Okay, I've still got so much to catch up on I'll try to get through this and onto the next post. This post closes out the "India Trip" series (about time some might say). Here goes:
As mentioned in the previous post, we officially finished up the wedding at 4:00 am or so and at that time, various members of the group had made arrangements to leave. Kristyn & Jonathan had a plane to catch. Nick, Maegan, Ken & Melanie had a train to catch to Agra. Priyanshu & Tamanna had other events to attend. That left Robert and I with the better part of the day to sightsee a bit in Delhi. We actually ended up sleeping a lot in an attempt to make up for the lack of sleep the night before. We packed up and left the hotel just before noon and therefore needed to get some lunch. What better to eat than some McDonald's (at Khan Market): ice cold Coke (for the caffeine), Spicy Paneer (cheese) wrap and fries. Actually pretty darn tasty.
After the quick lunch, we hit the road and set out to walk to Humayun's Tomb. The maps in the guidebook didn't really give us a great idea of distance and it ended up being quite a long walk through the hazy Delhi air (worst air quality day of the whole trip by a country mile) and through some less than savory areas of the city. Regardless, we got here and got to see one of Delhi's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Another predecessor to the Taj Mahal, this mausoleum began the trend of grand tombs in fancy gardens that would become so popular.
Humayun's Tomb, found in the center of the building. The story of his death is quite sad as he was heading down a flight of stairs carrying a stack of books out of his library. He heard the call to prayer and in his attempt to kneel down, caught his robe and fell down the stairs. I'm not sure how steep the staircase at his library was, but the stairs at the tomb were pretty steep.
Walking back from Humayun's Tomb, we headed towards the recently renovated Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (redone for the 2010 Commonwealth Games) and down to the Metro Station nearby. I admired the colorful art on the central station pillar as we waited for our train to come.
Another lengthy walk from the Metro Station took us to the Qutub Minar complex where a group of ancient ruins could be viewed. We arrived a bit tardy and actually missed the closing time for the daily entrance. Somewhat fortunately, they allowed for twilight tours of the complex. Upon entering the complex, you walk through a small garden and encounter the ruins of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Masjid (the first mosque built in Delhi after the Islamic conquest.
Quite obviously the Qutub Minar dominates the complex (and gives it it's name). Built around 1200 CE out of red sandstone and marble, it initially served as a Victory tower while now, it stands as an excellent example of Indo-Islamic medieval architecture. Throughout the years, subsequent rulers repaired and or added on to the minaret (the tallest in India at 72.5 m). Pretty impressive sight in the waning light I must say.
In the courtyard of the mosque stands the Iron Pillar. A curious relic of unknown age, it's said to be as old as 912 BCE or from the time of the Gupta Empire (~300-400 CE). Standing 7 m tall, the resistance of the pillar to rust and age ultimately indicates the impressive craftsmanship of the ancient Indian iron workers. At this point it got quite dark and there wasn't much point in hanging around the complex much longer.
We decided to head on back towards central Delhi to find something to eat (back to Khan Market actually). I thought it quite a happy coincidence that the Metro token I had featured the Qutub Minar on the face.
After dinner, Robert and I met back up with Priyanshu's family for a brief little shindig. The family decided earlier that day to spontaneously throw a party for Priyanshu's parents to celebrate their marriage anniversary. We were fortunate enough to have a bit of time to hang out just a little bit longer before we headed off to the airport. As always, hanging out with Priyanshu's family was festive and fun (i.e. food and singing). After checking-in at DEL and going through security, Robert and I did a bit of shopping before going our separate ways to our flights. I saw this sizable sculpture walking through the terminal and I'm not exactly sure what it is.
Not having slept much over the last few days, I welcomed the sight of these "Sleep pods" tucked to the side of the terminal walkway. US$10/hr, it offered a nice, quiet place for a nap while I waited for my departure time (3:00 am). I didn't get to sleep long, but I enjoyed every little bit of shut eye that I could. We all know how uncomfortable it can be sitting in Economy class for several hours on end.
