My ears were plugged to Tere's "Awal Yang Indah" - trying to drown the loud conversation between an a*****e colleague of mine with his wife on the phone as if the whole office needs to know that he will not be joining his wife for buka puasa as he's got an assignment and a break fast event sponsored by Bo PR this eve - when another colleague of mine suddenly showed up next to me with a card in his hand.
His name is Kumar, and all these while I thought he's married as I never saw him trying to mengorat the many single Indian ladies in my office (there's three, including the two I blogged about earlier, and no I didn't attend the matchmaking BBQ they held recently). Basically he's a nice guy, polite and hardworking. He and a few other colleagues took me out to lunch on my first working day in this company.
And the card. I thought it was a Selamat Hari Raya card. After all, I am already depressed for there's no Raya ads yet on TV, so when I saw the white envelope it naturally made me hope for a hardcopy Raya card.
But it wasn't a Raya card. By now you might have guessed already - yup, it's a wedding invitation.
On the envelope it says "[insert Tamil characters equivalent here]Wedding Invitation Sunday 14th December 2003", and on the next line my colleague's name was in nice prints, next to his beloved wife-to-be's.
Then there's a "To:" line next, and my name was there, scribbled not so neatly but with feeling of gladness (or it could be just my imagination), plus a "Ms" title to accompany. (Reminded me of my lousy "Miss" joke this one does.)
I congratulated Kumar and he made sure I know where Bangsar Sports Complex is cause that's where it is going to be held. I told him I will look forward to attending his wedding, as I have not had the opportunity to witness an Indian wedding for a long time.
I opened his card, and within it I found a leaflet inside filled with Tamil writings. Near panic, I flip the leaflet down, and finally found some characters I recognised.
On one page it says:
Saptapadi (The Seven Steps)
Saptapadi is the most important ritual of the wedding ceremony. The bride and the groom take seven steps around the sacred fire to start their new life together. They make the following seven promises to each other:
"With God as our guide, let us take
The first step to nourish each other
The second step to grow together in strength
The third step to preserve our wealth
The fourth step to share our joys and sorrows
The fifth step to care for our children
The sixth step to be together forever
The seventh step to remain lifelong friends."
The two souls are now united, and the bride and groom vow to start their life together as husband and wife. The groom places silver rings on the bride's toes, signifying she is now married.
Ain't that sweet. I think the seventh step is especially thoughtful.
And with this invitation, I'm looking forward to getting a few more of such cards. In fact a few days ago a college/U-mate had already posted his wedding invitation on the coursemates e-group. Aptly titled too (Pelamin anganku menjadi, how original).
And a couple of my girl friends are getting married as well. And that Kamal, cousin of mine whom I blogged about earlier too.
Everyone seems to think that 25 is a good age to get married, is it? And why must the bulk of them choose to do it during the school holidays? Perhaps so that they'll get their cousins and nephews and nieces to help with cleaning the house, replenishing food for the guests and passing the bunga telur and washing the high heap of dishes at the back of the house at the end of the day?
Whatever the reason might be, looks like I will have a revisit of that headache over what gift is a good gift for the bride and groom. Perhaps I can get several units of the same item and get a discount for making it a bulk purchase...
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