A Church Wedding .

Su and Christabel had invited us over to attend the wedding and reception of Ayesha on 12 th December 2010. 

Su has been a good friend for a long long time . He had attended the wedding reception of Ajeet at Hotel Pride in Nagpur . He also had company business in Nagpur on that date , but that may have been a pure coincidence :) and so we had to attend this one ceremony come what may .Su had made transport and accommodation arrangements for air force friends at Pawanika in Colaba .Reaching there was your own lookout.However as my younger brother stays at Borivili, we decided to stay with him and attend wedding under own arrangements.

We had reservations so that we reached Mumbai on the 11th Dec , attend wedding on 12 th and returned to Nagpur the 13th .Travelling went smoothly as per plans .

As per the invitation the ceremony at Mt Carmel church was at 1630 hours on 12 Dec 10. Pradip,my younger brother, came all the way to drop us at the church . We reached at 1600 hrs . There was not a soul in sight , the church doors were locked . We were foxed and thought that we have come to the wrong place , inquiry from the Security guard confirmed that we were at the right place and the church would open for the ceremony which was to take place 1630 onwards . By 1610 to 1615 people started coming in , the church doors were opened and we entered the church. From Pawanika Harry Ahluwalias,Gurutathans and Bhagwats arrived in due course . Harry and I had done the Staff Course together so we knew them . It was the first time we met Gurunathans and Bhagwats .Unfortunately things and events unfolded in such manner that we could not really meet and talk to them :(

As the churches go , we saw some famous ones of Goa and some in the south, and they were wonderful with lot and lots of very expensive and intricately carved woodwork  painted in gold and weight of long history behind them . Mt Carmel was, in comparison not so weighty , plain and a poor cousin to those churches I mentioned.How ever it still was much airy , bright, very clean and with serene and peaceful  atmosphere as compared to lot of temples which are normally filthy and have tremendous noise :(  The altar and the church were decorated with lots of flowers and it was looking beautiful.

There were four rows of pews.The congregation , or should I say the guests/ invitees , were seated, on the two right rows facing the Altar , were Grooms side and the bride side on the left . Whether it was by design , as per established custom or just happened , I have no idea.The gusts , the Priests, the choir all were in place by 1620 . I was totally impressed . The timing was just tremendous . Wish our marriages were conducted with such military precision :)

Air Force Friends being from bride's side ,on the Left.

By 1625 or so all were seated and the assembly was welcomed by bride's aunt, mother's sister, The priests said few things , exactly at 1630 Soares walked in with Ayesha on his arms . All stood up .The choir sang the marching tune . Brides maid was Ayesha's best childhood friend and had come all the way from Newzeland . She had a bouquet in her hand and was dressed in a gorgeous red dress with plunging neck line , Ayesha wore traditional bridal white gown but without the  train . She looked beautiful as all the brides of all the humanity all over the world do :). Soares reached the chairs put up for the the bride & bride groom . All sat down . Senior priest enters . All stand up . Senior priest said few things , Asked every one to sit down . There were prayers and sermons . We were standing up and sitting down with every break in the sermon/prayer. After lot of standing up and sitting down the bride & bridegroom went up to the priests and the rings were and exchanged . There were more sermons and prayers . The meaning of all that which was said by the priests , said in prayers etc was not much different from what is said in the marriages all over the world , They are the promises , commitments, loyalties etc asked for from , and  given by both the sides to each other for the wellbeing and happiness of the newly wed couple . No time was wasted and every thing followed one another with clock work precision . Marriage register was signed .

Ayesha signing the marriage register.

 The ceremony ended with all the Protestants going up and eating the wafer and sipping the wine(?) . The Priest had not asked the groom to kiss the bride and this had me puzzled . Later Claire told me that in the strictest sense it was not a Christian marriage but was blessing ceremony by the church as the groom was not a Catholic and as marriage ceremony by Gujarati custom had already taken place on the 10 th of the month . By 1545 every thing was over and we were ready to go to the place where reception was to take place.......... .............. 

( to be continued........)