Selamat Pagi!

 

Yesterday saw another couple of jobs knocked off the list and another two added on - so we are still at stalemate. I will break the back of them in the next week or so.

 

It is however coming up to a very busy time for me. Year end accounts, business plans, forward projections etc. All the stuff you know forms a critical part of sailing round the world! In this regard having satellite communications with reasonable band width has proved invaluable. We also of course get world wide phone coverage at £1 per minute (this is actually cheaper than international mobile phone rates in many places) but more importantly we can take reasonably large e-mail file sizes in - it is just a question of cost, so therefor we tend to restrict the size of files we can receive and tailor business reports to fit under the size limiter we have fitted. It works very well.

 

Now what you all want to hear about - the Indian wedding. The Bride and Groom were Thini and Kumar. A very handsome couple and the bride particularly was stunning in extravagantly decorated Sari and head-dress. For the setting however, imagine a very large ballroom with intricately designed high ceilings grand entrance and exit doors and a stage set that Pink Floyd would not be embarrased by!

 

The actual ceremony had taken place the day before and this was the second day - the reception for family and friends.

 

There were at my reckoning, more than one thousand people sitting at about one hundred large round tables seating twelve each. The chairs were beautifully dressed in white with large gold silk ribbons. The top table was enormous, round and had two "thrones" for the happy couple - facing the stage. They made their grand entrance from the back of the hall down the red carpet to incredibly loud, live Indian music and a rockstar like light show! They were preceded by a procession of drummers and extravagantly costume dressed men and women dancers. I'm telling you Willie and Kate better sharpen up their act if they want to outdo this wedding!

 

On stage were Indian dance shows and drummers one after another. This was interspaced by a singer performing Malaysian favourite songs. All the while the guests eat dish after dish from the buffet style arrangements along either wall of delicious Indian dishes. Drinks were mostly water and juice though another less prominant table had some gallon bottles of fine Scotch and Brandy for the "heathens" in the crowd.

 

The guests were Hindu, Muslin, Seik and a few Christians. I am sure there were others too. There seemed to be - as we have seen on our world tour so far - perfect mutual respect of each other with religion forming a secondary part in how one person views another. Their character being more important. Perfectly relaxed with each others beliefs, no tension and mutual respect. Now wouldn't that be nice if all the world were like that? In fact I think it mostly is but the areas where there is conflict we are constantly told about be the news media. It is strange how almost all "news" is bad news. I'm sure for every "bad news"story told we could find ten good news stories. I guess it says something, though I am not exactly sure what, about our society today.

 

The Indian women I have to say were stunning and their dress, with Saris, sliks and gold jewelry,  were the epitomy of asian elegance.  

 

On the stage the bride and groom were called up and the Groom who seemed to be fully living the "Bollywood star for a day" role asked his parents up on stage. He and his new wife, in an act of respect and appreciation then threw themselves prostrate on the floor in front of them, before the parents encouraging them symbolically to get up. This was very touching and something I am going make mandatory each morning when we are at home with our children...... 

 

I have to say I have never seen anything like this and the whole evening was incredible, the food fantastic, the music and dancing just hypnotising. There was a great one world atmosphere of mutual respect in which the wedding was celebrated in the very rich culture and style of India. 

 

Our company for the evening was a group of friends, mostly beautiful modern young women beautifully dressed in traditional Malaysian style, and only one of whom wore the Muslim head scarf, and very elegantly too, and a couple of friendly young men too. All were fun loving and very friendly. It was a privilege to be asked and to be there especially with such a nice group of people.