November 1st, in Madurai!

We woke up early and hurriedly put on our shuridas, jewelry and bhindis. We rushed to meet Divya and Chandra to walk to another temple close to our hotel. These Hindu temples are spectacular and mind blowing. It's crazy to think something so ancient, around 3000 years old, is still being used in the same way thousands of years later. No matter how much influence British rule had in this country, it in no way wiped out the culture and importance of Hinduism. The temple is still intact, with its intricate stone carving, bright designs and beautifully painted exterior. We admired the inside of the temple, with the various statues of gods, which Chandra and Divya prayed to. We then climbed the stairs to the roof. We got to see close up the incredible painted tower on top of the temple, covered in thousands of intricate paintings of gods, telling so many stories. There were Vishnu, Genesha (the elephant god), some that were red holding tridents, cows, and countless others. The view of Madurai from the roof was beautiful. The Meenakshi temple towers are the highest points in the city, and we looked out across the crowded, bustling scene at the rooftops, signs and windows of Madurai. We climbed inside the temple's tower to find a giant sleeping Green Man. The entrance was quite small, I guess built thousands of years ago as well. We walked in a square through the narrow passageway inside the tower, on both the bottom and top level, up steep steps. The early morning city scene was incredible, and we took many pictures.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a small temple on the side of the road and listened to a monk chant. First he spoke several prayers while we stood with our hands together and gave donations. He then first gave us an edible herb in our hands to eat, then sweet milk to drink out of our hands, and then spiced water. We also got some green leaves and jasmine for our hair, and the monk put a red smudge on our foreheads after we captured some smoke from a candle in our hands and released in onto our faces. It's so interesting learning about Hindu stories from Chandra and Divya and slowly learning about this completely different and ancient religion.

After having our morning coffee and putting on our sarees, with the integral assistance of Divya, we hurried to the wedding as it began with breakfast at 9. The breakfast was delicious. The wedding served three meals in total over the two days for all of the over 2000 guests of the bride and groom. And the wedding will even continue for one more day, with just the bride and bridegroom's families. Chandra told us that the meal for all of the guests is vegetarian, but the families will have meat tomorrow. The meals have been so good- idly, dhosai, rice, curd rice, curry, sambals, coconut chutney, potatoes, cauliflower, sweet cardamom jelly, sweet biason, sweet kaseri, and much more. We sit along long tables with a banana leaf each in front of us. The custom is to pour some water and wash off the leaf before you eat. Then a dozen servers walk in front of the table, in a line, and scoop huge portions of their dish onto your leaf. Everyone pretty much gets every single dish, unless you are convincing enough to assure them you don't want anymore. Paige and I rarely were able to persuade an server that we didn't want anymore! At least 10 items were served each meal. Most waiters liked to pause in front of us and stare for a while and ask questions sometimes. We got a lot of that, being the only foreigners at the whole wedding. Everyone was impressed with our sarees, which are a completely different style than everyone else's for some reason. Even when we wear our Indian dress we look different! Most people like to ask if we speak Tamil and if we knew the bride or groom. The bride and groom themselves were probably wondering who we were, at their wedding. We definitely got a few glances from them up on stage!

The bride looked even more beautiful today and you could tell they were both very excited and smiley. It took a while for them to finally come up on stage. When they did, several rituals started. The groom and then the bride cleaned their parents' feet out of a bowl of water. Two monks wearing the traditional white skirts and single rope over their shoulders lead the ceremony. The bride and groom placed several long necklaces of flowers over each others' heads. After putting one on the other each, the bride went to put another on the groom, and he backed away. She had to chase him and eventually get the flowers over his head. Then he had to do the same to her as she backed away. It seemed part of the custom, and they were both laughing as they did it. The stage was crowded, with the couple, three photographers/men filming, and a circle of family around them. The couple sat next to each other on the ground, and had many people come and bless them, giving them white dots on their foreheads. Then flowers were passed into the crowd and at one moment were all thrown forward towards the couple, as the people on stage sprinkled the pink petals on to the bride and groom. For Paige, it turned out to be more of a throwing rose petals into the hair of the women sitting in front of us, who were not so amused.

Afterwards, the couple sat in the two golden chairs that looked like thrones, with people hovering all around them so that it was difficult to see them from our chairs. They were presented with different gifts as different relatives and friends came onto the stage. They fed each other bananas, first the bride giving the groom a bite, then the groom to the bride. It was all done as a process, as all Hindu weddings go we are told. Every act the bride did was reciprocated by the groom, and vice versa. They held a cup to each others' lips to drink. They held hands and walked around in several circles around the monk's little altar. The whole time they laughed nervously and smiled. During each step they paused for the photographer to capture every moment. Eventually they got off stage, changed, and then came back on to take more pictures. The whole time the hundreds of people in the crowd talked excitedly and the band played loudly, according to the acts of the couple. It all seemed so chaotic yet planned and as expected for the guests. The guests all seemed like one big family, and everyone we were introduced to seemed to be related somehow.

Chandra told us how the marriage was arranged by the bride's and groom's families. He lives in Bangalore, a city in another state. She will move to live with him there. So she will have to learn a new language, as they don't speak Tamil there. Vijayasarathy said she already has some family there. They had met only a few times before their wedding, and had spoken on the phone some. Even during the ceremony they seemed a little embarrassed and still getting to know each other. Chandra told us that back in her time, the first time the bride and groom would ever see each other would be on the stage during their own wedding. It seems crazy to imagine, children here must have a lot of faith in their parents to choose a life partner!

After we had finished lunch and taken many pictures, we left the wedding hall to pack up our things at the hotel. We changed out of our sarees and went out for more Madurai sightseeing. We drove past a giant square "tank", with steps leading down to it and surrounded by roads, that usually is filled with water but is now dry. People played cricket, walked around, and cows grazed in it. We then went to the famous Madurai palace, which was very impressive. It's was built in 1636 and was the home of the King of Madurai. There were giant white columns that sparkled in the light and the ceilings were so high, painted light yellow and red with incredibly intricate detail. It was all quite breathtaking. We admired all the incredible halls and the beautiful, ancient statues. There was a big open courtyard in the center, opening up to the clouds. Chandra measured that one pillar had the circumference of six of the arm lengths. Vijayasarathy explained to us about the ancient Tamil stone carvings of the King. It's crazy to see all these incredible, ancient artifacts from thousands of years ago. This Palace was beautiful. It was restored in the 1800s by the British. It used to be much larger, but only one quarter of the original building still remains.
After stopping at Vijayasarathy's sister house for a little while, we headed back to the country. We did some last minute shopping at a big grocery store, as most staples for us, like toilet paper, can only be bought in the city. Even in the center of the city, buildings still seem short, only about 5 stories. It seems like a small city as far as the infrastructure goes, but its very densely populated and is the second biggest city in Tamil Nadu. We definitely appreciated the benefits of urban life while there- fewer power cuts, plumbing, restaurants, banks, big shops, grocery stores instead of outdoor markets and little roadside stands. But as we drove back towards the mountains, rice paddies, coconut trees and big fields, we were happy to be back in the rural land. It was so nice to get back home to Patti. The city was so exciting, interesting and bustling, but that city air had us coughing and we missed the countryside. We got home, took rest, and Chandra showed us how cooking idly and dhosai. They are both made with the same batter. That surprised us a lot, because they seem so different. The idly is steamed in a round metal idly maker with six dents for the round idly, and dhosai is cooked like a crepe or pancake on a pan. We then sat down to our normal delicious dinner and talked with Vijayasarathy about the exciting time in Madurai before saying "iravu vanakam" and heading to sleep.