Friday 16th January 2026

I am extremely honoured to be playing such a part in Daya and Vinothini's wedding. Apparently, Vino's family was hoping to have the wedding in March, but Daya's family insisted on it being in January so that I could attend it. It's hard to get my head around that, and I feel very humbled to be included like this. Today was wedding invitations day, so there were visitations throughout the day, and I ended up being a part of the very first one.

There are so many Hindu cultural traditions here, but an obvious one is that the groom's family visits the bride's family to invite them to the wedding and brings them gifts and a box of wedding invitations for their side of the family. The groom is not allowed to be a part of this visit, and it is inauspicious to take an even number. They had 8 people, so it will be no surprise to many of you that I was the odd one chosen to make the number up to 9!

Vino lives in a beautiful spot overlooking Maskeliya Dam (a man-made lake). Her parents gave the 9 of us such a warm welcome - lucky for me, as the odd one! It was clearly a very formal occasion, but it was great to meet her parents and other family members, and they served us tea, followed by a very nice lunch. We left as soon as lunch was over, and I came back with Muruli, a family friend, as Ragu went on to deliver invitations to other close relatives.

Having not got to bed until well gone midnight last night, and been up from around 06:30 this morning, as the first relative appeared at the house at around 06:50, I was pretty exhausted this afternoon and I slept for around 3 hours, as Daya and other family members delivered wedding invitations to various local people. This will continue over the next few days, as you deliver wedding invitations personally as much as you can - you can't just post them!

Today's photographs show the early morning buzz as the family sorted out wedding invitations, plus photographs showing how beautiful it is where Vino lives. Vino wore a beautiful dress today, and this was clearly an exciting (if slightly nerve wracking) day for her. The final photograph was one I took on the way home, as we left Maskeliya, showing just how inclusive the pre-school provision is here in Sri Lanka. Even if you have 'New Funny Kids', there is some provision for them!













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