Gayatri's Engagement

Gayatri and Siddharth

Ever since arriving in India two and a half years ago I have been awaiting the opportunity to wear the most beautiful yet simple garment ever created (in my humble opinion); the Indian sari. My chance finally arrived yesterday as my friend and colleague Gayatri had her engagement ceremony, or Nichayathartham in Chennai. I along with several other friends and colleagues made the journey to Chennai by train early Wednesday morning (that is a story in itself, we made the train with literally only four minutes to spare by sprinting through the railway station at a little before 6AM). Nisha, a friend and colleague is originally from Chennai and offered her parents' home as a place for us to get cleaned and ready up after our 5 hour train journey. Luckily Nisha's mother is an expert sari-draper and agreed to help Neha (another friend and colleague) tie our saris. So we all got ready and headed to the ceremony in the sweltering Chennai afternoon.

The function was held in a small un-airconditioned hall and unfortunately I couldn't see much of the rituals that were taking place on a small platform at the front of the room. There is a good deal of gift exhange between the families and it is customary for the bride's parents to give the future groom an outfit that he has to change into and the bride-to-be receives a new sari from the groom's parents which she also changes into partway through the ceremony. There are a number of blessings given and received, a ring exchange, some singing, throwing rice, flowers exchanged, etc. Pretty cool overall. Plus it gave us all a chance to dress up and look pretty. I just loved wearing my sari and hated to take it off at the end of the night (even though I was melting in the heat), but alas, I had to. Now I am just waiting for the next opportunity to wear a sari again (I have a second sari that has never been worn and some other things that I am just itching to wear) so if you know of any good parties or functions just let me know!
My beautiful sari

Gayatri's 1st sari and Swarna

Joke's on Mani!

Gayatri's 2nd sari

The lab is looking good!

Perfect Pair

I love wearing saris!