A pause for, not of, tradition.

OK. Like, this is the longest period yet I've been away frm my blog. Reason: My seven-ceremony, week-long, multi-cultural wedding that took place in December 2006!

What a lot of fun but what a lot of work too. With both my husband and me being ever fascinated with history and Asian family ties, a wedding that paid homage to our cultural traditions and religious practices was important.

At one point, though, I did wonder whether we should have taken on all the stress and expenses that come with a multi-cultural wedding. Very few of our close friends, most of whom married someone of the same race and/or religion, realised that it meant more than one wedding ceremony and dining events - we had three wedding ceremonies and five dining events - and that meant we needed a LOT of RELIABLE help. Not the usual line of "If you need any help, call me" but instead, the "OK, I'll be there" and "Hi! I'm here. What can I do to help?".

In a way, it was symptomatic of how traditional family and friendship ties have eroded in our fast-paced, urbane world. Yeah, there were a lot of disadvantages in our parents' and grandparents' younger days but when it came to weddings, kinsmen and friends would join in the preparation with all its frustrations and merriment. To experience how that has changed in just one generation was an education for me, my hubby and our parents as well as a few reliable friends who were, at the time, also looking at the prospect of getting hitched.

In the end, however, the excitement and smiles of our guests - who came all the way from the north and south of the peninsula, east Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, UK, USA and Canada - made it all worthwhile!

And the photos of our Chinese and Punjabi dinner guests watching for the first time an Odissi dance - performed by dance teachers and led by Geetha Sankaran-Lam of the Temple of Fine Arts Kuala Lumpur, my Chinese friends looking so pretty in their first Punjabi suits at our gurdwara (Sikh temple) wedding as well as my hubby's family members listening in awe to my soprano friends during our Catholic wedding - a first for several of them - indeed paint a thousand words about how weddings are just one of those things that are meant to bring people together.

Here's to more multi-cultural weddings in Malaysia and all the forging-of-community-ties that these bring. I swear it is a lot more fun that Pendidikan Moral (Moral Studies) and whatnot!