Weddings are typically all about the couple — the dress, the dance, the vows, the honeymoon and their plans for the future.
And while Gurjinder Basran’s latest offering, The Wedding, examines the romance, it also hones in on the other people who are inherently involved when two people come together in matrimony.
Basran said the decision to tell the story from the perspectives of 15 different people came from her own experience being at weddings, where she often reflects on her own life.
“I felt like most people probably have the same experience,” she told North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher. “I wanted to be able to show their internal struggles and their stories alongside the wedding.”
She said there can be a lot of assumptions made about Indian weddings and the people involved, and her goal was to offer up new, nuanced views of how those big events impact people.
“I get to give you 15 different lives and hopefully challenge those assumptions of what we think an Indian person’s life might be.”
Drama, tension
Devi Dosanjh and Baby Atwal are set to be married on July 2, 2022, in Vancouver. Devi belongs to a family that runs a massive blueberry empire, while Baby’s family runs a sweets shop. Basran said they both come from wealthy families. However, one is certainly more wealthy than the other, and they don’t let them forget it.
The book begins with the delivery of the wedding invitation to the great aunt, or bhua, of the bride. Invitations to Indian weddings, according to Basran, don’t necessarily come in the mail.
“It is a production,” she said. “It will be delivered. You’ll get some sweets. You’ll be reminded to come, and if you’re a close relative, you’ll be invited in for a cup of tea.”
Basran chose an Indian wedding as the backdrop for the novel because of the tension and drama that often comes up.
“I also just wanted to challenge the assumptions of, well, what do we think about a wedding? You know, it’s supposed to be this milestone day, best day of someone’s life. Maybe the bride’s been dreaming about it for a long time. But sometimes, during the experience, it doesn’t really feel like the best day.”
Inspired by real places and people
Set in Vancouver and Surrey, the places in the book are inspired by places the Delta, B.C.-based author has been. Some characters are based on people she knows, and in some cases, their quirks are her own.
“Mrs. Richardson is a little bit like a neighbour I had once. She’s also a little bit like me as I get older, being the nosy neighbour, watching. So they’re really just an amalgamation of different people.”
Some characters, she said, come to The Wedding from her other novels, Someone You Love Is Gone and Help! I’m Alive!
“It was nice to revisit them. So who knows, maybe some of these [characters in The Wedding] will be revisited because they could have stories all of their own, certainly,” she said.