New Orleans

I just concluded a two-day wedding in New Orleans. One of my distant cousins (in an Indian family everyone is a cousin) married a girl he met in grad school at Tulane. Her family is from Denver and is both white and Christian. His family is from Mumbai and Muslim. Neither of them are particularly religious so they had a ceremony that focused more on culture rather than ritual. There was an Indian dinner and dance party followed by a short ceremony and jazz brunch the following day.

The wedding took place in the French Quarter, a place of striking beauty and character which at night turns into an adult playground with cheap drinks, loud music, partiers filing the streets, and of course more “adult” entertainments. Made me wonder what GIST Louisiana would be like.

New Orleans, like Hawaii, is a part of America that is not really like the rest of America. Its actually very distinctive. There is a strong local culture and local music and local food reigns supreme. Most of my impressions of the place are clouded by Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire) who paints New Orleans as a creepy, melancholy, magical place, and Treme, the HBO show that focuses on its deep music culture.

Its definitely a spot where a lot of Americans come to indulge and we saw a lot of weddings, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and birthdays being celebrated. People come to eat the rich food and to drink a lot of alcohol. There is a casino in the middle of downtown so you can gamble too. I would definitely recommend checking it out for any one who hasn’t been. I though I would share a few photos from the weekend with you all.