A big fat Hindu Wedding

This post is a little overdue. I went to a Hindu wedding a couple weekends ago. The wedding was for the daughter of my host family's landlord (I think). The reason I mention it was Hindu as opposed to "Bengali" is because Hindu and Muslim weddings are quite different. Hindu weddings are more "moja" which means happy. Not to say that Muslim weddings are bad, but that's how Bengalis describe the difference. I must say this Hindu wedding made our tradition back home look like a funeral. I'm not even exaggerating. It's a little depressing.

Anyway, the night of the wedding I got ready at around 9 pm. I put on my panjabi (see previous Eid post) and headed to supper with my family. We ate (early) in a big tent. I went back home briefly and boudi put Piyash to bed. Then I went out with my host brother to the main event. The groom was sitting on the ground under a small tent with a couple priests. I think they were blessing/praying for him.

Did I mention he was wearing a huge hat?

There was a guy with a video camera and spotlight there and as soon as he saw me, he pointed the camera in my direction. So now there's about 15 seconds of footage of a bideshi looking like a deer in headlights on that couple's wedding tape. Anyway, my host brother hadn't eaten yet, so we went to another food tent. I didn't want to go because I had eaten and I knew if I sat down in the food tent I would get food. But there was nothing I could do, so I just rolled with it. You do that a lot in Bangladesh.

Well after my second supper (around 11 pm), we went back to the ceremony again. We left soon after to go to the place I ate my first supper. This is where the actual ceremony would take place. On the way we got some paan, which I tried for the first time. It consists of a betel leaf with areca nut inside. Didn't really like it very much. I suppose its an acquired taste.

We waited for a while then we heard the band coming in the distance. We walked to the entrance and saw the groom being carried on someones shoulder into the compound. The band was very loud but joyful. The ceremony continued under a similar little tent. At this place the bride was in a room with a bunch of other women (including my kaki-ma). At one point the bride and all the women started crying loudly. I don't know if they were genuinely sad or whether it was part of the ritual.

The bride, if you didn't guess already

I ended up leaving around 2 am. I didn't see the couple when they were actually married, but I was tired. Apparently the celebrations continued the next day. I'll try to upload a video I took. Pictures may say a thousand words, but words only tell half the story.

Garbage

One of the first things I noticed when I arrived in Bangladesh is all the people and all the garbage. People are everywhere and their waste is too. A foreigner may see this situation and think "Wow, this is gross. Why don't they dispose of garbage properly here?" I admit I used to feel that way. But where will it go? There's no garbage collection service here, but even if there was it would probably end up being dumped in a river (a lot of it already is) or in a landfill (land is scarce in Bangladesh). A couple days after moving in with my host family I blew my nose with a Bashundhara (Kleenex to you). I asked my boudi where I should dispose of my soiled tissue. She walked over to the window, opened it, and told me to throw it out. So I did, and I still do. I can't yet bring myself to throw plastic out the window but I do toss biodegradable stuff out.

So this made me think a bit. I am certain that the people of Canada produce much more waste than the people of Bangladesh even though we're only a fifth of their population. The problem we have is we don't see it. We toss it in the garbage can, the bag is taken out, given to a sweaty guy in a big truck and dumped somewhere far out of sight and mind. What if our garbage service was cancelled and everyone had to toss all their waste out their windows? If we had to live with our garbage on our lawns and streets, would we use less?

Harvest and Cricket

Its harvest time here so it feels right to have celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend. Slowly but surely the once lush, green rice paddies are turning brown and dry. Everyone gets in on the fun. I was biking through the village one day and I saw a group of kids playing in a big pile of straw much like Canadian kids would play in a big pile of leaves. A couple weeks ago I took this picture. There were probably 60 people working in this field at the same time. Many hands make light work I guess.

Cricket is a big deal here. Everyone loves it. I've been here 3 and a half months and I still haven't learned how to play, but it's on my to do list. On the weekend, any place where there is an open field you see people playing cricket. This morning I was on my bike and I saw 3 games in progress.

A few days ago I was biking back from AKB and I saw some people playing cricket in a recently harvested rice field. They were either quite good or no one had anything better to do because there was a pretty big crowd gathered. I was intrigued and so I decided to pull over and watch for a while. Well it seems like everyone else there thought the same thing about me and as soon as word spread that a bideshi was in attendance the game abruptly stopped so all the players could turn and stare at me. Pretty soon a crowd had gathered around me. I don't think there is any length of time that I could live here and not feel awkward in this situation. So I took some pictures answered a few questions and pedalled off.

So the moral of the story is this: I am more interesting than cricket.

Before the bideshi sighting