A wedding, dancing and karaoke

Today is Sunday and though I slept late this morning, I woke up to the incessant sound of the alarm clock at 6.30 am . I am meeting a friend at the park where I exercise at 7.30am. The sky was cloudy and it was an exceptionally cool morning. We had such an animated conversation while walking briskly that we did not feel the time was already nearly 9.00 am!

I also remember that today we are yet invited to another wedding held at the bride's house. You see, as last Friday was the start of the school holidays, many weddings are held during this period to enable faraway friends and relatives and their school-going kids to attend the joyful event. This invitation was from 9.30 am to 2.30pm. The centrepiece ceremony, the"bersanding" that is when the bride and groom sit side by side, at the special dais for everyone to admire, was at 11.30am. As we were too tired, we could not make it to the house till after 1.00pm! But attend we must.

By the time we arrived, most of the guests had already left. Small groups of guests were sitting under the gaily decorated tents in the house compound and the lovely dais was there as well with the couple sitting patiently. The bride's parents introduced us to them before we proceeded to the large garage beautifully turned into a dining place. Music was blaring away and I noticed that it was a karaoke with different people taking turns to sing! Young and old, big and small.

We were enjoying the company and the food, when the bride's large extended family started to gather everybody to do the "pocho-pocho" a kind of dance not unlike step or line-dancing where everyone dances to the rhythmic music. They really enjoyed themselves and they called on the guests to join in. Then it was the "ronggeng" a traditional Malay couple dance followed by the ethnic dance of the" sumazau".. oh it was such fun! Even elderly ladies and men participated in the dancing along with the young ones. The bride's father was sporting himself.

It was an unforgettable afternoon. It must have been a sedate affairs earlier on but the latter part was devoted to the family having fun... we were glad we came later. We would have missed this frolicking fun had we come earlier, not to mention the traffic hassles and the crowd jostling for the sumptious foods catered by a local restaurant.