Roll up the tassa!
SEVEN curries are a staple at Hindu weddings in Guyana, and I had 14 curries at one on Sunday.
How so? Well, I had the traditional seven at the wedding ceremony at the bride’s home at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and then repeated the exercise at the home of the groom at Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara. Seven plus seven equals 14. Not 14 at one go.
I also managed to eat it all from `puri’ leaves – those large water lily leaves that serve as plates for the food.
Eating from `puri’ leaves is a delicate exercise because it requires balancing the leaf laden with rice, dhall and a variety of vegetarian curries ranging from pumpkin, bhagee, catahar to eddoe spiced with servings of achar, in one hand while eating with the other.
No knives and forks or spoons will do for eating from a puri leaf and you can lick your fingers clean after clearing the food from the leaf. That’s finger-licking good! Mmmm!
I enjoyed the dishes at both sides of the wedding.
It was a great outing for me as I had not been to a wedding for a little while and the 14 curries, delicious as they were, were just part of the delights.
The splendid saris of myriad colours and cuts displayed by exquisite wearers were dazzling and the tassa and other drumming was infectious.
Women in saris and tassa drumming are an unbeatable combination in the celebratory atmosphere of a wedding and the exotic and tantalising dancing that followed as night stepped in was only to be expected.
Witnessing or better yet, participating, regularly in wining down and up to some blazing tassa drumming would do those perennial whiners and grousers around some good.
Those old grumpies who seem to see nothing but grumpiness, bitterness and gloom around them would do well to just sit and watch others delight in some of the simple joys of life — like people enjoying themselves at weddings.
If they do that, it could reduce the amount of bile they feel compelled to pour forth on the rest of us.
In spite of all its downs, it’s still a beautiful world and I pity those who insist on ignoring the ups.
And Diamond is among the ups in Guyana – any which way you look at it.
As the bride and groom were going through the marriage vows, a friend and I took some time off to drive around the Diamond housing scheme and it was a revelation to both of us.
It was hard to believe that what was not so long ago, just cane fields, had undergone such transformation just a short drive from Georgetown.
Diamond is just one of the major housing schemes that have been developed along the coast, testimony of the huge investments made to ensure housing for tens of thousands.
We saw beautiful houses of all types and sizes.
But the authorities should do something about those empty lots overgrown with thick bushes and the incomplete structures left like skeletons.
These are an eyesore in an otherwise well-laid out and developing community and warrant quick action because it’s the kind of thing the grumpers and grousers seize upon to add to their servings of bile.
I have been invited to some more weddings coming up soon and look forward to indulging more in the seven curries or other wedding fare served up, tassa drumming, chutney, reggage, hip hop or whatever music is offered, dancing and other fun.
Life is too full of things to be enjoyed to find time to mope, bitch and gripe for too long.
Roll up the tassa!