That meant a role for each of the groom's four siblings as well as two childhood buddies who flew in from Berlin and Dublin. Just like in the India of yore, the cooking for the festivities began weeks in advance, to stock up the gigantic freezers with all manner of Indian goodies for the week of get-togethers. On the dining table a day before the wedding, reposed the gifts from the bride's family to the groom's, beautifully packed by a friend in the traditional way in round trays. To think that back in Calcutta this task is now often subcontracted to professionals. May. The chateau proved to be the biggest test of ingenuity for the intrepid Bengalis led by my sister-inlaw.
Rules decreed no construction or painting on the parquetted floor.
But no Bengali mandap is complete without the white rice-flour floor drawings called alpona. That, however, was forbidden by the hotel. An equally enterprising and artistic friend solved that problem, by making alpona stencils. Upstairs in the bridal suite, the star of the evening was being burnished. No beauty-parlour job for this bride.