And Then There Were Tents

The last bit of preparations (there were a lot of preperations) before the big Mehndi parties was getting a tent. We needed some tents. There were two parties planned. First, the groom’s family would go to the bride’s house on the first night and there would be the bride’s Mehndi party. Then second night would see the reverse - the bride’s family would come to our house for the Groom’s Mehndi party. Oh, except the bride! Because they weren’t supposed to see each other before the wedding, neither the bride or groom could attend the other side’s party. Their families got to party in their honor, just without them.

The bride’s family lives in a really nice new development of “flats” – I guess that’s the American equivalent of apartments. The rooftop of their apartment building is apparently a common space and people throw parties there, so that’s where they had their tent setup. M’s family lives in a different kind of area though, with no posh common space for parties. Instead, they just take over the entire alleyway. This happens often, and generally neighbors don’t even ask each other before doing it. M objected to me writing that last sentence, saying that he’d “informed” his neighbors beforehand - but I say that “informing” isn’t asking, now is it? His point, though, was that “sometimes they block your front door without even telling you beforehand, and then you can’t get out of your house and a fight starts.”

Just one day before the party, the groom went to a place up the street that arranges for these kinds of tentings and set everything up. The morning of the mehndi, about 6-7 guys showed up with a small truck full of bamboo rods and fabric rolls. They spent most of the day setting up the tent, tying perilously tall bamboo rods together to make a huge frame and then unfurling roll after roll of yellow fabric (and the occasional green one) over the frame. Then they set up tables, chairs, catering and buffet tables. They also catered the whole thing and then stayed well into the next morning to take it all down. The whole thing – a full day’s work for 6 men and food for 150 – cost 18,000 rupees. That’s about $212.

We woke up in the morning and through the front door you could see the tent being set up.

One of the tent guys was the defacto electrician and wired up the whole tent with twinkling lights. He did this by hooking up to the live wire in the alleyway.

The electrician.

Setting up the tables and chairs, you can see the rolls of fabric lying on the ground.

Getting closer.

Setting up a frame to make a pretty entrance.

One of the guys takes a mid-day nap in the place that will soon hold the center stage groom.

All set up, wired, and ready to go.

The entrance to the tent.

Now they switch to caterers out back.

The groom on his throne, with all the sweets that he’ll soon be eating.

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