Story from the day I got married!

_{The moment I got married}

It's going to be 10 months since I got married to @ranjitha. Our wedding was held at a small village in the south indin state of Tamilnadu. A total of nearly 400 people were present in the ceremony. Though I'm an atheist I have had no say in deciding the way my wedding had to be held. Our relatives decided and determined everything about the wedding day. All we bride and groom had to do was to get ready and stay calm at the centre stage with an ever-smiling face!

The wedding was held as per Hindu religious rules. There were two priests who were chanting mantras and assisting us in the program. We were asked to repeat these mantras which were in the language 'Sanskrit'.

_{My mother with the priests at the wedding stage}

I had no difficulty in repeating the chants as the language I have known very well, Malayalam has a close relation with Sanskrit. However, being a pure Tamilian, @ranjitha was struggling to repeat the chants in Sanskrit!

There was a firebox set up in front of us where we were asked to prostrate once in a while. Everything appeared strange to me since I have never been to a wedding that had all these arrangements!

Apart from the firebox, there was a huge variety of things placed in front of us. It included fruits, rice, flowers, coconuts and obviously this thing called 'Mangalyasutra' or 'Thaali'in Tamil.

_{Mangalya sutra aka Thaali}

Mangalyasutra aka Thaali is the yellow coloured thread wrapped around the coconut you see in this picture. According to Indian culture, this thing has high importance in the life of a woman. On the wedding day, the groom will wrap this thread around the neck region of the bride and will tie three knots on it, which marks the beginning of the new relationship.

In between this all, I and @ranjitha were asked to worship the feet of our respective parents. At first, sprinkling flowers on their feet and then washing them with milk and water.

_{Me washing the feet of my father!}

After tying the Thaali I and my wife were asked to revolve around the Homakundam (Firebox) for three times.

There were a few more practices we had to follow thereafter. Soon, everybody left for food and we both were posing for photos with our friends and relatives that attended the function.

I wonder how much struggle the newly married couple have to go through if there is a large crowd to attend the program. I'm happy that only around 400 people attended the function in our case.

_{Part of the crowd that attended our wedding}

Our turn to eat something came in the end and there were only very few left in the auditorium.

While eating, I got a phone call from one of my friends and the cameraman captured the moment.

I think that this wedding story can be made into a challenge on HIVE as many Hivers are already married.

I would like to challenge you all to write a story from the day of your wedding. I hope people like @theycallmedan and @derangedvision can consider promoting this concept as a new contest. We will get to know about different customs followed in wedding ceremonies in different parts of the world!

If you would like to make a post about your wedding day please do include the tag #myweddingdaystory as one of the first five main tags!