Had a long, relatively restless flight from DEL to FRA (Frankfurt, Germany). I had high hopes for my brief layover in Germany but I didn't have enough time to go outside and there just wasn't anything interesting to do in the airport. It was modern and clean, as you may expect of a German building, but it just didn't have the character, charm or interesting attractions as DEL, SFO, or other airports have. Ultimately, I filled the time with some newspapers and a cheese/bacon soft pretzel before hopping onto the next Lufthansa flight bound for SFO and saying auf wiedersehen to cloudy Frankfurt.
And that wraps up my incredibly exciting and lengthy NYC/India/FRA trip (finally). A first for many things including the Highline Park, travel to India, participating in a good friend's wedding and flying through Germany. Thank you so very much to Priyanshu's family whose hospitality was so unbridled and generous as to make the entire trip so enjoyable (despite the few annoyances that we encountered elsewhere in Delhi/Agra/Jaipur). Alrighty, you'll have to wait till the next blog post to see where I ended up next for the holidays. I'll just say that I had far more time in airplanes/airports in store for me yet in December. Until then...
So I've been AWOL for a couple weeks now, but work has gotten pretty intense all of a sudden. Not really a good excuse so I apologize for the absence. Anyways, let's get on with the trip shall we? Typically Indian weddings would last for ages, but with modern society being as busy as it is (and people having to travel long distances) many of the ceremonies that would be held over the course of a week are condensed into a whirlwind weekend.
So we got off the plane and headed back to the Wedding HQ (aka the "Big House" where all the family had been put up in) to regroup with everyone and kick off the beginning of a celebration filled wedding weekend. We arrived at the tail end of a ceremony of some sort but got some delicious Indian food for dinner. Me, Nick, Ken & Melanie (who both just got off the plane) and Robert.
I got warned that Indian Weddings are all about eating, dancing, eating, dancing...(repeat). No joke, right after dinner folks just started dancing on the rooftop of the building where we had just eaten dinner.
Apparently things got a bit too noisy on the roof, so we took the party down to the street. Yes, the middle of the street.
And we just kept on dancing...
And dancing...
We made a lot of drivers angry by blocking the narrow roadway. How inconvenient of them to just drive through our dance floor!
Our street dancing as seen from high up in the "Big House".
We all got a pretty good sleep that night after all the dancing (and for me and the Pre-wedding folks, the travel too). The next day, we got to participate in some more ceremonial fun. This, from what I can recall a month later, was a ceremony welcoming friends and family. 
We all got tilaks (a term I presume is correct based on a bit of Googling). Here I am getting my mark: a bit of red paste applied to the forehead with a grain of rice stuck in the middle.
Nick's turn.
Robert.
Ken.
Jonathan.
Kristyn.
Maegan.
And Melanie.
After that, we continued to the next ceremony where the women in the family covered Priyanshu in turmeric (a culturally important spice).
Then he cleaned himself up and got dressed by his male family members. Pretty spiffy looking.
After getting all dressed up respectably, Priyanshu rode a white horse through the street, surrounded by friends and family, on his way to the temple. Yeah, we danced a bit in the streets again too.
And we blocked traffic too. You can see the procession as we walked down the road.
We got bussed to a fancy hotel in Gurgaon (a newer city on the outskirts of Delhi near the airport) for the first fancy shindig of the weekend: a family get together filled with food and dance. Here Priyanshu gets a bit of help dressing from Ankit's wife Sonam.
Us American folk got dressed in our pretty, traditional Indian clothing, which impressed many of the family members who we spoke to.
These weddings are taken very seriously in a lot of ways, one of which was in how thoroughly it was to be documented. There was a team of photographers and cameramen to capture every magical moment of the wedding including many of the smaller ceremonies were participated in earlier.
