I normally do jollof rice with yogurt.
Indian standard time and African standard time are like on two different levels.
Bele?
Bele.
Are you jo.. You know ‘bele’ means pregnancy?
No...
I don't think anybody touched any of
the booze because everybody was like...
The Nigerians just loved the mango lassi.
We are not yet married but we are getting there and we are actually currently engaged.
We have been together since 2014.
We met in university when we were doing our undergraduate in Kenya
and interestingly we both joined a pageant competition.
I waited a whole year. They didn’t even know I was his girlfriend.
We eased them into it. It wasn’t like, all of sudden, there is this Indian
chick that pops up, like : “This is my girlfriend” and they are like: “OK”.
He is from Nigeria. He is obviously African. You can't really hide that.
It was just part of who he is, I knew it wasn't going to be an issue with my friends
or my family really.
As for my dad,
I only told him recently so it has taken him a bit of time. He is like ‘work in progress’ and I
am not necessarily pushing him a lot. I just want him to take his time and come to terms with it.
Our first Nigerian-Indian wedding was our own wedding.
When we were planning this wedding, my mum made it very clear that she wants to have
the Indian side well represented. So that is like a non-negotiable.
What we want in this wedding is a representation of both cultures.
You do a bunch of choreographed dances and have close friends and family perform.
So I had asked John's family to actually be a part of that as well, so they put together a little
Nigerian fashion show.
The movie gave us some great ideas especially when we saw, was it jollof biriyani?
Jollof biryani. That was really cool.
That was awesome. I was like: "Wow, that would be a great idea."
I am pretty much vegetarian, so it was a little bit harder for me to find vegetarian options.
Nigerian food without any meat, it is not exactly Nigerian food. We don’t believe in vegetarians.
People have opinions and sometimes it’s more like: "This should not happen,
"This is wrong. There are so many Indian boys in India.
"Why not an Indian boy?"
At the start of our relationship (people asked): ‘Who is this guy? What are you doing with this kind of guy?’
But you just learn to ignore that.
I was confident enough to know that you know, we would be able to fight this,
fight for this and see it through to the end.
The importance of learning about the other culture.
The minute you say: "I’m getting married to this person", that’s
the mentality you have. This is yours, this is your family, this is your unit,
you’ve got to protect it, you’ve got to take care of it.
Just humble yourself enough to learn, learn as much as you can
about the other culture because that can actually be what helps progress things.