And more temples!

We loaded into the van with our excellent hired driver, with our two friends from morning temple visit and our new friend, whose name we never did get, but who was another colleague of Pavan's father. We had no idea where we were going. Shortish drive in the car and we're at what appears to be another Venkateshwara temple. Turns out that Venkateshwara came here before he went up the mountain, so this temple called dibs. It did look older than Tirumala in some places. They say that Tirumala was already an established Hindu temple complex by the 2nd century bc and that it's been dated at 2000 years old. This one felt older. It really reminded us both of Egyptian temples in layout and feeling, age-wise. It just felt a lot more sacred. g Again, you leave shoes and cameras in the car and head to get in line. There was a lot of bustle with our companions. We figured that they were just paying for us to use the short line. This temple was a lot more local, so even fewer white folks come here. We were quite the attention getters with our pale feet burning on the hot noon pavement! Before you get to the temple building threshold, there's a constant stream of water where you wash your feet. Let me tell ya, it feels really good!! g First you pass through a room with 4 large statues that were on platforms that can obviously be hoisted into the air. On the end that I saw, there was an elephant and Hanuman. I think on the other end was a horse, but without a photo, the brain isn't so sure! ;-) This queue is almost pushier than Tirumala. You'd think that people would get that pushing doesn't make you get there faster, it makes your darshan shorter. I guess it's human nature though. This line was crammed into narrow spaces as you head toward the murti. There were again chants of "Gooooooooooovinda!" By now, I had told Dan about the Valley Girl cheerleader routine and he was giggling with me too. It was much, much hotter here in the enclosed space. There was a group of gawking school kids in line with us. Maybe they recognized me as Salma, but I'll never know. I did a namaste/namaskar at them and their eyes got as big as dinner plates as they returned the gesture. I'm sure they were impressed that Salma knew what to do at a temple! ;-) g As we approached the inner sanctum, we prepared to do the fast pranam that happens when one is shuffled by the deity. Instead, our friends ushered us inside the small gate and about 5 feet from Lord Ventkateshwara! The air was extremely heavy with perfume and deepak (cotton wicks soaked in ghee and lit) lit the chamber. The murti was probably 8 feet tall. His wife, an aspect of Lakshmi, was nearly as large. There were others too, but we were pretty overwhelmed at being so close to them and I can't tell you who they were. They asked our names and did a mini puja (ceremonial prayer service) which included lighting a finger-sized bit of incense that flamed like a flare! Very impressive. As I offered my name, I was thinking of everyone who had asked that I offer prayers for. At the end of the puja, you make a little bowl with your hands and the pujari puts a little scoop of spiced water into your hands. You drink it and then wipe your hands on your crown chakra (top of your head). I found out later, that this water is used to bathe the deity. When they run out, they run out. This felt so powerful and deep. I don't think that words can adequately describe the feeling. However, the best was yet to