wedding crashers
Apparently i neglected to expand on this issue of the wedding, i thought i had written about it earlier, but not so. anyways, it was a day a week plus back, when we were still staying at the rockway cottage. me and josh(the kiwi) and marine(from holland) had decided that we wanted to play our hand at a little fishing, so we went into new manali and rented the tackle needed (sadly fly fishing isnt a thing with the locals...actually fishing period isnt much of a thing, at least not recreationally.) and bought a few extra spinners.
we headed south of manali about 17 km to the base of a little town called baragram. where we perchanced to meet a local named tuesday, who apparently had nothing more pressing to do than accompany us on our little jaunt. we fished for about half an hour and it became exceedingly clear that the trout would not be invited by our cheap lures and the sort, and the river was running high and murky due to all of the rain we had had. we decided to cut our losses.
at teusdays recommendation we hiked the 3 or so km up to baragram with him at the lead. it turned out to be quite the learning adventure. all of us at one point rubbed up against stinging nettles, only to have tuesday explain that if you grabbed some of the fresh pot leaves and crused them up and rubbed them on the afflicted area it would alleviate the sting:)the town was a beautiful little town, blighters running about hither and thither, bowling wickets and crickets and the sort. we ran into a dog that had a strong distaste for westerners, barking only when we passed by, leaving tuesday and the rest of the locals in peace. after exploring about for a good while we decided it was time to head back down the mountain, on the way stopping so that tuesday could show us all the ways of making the charras, as well as to take frequent apple breaks.
finally we found ourselves at the base of the mountain, back on the road that the rickshaw from manali had dropped us on. which is where the wedding comes in. it turned out that one of tuesdays friends was getting married, and he said he would like nothing more than to bring us as his guests to the festivities. apparently here it is considered good luck to invite perfect strangers in to your wedding reception, so we quickly got over the initial anxious embarassment of crashing the wedding. we were warmly invited to folk dance with the wedding party (only the men, none of the women participate in the dancing), and then brought into a giant tent where among other men manalis senator poured us whiskey after whiskey, getting cross if we sipped to slowly. after a number of drinks we headed to the next tent, a block or so down the road on the other side, the feed tent as the kiwi(josh) called it.
there we sat down among 150 or so other folk, and they brought rice and lamb and various other dishes, filling your plate faster than you could finish the last helping. finally we found ourselves done, and lounging outside on the grass, it was getting late, so tuesday offered to get us on the right bus back to manali. he put us on, made sure we were charged the correct fare, and as quickly as he had appeared that morning he disappeared back into the folds:) a memory not to be forgotten.
we headed south of manali about 17 km to the base of a little town called baragram. where we perchanced to meet a local named tuesday, who apparently had nothing more pressing to do than accompany us on our little jaunt. we fished for about half an hour and it became exceedingly clear that the trout would not be invited by our cheap lures and the sort, and the river was running high and murky due to all of the rain we had had. we decided to cut our losses.
at teusdays recommendation we hiked the 3 or so km up to baragram with him at the lead. it turned out to be quite the learning adventure. all of us at one point rubbed up against stinging nettles, only to have tuesday explain that if you grabbed some of the fresh pot leaves and crused them up and rubbed them on the afflicted area it would alleviate the sting:)the town was a beautiful little town, blighters running about hither and thither, bowling wickets and crickets and the sort. we ran into a dog that had a strong distaste for westerners, barking only when we passed by, leaving tuesday and the rest of the locals in peace. after exploring about for a good while we decided it was time to head back down the mountain, on the way stopping so that tuesday could show us all the ways of making the charras, as well as to take frequent apple breaks.
finally we found ourselves at the base of the mountain, back on the road that the rickshaw from manali had dropped us on. which is where the wedding comes in. it turned out that one of tuesdays friends was getting married, and he said he would like nothing more than to bring us as his guests to the festivities. apparently here it is considered good luck to invite perfect strangers in to your wedding reception, so we quickly got over the initial anxious embarassment of crashing the wedding. we were warmly invited to folk dance with the wedding party (only the men, none of the women participate in the dancing), and then brought into a giant tent where among other men manalis senator poured us whiskey after whiskey, getting cross if we sipped to slowly. after a number of drinks we headed to the next tent, a block or so down the road on the other side, the feed tent as the kiwi(josh) called it.
there we sat down among 150 or so other folk, and they brought rice and lamb and various other dishes, filling your plate faster than you could finish the last helping. finally we found ourselves done, and lounging outside on the grass, it was getting late, so tuesday offered to get us on the right bus back to manali. he put us on, made sure we were charged the correct fare, and as quickly as he had appeared that morning he disappeared back into the folds:) a memory not to be forgotten.
posted by sukha at 12:27 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for elaborating on that story! Every small comment has a big story behind it -- if only day-to-day life in Prescott had the same quality of newness & adventure!
Naomi's been home sick for 3 days (AKA we're having a great time together). She wanted to bake, so yesterday we made a chocolate cake & today we tried our hand at beginning professional cake decorating. We made top & bottom borders, practiced stars, used fancy lettering from her Christimas book ("We Love You, Dave & Lea":) with the "L" a saxophone, the first line in "D" a flute, and a cool little trumpet on the side.
On a sad note, Keith Brush (of Brushworks, the band Dave played with at Hassayampa) (and who played drums at our wedding, for our first dance) passed on on Monday. He was found to have cancer all through his body about 6 weeks ago. Dave spent an afternoon with him a week ago & Keith told him all about his musical history; the kind of looking back that makes you think he's seeing himself coming to the end. He leaves behind his wife Mary & 10-year-old daughter Monica. I started doing readings for him this morning & am remembering what's important about life.
We love & miss you and so enjoy your stories!
Shelly & Naomi
Post a Comment
<< Home