Monsoon Wedding and other Summer Celebrations

What a summer! Here we are not even halfway into it, and so far I’ve been blessed to be involved in no two major family and friend milestones with more happy occasions to come.

Scooby Babies

First up was the baby shower for little Sofie, the first child of our good friends Allegra and Chris. Sofie was born back in May, but last month was her Toronto debut at Allegra’s dad’s home in Etobicoke. Proud parents and grandparents were all eager to show off Sofie, and who could blame them? She is beautiful and perfect in every way and she napped angelically even as she was passed from adoring arms to adoring arms. Jeanette and I were delighted to make little Sofie’s acquaintance and we look forward to getting in more snuggle time with her at Chris and Allegra’s wedding in Ottawa next month.

Not to be outdone, our Peterborough friends Selene and Dennis also delivered a daughter, their second child, back in May. We haven’t yet met baby Miriam, but we’re hoping to do so during the above-mentioned trip. Like Allegra, Selene is part of my original Scooby gang who worked and played together in Toronto’s west end at the turn of the century (wow, that makes us sound old). Of the core couples that formed that group, Jeanette and I are the only ones without kids—and now Selene and Dennis have two! Congratulations to all my fellow Scoobies, but yeesh, talk about peer pressure! ;-)


Monsoon Wedding

It wasn’t long after celebrating Sofie’s arrival that it was time to mark another life-affirming occasion: my cousin’s wedding. In my last entry, I talked about Anton coming to town from New York City for his bachelor party. This time, it was our turn to go to them, as the wedding was held in Long Island where Vinaya’s folks make their home. So Jeanette and I joined my folks, my sister Leighann, and her partner Marianne in a rented van for the 12-hour drive to the Empire State. Between my always entertaining family, the built-in DVD player, my iPod full to bursting with podcasts, my PSP, and a good book, I had enough distractions to minimize the boredom during the drive. But who could concentrate on such things when every mile of the journey seemed to bring news of another celebrity death? Ed McMahon on the radio when Jeanette and I first left Toronto. Farrah Fawcett on a TV in a McDonald’s off the interstate. Michael Jackson via text message while we were stuck in traffic near the George Washington Bridge. It’s a good thing we arrived when we did. Who knows how many more celebrities we would have lost had we stayed on the road?

Long Island proved to be a beautiful spot and we had some time to explore it the day before the wedding. Mom, Marianne, and Jeanette explored the impressive deals at the factory outlet malls. Dad, Leighann, and I explored the impressive and palatial homes of the Hamptons. No joke, as we ogled one stretch of ginormous sea-front estates, we watched a helicopter land on a roadside helipad and disgorge its passengers—shopping bags in hand—whose car and driver patiently awaited them. Sure our rented van had a built in DVD player, but next time I’d prefer to travel to New York by helicopter. Oh, and we also saw a gift shop shaped like a duck.

As beautiful as some of those Hampton homes were, they pale in comparison to beauty of Anton and Vinaya’s ceremony. Their hope was to hold the ceremony outside, but the odds were against them. One local told us that some 20 days of the past month had been rainy. Indeed, the rain was pouring down on the venue only 30 minutes before the ceremony was to start. But then, as if on cue, the clouds parted the sun shone, and there was just enough time to set everything up as the first guests were arriving. I never doubted the weather for a moment, as evident by my having doused by face in SPF 60 sunblock, whose skin-paling effects, when combined with my black suit, gave me a distinct undertaker look.

Fortunately, my macabre make-up did nothing to diminish the spectacular setting of the ceremony. In the sunshine under the blue sky against a backdrop of green, the flower bedecked Hindu altar (known as the mandapam) was breathtaking. All the more so when we learned that all the flowers had been flown in from India.

The ceremony itself was far more casually performed than typical western weddings, but no less sacred. Officiated by a Hindu priest, the service involved the performance of various rituals symbolizing various aspects of marriage. For instance, in addition to traditional rings, there was also the Mangala Sutra, two gold pendants on a thread symbolizing the uniting of bride and groom. In tying the thread around Vinaya’s neck, Anton symbolized the bonding of their lives. Then Anton’s sister was invited to tie an addition knot in the thread, thus demonstrating Vinaya’s acceptance into their family. The considerate couple supplied their guests with a program of sorts that described the significance of many of these rituals. Although I trust we can take Vinaya’s family’s word for all of it, I nevertheless advised Anton to run everything past an international business lawyer, lest he discover he has, in fact, accepted ownership of an offshore holdings company. It’s the least a best man could do.

After the ceremony, we all adjourned to the reception hall for an evening of fine food, fun, and speeches, including one by yours truly. Anton’s father certainly stole the show, however, with his moving words about the importance of family and his acknowledgment of the bringing together of nations represented by this marriage. Indeed, the wedding itself was a truly international affair, with guests hailing from Australia, Canada, England, India, Italy, and Switzerland just to name a few of the countries represented. At one point, while on the post-dinner dance floor, I looked around and realized that at least one person from each of the above countries was dancing around me. And we were all dancing to the King of Pop. As if we needed a further reminder of his worldwide fame.

In the end, I danced till I dropped (which wasn’t that long, of course—see previous entry re: inner codger) and then joined my tired family for the short trip back to our hotel. We caught some Z’s (not zeds—hey, when in Rome…) and then hit the road back to Canada the next morning. All in all, it was an amazing wedding and I couldn’t be happier for Anton and Vinaya, both for finding each other and for surviving a wedding that looked so effortless, it must have been a killer to arrange. My heartiest congratulations to them both, and to my baby-bearing friends, all of whom are making this a summer memorable for more than celebrity farewells.