Picture a fourteen-year-old on a decorated chair, wearing several kilos of silk and gold, with a jasmine string tugging at her braid. A hundred relatives are watching. She has an...
A baby shower in India is not one ceremony. It is at least four different ceremonies depending on which state the family is from, and the activities that happen at...
If you have grown up in a South Indian Brahmin household, you have probably attended at least one ceremony where you were not entirely sure whether it was a dhoti...
Can a girl have an Upanayanam? If you ask this in a traditional household, you will likely get one of three responses. A firm no. A long pause followed by...
If you ask five families from different South Indian communities at what age the dhoti ceremony should be performed, you will get five different answers. All of them will be...
Most people have been to at least one of these. Many have been to all three without ever being entirely clear on what separates them. They are all celebrations centred...
The honest answer is that there is no way to do it that feels completely comfortable. Mentioning gifts on an invitation, in any direction, crosses a social boundary that most...
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that it depends on who you ask in the family, and everyone in the family will have an opinion. The idea...
There is, though. And depending on who you ask in your family, you may have already heard about it. The Upanayanam, the sacred thread ceremony, is one of the oldest...
Ask a grandmother in a Telugu or Tamil household what the half saree ceremony means to her and she will not give you a dictionary definition. She will tell you...
Most people have attended at least one of these ceremonies without being entirely sure what it was for. Someone in the family organised it, a priest arrived, a fire was...
A name is the first gift a child receives. Before they can hold anything, before they know anyone in the room, they are given one. And across almost every religion...