Jessel And Rupal

I still remember the first time I saw Jessel, almost ten years ago. He was that guy who caught the attention of the only Asian girl in our fresher Computing class at Imperial, but I only hated him for a day or two because of that.

Anyway, it's probably inappropriate to talk about that in too much detail at the moment, for today was the day Jessel got married to Rupal. They're both Hindu Gujarati, so the ceremonies were performed at a temple in North London. I've only ever been to one Hindu wedding before but that was Gujarati too, so I kinda knew what to expect (although level of violence during the groom's shoe grabbing at the start took me by surprise. Blimey. Isn't that particular ritual supposed to be fun?).

A lot of people comment about how long Hindu wedding ceremonies usually are; in comparison a Muslim wedding is over in the blink of an eye. They're certainly not boring though, and I like the way each ritual and tradition has a meaning behind it. However since we had a bit of a reception too (with food, announcements and the civil ceremony), the whole thing lasted for quite a while - six hours in fact.

So yet another IC chap bites the dust, leaving those of us not quite there yet in a shrinking minority. It was clear that both Jessel and Rupal (both looking very fine in a down-to-earth and not-overdone way) were really happy by the fun they were having; and the rest of us were right there with them in all the merriment.