Nashville, Paris, Pani Puri and a Wedding
- qualitytimecommuni
- Aug 11
- 5 min read
One of my favorite parts of QTR is anticipation. An adventure doesn’t have to begin when you get on the airplane. Sometimes it can begin months earlier, simply because you decide you want to participate rather than just observe.
Back in May, I was in Paris for a week. I already knew that Randa Tang and I would be heading to Nashville later in the summer for a family wedding. It was going to be a combination of a traditional Western wedding and a Hindu wedding. I didn’t want to just show up for the Hindu ceremony. I wanted to participate and learn a little more about the culture before I got there.
So while in Paris, Alex Herpe and I took the Metro across town to La Chapelle, an area sometimes informally called “Little India.” The neighborhood around La Chapelle and Gare du Nord has a large South Asian community, with Indian and Sri Lankan restaurants, spice markets, sari shops and stores filled with colorful traditional clothing. I was on a mission. I needed a Kurta.
We wandered into several shops, and I had fun explaining to the shopkeepers that I was an American going to a Hindu wedding in Nashville and wanted to dress appropriately for the celebration. Then came the fun part: trying them on. Lots of colors. Lots of patterns. Lots of opinions. Eventually, I found it, a blue kurta that seemed just right. Mission accomplished.
But QTR has taught me that sometimes the thing you weren’t looking for becomes one of the best parts of the adventure. After shopping, Alex and I stopped for lunch at an Indian restaurant and discovered something I hadn’t experienced before: pani puri.
Pani puri are little hollow, crispy shells filled with combinations of potato, chickpeas, chutney and spices, and then topped with a tangy, spicy flavored water often made with mint, coriander or tamarind. There is really only one way to eat one. The whole thing goes into your mouth at once. First comes the crunch, and then this wonderful explosion of cool, spicy, sour, sweet and savory. Pani means water and puri is the crispy shell. Simple, fun, interactive and delicious. I loved them.
“My first Pani Puri experience in Little India, Paris. A little preview of the adventure still to come in Nashville.”
Fast forward a few months and Randa and I arrived in Nashville for the wedding. We did what I love doing when visiting someplace new. We explored. We wandered Broadway, took a bike tour through Nashville and East Nashville and learned some of the history of the city. We stopped at a distillery for a whiskey tasting, and we found ourselves at the Tomato Art Fest.
The tomato is a pretty perfect symbol for a festival designed to bring people together. Is it a fruit? Is it a vegetable? It’s a uniter, not a divider. I love that. There was a 5K, a parade, artists selling their work, food, costumes, music and thousands of people willing to celebrate something as wonderfully silly as a tomato. Very QTR.
But the real reason we were in Nashville was much more important: family. We were there to spend time with Randa’s family and to celebrate the marriage of two people and the blending of two families from different cultures. There would be a Western wedding and a Hindu wedding, and I was really looking forward to experiencing both.
When it was time for the Hindu celebration, I put on that blue kurta that had traveled all the way from Little India in Paris to Nashville, Tennessee. That alone made me smile. And then I looked over at the hors d’oeuvres and saw PANI PURI! Are you kidding me? The little crispy shells Alex and I had discovered on our kurta shopping adventure in Paris were now being served at the wedding in Nashville. Of course I had some, and somehow they tasted even better. Maybe because now there was a story attached to them.
That is one of the things I love about travel. Experiences start connecting to other experiences. Paris made Nashville more interesting, and Nashville made that afternoon in Paris more meaningful. Somehow, a blue kurta and a little crispy Indian street food connected the two.
Then came the Hindu wedding ceremony itself. I had never really experienced one before, and I loved learning the meaning behind the traditions. There was the Ganesh Puja, asking Lord Ganesh to remove obstacles and bless the marriage. The groom tied the mangalsutra around his bride’s neck, symbolizing their lifelong commitment. They exchanged flower garlands, the varmala, representing mutual acceptance and respect.
My favorite part was the Saptapadi, when the bride and groom take seven steps around the sacred fire. Each step represents a vow: nourishment, strength, prosperity, happiness, family, health and friendship. I sat there thinking that’s a pretty darn good list. Not just for a marriage, but for a life. Take care of each other. Lift each other up when life gets difficult. Share your dreams. Create joy. Honor your families. Wish for a long and healthy life together. And through all of it, remain friends, equals and partners.
Later, the couple fed each other sweets, symbolizing the sweetness of their new life together, and sought the blessings of their parents and elders. And yes, the Indian food was spectacular! But what I enjoyed most was watching two cultures come together without either one needing to disappear. A Western wedding and a Hindu wedding. Two families. Different traditions, different food, different clothing and different ways of expressing many of the same hopes we all have for the people we love.
As we always talked about with Rotary Youth Exchange, It’s not better. It’s not worse. It’s different. And different is interesting. Different gives us something to learn. Different gives us another way of looking at traditions we sometimes take for granted. Different can bring people together.
Maybe that was the unexpected theme of the entire weekend. A tomato that can’t decide whether it’s a fruit or a vegetable brings an entire Nashville neighborhood together. A wedding brings two families and two cultures together. A blue kurta bought in Paris becomes part of a celebration in Nashville. And a little bite of pani puri somehow connects it all.
This is why I believe so strongly in Travel Now. Don’t just go someplace. Participate. Take the Metro across town. Walk into the shop. Try on the colorful kurta. Order the thing on the menu you’ve never heard of. Ask questions. Learn the traditions. Eat the food. Dance the dance. Spend time with the family. Just say yes.
Because sometimes the best part of an adventure isn’t simply seeing someplace different. It’s allowing a little bit of that difference to become part of you.
Quality Time Remaining.
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