Wedding Whoops

Today, I was showing some of the girls pictures.

They wanted to see pictures of "my village",

and I was struggling.

I don't really have many pics out and about in Eden Prairie,

and they had already seen pics from Brattleboro.

So I asked if they wanted to see pictures from an American wedding,

which they got very excited about.

I think they were disappointed.

Although my best friend's wedding was beautiful,

it lacked the colors and craziness of which most Indian weddings boast.

We also show a little bit more skin.

They got a little more into it when I started reaching pictures from the dance

(mostly because it was one of the first times that I had pictures of the bride and groom together)

but when they saw the first dance, they asked, "Aren't there rules for dancing, auntie?"

and I was like, No, no rules.

I kept flipping through,

and came to one of my dad and I dancing

which made them very confused.

"You don't feel any shame, Auntie?"

At which point I realized that it probably is not normal for males and females to dance together in this culture. So I asked if men and women dance together at Indian weddings, and got a resounding, "Nooooo Auntie." The bride and groom don't even dance together. In fact, the groom sits and the women dance.

Ooops. Not only have I just exposed them to the scantiness of Western fashion, but also to the scandalous dance practices of Western weddings...and they have seen evidence of me partaking in both. A part of me feels guilty, like I should protect them from it. But at the same time, they are 18 and want to know where I come from. And there is nothing inherently wrong with our fasion (most of the time) or with our wedding dances (as long as they're classy).

I just wonder what they think of me - of us - now...