‘They were on sale,’ he replied proudly.

She laughed, closed her eyes again, and kissed her husband’s hand. He laughed too and didn’t take it away.

•

Vivek’s Hindu wedding was over and the Catholic wedding was about to begin. Priya surveyed the crowd on the other side of the church. Caterina’s parents had submitted a guest list as long as their own. Apparently the Italian community in Sydney was even bigger than the Tamil community, and everyone was related to everyone. Caterina’s mother had said, ‘If I don’t invite all of these people I’ll have to walk around with a paper bag over my head.’

Priya said exactly the same thing to Vivek when justifying the five hundred close personal friends and relatives she’d wanted to invite to the Hindu wedding. Patrizia and Priya compromised—three hundred Sri Lankan Tamils to the Hindu wedding and three hundred Italians to the Catholic wedding. Each side invited their own extended family, adding two hundred people to both weddings. It was only fair.

Her eyes wandered. The Italian widows were dressed in black and the Hindu widows in muted saris. Neither wore make-up or jewellery. The older married women on both sides of the aisle wore too much make-up and jewellery.

The Italians were all crying. The Tamils were watching the ceremony, dry-eyed but interested. They had barely paid attention during the Hindu wedding yesterday, but then no one paid attention at Hindu weddings.

When the Catholic priest asked Vivek, ‘Will you give yourself to Christ?’ Siva’s hands tightened on the wedding leaflet. Priya pressed his arm gently. The Hindu ceremony had been allowed to go forward, un-amended. So the Catholic ceremony should be allowed to go forward, un-amended.

‘Their children will have both faiths,’ she had told Siva. They will have both faiths, she repeated to herself.

The church was a beautiful building with sweeping stained-glass windows and pews all organised in respectful worship, facing the main altar. It didn’t have the chaos of Hindu temples and Priya understood now why her Archi often preferred churches. The small, quiet enclaves were perfect for solitude and prayer. Temples had no furniture. People walked and prayed, they talked and prayed, they ate and prayed. There was so much ‘else’—sometimes too much ‘else’—to do at a temple.