What's the most awaited tradition at a Maharashtrian Brahman wedding?

Since the auspicious time or muhurta usually occurs in the morning, as defined by astrology and the pundits, the wedding feast is generally a lunch. Guests are made welcome into the venue of the meal and invited to sit downon the floor, as is traditional, or else at tables for the more contemporary minded. The food is served up on freshly washed banana leaves, placed face-up in front of chatais or wooden planks on which people are seated. The meal is conventionally vegetarian and onion and garlic are not used in the cooking. Each dish is distinct in taste and appearance and no flavours are extreme or disharmonious. It is almost as if the stomach, too, rejoices in the celebration!

Rice is a staple, served white, hot and fragrant, with a dollop of freshly made ghee melting into its heap on the banana leaf. By its side and augmenting its starchiness are puris golden, puffed into spheres and flaky, releasing their little pockets of steam when broken open. Accompanying these staples are vegetables cooked in coconu based gravy beans, yams, potatoes, pumpkins, carrots and more. A sunny yellow dal, or varan, is mixed into the rice or scooped up with the puris; it is deliciously seasoned with the hot oil and spices of the tadka, poured sputtering into it just before serving (in fact, varan bhaat, or dal and rice, is a favourite everyday food in most Maharashtrian homes). Keeping company with these main dishes on the leaf is a spicy green mango chutney, made just before it is spooned out and a crunchy salad of cucumber and peanuts a staple crop in the arid plateau region of the state.

Dessert is an essential part of any wedding feast and a Maharashtrian celebratory meal includes a sampling of some of India's favourite sweets: most often, Basundi, Jalebi or Shrikhand. The Basundi, made of thickened milk, is creamy and soft, sliding down the throat with a delightful sweetness. Jalebis crisp tangles of deep-fried dough soaked in sugar syrup are usually rose scented and wonderful eaten hot, straight off the fire.

Shrikhand, made of thick yogurt beaten with saffron and sugar,sometimes with almonds andpistachio nuts added, is refreshingly cold and tart; in some homes, it is eaten with puris.

To wash down this culinary experience is a drink called Mattha. It is an essentially Maharashtrian style of buttermilk, flavoured with coriander leaves and salt and served chilled in tall metal glasses. The wedding feast ends with a sweet paan, or vida, which consists of betel leaves wrapped around betel nuts, spices and sugar. It cleanses the palate and begins the digestive process. It also signifies the sealing of the newly formed bond between two individuals and, indeed, two families, blessed by all those who have participated in the celebration of the marriage.