Good Luck Dev.

[Kaka1899]

I know he prob wont read this for some 4 weeks as hes in India getting married he told me. So good luck mate wish you a happy life with your new wife :)

[kastriot]

Wow....good luck DEV....wish u and your future wife all the best, I just hope u could still find free time to post here from time to time, dont forget we are still your family :respect: :respect: :respect:

[MIRZA]

good luck mate
all the best to you and your wife!!!!

[SANT]

is he changing his nickname to "ACMarried1983" ?

[MLM]

HAPPY WEDDING DAY FOR DEV & HINA !!!! :hug: !!!!

i wish both of u have great wedding and happily ever after !! **tear up** here :proud:
wedding ceremony always make me emotionally :D

ps.don't forget what u promised me before.ur wedding pics !!! :gonova:

[Reza]

lol SANT

All the best and congrats Dev :)

[Rico]

Devan, I wish you a beautiful wedding, an effulgent honeymoon and a loving marriage with your better half. :)

[Debs]

Dev! May you and your lovely wife have good fortune and much happiness together! :5att:

[lked]

All the best to Dev and his wife !

[Jim_UK]

Devan, i hope you & Hina have a spectacular wedding full of enjoyment & happiness and i also wish you a long & blessed marriage together.

I remember when you were worried about your exams/degree and you passed that ... and when you went for your current job and you got that ... and now here you are getting married and i have no doubt you'll make a success of that too :)

All the best my friend and don't forget my sweets from Hina's shop :D

[drucurl]

all the best dev :respect: :5ok:

[kris]

Have a nice time! :)

[Ghost]

Have a great time Dev and don't eat too much mitai lol

Hope you have a wonderful life which is full of happiness.

[DUCO]

Forza Milan

[Mystik]

All the best Dev!

[Nalx]

Getting married? Well, you have my deepest sympathy Dev.. ;)
Just kidding bro. Wishing you the best..

[Giovanni]

All the best Dev !

I think it's a great moment in every man's life: you're about to marry the biggest love of your life after your own club :sun:

[Kaka1899]

All the best Dev !

I think it's a great moment in every man's life: you're about to marry the biggest love of your life after your own club :sun:
reminded me of a joke that was on tv in Italy last year

Woman: Do you love me?
Man: I love Milan..
Woman: no i meen do you really love me?
Man: I think i love Inter more than you when your complaining!

I laughed so hard :grinser:

[ACMILAN1983]

thanks to you all for this wonderful thread. I returned home last night and I'm still very busy, but i will post about my trip and the wedding.

For now I'll just say it was the best 5 weeks of my life.

[Jeff]

good to have you back!

[Reza]

Welcome back Dev, glad you had a great time, looking forward to hearing about it.

[SANT]

I returned home last night and I'm still very busy

We understand... don't worry about us... :sagrin: get busy... do your thang.. :mex:

[ACMILAN1983]

We understand... don't worry about us... :sagrin: get busy... do your thang.. :mex:

lol, I wish I could but my wife's still in India, her visa isn't complete (she should be with me in 2 weeks).

Anyway, as I mentioned previously I will elaborate on my trip to India and my wedding, both of which have been insprirational, incredible and unforgettable experiences in my life.

The Wedding

The wedding, which took a period of 3 days from the 26th to the 28th of January (there was more after the 28th too), was a wonderful experience, one which was tiring. The first week of the trip was very much spent preparing, as my party immediately flew to Gujarat and traveled around the state to get together all the things needed. This, interspersed with meeting family and following traditional customs resulted in almost very little free time.

For the wedding (which was a hindu wedding), I had four costumes, one for each ceremony (1 on 26th, 2 on 27th and the main ceremony on the 28th). The first day's ceremony (mandhua, though my spelling might be wrong) includes prayers performed by the groom and his parents (and the bride has a seperate one), for which I wore a simple lime green suit.

The second ceremony was the Sagai (essentially engagement), where the two families exhange gifts and eat sweets and me and my wife had to sit up front to receive gifts and prayers from guests. For this I wore a silver suit.

For the third ceremony, the Sangee (dandya ras), everyone essentially has a party dancing (traditional dances) all night and just having fun, for which I wore a bright orange costume.

