Bride And Prejudice Melbourne Style

I went to my friend Upneet's engagement party yesterday. Firstly congratulatons to Upneet and Dhawal on their engagement. The engagement was held at Nine Darling Street, a very nice reception place. I went with Anu (below) and Brian. Anu was decked out in her very nice blue sari.

I have never been to an Indian party before so didn't know what to expect. Firstly, I found that nearly all the women were wearing bright colourful saris. A lot of the men had their colourful head scarves on. Secondly, there was also a lot of people. I mean 250 people at a wedding would be a lot, let alone at an engagement party. But I guess Indians tend to have lots of relatives. Apparently the wedding will be in India later in the year and go for FIVE days, with elephants and performers involved. Wow, now that's a wedding I want to go to.

The future bride to be was also dressed in a very stunning sari with matching assessories. Here I am below with Upneet (centre) and Alka (left). Upneet did a very good job as hosts and came round and saw everyone and chatted.

There were speeches made about Upneet and Dhawal, with embarrassing anecdotes and also congratulatory messages. Upneet, you're secret eye lash batting technique to get what you want is now out there for the world to know, it might not be as effective in future now. *-)

Entrees were served quite late at 9pm. Even by Asian standards, this was late. Usually at Asian parties, dinner gets served at about 9pm. After entrees, there was dancing, dancing, and more dancing. Upneet and Dhawal did a nice sway type dance (below).

Then there was a dance routine put on by some of Upneet's friend. It was fantastic, just like something lifted out of a Bollywood movie. There was hand waving, feet stomping, shoulder shaking and lots of spinning. You can watch a bit of the dance in the following two videos.

After the performance, everyone else got on the dance floor and shook their booty like there was no tomorrow. Indians definitely love their dancing. I also got involved and had lots of fun. I got tips on how to dance Indian style. You have to do a lot of shoulder shrugging whilst simultaneously holding out one hand up and doing a "light bulbing screwing action" while holding the other hand down and "patting the dog". Also, when in doubt, just clap and stomp your feet. Easy!

Dinner finally got underway at about 11:30pm, unbelievably late since everyone just kept on dancing. By this stage I was actually quite hungry so I scoffed down the curries when they arrived. I polished down the food with quite a few glasses of red wine, leaving just enough room for dessert. After some more dancing at the end of the night, we called it a night and said goodbye to Upneet and Dhawal and wished them well. I went home having experienced a great cultural display and also having loads of fun along the way. I definitely need to get invited to more Indian parties.