So I went to a wedding reception...!

This week has been extremely busy and contained a lot of fun, as 8 medical students from the Christian Medical College Vellore in Southern India were here for an annual mission hospital placement. Consequently there are many stories that I could tell from the past week here but I'm going to focus on a very unexpected event!

It was Monday and I was on morning tea break with the other junior doctors when I overhead my name being discussed. The next thing I knew, I was handed this:-

Envelope and inside card

Translation, anyone?

It was an invitation to the wedding reception of the son of one of the vehicle drivers of the hospital! Needless to say that in my thoughts of what I'd be getting up to on my elective I'd never considered this to be a possibility. I was very excited. First thoughts - What do I wear?!

The event was held on Thursday evening (you can make out the 02 and 2013 on the invite). Almost everyone who works in the hospital came along, which made me feel even more part of the family that is TLM Naini. I wondered what would have happened if a patient became very ill in those few hours but was reassured that there were a couple of nurses staying behind and Drs Premal and Loretta Das who are in charge were also still on campus. The patients were in safe hands!

Me with some of the staff

It was a Hindu marriage, and the wedding ceremony had already happened on Tuesday. On Wednesday there had been the bride's celebrations and so Thursday was the groom's celebrations. I think that having a party that goes on for several days is a great idea!

In true Indian style the event began an hour later than expected but we were served Nescafe and nibbles in the meantime. Then, the bride and groom walked down the aisle to sit upon their throne. I have to say that neither of them looked very happy. Maybe this is normal in arranged marriages, maybe after three days of entertaining they were really fed up, or maybe if I didn't know half of the guests at my own wedding reception I'd be miserable too.

A not-very-good photo of the couple (me not knowing the etiquette of photo taking)

Next, we all went up to the stage and shook hands with the bride and groom, offering congratulations and handing over gifts.

Next stop - food! And there was a LOT. But there were a LOT of guests! A few hundred hungry mouths to feed, and this was day 3. I enjoyed some spicey noodles as an alternative to my usual diet, but managed to fit in some traditional curry and rice too. Some guests had even begun eating before the bride and groom had arrived, ignoring them as they made their way down the aisle. Maybe these guests had already done days 1 and 2, or maybe they were college students crashing the events for free food - I was told that this happened. With so many people and the fact that apparently you don't have to know either member of the couple to be invited this would be fairly easy to do.

Below is a video that sums up the atmosphere before we left, which may or may not work... in case that it doesn't work I'll post a couple of photos too!

A couple of hours later we arrived home. The junior doctors and I, being girls, then spent half an hour in the dark trying to get a good group picture of ourselves looking all dressed up. 

Manjula, Sonia, Swati and Anila back at the campus.

Conclusion - a fantastic experience and an amazing feeling to be included in such an event.