When it comes to saying goodbye, Matt, Anna and Ingrid should be experts.
Let us give you a little rundown on our final week in Pali, which consisted of little more than would-be-goodbyes, loads of food and a barrage of bangles and bindis.
On Thursday evening we travelled to the other end of Pali City (100 rupees away, brought down to a much more modest 70 rupees thanks to our perfected and perhaps somewhat aggressive bargaining skills) to celebrate an Educate Girls staff member, Kalpna’s birthday with her family, friends and our beloved Tejas. I don’t think we have ever seen Anna in such high spirits as we did when the first course was brought out – a large and ornate chocolate birthday cake. It soon became clear to us that the cake fight at Anna’s own birthday a few weeks prior was not a one-off, but a typical India birthday tradition, hence the next hour was spent capturing all involved stuffing one-another’s faces with cake on camera.
Mains were followed by much dancing (if you can call Matt’s Pulp Fiction/Sexy Eyes move dancing), having our names inscribed in henna on our hands (just so that we don’t forget), and more cake.
On Friday morning we farewelled the Educate Girls office staff with samosas and soft drink, a real treat in Pali and then made our full-bellied way to Kesars restaurant to have our farewell lunch with Manju and her boys. Just when we thought we had filled every inch of every nook and cranny of every bodily cavity with food, we were whisked off on motor cycles by Sunil and Navneet to Waves Restaurant for another delicious dinner to farewell our favourite blokes from the office.
On Sunday night the motor cycles arrived again, to take us, and Tejas, to Sunil’s house for dinner and a game of dressups, in which Ingrid and Anna became the jewelled and sari-ed mannequins to Sunil’s female family members, friends and neighbours. This was followed by a lengthy Indian style ‘star shots’ photo shoot in which the girls assumed poses that were supposedly sultry, yet tasteful and modest, perhaps due to the addition of props including vases and faux flowers. Such photos are the centre-piece and pride of most Indian mantle pieces and our own can be viewed on Facebook, for those interested.
On Sunday we farewelled Kesars restaurant for the final time, with Manohar and Tejas in tow and again, a huge amount of food. Saying goodbye to Tejas and watching him ride off on the bicycle he acquired from Matt and promises to ride everyday to achieve that Bollywood 6-pack was perhaps one of the hardest and most emotional moments of the trip so far. No sugar coating required, Tejas really is one of the greatest guys we have had the pleasure of knowing!
And just when we thought we had out-farewelled ourselves, we made two trips to the office on Monday to drop off some bits and pieces (and say goodbye) and a trip to the local police station to sign out of Pali (and to say goodbye). Hugs and tears (mainly from Manju) were followed by a two hour wait for our delayed train, where we were so grateful to have some of the staff there to wave us off to Mumbai. Our 14 hour train trip was taken in a rather sombre silence, very unusual, for the three of us.
So, when it comes to saying goodbye, Matt, Anna and Ingrid should be experts. But we most certainly are not. In fact, it was a word we flat-out refused to use. The phrase on repeat in that final week in Pali was “Not goodbye, but see you soon”, and we truly hope that this is the case.
We know you all anxiously wait for our latest updates and read our posts to the very end, but life’s short and so we shall start with the best part first: our Indian wedding adventure. The weekend began with the traditional Indian guessing game of “if the car is supposedly coming to pick us up at noon, what time will it actually get here?” Eventually, eight of us crammed into a jeep and headed off for the home of `our FEGG colleague Avedesh to experience our first traditional Indian wedding ceremony.
A six-hour road trip with our beloved colleagues ensued, with much backseat dancing to Akon and Hindi pop songs as the first signs, that behind the professional facade that we see in the office, these men had inner rhythmic demons just dying to materialise started to emerge. Once again, we were highly entertained by the shoddy standard of Rajasthan’s road infrastructure, which resulted in major bruising and likely some undiagnosed internal injuries as Ingrid and Anna were tossed around like rag dolls in the rear seats.
Upon arrival at Avedesh’s family residence, we witnessed the ceremonial bathing and dressing of the groom in his marriage robe, dagger and turban, before being treated to a scrumptious dinner. And then the party started: we were invited to join the wedding party in the pre-wedding day parade around town to announce to the town that Avedesh is going to get married. The handsome groom rode on horseback whilst accompanied by deafening live music, boys carrying bright lanterns and a procession of dancing family members and friends on a 1 km walk. This lasts some two hours as the entire procession, complete with a truck toting the electric generator to power all the lights and speakers, pauses every 3 metres so that dancing can take place.
Once back at the house, Anna and Ingrid were treated to another rare experience – an invite to the buck’s night, Indian-style. If this sounds potentially thrilling, there really is no need to be overly excited. The girls were allowed to stay in the room with the rest of the FEGG crew and the groom on his last night as a single lad, and after some raucous, we promptly all fell asleep from an exhausting day.
Wedding day quickly turned into ‘dress-up and pose for photos’ day as the girls got into their saris and Matt into a kurta, doti and a special Rajputi turban. Getting fully Indianfied went a long way in pleasing (and amusing) the locals and we were pretty satisfied with the end result ourselves. So satisfied in fact, that all three of us were itching to get hitched that day ourselves and spent the better part of the day sussing out potential suitors.
The official wedding parade did not begin until late in the day and the FEGG staffers took the opportunity to surprise Anna with a birthday cake, which she tackled with her typical cake-fiend fervour, starting a somewhat subdued cake fight (so as to not waste too much cake!) in the process.
Knowing that another two-hour procession of dancing was to come, we planned our evening carefully by throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into the dancing first and boogied to our hearts’ content. We then abandoned the procession for another delish meal (endless gulab jamon – need we say more?) in wait for the groom to reappear once again as he travelled around town at 0.5km/hr.
Around 9pm, we were finally treated to a glimpse of the bride for the wreath ceremony and too many flashing cameras to keep up with. A final session on the dance floor to reinvigorate us for a 6-hour bumping ride home and we were on the road again.
A special thank you to Avedesh for inviting us to his home and his wedding, and to Vikram, Manohar, Navneet, Suresh, and Nayraj for making the weekend endlessly enjoyable.
Congratulations, Avedesh!
Anna, Ingrid and Matt.
