{"id":652,"date":"2012-05-15T18:44:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T22:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=652"},"modified":"2012-05-15T18:56:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T22:56:24","slug":"wedding-festivities-day-1-bbq-and-the-mehndi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=652","title":{"rendered":"Wedding Festivities Day 1 – BBQ and the Mehndi"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBQ<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Fayaz is hit as he draws me into the action.<\/p><\/div>\n

After arrival at LAX, I \u00c2\u00a0headed directly to a park for the first event in the weekend of festivities: a BBQ and ceremony for the groom. \u00c2\u00a0At the park, I chatted with Fayaz’s family and friends from Minnesota who I \u00c2\u00a0hadn’t seen in ages. \u00c2\u00a0After maybe an hour, there was a brief ceremony for Fayaz which drew on a number of traditions including negotiations for Fayaz’s purchase of fetched water, the eating of sweets, and waving coins over Fayaz as a blessing.<\/p>\n

The next phase was described to me as “mess-up the groom.” \u00c2\u00a0Fayaz said that, while this is usually limited to some shaving cream on the groom, his family takes to an all out round robin of shaving cream, cool whip, water\u00c2\u00a0balloons, and silly string. \u00c2\u00a0At the end of the ceremony, the action began. \u00c2\u00a0For about ten minutes, no one was safe. \u00c2\u00a0 Things finally calmed down when a brawl nearly broke-out as people were thrown in the lake. \u00c2\u00a0May Fayaz’s Blackberry rest in peace.<\/p>\n

A lunch of burgers and chicken tenders was\u00c2\u00a0served and, over a meal in the\u00c2\u00a0beautiful Cali weather, friends and family had a chance to catch-up.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Mehndi<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>After the BBQ, we all had enough time to check into the hotel and grab a drink or two at the bar before heading over to the Mehndi<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0at the bride’s family’s home. \u00c2\u00a0Well, at least the men had a moment of leisure. \u00c2\u00a0 The women headed to the bride’s home early for the \u00c2\u00a0application of henna<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When we arrived at Nushin’s family home we headed to the back yard. \u00c2\u00a0I was instantly stunned. \u00c2\u00a0I felt as if I’d walked into a fairy tale or the set of a bollywood movie. Set-out in the warm California night were lounge areas. \u00c2\u00a0Large white soft rectangles covered with brightly colored and shiny pillows basked in soft light. \u00c2\u00a0The seating\u00c2\u00a0surrounded\u00c2\u00a0an open walled tent with a wooden floor. \u00c2\u00a0The air was filled with the smells of meat cooking in one corner of the yard and fresh fruit in another.<\/p>\n

It was on arrival that Fayaz’s male friends, most of us white, learned we would be dancing in a precision (in front of a few hundred people) to lead the groom to the tent. \u00c2\u00a0After being shown a few dance moves the music started and we were off. \u00c2\u00a0Fayaz, dressed in all red traditional Indian\u00c2\u00a0attire lead the way\u00c2\u00a0surrounded\u00c2\u00a0by his poorly dancing friends (also in traditional Indian attire). \u00c2\u00a0 The attire consisted of a long top and light pants held with a draw string. \u00c2\u00a0Large pants, with a draw string that was very tricky for this white boy. \u00c2\u00a0Half-way through the dance in I realized my pants were falling down. \u00c2\u00a0Thankfully the top is long and I was saved from exposing myself to the crowd as I danced with my pants at my thighs.<\/p>\n

After Fayaz took his thrown like seat under the tent, \u00c2\u00a0Nushin was carried to the tent in an ornate box supported by a pole. \u00c2\u00a0It is fortunate tradition, as Nushin had broken her leg only two weeks before. \u00c2\u00a0Fayaz picked her up out of the box and set her on her own thrown–looking more like a princess than any bride I’ve seen. \u00c2\u00a0Speeches and rituals followed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then, it was time to eat. \u00c2\u00a0Nushin, understanding Fayaz’s intense love for\u00c2\u00a0shawarma arranged for several large spinning cones of meat served with a spread of other amazing Indian delights and guests ate until they could eat no more. \u00c2\u00a0We lounged and ate as traditional Indian music from a live band wafted over the crowd. \u00c2\u00a0Once satiated, many\u00c2\u00a0retired\u00c2\u00a0to smoke from the dozen or so hookah’s set-up in the yard.<\/p>\n

The festivities ended around 1:30 a.m. and only then because the police showed-up (I’m sure half of LA had been serenaded\u00c2\u00a0up to that point). \u00c2\u00a0In a near daze I retired to the hotel for a brief sleep before another day of Cali adventures and wedding ceremonies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BBQ After arrival at LAX, I \u00c2\u00a0headed directly to a park for the first event in the weekend of festivities: a BBQ and ceremony for the groom. \u00c2\u00a0At the park, I chatted with Fayaz’s family and friends from Minnesota who I \u00c2\u00a0hadn’t seen in ages. \u00c2\u00a0After maybe an hour, there was a brief ceremony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[142,141],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","tag-indian","tag-la-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}