A Marriage of True Minds

All Beaches Should be a On a Wedding

Haresh and I finally decided to tie the knot on persuasion of little Kavita. She was quite embarrassed that her parents were not even officially together yet.

Below are pictures of our wedding party which I have named 'A Marriage of True Minds' which took place on Saturday, 4 May. These particular pictures were taken by our friend Mardia Stone as a wedding gift. Pictures by the official photographer will also follow soon.

What kind of a ceremony was it? We both hail from religious backgrounds but by sheer coincidence are not religiously inclined at all. In fact, we are fierce rejectionists of organised religion and, and as gushy mushy as it sounds, we believe in humanity and love. Although we have been legally married for a while, we never had the chance to celebrate our marriage. So, we chose to celebrate on the beach in Liberia in a simple ceremony where our best friend married us. We exchanged vows of love and rings. Our friends gave us a toast. We delighted in having our pictures taken. We later had some delicious food and ate cake. And, then we put our baby Kavita to sleep at the hotel after everyone left. It was the most beautiful and serene celebration of our love. 

White kurta, white hair, sunglasses and a huge smile - my darling looks like an Indian politician or 'neta'

Corinna, Steffen and Willa

Einar, Christina, Tracy, Guillaume, Chris and Kirill

Nagraj, Masha and Kavita

Masha and Kavita

Hi Corinna!

One of our best friends, Chris Keeney, married us, we were mostly giggling through the vows. When I mentioned this to one of my friends, she said we were actually full of 'mischief and joy.' 

My mother sent us these clothes from Pakistan. I told her I wanted a kameez with lots of 'kaliyan,' white with a red border. And, she totally got it.  Too bad, I am not slimmer to really pull it off!

Masha with Yanis

And now, ladies and gents, you will get to see some truly gushy mushy portraits on the beach where we are posing for the camera. Moreover, I am big as a blue whale!

The photographer told Haresh to whisper sweet nothings to me and he says, "You're fat!"

I really didn't know what the photographer wanted us to do but here it is! I can't believe I let her talk me into it. 

All beaches should be on a wedding

If you are going to bother to celebrate your wedding, make the effort to get your hair done and dye your greying temples and roots. Don't put your hair in a messy braid like I did! 

And Haresh could have shaved! Gosh, we were so casual about it!

With the official photographer, Shoana

Monique and Jemel arrive but after the exchange of promises and jewelry.

Three Men And a Baby!

Kavita and Sayleh make baby talk

I went to a Pakistani-Indian wedding and I all I got was a samosa.
I went to a Pakistani-Indian wedding and we drank lots of tea.
I went to a Pakistani-Indian wedding and everyone ended up playing cricket.
I went to a Pakistani-Indian wedding and everyone got senti senti.

"India and Pakistan were for millenia right up to 60 years ago, one civilisation and through a combination of politics, religion and personalities were wrenchingly split in two in 1947, a wound from which some people feel neither country ever recovered. There was a war in the 70s and brief skirmishes on the border fairly often. Reactionary elements of both countries have successfully stoked jingoism on each side to convince each country into believing the person who looks like her and lives like her, just a few feet away, is her mortal enemy. Some nights (even just this week), the 9 o'clock news in each country is essentially a war-mongering rant against the other. Some saner voices exist and try to build people-to-people diplomacy.

So it's an enormously emotional and wonderful thing for an Indian to be marrying a Pakistani. It makes me a little teary just to think of it, and of little Kavita, the fruit of their love."