My Loud and Sweet India :)

My life has been exciting with the kind of places I have been - J&K, Punjab, Delhi, UP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. For all that traveling, I have friends all over the places (implying I have at least one friend from each state). I have always been fascinated by people from different lands, customs, cultures, ethics etc. I love exploring people, their minds, dreams, beliefs, ideas…. It’s fun being a part in knowing different cultures. In India, marriages are the best way to learn about other cultures. You will definitely feel you don’t belong here, but it’s still fun to witness one. I was lucky to see a Christian wedding in Nagercoli (of one of my IIT friends). It was an unusual wedding for me, not because it was a Christian wedding but because it was an “Indianised – Christian wedding”. They exchanged rings but they also had “mangalsutra”. One attention-grabbing feature was that the rings as well as the mangalsutra had the name of the bride and the groom on them. I was so shocked to see that, but I guess this is how we Indians like to make things suit to our likings.

As far as weddings are concerned, it’s the best time for our ladies, as they “dress to kill” – it has literal meaning. They will be in their top sarees and the finest of jewelry they possess. The showcased jewelry attracts everyone (people you want and you don’t want to get attracted). There is no recession time for marriages in India. In spite of gold prices soaring high up to meet the sky; you will still find jewelers having a lot of business, for marriages are a “big deal” here. You will see the brides being clad with all the jewelry her family and in-laws have. But she never gets to wear it again after her wedding; it goes from one bank locker to another. Indians don’t believe in “small and elegant” even in jewelries; they have to be big and huge.

Same thing goes for celebrations like birthdays. In the Indian culture birthdays are mostly to do with pujas and offerings to the poor. But to ape the west, we have birthday parties, cakes etc. The idea of pomp and show is the essence of being an Indian. We are loud by nature, we like things BIG, flashy and colorful. It’s what we Indians are – bright and loud. Our festivals are also about colors and foods. We are crazy about sweets. Every Indian has a sweet tooth – no festival in India is sweetless. Even when this country has maximum no. of diabetic patients, we still have sugar-free sweets. It’s not only us but our Gods also prefer sweets.

Festivals like holi, diwali, ganpati, durga puja – colorful and loud. No worry about pollution or contamination of water bodies. All we care about is to have fun. People here “live to eat” they never “eat to live”. Being rich or poor doesn’t matter for celebrations. Everyone here has the same idea of celebration – new clothes, some puja, and lot of colors, food (especially sweets), music and dance. So here we go…….dancing and singing all the way long even if our country is bleeding with terrorism, militancy, dirty politics and the list goes on and on………….