Monsoon Wedding

November 17th, 2003 by

I went to a wedding earlier this year. It’s been 5 months.

Weather.Com said it would rain. So I believed I would be attending a “monsoon wedding” – Just like the movie but nothing close to resembling it. There were no secret affairs, there were no loans handed out on golf courses, there were no side love stories between simple folks who are far more complicated then you ever thought them to be.

No, this was far far more pure.

Yet so much more deadly. Like the simple drop of snake venom, it sank in deep, burying itself with each move where each motion was not felt, but burnt into existence itself. Cousin to pure honey, a thick syrupy taste so lush in its ambrosiac nature, it lingers, a memory more powerful and emotionally seductive then the unexperienced mind realizes…

At the end of the night, I stood exhausted next to the hotel windows, masses of molasses moving by, people in their garbs and costumes, shrieks of little children a fading echo. I heard all. I saw all. I cared to register none of this, but for the limosine that gathered up my friend and his newly wed wife. The crowds spoke – muted; their laughs loud – unheard. We said goodbye, us friends, us few friends that travelled the breadth of the land to be there with him, to stand there with him, to say goodbye to him, to say hello to him. But a single gesture was not enough, it’s never enough and our eyes met, crossed, intersected, bisected the crowds between us as Moses parted the Red Sea.

In the middle of a riot, we stood quietly. In the middle of a storm, we were the eye that would not change. In the middle of everyone, we felt alone.

We didn’t sleep that night. We prayed thanks to God for an ambrosia not yet, and an ambrosia no more.

14 Responses to “Monsoon Wedding”

  1. yaser Says:

    monsoon wedding was a really, really, bad wedding.

    and ambrosia?

  2. yaser Says:

    it was a bad movie as well. ahem.

  3. adnan Says:

    I thought Monsoon Wedding was a good movie. and my opinion is worth way more than anyone else here.

    Anyway:

    *somebody* needs to get married fast…

  4. Waleed Says:

    Adnan does have a point Yaser. After all, he does have a movie blog.

  5. Jaded Says:

    Assalamu Alaykum :)

    I have never seen monsoon wedding :P

    You never mentioned the food? Everyone mentions food when they go to a wedding. Is it because your fasting right now?

    “In the middle of a riot, we stood quietly. In the middle of a storm, we were the eye that would not change. In the middle of everyone, we felt alone.”

    Sweet :)

  6. Faiza Says:

    Monsoon Wedding was pretty good. Well, at least I liked it. First “Indian” movie I saw that attempts to address the issue of pedophiles and child molesting.

  7. adnan Says:

    monsoon wedding also did well in incorporating sub-plots… unlike movies like Bend it Like Beckham (which was horrible).

  8. shaheen Says:

    c’mon you gotta admit bend it like beckham was funny. I think you had to have watched that movie with friends that mock right along with you; just as with any other hindi fiLaM. Don’t be a hater adnan, you’re prolly just still bitter over her ending up with that white guy in the end. ;)

    jk

  9. yasmine Says:

    This post was sufficiently vague that I have no idea whatsoever what’s going on. But beautiful writing, nonetheless.

  10. Barsaat Says:

    we cant feel exactly how you felt then, but with this beautiful writing, masha’Allah, we can sure try.

  11. adnan Says:

    “This post was sufficiently vague that I have no idea whatsoever what’s going on.”

    Isn’t that like every other post here?

  12. yaser Says:

    i know, eh?

  13. phathima Says:

    haha but bend it like B. was so cute haha. so funny. wat i didnt like was how the dad got so corny … made me want to gag.

  14. adnan Says:

    I also didn’t like the whole “gay” sub-plot with the mother of that other girl…

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