The Great Tam Bram galata

Tam bram marriages are amusing, very amusing. The various rites and rituals that are followed under the watchful eye of the vaadiyar are really funny.

Take for instance, seeing Arundathi star at say 10 am in the morning. The vaadiyar points in a certain direction and everyone looks up and nods in affirmation. There are other very notable events in a marriage; singing sita kalyaana vaibhogame the moment “paatu” is uttered, the sudden shouts “gatti melam gatti melam”, visiting the nearby “kovil” in a car, though it is right next to the marriage hall; the umbrella, the fan, the walking stick and other paraphernalia given to the (poor?) groom, the list goes on.....
Above all this, the poor groom has to endure liters and liters of smoke.

And this is just on the day of the muhurtam. Hindu marriages span a full 2-3 days. Phew!

And then there is that thing called the “Reception”. God knows who is being received. All one is interested in (at least I ) is who the caterers are and what the menu is ;)

It is interesting to note what people are doing while the marriage is going on. If one observes, there are a specific set of activities that each age group is involved in. The less than 14-15 yr olds are playing, running around all over the place in the marriage hall. The 15-20 yr olds are getting seriously bored badly, coz they are too old to run around and too young to go out alone (even in a group). The 20+ yr olds are either accompanying the 30 yr olds who are running errands or looking at 20+ yr olds of the opposite sex. 30 yr olds are either running errands or not to be seen at all; they have gone out to improve business in the nearest “potti kadai”.
The 40 and 50 yr olds are literally running the show, managing everything, the 60 yr olds supervising.
Any age group above that is sitting, trying to identify people, relatives or strangers irrespective and attempting to dig out long forgotten relationships with them. Most of the time they are successful.

Well, there is one tam bram marriage coming up shortly, lets see if things are any different.
Btw, my best wishes to the bride and the groom.