Various family members took their turn dancing for the the bride and groom. Here you (kinda) see four of Priyanshu's cousins dancing.
Tamanna's brother Gaurav and his wife at the end of their dance.
Priyanshu dancing with his brother's wife. With the limited amount of dance practice he got, he was helped by the choreographer sitting just below the stage and motioning the upcoming dance moves. It turned out pretty well all things considered.
What I like to refer to as "The Main Event". Here we start our medley of dances with a performance of Jai Ho.
Giddy up! One of the moves from another "Bollywood" dance number. Quite a lot of fun and I think we performed pretty well (a fair reflection on the hours spent on practice).
After finishing a total of five dances, we had a "fake" ending and pulled up Priyanshu for an encore performance of Jai Ho.
He starts off giving the impression to the crowd that he doesn't know what's going on.
But he has actually practiced with us and dances in-sync with the group (much to the delight of the crowd).
And a fantastic finish to cap off a remarkable performance! The crowd goes wild!
Finally Priyanshu and Tamanna, having spent most of the rest of the evening planted in their chairs, get an opportunity to dance together. They performed beautifully despite spending a lot of the past week apart from each other without much (or any really) opportunity to practice together.
So we skip Sunday day and here we are in the evening and Priyanshu is now parading through the street in a horse drawn carriage surrounding by what I'd estimate as being just under a hundred dancing friends and family. Yes, we find ourselves blocking a full lane of traffic on a busy stretch of road.
Ankit & Nick bring the action up closer to Priyanshu by climbing up onto the carriage to dance for a bit.
Nick & Gaurav exchange flower garlands (I dunno what it's really called, I'm just pretty sure it's not called a lei).
Yup, we came to the right ballroom.
What followed after we got into the ballroom was a multi-hour procession of guests who came to eat from the buffet, dance and take pictures with Priyanshu and Tamanna. We being good friends hung around, danced and kept them company. After all that madness, and after the majority of the guests left, the close family and friends got to sit down at a giant table for a late dinner (about 11pm I'd guesstimate). This is the kind of dinner where the waiters keep coming by with plates of food that never seem to end and they refuse to allow you to have an empty plate at any time. No doubt we got pretty stuffed, pretty quickly.
And just when we were at our most full, the desserts came out and the "no empty plates" dance began again...much to the misfortune of our stomachs. We got to participate in another cool tradition where all the family and friends continually feed the bride and groom desserts. After hungrily eating their dinner, Priyanshu and Tamanna had to endure spoonfuls of sweets. I'm not going to lie, I personally enjoyed feeding them both spoon after spoon of ice cream, cake and gulab jamun (the quintessential Indian dessert).
An empty ballroom after our dinner at about midnight. And we weren't even close to being finished at this point...
Finally the priest! One more ceremony to go...then they can be officially married.
We braved the cold Delhi night outside to view the ceremony.
Pretty garlands decorating the gazebo in which Priyanshu & Tamanna recited their vows.
Yeah, we were all pretty darn tired. I think this might have been taken around 2am.
So there's a little fire in the center of the tent into which Priyanshu and Tamanna would place things such as turmeric spice, ghee (butter) and puffed rice as they repeated the priest's words.
They recited 7 major vows (kinda like "for richer or poorer" but a lot more comprehensive). After each, they'd walk clockwise around the fire and toss something into the fire (which also helped to keep them warm). I think this picture was taken at about 3am. Upon completing the seventh go-around the circle, they were then officially husband and wife.
Congratulations Priyanshu and Tamanna!!! For those of you interested in keeping track of time, this was almost 4am.
What a beautiful and amazing ceremony to have had the privilege of taking part in. Thanks to Priyanshu and Tamanna for letting us be a part of their special day(s)! Tune in next time as the travels continue (seriously I'm not done yet).
P.S. If you want to see the video of our dance, (yes, the dance) ask nicely and I just might email you a link.
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