Last week was eventful for the family. My in-laws visited us. San's uncle from Australia also visited us. The big event?
My MIL's dad's brother crossed a 1000 moons! It is a big deal in South India and there is a grand celebration
- when a person crosses a 1000 full moons
- is still married to the same person
The couple get to perform a prayer that is a mix of "thank you god for the 1000 moons and the happy married life" and a wish "for many more moons". Once they finish the ceremony, they get some kind of rock star status and everyone gets their blessings. In Chennai (Madras) where I grew up, this function is so auspicious that once the couple finish the prayer, folks who were not invited to the function just show up in a long line to fall at the couples feet to get their blessings.
Used to see a few of these ceremonies as a kid. They are rare events in a place where life expectancy for men was 62 and women was 64 twenty years ago. A thousand moons is approximately 29,501 days .. and happens close to the persons 80th birthday.
Given most of the folks who are in their 80's got married very young (some of it was child marriage), the ladies who survive this ceremony should actually be the rock stars.. at least that is my humble opinion. Putting up with any guy for those kind of periods deserves a lifetime achievement award.
In recent memory, I have attended three of these ceremonies.
First in 2005 (San was pregnant with the little one then and Jr. was a toddler) we attended my maternal grandpa-grandmas function. Still have great memories from that one.
Then in 2007 when the little one was 14 months old, we went for San's paternal grand parents ceremony. Was mostly inside a dark and dingy room in the marriage hall taking care of the little one, who was very cranky and almost missed most of the happenings. (have only a few photos from that event on my camera rolls!). It was a great party of sorts again with a large family.
Then there was last weekend. San's maternal grand-uncle celebrated it. Given he is local, they celebrated it here instead of in India. How they managed to get enough folks well versed in the Vedas to do the recitation and prayers was in itself impressive, not to mention them going through a long ceremony with a smile.
They reminded me a lot of my own grandparents. When a guy who is 80 can make his lady smile for his jokes and make her blush at times, after being married to her for what appears to be a jillion years, it is more than an example for the younger generation.
You get a glimpse of what it takes to have a long and happy married life.
I realized there is a lot of work to do on my joke list!
The next generation (my parents, in-laws, uncles and aunts on both my side and Sangeetha's side of the family) are all getting around the 70 year mark.
Our sincere hope that a lot of them make it to a 1000 moons and we get to see more such ceremonies in this lifetime.
We also got to see Jr. dress up in her half saree for this occasion. She is the same height as her mother now and has declared herself a teen, even though she has a few months to go before her 13th birthday.
Now the in-laws and Uncle have gone back, the house feels empty, save for the occasional fighting between Jr. and the little one.
San and me have only another 36+ years to go.. just typing that out made me want to go to the bathroom.
I plan to interview these people in detail and find out more about their winning strategies.
