One of our national volunteers invited us to her cousin's wedding; of course we agreed, Indian weddings are said to be incredible!
Humour me for a second and imagine this: you’re a celebrity. Every step you take seems to trigger a series of camera flashes. Teenagers are filming your every move on their phones and mothers hand you their babies to hold. EVERYONE is staring at you in awe. This is what it felt like walking into the wedding and no, I’m not exaggerating!
Trying not to notice the crowd of people following us, we settled down for some food. The food was incredible, rich spicy curries, mountains of rice and so many kinds of Indian bread, it was a world away from our plain vegetable curries and chapattis every night. After eating we all decided to have a look at the bride and groom, sat looking very bored on their throne-like sofa on stage for all to see. I did feel a little guilty that we were attracting more attention than them mind. We then had to circle round the bride and groom to be photographed (I’m sure they’ll look back at their wedding photos and think...who the hell are those foreigners again?)
Trying not to notice the crowd of people following us, we settled down for some food. The food was incredible, rich spicy curries, mountains of rice and so many kinds of Indian bread, it was a world away from our plain vegetable curries and chapattis every night. After eating we all decided to have a look at the bride and groom, sat looking very bored on their throne-like sofa on stage for all to see. I did feel a little guilty that we were attracting more attention than them mind. We then had to circle round the bride and groom to be photographed (I’m sure they’ll look back at their wedding photos and think...who the hell are those foreigners again?)
After this I went to get a drink. I had been gone no more than 5 minutes but when I returned I found that the dance floor had been cleared, the Indian music had stopped and been replaced with ‘In Da Club’ by 50 Cent and my fellow British volunteers had been made to dance for everyone. I had two options; go and join my friends on the dance floor or linger amongst the Indian guests gawping at them. Of course I chose the latter. The people around me didn’t seem to understand why I was laughing so much but they seemed to be enjoying themselves just as much so all was well. I felt a firm grip on my forearm as one of the national volunteers guided me through the crowds, rounded up the other volunteers and escorted us out of the building. After about half an hour of trying to leave but being held back by people insisting on photographs with us, we were finally on our way home. I won’t lie, fame isn’t all it’s made out to be...
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