Asian Window

Kavita Ramdya

The Wall Street Journal has edited excerpts from the Introduction of  ”Bollywood Weddings: Dating, Engagement and Marriage in Hindu America” by Kavita Ramdya:

In September 2005, I overturned my family and friends’ expectations that I would have a conventional Indian-Hindu wedding. I married my husband in an outdoor civil ceremony at a country club in Long Island, New York. Marrying in an outdoor civil ceremony was not a decision that came easily to me. In fact the dissimilar cultural and religious backgrounds of my husband and me made it impossible for me to picture our wedding day for much of the time we were seriously dating.

Mansoor was born and raised in Trinidad where he grew up in a devoutly Muslim home; his grandmother taught him how to read the Quran in Arabic, and he ate only halal meat (meat prepared in a manner prescribed by Islamic law). Whereas I grew up dancing garba (a Gujarati group dance) at Indian wedding receptions (while my dad sipped Jack Daniels on the rocks with his friends), alcohol and dancing were absent from the weddings my husband attended. More:

You can read more about “Bollywood Weddings” by going here.

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