come! g After leaving this temple, we gave equal time to Lord Venkatewshara's wife, Goddess Padmavathi, an aspect of Lakshmi. This was a much larger temple complex and it seems that they feed people here as well as we passed through a large hall with people eating off small banana leaves. There was another section where there was ararti (devotional service) going on and quite a crowd there. We continued to queue for the main temple. This line was longer and less organized. It was difficult to keep together and it was much, much hotter and stuffier. There was a sort of courtyard area that we reached before the inner sanctum. I think it was more queue area used for busier days. They probably would have had a more orderly crowd if they'd used it the day we were there. ;-) We ventured into the darkened temple proper and the mood got very, very quiet. There were people everywhere with lotus blossom bouquets (truly gorgeous in appearance and scent) and there was a feeling of hushed reverence. Again, this murti was probably 8 feet tall. There was more chatter amongst our new friends and again, we were in the inner sanctum, about 3 feet from the murti. I was asked to kneel, as she's sacred to women, and did so. I got very overcome with emotions that I can't fully express, I was really choked up and trying to keep it together. It really felt like I had a direct line to the Goddess and she was listening. They asked for our names and did the mini puja, also asking us to touch a tray of plants that would be offered to the deity. The pujari added jewelry and our financial donation to the tray and make the offering on our behalf. I was holding all our dear ones names in my heart asking for health and happiness. This was certainly right up there with surreal, out of body spiritual experiences I've experienced! We were given more of the holy water and given a little part of the plants that had been offered. Our friends put it behind their ears, so we did the same. When in Rome... g As we exited the inner sanctum, the queue took us through another area with murti, but the pujari sort of shoo'd us away, much to the irritation of our hosts. We said it was ok and no worries. Honestly, I don't know how many people get that feeling of having God's ear for a few moments. I don't think I could top it, and certainly not at that moment. g As we left the complex, they asked if we'd had coconut water yet. We hadn't and after clarifying that there was no water added to it, we were slurping warm, slightly coconuty, not sweet, but very thirst quenching coconut water our of a fresh coconut. I can see why they drink this stuff! g We loaded back into the van and Dan and I were getting concerned about cleaning up, packing and getting ready to leave for the airport. We were driven back to the wedding hall, where things were winding down. Of course, there was another meal, and we ate very, very lightly. We got to talk to the bride and groom, who were eating lunch before they went to Tirumala for their solemnization. Before this final phase of the marriage ceremony, they go to their respective homes for a little bit. Pavan wanted us to come with him and we agreed. We loaded back in the van with our new friends and tried to convey where we wanted to go, but ended up at the hotel. It was actually ok in the end. We got a shower and about an hour of nap before our 3 hour ride to the airport. And at least we did get to say congratulations before our departure and theirs.

