1981Everybody, meet my parents. Everybody, meet me. As a 3 month old baby. This was my first ever social engagement, at the wedding of my 2nd cousin Ruth, and Malcolm. Ruth and Malcolm then moved to Australia, settling in Perth. Twenty nine years later, their daughter Laura got married. Timing and circumstance meant I was still in Australia, and having cancelled my plan to visit Japan, I rearranged my flights to be back in Perth for that wedding, completing the most amazing circle. I can now say that I was at both the wedding of Ruth and Malcolm in 1981, and at the wedding of their daughter Laura, to Shahar, in 2011. This time round I could feed myself. And I could drink alcohol.
I first met their family at my brother's Bar Mitzvah 13 years ago, but I'll be honest, I don't really remember meeting them. Then a couple of years ago I met Ruth and Malcolm as they were visiting London, but those are the only occasions I'd met them. When I first came to Perth 4 weeks ago I arranged to visit them, and ended up staying for a couple of days, and felt very much at home with them. I very quickly found that I wasn't just accepting them as relatives who I didn't really know, but I also very much enjoyed their company, and were great fun to be around. Having departed Perth to visit Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney, on Thursday I returned to Perth. By sheer coincidence, I also have other contacts in Perth. From my birth and through much of my early childhood, my family were very close to our next door neighbors (not just geographically). A typical Indian family with many generations living there, there was always someone to babysit me and my brother, and we ended up installing a gate in our garden fence allowing all the children to run around from one house to the next. As a child growing up, you don’t really think about these things, you just accept it for what it is. But now that I think about it, it was a great thing to have as a child and opened my eyes to other people and other cultures. A number of the now married siblings have moved out to Perth where they are bringing up their families, and so it was that I arranged to stay with Dinesh & Asha. The last time I saw their son, Naynesh, he was about 7, running amok in our garden. Now he’s 22, giving me lifts in his car. How things can change. Anyway, I digress. Having spent a great few days with Dinesh & family, the wedding took place on Sunday. There was some concern that rain was due (a much needed first rainfall in 6 months for Perth but a poorly timed forecast for the wedding), but luckily the rain held off until later in the evening when the reception was well under way. The ceremony took place in the wonderful setting of a civic centre garden, not far from the beach. This was followed by a few photos, and then a reception and dinner at a nearby yacht club. Needless to say I had a few glasses of wine. And champagne. And ended up dancing the night away, waking up Monday morning with a bit of a headache. But that’s what you do at someone else’s wedding. Right?
