paperwork and wedding shopping

I’ve had a few incredible days since we’ve been here a week, but no time to write about them. It’s amazing having my family and Nakul’s family all on the same property. It’s like our first family reunion EVER and it’s a month long affair. Everyone is enjoying eachother immensely and relationships are flourishing, including mine and Nakul’s. It’s a beautifully rich experience, I really couldn’t ask for more. I am getting used to the idea, day by day, of having a husband, of being married, of being a wife. It’s super bizarre but i love it. Today was a big paperwork day. If you thought paperwork in Canada was a headache.... try it in India. Haha. The nice thing is that...it’s a rather social event. Even though it took most of the day, from 10am to 8pm with about a 3hour break in the middle when we came home to rest, we were with two of Nakul’s friends, Pramod and Gopal, who were there with us for both moral support and for expertise and guidance regarding all things bureaucratic. We were arranging the paperwork that will allow us to marry in a Hindu ceremony, foreigner with Indian, and allow us to have the ceremony at a hilltop temple in the mountains about 25km out of town. There are several hoops to jump through and people to speak to and offices to visit and papers to have drawn up and notarized and signed and stamped, applications and long waits and fees to pay... photocopies and photographs, perhaps bribes, long conversations in Hindi between our group and various officials and religious representatives, long conversations and plenty of joking around within our group of three boys and myself, to make the whole day tolerable, finished off with a couple plates of Tibetan momos and some Chinese macaroni before finally heading home at the end of the night. Night? Yes night. We were at it all day and all night. From 10am to 3pm and then again from 5:30 to 8pm. Nothing happens fast. I always enjoy riding around on the back of the scooter, through traffic, through the market, dodging traffic and pedestrians. Tonight on our way home, Nakul drove straight towards the big white market bull. You’ll know the one i’m talking about if you’ve ever spent any amount of time in Rishikesh market. He just plies the main road, back and forth, back and forth. I am not sure if there is any vehicle that does not get out of his way. He has testicles the size of small watermelons and his back stands somewhere around 6ft. His head looks you straight in the eye if you happen to come up against him. Nakul drove so close before swirving, I could have reach out a hand and touched him. Lots of cows here. Street cows like street dogs. That’s no secret. But its the bulls who run the road. Bulls seem to trump almost everything on the road in india because they have a touchy temperament. A bull can decide for no reason at all that he doesn’t care for you and toss his head in your direction, pointing a horn at you. So everyone gives them a wide berth, just in case. Lots of times bulls get into tussles with one another and can knock over street vendors or damage property, so storekeepers tend to try to scare them off with sticks or yelling. Anyhow, i digress. I’m tired and not thinking straight. So , the paperwork, at this end, is almost finished, it looks like we are in the free and clear to do this at the temple of our choice: Kunjapuri. We have been holding our breath that everything will go smoothly and all the palms that need greasing will be well lubricated and their attached owners properly pacified so they give their stamp of approval. It is quite a labrynth to navigate; a complex system designed to put money in the pockets of several individuals with all their manufactured documents and regulations that mean next to nothing at the end of the day. The ceremony will probably be in the morning sometime on the 24th once we get all the people biked and transported up there. Thinking around 35 people or so. The ceremony is 2-3 hours. You can see the snow on the Himalayan peaks from the temple. The ceremony will be outdoors, with everyone seated around us i think. Should be cool. The day after the ceremony there will be a fire ceremony to celebrate and also to bring good fortune to our future and then a big feast and dancing and all that. Then there will be another set of paperwork as we go in for the court marriage. Which is the official government marriage. So more paperwork there. Yay. Last week me, Nakul, Nirmal (Nakul’s) bro and Ritu (my sister in law) went shopping in the market for some final wedding preparations. They had already got my wedding sari, red, green and gold and my suit for the after party and the necklace, earring set, which are so gorgeous. We took the material in to the tailors to get fitted for the blouse to be made. Also we bought some wedding shoes for me and some other small details like henna and decorations, bindis, kerchiefs and things. Oh and rings we got too. It was really hard to choose what i liked when asked because i have no experience in such things and its all so outside of my fashion sense. I don’t know what looks good, i mean, the ring was pretty easy to choose, but like... choosing necklaces and shoes??? I had a lot of help with those things. Our families went river rafting on ma Ganga (the Ganges). I always thought that must be sacrilegious here but it’s really really popular and they get around it by chanting and hailing ma Ganga while rafting, so i suppose the god’s are ok with it. Well, its late, i gotta get to bed.