This is a marriage bann to announce that my bestest friend, my contributor, and my soulmate, Huccalyly, was finally married in Chennai! After holding out for a commendable length of time, her husband had finally given up his futile resistance to her entrapment.  

Indian weddings are supposed to last for 5 days to a week, but since this is an express wedding, her husband and she did it over the weekend. (No, it’s not shotgun.)

First day: The husband’s relatives came from all over India and were put up at a community centre. At the community centre, it was henna day from 2pm-7pm. Henna is a skin dye, made from plant. And after you paint it, you dab it with lemon sugar water so that the dye remains for a longer time.

Interesting fact: the henna artist will hide alphabets of the names of the bride and groom among the temporary tattoo. So at night, in bed, the groom can look for their names alphabet by alphabet. What time is it? KAMASUTRA TIME! 

At the henna party, there were homecooked Indian food, and teh terik! (By the way, there is no such thing as chai masala in India. It’s not authentically Indian.)

While Huccalyly was getting her henna on, we took a short car ride to visit the groom’s apartment. I believe this is a tradition so that the bride’s family would be set at ease. Anyway, when I stepped into the apartment, I thought, “WOW, Huccalyly got a rich husband!”

Second day: In the afternoon, there was a tea ceremony where Huccalyly looked resplendent with jasmine weaved into her hair.

In the evening, more than 600 people queued up to take photos with the groom and bride on stage. Huccalyly is a celebrity! After photo taking, the crowd moved outside for a buffet dinner. Dunno why they lapped up the buttermilk ice cream when the Indian food was spectacular.

Huccalyly: There was a lot of food left that night.

Me: Damn, I should have eaten more.

Huccalyly: You mean you were holding out??

Me: Yeah, I was afraid there wasn’t enough. So I only went for 3 rounds. Should have eaten 5!

When we Singaporeans left her, none of our eyes was dry. We were very moved and cried for different reasons. For me, I was both ecstatic and worried for her. I was happy for her because she was happy. But I was worried: will she make a good wife? a good mother? Will she still be herself, or will she be forced to become someone she doesn’t want to be? Will her husband treat her well? (I only met the husband thrice.) A relationship is hard enough, but to be in an inter-cultural, inter-racial, inter-faith relationship, will she suffer? But I worry too much. She will be fine: both her husband and she are intelligent adults, capable to make decisions for themselves.

Uncle Rajoo, the groom’s father, was so nice he introduced me to a cooking host in Chennai, and bought us each a box of Indian sweets to eat in Singapore. I finished the entire box myself in 2 days!!!

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.