Prenup video - excellent band!

More wedding video!

More ceremony footage...

Wedding Ceremony Video

Raw video footage of the ceremony.

The Happy Couple

More ceremony blessings

Wedding Blessings

Tying the pendant on the bride...

Wedding

Pavan's sister is far right, then his mother and niece, Pavan, then his father. This is just before the ceremony.

Tirumala, coming down the mountain

Tirumala, Marriage and Temples, oh my!

We were so tired, but we dragged ourselves out of bed at 3am and got ready for our winding trip up the mountain to the hilltop pilgrimage temple of Tirumala. This is one drive I wouldn't want to drive myself! Very winding, with lots of switchbacks as you make your way to the top. (At least the road is very well maintained!) At all the temples we've been at here, there are no cameras, cell phones or shoes inside. You leave all of those things in your car or with guards. I think this pic is actually from near where we parked, looking back on the the temple complex after we'd been through it. It's not the main temple though, which is quite a ways into the complex, and completely encrusted in gold. One can also walk the 7 hills to get to the temple, but this takes 3-5 hours and, darn, we didn't have time to do that, so had to endure the car ride. ;-) g We arrived in the dark. Pilgrims purchase timed tickets. There's a huge queue that you go through, with holding areas with fans, blankets, benches. Groups stay in these holding areas until their appointed time. It's quite a walk and you go through security several times. People are given food free of charge while they wait. We were told that this was the only time to go when there would be perhaps less than 5000 people there. It sounds like an average day is 50,000-100,000 people and it goes up from there. This was quite busy enough for me as we still stood in line for about an hour and it was a lot of walking on stone in bare feet. My knee was most unhappy and I was trying to be so cognizant of my metatarsal, which I had injured in Rome on a cobblestone. We were pretty much the only pasty white folks there, so I wasn't terribly surprised when a group of excited people behind us started pointing and whispering. I was thinking, "Yes white people. One is short and fat. The other is really tall! Tada!" Then I realized that what I was hearing wasn't completely in an Indian language. They thought I was Salma Hayek. Yes. Pasty, fat, auburn du jour, non-Mexican ME. I almost couldn't contain my laughter. I couldn't quite get to Dan to tell him and I didn't think the two gentlemen who accompanied us would get it. (Thank goodness for them, though! The temple complex is huge and difficult to navigate.) And don't worry. I won't let it go to my head. I figured it was one more Hindu deity playing a joke on me. They tend to do that, though usually in dreams. g The line is never ending, but almost always moved. Apparently it can take over 24 hours, and generally 5-8 hours before you get to see the resident God, Venkateshwara, a form of Lord Vishnu. (If you want more info on this deity: http://www.dalsabzi.com/articles/balaji_sri_venkateswara.htm - this was the shortest version of the story I could find!) You pass through many areas before you get to the main temple. Most of the walls are granite and carved with Sanskrit. There's a lot of incense in the air, and sweat, though we were lucky to only have a few moments of that as the early morning air was less hot and humid than it would be in a few hours. I think some of the incense-y smell was possibly insect repellent coils that are very popular in India. People come from all over India to be at this temple. This is also a place where people undergo what I like to call spiritual shearing, shaving their head as an offering to the temple. In the Hindu tradition, this give direct access to the crown chakra, where divine energy enters one's body. It's also said that this is a way to strip away vanity and ego, which impedes communion with the divine. (The temple sells the hair to the cosmetic/wig industry and there's such volume that it makes India the number one exporter of hair.) Occasionally, someone would start a change of, "Goooooooooooovinda!" and it would echo down the line. This made me giggle a little bit as it reminded me of a little Valley Girl cheerleader thing a friend and I used to do in high school. Goooooooo Warriors! Terrible, when people are gearing up for a holy experience and chanting a name of God, but hey, the gods are always laughing at me... g After standing in line for about an hour or so, we finally approached the door way to the main temple. The whole outer area and the tall, intricately carved roof is also covered in gold. I'm not talking chintzy gold. This is heavy, heavy duty gold! There are large, Bactrian-style angels on the corners of the roof. They were slightly more angular than other carvings I saw. I couldn't get a definite reading on who they were though. The energy was definitely more intense inside the darkened inner sanctum. The air was thicker here, and warmer. Incense hung like a screen, making everything quite hazy. You could hear chanting, both from pujaris (priests) and from pilgrims. As Lord Venkateshwara is draped in gold and jewels - diamonds in particular, the path to viewing the murti is lined with guards who hurry you along so you don't dawdle and hold up the line. Literally, if you can't see over people's heads, you might get a 5 second darshan (sacred visit) with the Lord! Of course, you'd think that people would think about not pushing on this little trail, but they do. This only makes the darshan faster, and