A pleasant interlude 3

 

Olwyn's Wedding

Bride and groom with Best Man John Osborne, and bridesmaid Smriti, Dinesh's sister,

and John's three daughters, carrying flowers.

 

From Shillong we bussed and planed back to Calcutta, and then on to Dacca by the Bangladesh airline Bangladesh Biman, using ex-NAC Fokker Friendships. At the Dacca Airport Olwyn met us and took us to the modern Railway Station building. There we had to board a train travelling to the port so we would have seats for our trip back to Brahmanbaria, where she lived and where the wedding was scheduled for a few days’ time. 

By the time we got back to Dacca, the train was packed. I was feeling the effects of my tummy bug, and found the only way to be comfortable was to climb into the luggage rack and sleep all the way to Brahmanbaria.  I was glad of my sister’s knowledge of the journey, because I would not have had the energy to find our way. 

Taking Olwyn to the wedding service

We were very glad to get to Brahmanbaria, where Dinesh was waiting for us, and reach the mission compound where they both lived. I fell into bed, and do not remember anything about the next couple of days, but Margaret and Terry were entertained royally, meeting Dinesh’s family and Olwyn’s missionary colleagues. 

The most exciting thing about the wedding was the Bengali fertility customs we observed and took part in the morning of the wedding. The women of the family took turns pounding spices in a pestle and mortar and then smeared it all over the groom, who was dragged unwilling from hiding in his family home. After that, while he bathed and dressed in his wedding clothes, the rest of the neighbourhood chased each other with coloured liquids, including gentian violet in hospital syringes, and great merriment was enjoyed by everyone! 

We were also taken on a tour of the mission hospital and school, and I was asked to address the schoolchildren in my rusty Bengali, when I tried to explain the significance of Waitangi Day, which was being celebrated in NZ that day. 

At Dacca Airport on honeymoon journey

The evening of the wedding we travelled with the newly-weds to Dacca and all stayed at the mission there.  In the morning we saw them off for their honeymoon at the airport, and then left in different directions to return home. 

Margaret, Terry and I caught the plane back to Calcutta, where we changed planes for Hong Kong and eventually Sydney and Auckland, and then straight back to home and school the next day!

 

A week or so later the Northland newspaper published an article about our trip and a photo of us in the clothes we had brought back.

 

 

Northland Advocate photo