It’s a beautiful thing to see a friendship turn into lifelong partners. This weekend, I was able to see this happen. On the first day of summer break , I had a great and fresh start. Although it was a hassle in the morning to finish packing up, we loaded my dads van and left Wisconsin. My cousin who is currently living in Cleveland, Ohio for his residency training will be marrying his fiancee from Cincinnati next year. But, this weekend we were in Cincinnati for the official engagement ceremony . After a long 8 hour road trip from Wisconsin , we arrived at the luxurious suburban AirBNB on June 9th afternoon where my cousin and my family were going to stay. The house was so nice and comforting that it felt like our home. After arriving at Mason, Cincinnati, we started packing up all the gifts for the future bride. We prepared traditional gift sets with items like jewelry, fruits, sweets and clothes to formally ask for their hand in marriage and to show a commitment towards the prospective bride’s family. We ended our long day with my dads Milwaukee famous momos and went to bed. Again, the next day(June 10) was super crazy and was filled with fashion emergencies, wrong timing, taking turns to use the shower and playing ludo before everyone was ready. When everyone was ready, we went to my cousin’s fiance’s house. When we got there, we met several of their relatives and friends. During the ceremony, they had to repeat several mantras/chants, prayers and vows in Sanskrit to promise that they will commit to each other and help one another in their life. After the ceremony, we had a delicious south indian lunch and returned to the Airbnb. In the evening, we had invited their family for dinner and to hang out. Then, the next couple of hours in the afternoon was filled with shopping, resting, cleaning and talking. But overall, we had a lot of fun getting to meet each other after a long time, meeting new people, trying new things, but most importantly, getting to know a new culture and spending time with family. Their wedding is next year with celebrations in Ohio and Connecticut. I cannot wait for the wedding and all the fun events and coming together as a family despite our cultural differences.
On the way to Ohio, I read My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding by Sajni Patel. It is about an Indian American teen, Zurika who wants to become a musician but her parents won’t let her. On the day of her sister’s huge wedding, she has a contest to win a scholarship after she gets rejected from Juilliard. While she’s trying to fulfill her musical commitment, her parents are focused on setting her up with her soon to be brother-in-law’s South African cousin, Naveen who tries to steal Zurika’s spotlight in the contest and possibly her heart. I will review this wonderful book soon!
I hope you all have a good remainder of your summer!