It had been two years since we went to India last time in 2004-2005. It was also time to get Hetubhai married. So, we decided to take a trip to India in December 2006. WE started planning the trip as early as April of 2005. In july, we bought our tickets. We made a lot of plans including getting Hetubhai married, giving MBA exam, eating all sorts of junk food at laaris, and having tons of fun in general.
We spent most of November shopping for gifts and clothings for the trip. After a long wait, December finally arrived and we were ready to go. On 5th December we drove to airport at 9am. Our flight left at 11:40am and we were finally on the way ...whoo..hoo...
The flight to India was uneventful. We were all looking forward to meeting everyone and having fun. During flight from Los Angeles to Seoul, we all had personal tv screens and everyone except me had fun watching movies, while I studied for my exam :(. We had four hours break in Seoul. We tried some korean food at the airport. The flight from Seoul to Bombay did not have personal video screens so everyone slept and got some rest.
We had some trouble catching connecting flight to Vadodara as the luggage and checking procedures at Mumbai took a long time. Finally at 7th morning around 11am we arrived at Vadodara airport. Unfortunately, I spent most of the next two days studying for my exams and taking the exam. My exam was finally over on 9th and then I could get on with the fun :).
Hetubhal was engaged with Payal on 12th December. The pictures from enagement ceremony are mixed with other pictures we took with our trusted kodak camera and a few more that Mahendramama took with his camera. We had a blast having fun at the engagement ceremony, taking pictures and video, meeting people, eating food, and of course teasing the newly engaged couple. A fun part was when the newly engaged couple were given salted ice cream :).
We went to several movies and places to eat including winter special "pok and undhiyu" place, where we had to peal all the vegetables ourselves to make undhiyu !! We sent the kankotris to print, decided a hall, and catering for reception and on 16th December we went to Rajkot. I got to see all my relatives including ba and masi. We sepnt three days in Rajkot including a day at Jamnagar at Tiniben's place.
After coming back from Rajkot we held the function for writing kankotri. We also did 'vadiyo-papad' at that time. On 26th night, myself and mummy went to get mahendi on our hands. On 27th morning we held the 'mandap muhurt', 'ganesh sthapana', and 'grah shanti' at our place. Similarly, Payal's parents held their own event. Here are more pictures from our function on 27th and Payal's family function on 27th morning.
27th afternoon we spent at the beauty parlour getting ready for the wedding ceremony in the evening. The 'Jaan' left from Subhashkaka's place around 6:20pm. With everyone getting in on dancing and tons of fire crackers, it took us two hours to go the distance we would normally cover in less than 10 minutes. We all had a blast dancing to several hindi film songs and garbas. All of Payal's family came to greet us at the entrance and had some traditional rituals like lifting Hetubhai so Payal would have to be lifted and reach out to 'put haar' and the friendly 'wresting match over mojadis'.
Then, Hetubhai and Payal went through two hours of rituals of getting married while we all socialized, ate, and teased them. When they were going through the 'pheras', we showered them with flowers :). Pictures from Jaan and marraige ceremony are in a few parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
On 28th we organized a reception ceremony in honor of the new couple. A large number of people came and enjoyed the ceremony. Pappa did excellent MC work, while I gave a speech introducing everyone in the family to Payal. Payal and her dad had a father dauther dance followed by newly married couple's first dance. Myself and Snehal, pappa-mummy, Jayeshuncle-Nitaauntie, Karan, Kesha, Minti, Sanjaybhai-Bhavnabhabhi all got in on the dance action on the stage. We all had dinner and finished up the evening in excited, enthusiastic, stomach-filled, and dead tired mode. Pictures from the reception are in two parts: Part 1, Part 2.
Next day we greeted Payal at our 'home' for the first time after marriage. Couple got to do a ritual to determine who will dictate the terms. We also had a few other ceremonies. Pictures from those ceremonies are here.
Then, myself and Snehal went to Ahmedabad to spend some time with my bhai-bhabhis. All three brothers and bhabhis, mummy, and us were back together first time after our marriage and we had a fun time talking and moving around in Ahmedabad.
Soon, it was time for Snehal and Pappa to leave India. After they left Hetubhai and Payal went to Kerala for their honeymoon. The pictures they took there minus their private pictures are here.
I went to Rajkot and Ahmedabad and spent some quality time with everyone. Pictures I took there are here.