it doesn't help that the guards are also pushing you along. I suggest heading to the side opposite the guards or somewhere in the middle of the crowd, if at all possible. ;-) I didn't have any amazing epiphanies during my darshan with Lord Venkateshwara, but I will say that I felt heard and I had a huge list of prayers that I carried with me! I hope you all felt the blessings. :-) g You exit around the outside of the temple. People were praying all around it. The back wall of the temple is granite and the deity is on the other side of it, so there were people touching it and praying. It reminded me of every image I'd ever seen of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, except there were women there too. On the way out, we stopped at a shrine to Venkateshwara's mother and received a blessing from a pujari (priest). We also received laddu as prasad (food that has been blessed by the deity of the temple). This is a special kind of prasad, particular to this temple. It's got coconut, nuts, raw sugar, sultanas, cardomom and some sort of flour to hold it together. Very tasty! I'm hoping that we'll be able to get the two prasads through customs, so we can share. g As we made our way out of the complex, we came upon one thing I'd been hoping to see - TEMPLE ELEPHANT! This is a really cushy job for elephants as they are very pampered and revered. This one looked to be a female teenager, and a little smaller sized. She was very painted and decorated. And she was giving blessings! Joy! Of course, her mahout (keeper/trainer - and for life) sees the white girl and the seas of children and people part. As I walk up, he quotes me an outrageous number for the blessing. I don't have my purse or anything and I walked away very embarrassed. One of the gentlemen with us asked me why I didn't get the blessing and I said my purse was in the car and he wanted a big amount. He walked me back down to them, handed me a bill in front of the guy and suddenly, I got the local rate! So, you hold your hand out with the bill and the elephant gently takes the bill with her trunk. Who knew that the little end is so agile? She gives the bill to the mahout and then you bow/namaste and she sort of bonks you on the the head. It was so sweet! Of course, our companions were completely laughing at me. I wanted to stay and commune just a little more, but the kids filled in and the mahout was done with me because he'd had to give me the local rate. ;-) Honestly though, the energy of this elephant was so sweet and loving. She seemed so happy and happy with the crowd of kids. My biggest regret is that I have no picture of her, because she was so gorgeous. One big thing checked off my bucket list! g On the way down the mountain, we stopped and did a tiny bit of shopping. I would have loved to have had a tiny bit of time to look around. There was really some amazing stuff there. I did buy some sacred cords, though I'm still trying to find out more about them. They look a lot like a string mala that was given to me as a healing piece. These were in black, orange or red. I got some of each. May as well cover my bases, eh? ;-) g So, we dashed down the mountain to make it in time for the marriage ceremony for Pavan and Sujana back at the hall. The stage had been re-draped with flower strands and festoons. There was a different band this morning and there was something going on as we entered, but we were ushered in to eat breakfast first. As in other cuisines, breakfast was my favorite meal. Poori and channa masala (garlicky chickpeas in a semi spicy gravy - and this was the best I've tasted yet!) - also sambar and idly (steamed rice cakes), coconut chutney. Meals in Southern India are all followed up with curd rice, that is steamed rice and yogurt. It's a palate cleanser and cools the chili burn. We were just finishing up and one of Pavan's relatives came to tell us that the marriage ceremony was in 5 min. We quickly washed our hands and followed him into the hall. We were looking for seats and he motioned for us to keep coming with him...up on the stage with the wedding party! We had front row seats! Dan and I were very touched and honored to have been invited to be with the family on this special occasion. Pavan was clearly pleased with our reaction. g Much of the marriage ceremony seems based on the bride being cared for and fertility. There was some washing with either milk or water, I couldn't tell. Pavan tied a red cord with a gold charm around Sujana's neck. There was filling each others hands with turmeric rice, the with coconuts and fruit and leaves. There was chanting and prayers. There was a time when the crowd around the stage threw turmeric rice at them couple, wishing them happiness. (We think that this is the origin of throwing rice at weddings, appropriated by the British.) The couple had these massive rose petal flower garlands on and they traded them. Then the couple showered each other with rice. Repeatedly. A lot of rice! A few more prayers and the ceremony was over. Family poured rice on them. Friends filed up and threw rice on them. Pavan's niece, who was maybe 2 or so, kept running up and throwing rice at them, which was adorable. After a bit of cleaning up, the couple were in their holding court positions and people came up and gave them gifts, good wishes and their blessing. It was very sweet. Pavan had a lovely group of friends in town who had all worked together at one time, but now all live in different cities. We chatted more with them. Took more pix. Then Pavan's father asked us if we'd like to tour the local temples, as one of his friends had offered to take us....

