India Trip│Lead up to the Wedding!

Last year (how crazy is that! Haha bye 2015, hello 2016!) I did a post on my ethnicity and told you all I was off to India for a month-long family holiday, and also because my cousin was getting married!

Indian Weddings are honestly such epic experiences and I'm excited to share as much as I can with you guys!

Because I have about a million lots of photos from my whole trip I'm gonna split them amongst a few posts. Also, since indian weddings aren't a one day event, legitimately a week-long process :P, this post will be about the lead up! ☺️

So we arrived in India and were welcomed by...

A video posted by Raashi Agarwal (@raashiagarwal) on

 TRAFFIC. 
Classic India.
What was supposed to be a half an hour ride home from the airport turned into a 2 hour trip.
Honestly no other way to be welcomed to India :P

And the next morning was the first wedding-related function!

So, my dad's family lives in Delhi, but the actual wedding ceremonies were to be held in a place south-east of there, in Kanpur, Lucknow. 

Because of that a pre-wedding prayer type of function was held in Delhi.

Here's some of the set up!











All dressed up and ready to go!


With my aunty, cousin (sister of the bride), and mumma.

A photo posted by Raashi Agarwal (@raashiagarwal) on


Some of my cousins from my mum's side of the family came to join us!



In India you address all your cousins with the hindi word for brother or sister, so if your cousins have kids they are essentially like your nephews or nieces (and I have a lot of them which I'm sure you'll see over the next few posts :P).


And all the bollywood-esque dancing begins!


My aunty, mumma and cutie pie ☺️


The bride to be doing some prayers.



Traditional indian sweets are a BIG part of indian weddings haha. Boxes of them are handed out to all the guests - this was about 1/5 of what we had and these were the leftovers :P Not enough, hey?


This is one of my favourites, it is so syrupy but so yummy!


Taste testing with the kiddo ☺️

Over the next few days mum and I got out of the house to do some pre-wedding shopping!


Typical Indian Roads :P


This was legitimately just a casual sight as we were driving by...
I sent this to my friend and all she said was #squadgoals :P
I'll add, #onlyinIndia



Just a few choices...?


Ok, this is so random, but I just love it. 

So, in India you have little stalls and shops devoted to selling bangles for traditional outfits. You go there and either show them your outfit, or tell them the colours you will be wearing, and they grab lots of different bangles out of their thousands and create a combination for you! 

I have looots of different coloured bangles at home but somehow I can never arrange them as prettily as these guys do in a matter of minutes!



Bangles packed and ready to go with our wedding outfits!

A photo posted by Raashi Agarwal (@raashiagarwal) on


And the night before we were set to travel to the wedding venue destination...it was time for MEHENDI (the traditional way of saying henna)!!! ☺️
All the women in the wedding family get it done and it's such a fun night with all the girls together.


The bride was the first to get started because bridal mehendi is SO full on and intricate, as you can see :P


Can you spot the groom and the bride facing each other on her palms? ☺️


The mehendi artists getting started on her feet! 
These guys are SO quick, legitimately only a minute and a bit between these two photos!


My mehendi in progress!


On both sides!


Ok, so as beautiful as mehendi is, when you're getting a whole lot put on and you want the design to stay for a while after, the longer you can keep the mixture on your hands the better!

This can become tedious :P

I kept mine on for about two hours and by the end my arms were so tired from being held in the most awkward positions to save my mehendi from rubbing off...that I resorted to resting them on the window sill :P

A photo posted by Raashi Agarwal (@raashiagarwal) on


I got some on my feet as well!

A photo posted by Raashi Agarwal (@raashiagarwal) on


The finished design!

The next morning all of us piled into a bus - it was roadtrip time to Kanpur!



It was about 15 of us altogether - and of course the family Husky, Shadow! :P


More sweets? Of course! Some fancy 'laddoos' for the roadtrip!



Oh, the sights of India...
Haha. On the drive I looked out my window and saw a couple of bangles being transported :P
#onlyinIndia

Hope you enjoyed the assortment of photos - can't wait to show you photos from the ACTUAL wedding :P

Even bigger and better, for sure! ☺️

---

Click here for my next India post,
And here for next one after that!

---

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!! 

Until then, you can: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at - 
They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

❤️, Raashi
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I'm back!

I'm back!!!

 And I've missed you all!
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

To say I have a lot of comments, blogs and blogposts to catch up on would be an understatement :P
Can't wait to visit your blogs and catch up on some reading! ☺️

I'd also like to take a second to say thank you so much to those who continued to visit my blog, old and new, I will finally get around to replying to comments soon! 

 I had an amazing trip, and can't wait to share lots of photos and stories with you all!

So, as I get all my photos and posts prepped for the next couple of weeks, I am leaving you with this sneak peek ;)


As soon as I got back home I got very, very sick, unfortunately. 
BUT! At least it happened when I wasn't travelling? So I'm currently cooped up at home getting some much needed rest. I guess that gives me some time to marathon Gossip Girl and organise photographs and all :)

 Regardless, back to routine it is! ☺️

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!! 

Until then, you can: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at - 
They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

❤️, Raashi
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Hi, from India!

As I mentioned in last week's post I will be taking a month long break off of blogging while I'm away in India!

 I did have scheduled blogposts planned ready to put up till the end of the new year. However, since I've arrived in India and been super busy with wedding and family stuff, I realised that I just won't have the time to reply to comments, and be as present and dedicated as I want to be with blogging!

