Bollywood, Shaadi & Fere

Today, I took a little break from the wedding ceremonies and I tried my luck with Bollywood. They were shooting the movie VEER in and around Jaipur and a friend of a friend casted foreigners for it.


So I was up before six and went to the crew hotel from where we left in a bus to a lake outside Jaipur. There, they had already built up Indian & Britisch tents and we got some breakfast. Then the girls had to dress in Empire robes and got our hair and makeup done. They chose four us and the rest and me could rest in a tent and that's mainly what we did all day. Except for lunch break when we got out and found thousands of spectators on the hills around the location. I´m not used to I only wished to get back to Jaipur and somehow got it organised.

Back at Sankalp's house, I had to re-dress fast as everybody else also Nitesh were already dressed for the Shaadi. Sankalp wore a Sherwani outfit in light and red colors and a turban on his head.


His next task was to mount a lovely decorated horse together with Ansh - his little grand-cousin - and he rode, we walked to Pashupati Nath temple of Lord Shiva. Sankalp and his parents did a puja before we returned to the house.

We left in cars to Ambedkar Circle and all the groom's family and friends gathered there. From there we danced and walked our way to Panigrah - the place of the wedding. We were supported by the Jea Band and some guys with electrical crystal chandeliers.

On the stage in Panigrah, Sankalp awaited his bride Nidhi who was carried in in a palaquin.

Together they stayed on stage for hours to greet the guests, accept gifts and take pictures with all and everybody.

The GUPTA family

friends

While Nidhi and Sankalp were busy, we others walked the location, chatted and ate the food which was served at different stalls as the evening before. Around midnight most of the guests left and the closest friends and the couple sat down on beds with little tables on them in a special room (it reminded me a bit of "Sol y Mar" in Leipzig) and the bride's family took care of us and fed us with all the delicious things.

We went home without the couple and changed into comfortable and warm clothes before we returned to Panigrah. There Sankalp, Nidhi, her grandparents and three priests already started the ceremony. In comparison to this ceremony a German wedding seems to be over in a blink of a moment.

The two of them have been doing rituals for more than 6 hours while family and friends were sitting around them on mattresses with blankets watching, chatting softly or simply falling asleep as me.

At the end of ceremony Nidhi was dressed in a new sari and new jewellery with toe ring. When the couple left Panigrah both families started to cry which is part of tradition. Who thought that ceremonies were over only because they were now married, better thinks twice. Sankalp brought Nidhi home but there were still traditions and rituals to follow.