My wife's schoolmate and childhood friend Rema Jaikrishnan(DTEA 1973) invited us to attend her son's wedding at Kochi on the 9th January, 2010. My wife was excited and so was I to see my wife getting enthusiastic and excited! We decided to attend the wedding- a traditional Kerala type wedding in Kerala!!
The Kochi airport greeted us in with its beautiful architecture built in traditional style! The airport was proud to retain its original name and not stand on borrowed names of politicians unlike other airports in the country!
We were booked in Periyar club along with other guests from all over. There was a sense of joy all over and the guests and the family members mingled with each other freely, displaying happiness! The parents of Rema , Mr & Mrs Nair welcomed and greeted everyone with affection and love.
The marriage was conducted at Le-Meridien Hotel, Kochi in a grand style and manner. The local orchestra consisting of a lead violinist accompanied by a flutist, mridangam, Key board and a drum pad kept the audience engrossed in music and presented a concoction of carnatic and film songs from Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam. The sound quality was so good because of proper acoustics provided within the hall. The stage was illuminated with traditional Kerala type lamps which added glitter to the entire function as it radiated yellow and golden light to the stage and made it look like a place above the earth!
The marriage was a simple affair with both the boy and the girl's side climbing on to the stage.The parents exchanged Tamboolams. The Mangalya Dharanam was performed and it was all over in about 15 minutes with out any smoke or fire! Unlike our south Indian marriages, this way of conducting the marriage without much noise impressed me . The registrar of marriages took the signatures of the bride and the groom and the
marriage was over with the young married couple bowing and offering Pranams from the stage to all those who had come to witness this unique event of 2 hearts consenting to merge with each other!
There was a huge spread of traditional Malayala sadhya which was being served neat and clean on plantain leaves by about 40 young looking men, clad in traditional Mundu and vastra! The experience was so satisfying and blissful. Our friends Rema and Jai got elevated in their social status by becoming parents-in-law and the happiness of this elevation was quite obvious on their faces.
The Kerala style wedding looked very neat, clean and easy in comparison to our Tamil iyer/iyengar style of weddings. There were no Pandits, no fire and no noise of Nadaswaram and the Ketti-Melam which would rebound from the four walls of the halls making life miserable for your ear drums!! Its worth adapting and following such marriage rituals in our system as well! God bless the young married couple with a long happy married life.
Even Keralites are South Indians. Of course, I understand you are comparing a Malayala wedding with a Tamil one. Interesting account.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many rituals in a Hindu wedding which does not bear the importance in present days and should be cut off the routine. The ritual where the bride has to bear a yoke or a representation of a yoke on her neck as a semblence of reminding her to work hard like a bull in the new home, the mantra where a blade of grass is moved over her forehead up the head and thrown away as a semblance of throwing evil spirits from her head, the process of making her step on a stone to remind her to be steadfast and disciplined like a stone - all denoting that it is only the wife who has to be corrected and nothing for the man who is Mahavishnu representation and whose feet should be washed by the parents of the bride and the washed out water to be drunk or sprinkled over their head - all seems absolutely male chauvenistic and meaningless in present day world. At the same time, there are mantras with beautiful meaning - like the sven steps and the following unity mantra where the husband says that you are the earth and I am the sand, you are the music and I am the notes etc.. A lengthy wedding is good for the couple remember with fondness for years to come.
ReplyDeleteArun Sharma (1959 - batch)