 SO, I am leaving you with a couple photos from my first week here in India ☺️ 

Just some of the preparation before wedding functions!
And I'm sure that I will do a few updates on my Instagram during my time here!
A photo posted by Raashi Agarwal (@raashiagarwal) on


 But otherwise - I will see you all in the new year!!! ☺️

 (And I just know I will be stalking people's blog and commenting on posts from weeks ago, sorry not sorry :P)

 Hope you all have an amazing and safe holiday season filled with lots of love and laughter!

Until then, you can: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at - 
They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Have a great holiday season!

❤️, Raashi

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Ethnicity Tag: I'm off to India!

A long time back I mentioned I had a specific post planned - and here it is!

This week I am heading to India!!! So excited! We usually go every 2-3 years because ALL our extended family is there. This year it just so happens that we also have a wedding in the family - my cousin is getting married :)

Guys, Indian weddings are honestly the most epic experiences, I'm so excited to share as much as I can with you!


The clothes are a major part of why I love weddings :P


Anyways, when we do go to India we go for about a month because we travel all over the place to spend time with family, pretty pumped to blog all about it when I'm back!

Until then, for the month of December I do have scheduled posts ready, but I may be a bit more absent in the blogging world in terms of commenting (don't be surprised if you get spammed with notifications from me in January, sorry not sorry :P).

[UPDATE: I won't be uploading posts in December 2015 and will see you all in the new year ☺️]

However, to celebrate my upcoming trip I decided I would do an Ethnicity Tag post to get to tell you guys some more! :)

I am so blessed to have an Indian background, I love the fact that I know where my background lies and I feel like it's so important for people (especially younger generations) to be aware of where they're from and embrace that!

I am so proud of my culture and country of heritage, and as an outsider (having been born in Australia but travelling back to India) I get to have the unique perspective of seeing all the beauty in the culture and also recognising the struggles and things that need to be overcome.

Let the questions begin!

What is your Ethnicity?

Haha so many people joke that I've got some Persian and Greek in me, which, hey! I'm not complaining! :P 
Truthfully though, I am 100% Indian.

When was the last time you visited your country?

The last time I visited India was two years ago, after I finished high school and normally all our trips are so family-oriented that we don't explore India, but last time we made a point to cover some Tourist-y sites!




And we also got to explore a very popular hill station in India that has a massive lake in the middle of it. It also happened to be where my mum went to college, not a bad view for college I think :P




Name one ethnic food you enjoy the most.

SO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM. Indian food is amazing!!! Haha, so I'm definitely gonna say chicken curry, cause how could you not?



Via

Some lesser known food dishes that I love are:

Kadi (which is almost like halfway between a curry and a soup, it's slightly sour, but completely delicious!)
Via

Kulfi (I always call this indian ice-cream - because it essentially is! It is sweeter than usual ice cream and is often garnished with a sprinkling of pistachios and almonds).
Via

There are honestly SO MANY, I can't even remember all of them right now. And the thing with India is North and South India are so different, which means two totally different sets of food dishes!

One of my favourite South Indian dishes is dosa - it's like a thin, savoury crepe, stuffed with spiced potatoes, served with almost like a masala soup and chutneys, and it's just YUM.


What part of your country are you from?

My mum is from this small town which is closer to the Himalayan Range side of India, called Pilibhit. I just ADORE going to mum's hometown, I can't really describe the feeling - it's just so, so lovely to be there. It's so grounding and I think because I am so close to my mum getting to be where she grew up really means a lot to me! :)

Via

What song reminds you of your country?

Guys, India is the homeland of Bollywood, and if you haven't seen anything Bollywood before - it's epic! Haha. Legitimately all Bollywood movies are musicals, so I have a lot of choice. They are most definitely incredibly cheesy, but they are so fun to watch! Haha. I've even gotten my friends into some movies :)








 Desi girl, the video just above, means indian girl, and man this song is catchy! Haha.

Can you speak the language of your ethnicity?

Can I speak it? Yes. Fluently? Debatable. Haha. So, when I wasn't around my family used to go to India for even longer periods of time so my brother was able to fully pick up the language - by the time I came around my brother was in some of the higher grades of school, so when we went it was for shorter periods.

I legitimately learnt Hindi from watching Bollywood movies with subtitles, haha. Resourcefulness for the win! I can understand the language pretty completely, my speaking isn't at the exact same level but it's definitely quite decent now!

All my cousins speak really good English, it's more so my aunts and uncles that I need Hindi to communicate with.

Name one household item that best represents your culture.

A diya (a lit candle, more so an oil lamp with a cotton wick in it) is a form of blessing.


Almost every morning the diya is lit in our household, and it is an integral part of all auspicious occasions/ceremonies. They have deep spiritual and intellectual significance. It signifies knowledge and how all that we do in our lives should be governed by knowledge (dispelling ignorance and darkness). Lighting the diya signifies that we know that knowledge is the greatest form of wealth.

It is purposefully not just an electric light or bulb (although these would also remove darkness) because:
The oil in the lamp symbolises our negative tendencies and the wick symbolises our ego. When lit by spiritual knowledge, our negative tendencies (oil) get slowly exhausted and the ego (wick) too finally perishes.  Because it's a wick and the flame burns upwards, it implies that we all strive upwards towards the right values and higher ideals. Illumination of the mind, soul and spirit.

I love diyas, because they represent enlightenment, hope and prosperity.

 
Anyways, really hope you guys enjoyed reading this little bit more of a personal post of mine! ☺️
I'm sure I will be posting some photos of my trip throughout on my Instagram , but hopefully there will be one or two pretty posts for you guys to look at in January!

New blog post will be up next Tuesday!!! 

Until then, you can: Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Or follow me below at - 
They're all linked so you should just be able to click on them! :)

Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi



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