Wedding Chronicles – Day 3

Story so far:

Day 1: Reaching Kolkata without gouging each other’s eyes out, meeting the family and decorating the wedding venue.

Day 2: Marrying Mister and becoming Anawnimissus in a fairytale wedding

After Mister and I were officially a couple, we went around painting the town a bright vibrant shade of beige. No, really! We tried to paint it red, but the color would get washed away with sweat and exhaustion.

It was so fucking humid!

And my mom insisted on going out because it was her first visit  to Kolkata, the city of blue and sarees and sweets and jewelry. To be honest, being a newlywed, I was more than enthusiastic to comply.

So we spent all of day three outside. We went shop-hopping and found the most amazing variety of clothes. My mom went home with two sarees and a salwar kameez. I ended up with three sarees that I never would’ve bought in Delhi (or if I hadn’t been impulsive). They are beautiful! I’ll post pictures of me wearing them if and when I get around to wearing them. Or or or, I will make Mister’s mom wear them and post pictures of her! 😉

I don’t know if you know about there being a joint family culture in India. Most grown-ups live with their parents. This system gets a lot of flak from urban Indian population and some westerners, but it makes sense to me. You take care of your children while they are young, and they take care of you when you’re old. It works magically! When women marry, they leave their homes and go live with their parents-in-law and husband and take care of that family.

Mister and his mom and I live together. But not because India is the land of  “joint” families. We live together because we really love each other and like being together. We work as a family. Mom takes care of the home and of us, and we take care of the moolah, and we take care of her. Mister and I are on our honeymoon, and we’re missing her right now!

But enough gyaan. Back to day 3.

After we had spent all the money in our pockets and the hydration in our bodies, we sat down at Dolly’s for tea. I love Dolly’s. I can’t imagine being in Kolkata and not stopping by Dolly’s for tea.

Sometimes I don’t like what I order, but that’s mostly because  I don’t appreciate the taste, and never because the tea is badly made. Dolly can’t go wrong 🙂

So my brother ordered watermelon iced tea, which he hated. I enjoyed a chilled tall glass of chai shake, and then went on to order their Silver leaf Makaibari. I enjoyed both immensely. Everyone else had masala chai and sandwiches, not that you would care!

Bro and I at Dolly’s

But the point is, despite the heat and humidity, we found our sip of tranquility in the little urban oasis that I recommend every traveler to visit in Kolkata.

Up next: The dreaded return journey. Mister against my mom!