When East Met West Under the Georgia Sky: A Fusion Wedding at Serenbe

Two Worlds, One “I Do”

What can two families born 8000 miles apart yet raising their kids in the deep south of the US have in common? Their children, who inspite of cultural differences, might go on to make promises to love each other forever. And that’s what I witnessed this past weekend that was both sacred and whimsical at the same time. And the backdrop?

Serenbe – Georgia’s best kept secret. An hour from downtown Atlanta and you’re in the middle of beautiful lake houses and rolling fields that are home to some gorgeous horses. The early fall morning air with its cloudy mist feels crisp and medicinal. But before I get to all that, our first evening this is how we were welcomed.

The Hindu ceremony was in the morning and the Christian wedding in the evening. We wore Indian clothes and western outfits, danced to DJ music and dhol (Indian drum) and welcomed the groom in the “Baaraat”, the officiators helped the newly weds perform Hindu rituals (in Sanskrit) and take Christian vows, the father and the bride danced, and so did the mom and the groom, uncles drank whiskey, aunties wore jasmine flowers in their hair, and most importantly everyone rejoiced in the spirit of the union.

During the reception, we were supposed to be in our best Western outfits, eat dinner and dance till we couldn’t anymore. Then we would go sit around the fire place. A Waffle House truck will pull up and we eat hashbrowns under the stars. OK, so, an elegant dinner in tuxedos and a chocolate waffle outside a truck for dessert? Oh well, I thought.

But this cognitive dissonance was splendid in real life, and something that I couldn’t wrap my brain around back when I had received the invitation 6 months ago.

A Night For Posterity

At the waffle house truck, during our parting words, the friends of the bride told me that they would like to invite themselves to my home. The same American girls who had danced with me on the dance floor to Usher, Miley Cyrus, and Bollywood songs.

As someone forever living in the hyphenated space of the Indian-American life, this night felt like an affirmation. That we can all belong to both worlds, fully and freely. If that’s not the definition of fusion, I don’t know what is. And if this is not what the American and the Indian spirits are primarily about, I don’t know what else is.

The event has ended but its memory will not fade. If human beings really put their hearts to it, they could be this, that and everything they choose to be. And there’s more we share as humans than what separates us.

This occasion was a testimonial for how the human spirit endures and remains undefeated. 

The Indian American Life