I have been so busy with work, papers and travel that I haven't found the time to post about my marriage. I shall now try to rectify that oversight.
On Febuary 17 I started on my journey to India, where I expected to marry my girlfriend, if we could convince her father that not all Americans get divorces every 6 months like certain starlets do. I flew from San Francisco to Los Angeles, from Los Angeles to Taipei, from Tapei to Kuala Lumpur and from Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai, arriving about 34 hours after taking off from San Francisco and at 10:00PM local time.
My girlfriend, her father, brother, aunt and cousin met me at the airport, after a delay involving my luggage having failed to arrive (it was left in Los Angeles) and her cousin drove us to Pune where her family lives. We arrived in Pune at about 2:00AM.
Her mother was already pretty sure we were going to get married and had made some preperations already, and after talking with her father and some of his friends her father decided I wasn't a normal, to his mind, American and was a suitable match for his daughter. The odd thing is, I never really got a chance to ask her if she wanted to marry me. Once her father decided I was acceptable, everything just kicked into automatic and my fiancee and I really didn't have much say in it.
After hurriedly completing the arrangements, with help from family friends, our wedding was arranged for Febuary 26th. Her parents rented a hall in a hotel and arranged for food for all of the guests (no, I don't know how many) and on the evening of the 25th I was sequested away in said hotel so as to prevent me from seeing the bride before I was supposed to.
This was taken in the hall after we had been married and before we had been there for four hours greeting guests and having our photos taken with them:
This shot was taken during the ceremony. If I recall correctly, her uncles, the three men standing near her, were giving their blessing here. The priest can be seen handing a decanter to her uncles which they subsequently poured onto the sheet in which we were holding hands:
Later in the ceremony a fire was lit and as the priest chanted we spooned oil onto it. Then later, when this was taken, we would walk around the fire while the priest chanted, then spoon more oil, then walk around the fire, and so on. I watched her dress very carefully here.
Here you can see the Bridal Mehndi patterns on her hands. The stains were made with henna and faded gradually over the next month or so:
My father-in-law and mother-in-law standing on either side of us late in the evening:
And, last photo for now, Yogesh Behl, a family friend of theirs who helped greatly in arranging for the hall. He is the Ruling Party Leader, Ex. Chairman Standing Committee, Councillor: P.C.M.C.:
After the wedding we spent two nights in the hotel and then went to Mahabaleshwar, a Hill Station, where we stayed for five days. It was a four hour bus ride to get there, which wasn't too bad except for when the guy sitting behind us threw up with great force. Fortunately ours seats backs blocked it for us and the bus had lots of spare seating to move to. My wife was sleeping at the time and initially didn't want to move, but once awake and alert was happy that I had moved us. I gave the poor guy my bottle of water to clean up with.
In Mahabaleshwar we stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of the town. Mostly we stayed to ourselves, but we also took a couple of guided tours. It was a fun stay and was too short, but we had things that needed doing back in Pune before I left. I'll make it up to her someday, but now we have other things to work on.
I flew out of India on March 10th and, thanks to the date line, arrived in the US on March 10th as well, though I spent about 30 hours traveling.
Since then I have been working on getting my wife back into the US. Her US visa is, frusteratingly, expired. Today I sent off a package of documents to the immigration lawyer we have hired to expedite the process. He thinks he can have her K-3 visa approved in about three months.
I'll try to answer any questions that you have.
