Day 21

     After all my complaints about transportation in India my ten hour bus ride to Kerala was actually quite relaxing and passed before I knew it. On Friday evening I got to Forum Mall and met up with my cousin Sushil's friend who was also traveling to Kerala for Sushil's engagement ceremony. We ate at KFC (the fanciest KFC, I've ever been to with servers, etc.) and then walked fifteen minutes to the actual bus stop. Within a half hour of starting travel I fell asleep. I woke up dreaming of alarm clocks and heard my phone ringing loudly in my bag and everyone staring at me. After I switched it off I slept again until I reached Kerala - a comfortable and easy trip.

     Once there I caught another bus to Ottapalam, my original hometown. The bus dropped me off within a few feet of my cousin's house and I was greeted by my family and lots of my cousins - a deluge of familiar faces after my experience in Bangalore. I spent the day playing with Sushil's dogs (Rocky and Rambo), eating delicious food, playing Uno and poker with my cousins and catching up on everything that had happened in the last three years. At the end of the night I started off watching the World Cup game between Ghana and Australia  but ended up watching a tense cricket match between India and Pakistan which came down to the last ball of the game where India won. Needless to say everyone in the house was shouting excitedly and running around the house - including me.

     The next day we woke up early at 7:00 and everyone started to get ready for the big event. After showering, everyone went to the temple down the road (which is under renovation so all it has is an idol encased on all sides by what looks like a box) to start off the day. After that the relatives and friends started pouring in and everyone had breakfast at Sushil's house. Of the fifty or so people there about five of them were Sushil's friends/classmates which was strange at first but something that's just part of the culture. We head out in a convoy of cars to the bride's house where the place had been set up to hold a lot of guests to view the ceremony/eat a sadya (lunch feast) later. Both my family and the bride's family sat on opposite sides of a lamp and when the bride came out she sat with Sushil. My oldest great uncle read a statement asking if anyone was opposed to their marriage in a year and everyone said no. At that point rings were exchanged and the professional photographers stepped in to take pictures of every single person at the event arranged with the bride and groom in different combinations. The guests went to the sadya tent in shifts and I helped myself to four servings of dessert.

     The ride back was uneventful so I leave you with some pictures from my journey:

Rocky