The Myth Busting Party

It is always nice to know more about different cultures and the stint here in Kuwait is surely providing me with such opportunities.

The first one I got was when I got an invite to attend the Wedding Reception Party of my Office Friend named Rani Agha, a great guy; very helpful and always smiling, I was extremely excited to attend the big day for the new learnings and the good food which was on offer!!!

The day was Saturday 8th May 2010 and the venue was Holiday Inn on the sea-side and I reached exactly on time at 8 PM…got a beautiful Bed-Side Lamp as the gift hoping that Rani & his wife would like it…

The guests slowly started trickling in and I was literally gaping at the quality of beauty on view!!! Truly exhilarating and nothing Muslim about the females, all of them were dressed in Christian styled Evening gowns which were well embellished and left nothing much for imaginations…all the good things were on open-view!!! And I was all ready for a long evening ahead!!!



And then the Bride & groom entered the reception hall, they were welcomed by all the guests with loud cheers, whistles & claps and also by a group of Rani’s friends who were dressed in traditional Syrian Attires and holding a variety of percussion instruments and one of them being a very loud vocalist who sang for the next almost 40 odd minutes with Rani’s mom clearly worried about the time running by…I loved their histrionics though…the music was amazing and the group was so energetic!!!



The Girls in Blue were surely the focus of my attention and I tried my best to shoot their video continuously but was feeling a bit jittery when I focussed my camera on them for more than 5-6 seconds...but then I tried my best !!!

Finally thesinging group relented after repeated requests/warnings without any mood to stop…and then the soft & romantic songs were played for the bride & groom to so some soft dance…the romantic one mostly seen in the movies!!! They were quite embarrassed initially but soon got into the groove, Rani was clearly looking uncomfortable making those dance moves as me is mostly used to the heavy-duty & energetic c dance moves!!! I am sure even I would face a similar predicament if I dance to such songs…can’t be so gentle & smooth!!!

Once the romance was over all hell broke lose with loud Arabic numbers playing and the floor being mobbed by dancers!!! I must say that Arabic Music is really peppy & makes you tap your feet…the couple was the centre of the attention again as expected and everybody wanted to dance with them!!! Initially I enjoyed the music & dance sitting but soon was attracted towards the floor…danced for a bit…mixing my Bhangra Moves with the Arabic Music and trying my best not to look silly…some of my Office colleagues tried teaching me some native moves and I also gave it my best shot…

The strange part during all this happening was no food!!! Yes even snacks were not being served…we had to manage with just the odd 1-2 glasses of music all this while and the hunger pangs were playing tricky games inside my tummy & mind!!! Finally at 11:30 PM the music stopped as we were in a 5-star Hotel and there was a stipulated time limit for playing music and I thank the Authorities for enforcing such a rule, I knew the food would be served out soon!!! But before that another formality…the cake cutting by the couple…Once that got over I headed straight towards the food area and nothing could stop me then!!!

I ate my heart out(you would say what’s new???!!!) but really the food was superb…literally all kinds of meat…Fish, Prawns, Mutton, Beef, Chicken, Turkey & Duck included and all cooked in authentic Syrian Style. With the crowd thronging and making a long queue I knew coming again to top-up the plate would be one difficult task so I heaped my plate to the maximum possible!!! And boy wasn’t it a smart move…when I was gong back the queue was already 40-50 people strong!!! I am smart at times…ain’t I!!!

I gorged but kept a small portion of my tummy empty for the much deserved Desserts…I mean how could I miss them…they are my perennial favourites in any meal I am a part of!!! And this time was no different…I tried all varieties of “Kunafa” on offer. Kunafa is an Arabic Dessert made out of Sewain or vermicelli…and the taste is heavenly and I am not exaggerating, it surely is!!! There were 6 varieties in the menu and I tried all of them and all of them tasted so good!!!

In the end my tummy finally relented and was begging for mercy and it surely needed some rest…I had spent almost an hour eating and filling it up with the heaviest varieties of food!!! So it truly deserved some cooling-off!!!

While going back home I was thinking about the myths which got busted during the party…as all we have heard about Islamic Traditions is being orthodox, rigid and staying under cover but here it was all about being grand, pompous and fun…no inhibitions at all…both in terms of dressing up & celebrating…and I surely was pleasantly surprised and it was nice to see so much of revelry around me. The dance & music was so lively and yes the quality of females was surely impressive as well!!!

Syrians, Jordanians & Lebanese are the most liberated people in the Middle East and the women often stay away from the purdah or the veil and there are equal rights for both men & women, yes there are discriminations but much less when compared to the other countries of the Middle East.

I was a satisfied man when I reached home both physiologically & my eyes were also feeling real good!!! For the obvious reasons…

Another lesson for me in Middle East traditions, all thanks to Rani…my landlord was literally shocked when I told him that I was going for an Arabic Wedding…he has been here in Kuwait for the last 17 years and hasn’t attended a single such wedding and here I am…I attended one, within my first 2 months!!! Surely Lucky!!!