Bombings & Weddings

Living away from the US of A has its perks and it also comes with an immense sense of insecurities and shocks...whether it be plain and simple safety issues or even cultural ones. July 25th, we left for Ahmedabad to get to Asif's cousin's wedding in Himmatnagar (a town a couple hours from Ahmedabad).

That Friday, as I was leaving work, a co worker informed me of a few explosions that happened around the city and warned me to leave early and be careful. The news didn't really register properly in my head...I just didn't understand what explosions in my own city implied. I got in the car and let Asif know...we went straight home since we felt like we had a little time to get to the airport. As we freshened up, the bombings were all over the news. Apparently there were blasts all over the city where Bangloreans frequent. One of them, was less than a mile away from our home, a hospital. Another, was a mall, which I would go to more often if it were closer.

Luckily, none of the areas that were hit were on the way to the airport. We got there safely and got to Ahmedabad safely as well.

The next morning, we left for Suhail's wedding which was another cultural experience/surprise. Himmatnagar is a dominantly Muslim village which I noticed to be very different than the village Asif's immediate family resides in. While Visnagar (Asif's grandfather's town) is also a Muslim village, its culture is extremely conservative. This affects everything from the way of dress, food, customs and even language. Himmatnagar tuurned out to be a much more relaxed village where the women enjoyed very fashionable clothing, rode on motorbikes and were very educated. Despite the "modern" way of life, the culture here was also very complex and full of intricacies which were illustrated throughout the entire wedding.

The wedding consisted of countless rituals and customs, from a mandatory circle of friends for the bride and groom to the pranks that each side plays on one another to the bride staying at her mom's home 4 days after the nikkah and coming home to her husband at nights all dressed in her wedding garb. It was a very interesting 3 days as well as a hot, sticky and tense one.

The day of the Nikkah, we received news that there were bombings in Ahmedabad. Later that night, we learned there were around 20 bombs. This of course was extremely unsettling news, especially since all roads into the city were blocked and Asif and I needed to fly back Monday morning.

Obviously, we're ok, all are well...and we got home safe. But the events of that weekend still linger in our mind and caused us to feel very unsafe and not welcome. As Americans, we feel safe and never felt the need to fear such threats. We especially feel this after having these incidents happen very close to home...literally. Despite our terror alerts and the ridiculously long and sometimes discriminatory security checks at our airports, there was always a sense of security and peace we felt in the US. Unfortunately, this security has been snatched away to the core here in India...and taking real precautions is a reality.