This weekend I had the pleasure of attending and participating in my friend’s brother’s Hindi wedding. My friend, Aruna, has been raving about how stunning the wedding would be for over a year, she was right. If you ever have the chance to attend a Hindi wedding take it. Though I can’t promise that all weddings will be as well orchestrated as this was, I’m sure that the colors and dancing alone will be vivid enough to memorize you for years to come.

Here is where you can view an album of the pictures that I think best illustrate the array of life and light that was presented here: Luthra-Pandya Wedding Album

The even posed many opportunities into the exploration of identity. Most notably the different Hindi traditions that throughout the wedding . As was explained to me many times, the bride and the groom's family had different traditions because they came from different areas in India. therefore, this wedding was discussed as "very multicultural" by many people within the family. I saw this cultural convergence as a ritual mash-up which gave me plenty of inspiration for the possibility of having a unique traditional wedding in the future.

Posting Poetry

I've been asking my small group of reader's how I could improve the blog and I've got a steady streaming request to see some of my poetry. I'm not usually public about such artistic flirtations, but some how, I'm mustering up the courage to post.

These two poems were written this spring and are particularly fitting for this blog.

oo

Struck by culture wars,
no words escape without a bow,
to one side or the other.

I refuse to engage in a war with words.
The wall the fence
The fence the wall
Nargella hookah falafal hummus!

Stop shouting at me,
political binary.
I refuse to engage in such division.


Flower Press

Pressed between
home and society
we are told to riot.

But the butterfly whispers
to fluttering eyes,
"exasperate my neck,"
refute.

Fingerprints ravage our touch,
Rushing the pulse of home,
that refuses to pass.