Bombay 7


My hands typing stories in Bombay.

The actual wedding ceremony. All in all the wedding lasts five days long. I’m filled with images, rituals and food.

In the meanwhile, on the streets around the hotel, the memorial festival for Ambedkar, the hero of the Dalits, the Untouchables, is held. During the first three days of the wedding it is a combination of extremes. While we are inside preparing ourselves for the actual wedding ceremony by painting the hands of all the girls (mehndi), having welcome diners, engagement ceremonies (tilak) and feeding the bride for the last time (manulti), outside a countless crowd is queuing to enter the shrine of Ambedkar. Over the days the row increases. At the night of 5 dec it’s 10 km long. Then slowly it lessens again.
I move between these two opposites daily and tried to describe it. It’s not translated yet. I will but first I’ll go back home.