Engagement

Again our driver took us from the Saturday Club to the Parsee Hall, this time for the official engagement.

Most of the women wore sarees, some in traditional Parsee style, and this time even the men had mostly dressed up a little (one or two a lot). 

On stage were Arinaz and Yazdan and families spent forty minutes or so exchanging gifts (money, clothing etc) and rings were exchanged while photographers circled. Most men in the room seemed to leave the women to it so Steve chatted politics and engineering while Jen joined the ladies.

While this was going on waiters circulated with snacks and drinks. One of the guests was a prominent restaurateur we'd been discussing food with; when I was asked about the cauliflower pastry we agree the pastry was too thick to allow the cauli to shine through so he popped back and had a word with the chef. Fifteen minutes later I received a plate prepared just for me!

I'd already eaten a couple. Served with tamarind sauce

The meal proper followed. While lunch had been traditional Parsee food, this evening was West Bengali. Stand-out dishes were the rice with cashews and sultanas, fish with a light spicy coating and steamed in banana leaves, chicken in a light curry and, for Jen, sandesh (basically sugar, paneer and cardamom) pudding as a true taste of her childhood.

We're gradually getting to know people. At each event the guest list grows - there were about a hundred tonight, a couple of hundred are expected tomorrow evening for the actual wedding. We're really enjoying conversations with people from all across the country. 

The whole event is also being made very easy for us. Logistics are being taken care of by employees of the family firms so we always seem to have a car available when we need. We're benefiting from immense generosity and loving it!