day before ours. We’re not quite sure how he defines “ready”. But it is an impressive complex for this village with a lot of marble, a truly huge main reception room, lawns and outside areas.

Today the women had henna applied by two male artists. Katherine had her hands, arms, lower legs and feet done in a process that took 1½ hours. Then she had to sit for a further 4 hours while it dried! All this time she had to be careful not to touch anything, she even had to hold her arms out as even her fingertips were covered, only her fingernails were left to try and take some of the weight. The rest of the girls just had their hands and lower forearms done and this only took around 10 minutes each followed by an hour of drying. Once the henna was applied lemon juice was brushed on. This helps the colour go darker. When the henna was finally dry it could be scraped off, leaving the orange staining of the skin underneath. They are not supposed to wash with water for the rest of the day until it is really set.

Throughout the afternoon various relatives and friends started to arrive until the place was starting to feel quite crowded.  A large group were to be sleeping on the floor.

Coinciding with the wedding is a string of festivals over nine days that occur this time of year. At 4pm the men were allowed to go out and watch the preparations for a procession. It was deemed too crowded for the women so they had to stay at home. We had to abandon our sandals part way as no leather was allowed. We saw a litter being prepared which was to be carried down the main street (really just a narrow alley) with five men on board. The chief amongst this was a young man made up in the likeness of Mother Jagdambe, one of the many incarnations of the goddess Durga. Having assumed the clothes and makeup the man was pretty much in a trance and didn’t know much of what was going on. Some years ago Piyush played that part and remembered not remembering much of what happened. We are assured no drugs are involved . We were ushered into a side building where the "goddess" was accepting offerings and we duly played our part. But it was very busy, principally with women!

Sometime later we went out again as the procession started. Piyush had arranged with a friendly shopkeeper for us to use his steps to watch the procession from. This time it was very crowded as streams of people squeezed down the street ahead of the litter. Apparently the spirit of the goddess is so heavy that the litter requires 100 men to carry it – they did but they were struggling! And it was so tall that the man standing on the very top had to keep ducking to avoid the overhanging shop signs and power lines. Following the litter were more men,  women and children, all chanting. Noisy, colourful, a crushing mass of people. And when they got to the end of the street they all turned around and retraced their steps!

Straining to carry the litter

That night we slept well until the chanting started around 4am …

Today is the pre-wedding day. The morning was taken up with a series of small ceremonies involving Piyush and Katherine and a variety of materials like turmeric. All had specific meanings that were generally lost on us except for when Piyush had time to explain. Huge speakers arrived and were set up in the moderately-sized courtyard in time for a large group of women to spend several ours singing their way through a huge prayer book to the accompaniment of music. It was very, very loud and raucous and reverberated through all the neighbouring buildings where we had taken refuge. Luckily they eventually got to the end of the book and stopped for lunch.

There are two main events on during the wedding. This evening is a party at the house and tomorrow afternoon is the main wedding. These require everyone to have at least two sets of clothes. As Katherine’s father is going to wear a Western suit on the wedding day I’ve decided to wear my best shirt and trousers then too and use my Indian-style outfit tonight. Vicki had bought two Indian outfits online that were to be delivered here. They were sent to another part of India so we’ve had to cancel that order and rush into town to buy another outfit. Luckily the first shop had something suitable so we’re good to go this evening.

Happy photographer with friend!

Tonight promises to be noisy ...