Then on the 28th was the main wedding ceremony, where me and my wife had to perform a number of actions whilst sitting in front of a havan (holy fire). It was a fun ceremony on the whole with people enjoying themselves and was a traditional Arya Samaj (A Hindu Society) ceremony. My costume in this ceremony was a cream and blue Shirvani, with a gold and red talwar (sword). This was an amazing day with everyone partying in the street with strangers watching us in joy (weddings are a big thing in India), incredibly loud fireworks (sounding like bomb explosions) and drummers and musicians. It was a strange experience, as with the explosions and drums banging hard, while I was holding my talwar I almost felt like I was going to war.

Though I obviously won't go into the details of the first night, I will mention my room had been decorated with roses, with rose petals all over the floor, the bed surrounded with rose chains (essentially creating rose curtains around the bed) and on the bed a heart with my own and my wifes initials created with roses along with more rose petals all over the bed. It was simply beautiful and very romantic.

The Trip

As I mentioned the first week of the trip was mainly spent preparing for the wedding, but this didn't stop the fun, as I felt something to spur my senses at all times (even when sleeping!). In this respect, I've never seen any other place like India, it's very much organised chaos everywhere you go. Shopping was a strange affair with bargaining necessary at every shop in Gujarat and the shopkeepers offering you drinks while you shop. However, the service was excellent, with the afformentioned drinks, seats, food and not ever having to carry a single purchased item until leaving the store (someone does that for you :D ). This, however, is necessary when you spend 24 hours in sari shops as my party did.

Gujarat has some incredible places to visit, but the best sights aren't found in the cities, but rather outside where there is modern lifestyle, but also very traditional lifestyles, with people still living as their ancestors did hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago. There are also temples all over, with probably the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen, as well as the most peaceful and enjoyable environments you can hope to see. Some, like Nageshwar, are extremely popular due to historical relevance (Nageshwar also has an incredible 85 foot statue of Shankar Bhagwan, a hindu deity). Others are less famous, such as a temple called Bhagwada near the city of Porbandar, which is not well known and has few visitors, but is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

Mumbai is a very different place, much more modern in every regard it is very much what is expected in a modern metropolitan. The sights are stunning, there is no other description. The beaches offer some of the most amazing views of the skylines I have ever seen. Shops are everywhere, from the most downbeat street stalls to the biggest superstores I have ever seen. Mumbai is a strange place, with the richest can be seen rubbing shoulders with the homeless, and where chaos is everywhere, yet everything runs daily.

This trip was a life changing experience, not only because of the wedding but because I had never seen as much of India as I did on this trip. I was influenced more than ever before, seeing things I simply couldn't believe, some which brought incredible joy, others pain. The trip was both spiritual and fun (it's shocking to see a country that can have such spirituality, yet at times be so vain too). However, upon seeing these things, how so many different types of people live their lives day to day for the first time in life I feel certain as to what I live for and what is important in life. The best 5 weeks of my life, that much I'm certain of.

[SANT]

wow Dev, that's amazing, congratulations, hope your wife's paperwork is processed soon...

the thing I find more surprising is: Getting married wearing a "simple lime green suit" :sun:

[Reza]

lol SANT.

Congrats Dev, it does sound like a great 5 weeks, like you said getting married and all those places and things must have been an excellent experience.

[ACMILAN1983]

wow Dev, that's amazing, congratulations, hope your wife's paperwork is processed soon...

the thing I find more surprising is: Getting married wearing a "simple lime green suit" :sun:

lol, that suit was similar to this

http://images.indiaplaza.in/Stores/Apparel/Images/LAPK3.jpg

and well, the green was lighter lol, but trust me, it looked pretty good ;)

Rez, it was amazing, that post isn't even going into detail all that I experienced :D

[Jim_UK]

Glad you had a great experience mate, look forward to hearing more about it when we catch up on msn somewhen.

[ACMILAN1983]

Glad you had a great experience mate, look forward to hearing more about it when we catch up on msn somewhen.

I've been on msn quite a lot of late but never see you. Looking forward to it! :D