Wedding...A decade of changes...

I attended a wedding couple of weeks ago. The last one was close to a decade ago. This was my cousin's wedding in Mumbai...ok its my nephew...

Mumbai weddings are always more sophisticated and had its fair share of outsourcing even before call centers and contract jobs hit the IT world. The days when Mama's and Mami's bragged about the Chellappas and Ambis to whom they gave wedding contracts. Big ticket items like cooking and floral arrangements were the ones Mumbai based Tamil community typically outsourced. With time Mumbai weddings have their fair share of originality and uniqueness and continue to be different from the ones that happened else where in the south.

Girls at the entrance with Kalkandu, paneer, poo, chandanam - mostly ponnu side or mapalai side. A combination of small kids and teenage girls - the younger ones going through their first experience of paavadai chattai and the slightly older ones years away from being a bride, draped in saree. The competition to see who gets a chance to be the official one(s)...

The recent wedding I attended had taken outsourcing to another level...it was interesting in Mumbai's own way of the Contract Kalyanam.

New faces for the Welcome greeting - Front Desk, outsourced. I did not recognize the young lady at the entrance and thought this may be one of the cousins or neice I have lost touch with...big smile with out an iota of shyness and a very formal welcome message. Nothing like what I've seen in weddings before. I realized it was outsourced only after I saw more women with the same colored saree. I was glad that we did not make our customary prank right at the entrance. The bold smile and professional welcome probably took our self-confidence away. We walked in with the minimal of acknowledgement and eyes wandering to pick a face we can connect with.

We had men in suits and women in uniformed sarees all over the hall providing refreshments regularly. Later I figured this uniform is on a per day basis and changes from one day to the other - thanks to multiday, multisession weddings we have. The logistics in the hall was outsourced to a local wedding planner, Nirmalyam.

Else where and in old times...one cannot forget mamas with soiled dhoti, wet red towel over one side of their shoulder, open torso and the infamous never-been-white poonal, serve food in the dining area. Walking with a basket of papadams or the ultra small vessel with spoon shell as flat as the handle, mamas pacing fast to serve pachadi on the Elai - a drop or two at best. I am sure we've all had our episodes of the rasam and payasam finding its way out of the elai.

Dining area was the one to remember...no more mamas, no more baskets and of course no more food encroached tables.

We had Nirmalyam ladies instruct and oversee well-dressed waiters serve food. Plates with elai, cups for rasam, sambar, payasam and curd and the impressive plastice cups with sealed lids and straw carrying water. Paper napkins carrying the Nirmalyam logo and to beat it all the after food pan, beeda plate had on its side a stack of Nirmalyam business cards.

I have to admit that the Nirmalyam concept and staff provided me and my brother-in-law with an arsenal of jokes that was well used during the wedding and sure to last till the next one.

We had a wonderful time meeting all our athais, athimbares, cousins, neice and nephews. Cant but wait for the next one.