Both the wedding ceremony in the church and the reception that followed in the evening kept me wondering about the painstaking efforts and the attention paid to minute details without losing sight at the bigger things at the same time. That Malini anni chose to sing the popular 'MangaLam.. MangaLamE...' in church pairing with her co-mother-in-lawi was a great idea. (I recalled -this was perhaps the song I used to hear in all the Christian weddings back in India). Cheruba's rememberance note of her father was touching. As she noted, her dad would be watching the Wedding from above, and He would be watching with pride. Her note promptly recalled the other three gentlemen who were very supportive in the recent past, and traveled from India to attend the wedding.
The wedding at the church was simple and nice, and the pastor's brief speech was meaningful and to the point. He made the couple to repeat the oath that ended with this powerful text: "I am yours only".
Rajesh drove us to the Evening Reception which was arranged in a lake front resort.The evening reception sizzled with excitement though -with the Monsoon Wedding song and the couple's moms' and friends' dance performance. Both Cheruba and Sanjay did well in the toasts. The 'thali' ceremony was an interesting add-on! (They should have had the 'ketti-mELam' and 'NathaSwaram' palyed in the speakers!) The lakefront venue was a nice selection, and there was 'a lot' of food. Thanks to the careful picking of table-mates, we felt like being in India for a while! And there was this custom- an American custom?-the bride Cheruba threw the flower bunch backwards for one of the unmarried girls to catch, symbolically suggesting the next-in-line for the wedding!
Sanjay impressed us quite with his broad smile and courteous speech. He took me & Deepika by suprise by recalling our Mt.Fuji climb. Cheruba was gorgeous in her choLi-like costume that fit well for the evening -she was just 'too excited' that she uttered even a simple 'hi' with a lot of 'drama'tic facial expressions! :-)
The day also presented us an opportunity to mingle with some of our relatives whom we (or 'I' to be precise) met for the first time. Dr.Bosewell's two daughters -Beryl, Cheryl, their husbands, YaLini Ravi Arumugam, Murugesan-family & Amsa-anni were all new faces to me at the beginning, and not at the end of the day. Though we could 'catch' Divya and Thompson, we couldn't catch up with them as they were busy with the arrangements. (Thompson must be a fan of 'Sivaji' Rajini :-) In the hotel where we stayed in, we befriended Murugesan-family and another gentleman who said he was Cheruba's dad's boyhood friend from Nazareth.
I should be thankful to Malini anni for this opportunity for another reason -this was the very first marriage all the four in our family attended together. We have attended marriages of relatives in India but there was never a chance for all the four of us to be present. One thing our children miss being in a foreign country is the warmth of attending family functions/weddings -I'm glad that both my kids could attend the wedding of their 3rd cousin Cheruba-akka with whom they had traveled to Hiroshima, Nara and Kyoto in Japan in 2006.
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