My friend from chennai in south india invited me for the wedding of his sister. HE wanted me to be there twodays before the marriage and one day after. I was wondering what will i do and how the time will be spent . He assured me that i will have enough fun and asked me to come two days before the marriage with my family.

I landed as asked with my wife and two kids , a boy and a girl. We were greeted at the airport by my friend and his family. They give us a garland ( instead of boquet , but a similar gift made of flowers) . The smell of the malli flower was too good. The fragrance was really stimulating . It was given only to my daughter and my wife and they were asked to keep it with a slide in their hand. It was nice seeing them decorated with flower garland in their head. for me and my son , they give sandal paste to put in forehead. We came home and since it was in the evening, we found the entire house lighted up . Special lamps with wick and oil were decorating the walls and front portion of the house.

We went inside and freshened up and then we were invited to a carnatic concert . There was a troup of players playing the tabla, mridangam, flute, kanjira , nadaswaraman , veena, thampura and two people were singing . There were also another four persons, singing chorus and repeating the song. The event was there for an hour and it was really simulating to listen. Then there was a bharatanatyam rendition by hie niece. IT was really sight to see and was thinking , how it can be a good form of exercise with the entire body coordinating to get the full effect of movement in resonance to the music and song.

then we had a sumptuous dinner and went to sleep.

the next day , early morning, we were woken up by the nadaswaram music. had piping hot coffee and the aroma was really refreshing and then we had a good round about view of the surrounding hills and fields. There were plaintain, coconut, sugarcane grooves . Lot of people has already started working so early in the morning . They had already taken bath and were looking so fresh . The ladies were wearing garland of malli flower in their head. They had a big bunch of the flowers and i asked my friend , the cost of the flowers. he took me around and showed the flowers blooming and the plants were filled with the flowers. There were less green colour seen, as there were more flowers in white than leaves in green.

Came back , had our bath and had a hearty breakfast. we had idli, dosa, pongal, uthappam and there were four vrities of chutneys viz, chilli, oconut, onion and pudina . We also had loads of sambhar which was so tasty, we were simply devouring it. Then agaon we had coffee. Took rest fro some time and then went to the nearby hall , where the vratham function was on. There was a prohit and he was guiding the parents of both the boy and the girl , to perform the rituals. There was the chanting of the sanskrit mantras and they were performing the different steps using water, specially designed utensils of brass made for the purpose and flowers, under the guidance of their priests.

Then again it was the turn to have a elaborate lunch . There were about 33 items. There was vada, payasams of three types viz -milk, coconut and jeera .; pappad, avaial, 20 type of vegetables --curry, raw, mixed, with coconut, sweet, sour, bitter etc .; rice, four type of variety rice viz tamarind, coconut, groundnut powder , and til powder .

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good day. good read.