Recently, I travelled my hometown to attend my cousin's wedding. For which we travelled from Dehradun to our hometown Chetud. My hometown is located in Puari Garhwal in Uttarakhand, about 125 kilometers from here. From Dehradun we take Rishikesh route towards Shivpuri and reach Devprayag. Its where two river Alaknanda and Bhagirathi merge.
Devprayag - Two river merging
We reach Vyasghat along the Bhagirathi River and from here, we have to further 5-kilometer by local road in taxi. Since we do not have road in the village, we walked around 700 meters to reach our village. Our village is situated on top of a small hill, to reach we walk downhill and uphill for 700 meters. You can also call it a valley because village is surrounded by high mountains.
Our village is one and a half kilometer from Vyasghat, if I may say by thinking of the old trail route of the village. The Bhagirathi river flows here which further on reaches Devprayag and merge with the Alaknanda river. The Bhagirathi river is mostly known by the name of the Ganga river. It is believed that when the Ganga river originates from Gangotri, it is called Bhagirathi, in our village also it is called Bhagirathi, but once it meets the Alaknanda river in Devprayag, it is called Ganga. I don't know why this is so but it will be quite interesting to read about it.
Vyasghat is famous because of Ved Vyas ji. Even 600 meters in the village is quite a distance because you have to carry all the stuff yourself, and if someone is not used to walking like this then it can be a problem. People who are in cities and if they have difficulty in walking, they do not come to the village because of this.
When I was a child, there was no electricity or a road nearby. But now, there's a road even we walk for 600 meter, it is very helpful for people to support thier lives in village and electricity is available almost all the time. River rafting has also begun here on the Ganga River, and camping is also available for jungle treks in the mountains above our village. This provides employment to the villagers.
The day we arrived was the night of welcoming guests and mehndi. Guests, whether they come or not, contribute a small amount to the wedding’s family as a token of their contribution. Most families add a little extra to the amount they contribute at the wedding. This helps share the wedding expenses.
As soon as I arrived, I went to the farm with my brother and two nieces to pick lemons. I really like all this. We picked three different kinds of lemons. All three have different names in the local language and are eaten in different ways. I also picked a few lemons for myself to bring back with me.
After coming back, we had our meal and then everyone started getting ready for the mehndi. I know I am very lazy in changing clothes and getting ready. But I really enjoy seeing people in colorful clothes and a little make up. They look a little different and women look very beautiful in traditional clothes and jewelry.
Traditional sweet
Mehndi is started by the sister, so my cousin sister and I applied mehndi to my cousin. Since it was my cousin brother's wedding, and he had to apply mehndi only for the name, so I avoided it because I don't even know how to make a good design. After the mehndi, we sat down and ate together, as is common in villages. First, everyone prepares the food together. The men usually prepare the vegetables and sweets, while the women make the roti.
After this, the real fun was dancing. We had the traditional village dhol damao (kind of music system) and musqabaza, and there was also a DJ. So, whoever felt like dancing, did so there. We danced till about 1 o'clock in the night and then went to sleep.
Sleeping was such that we could sleep wherever we could find a place because in a wedding at our home, the guests are given first priority to be given a safe place to sleep. In which children and girls are given priority even more. The turn of the family members comes last. So, about 8 of us slept in one room.
The next morning at 10 am, Haldi Hath began. In Haldi Hath, raw turmeric is ground, often attended by young girls. The ground turmeric is then applied to the groom or bride. And then to everyone else. To avoid this entire process, people hide and run here and there. But people like me, who think it's good for the skin, surrender quickly. At least, some amazing home-made solutions are working on the skin.
After this, I and a group of children went to the jungle again where we ate wild fruits and then came back. In the evening itself, the groom was given garlands because the wedding procession had to go away for about 3 hours and return on the same day after completing all the wedding rituals.
So the garlands that are worn by the boy are worth rupees. And while wearing them, people take photos with the groom. Then we helped a little in making rotis and other snacks, had food and then danced a lot till about 2 o'clock.
Next morning everyone was getting ready, the final time given for the wedding procession to leave was 8 am, after all the dance and Ghudchadhi we left for the bride's house at 9 am. It took a little more than 2 hours to reach near to thw bride village and around half an hour we walk to reach the main place. We were welcomed with water, snacks, cold drinks, followed by lunch.
After Jaimala I had to return home with all the children because if we stayed there, we would have to return with the wedding procession which would arrive in the dark at 8 or 9 in the night. Nights are different in the mountains especially if there are no lights and we had to cross a 600 meter path up and down to reach home.
After coming home, we all rested for a while and since we had brought our cat Lemon along with us, we played with it.
Then at around 8:30 in the night, the wedding procession arrived with the bride. I washed the bride's feet according to the ritual that a sister has to perform. And then the bride entered the house. Then we ate and danced.
Declaimare: All the photos are clicked on my phone one plus and languege transalted from hindi to english by google translator.
[//]:# (!worldmappin 30.06295 lat 78.59925 long Travelled to my hometown for my cousin brother’s wedding d3scr)