Prenup dinner

Clockwise from the bread (chappatis), spinach/potato, pepper masala, vegetable pakora, fried cauliflower. On top, the sweets bright orange ring was something soaked in a sweet syrup. The little diamond with silver on top is also a milk sweet with almonds, cardamom and probably jaggery. (a palm sugar that's probably the most nutritious sugar because it's not very refined. Nice, rich flavor too.)

Gift Procession

More gifts!

More of gifts after presentation and Sujana putting them in her sari.

The gift procession.

The band.

The wedding hall with bride and groom holding court center stage.

Prenup Photos

Entryway to the wedding hall.

Sujana weds Pavan - prenuptial dinner

Our flight to Chennai was at 5am, so we had to leave for the airport without going to bed. There are different airport rules here, when flying internally. Neither of us were terribly awake to deal with them, so I thought I'd enlighten you here, in case you should have to do internal flights in India. General/common liquids aren't a big deal, but pat downs are. You and your bags go through several levels of security. You must pick up a tag from the airline which is attached to all of your carry on items. There is no sign to tell you this, only a guard at security who tell you that you must have a tag, but can't really elaborate in any language you understand. Other items of interest: you are called by flight number as to when you may go through security, then it's a mad dash and quite a queue. You may or may not have a gate number when you arrive at the airport, check-in, check your baggage, or even after sitting for 45 minutes. There are separate security lines for men and women. You put your baggage on the xray conveyor, then proceed to go through the metal detector/pat down/wanding. (Women are patted down and wanded behind curtains.) All of the security people are military. There are assault rifles everywhere. I find this both reassuring and disconcerting all at once. We flew IndiGO air, which is a 2 year old domestic Indian carrier. Very nice people, clean planes and pleasant flights. g We arrived in Chennai, bleary-eyed, as it's only a 90 min. flight. We were met by Pavan's friend and former co-worker, Eswar, and a driver whom we had for our whole trip. The driver only spoke a little English, though he understood a good deal more from his expressions. Tirupati, where the wedding would take place, is about a 3 hour drive from Chennai. We drove through parts of Chennai, and could really tell that Pune just doesn't have infrastructure in place at the rate it's growing. It seems to be consensus that it will be a fabulous city in 10 years. Even the parts that seem poorer in Chennai and Mumbai seemed more organized than parts of Pune. My thoughts are that it's an evolving city, evolving economy, evolving country, so you have to cut them some slack. There's still a lot of beauty here, in this ancient culture - amazing architecture, graceful and gracious people, astonishing cuisine, a huge range of cultural differences and a level of happiness and tolerance that Americans can certainly learn from. g So, driving from Chennai to Mumbai: There is no part of any of the driving that I would want to take without an experienced driver. For the most part, the roads are very good. Our drive winds us through Tamil Nadu into Andra Pradesh. It was kind of astounding to see so many cultural differences even from the car! Men wear these fabric swaths around their waist. It's either worn long or folded up to be short. They wear them everywhere - city and country. I don't know if it's customary, but occasionally they do need to be re-wrapped and I got flashed a couple of times in the process. This was more on the road, than in the city, though. Some are just white/cream fabric, most are bright colored plaids. Of course, the Brits named Chennai, Madras, so the plaids makes sense. g As we passed from Tamil Nadu into Andra Pradesh (state names) we crossed into rocky country -- somewhat mountainous with interesting rock formations. I took a lot of pix from the moving car and hope they turned out decently. We passed a lot of farm land and rock quarries. The farming was either very much by hand with cows and people or by the farming machines we're so used to seeing in Nebraska. We did pass a corn field, though went by too quickly for photos of corn and palm trees. Women in the field again astonish as they gracefully work the cow-driven plows in a sari. They always look like they're going to a beautiful party in the bright colors and patterns, their hair in a thick braid or tied in a bun and draped with chains of jasmine blossoms. g We arrived in Tirupati, at the hotel that Pavan had chosen for us, Hotel Bliss. This was an older hotel, we suspect, but couldn't confirm. The doorman had an elaborate costume and there was some amazing marble and decor in the lobby and portico. We got settled in and before crashing called Pavan to find out what was going on. He and his father came to inspect the room and give us a run down on the events. It turned out that the marriage blessing at Tirumala (the famous temple) was going to be later in the day, around 4pm, and we'd have to make the 3 hour trip to Chennai, so they had arranged for us to go with two of his father's work colleagues. For the day though, they ordered us room service, approved my outfits (they said it was too hot for anyone to care) and told us to nap until 8pm when the driver would collect us and take us to the party. We didn't have to be told twice to take a nap. g Since Tirupati is a pilgrimmage city, there are a lot of weddings that take place here. There are halls that lend themselves to large groups of people - one room for ceremony/reception with two stages (one for bride and groom, one for the band), two rooms off to the side of that main room - one for groom, one for bride (there's clothing changes involved in the ceremonies), a large cafeteria style room with long, steel tables with chairs attached, a kitchen adjacent to that, a room with a wall of faucets for washing hands, and a sort of large entry way that connects them all. There must have been restrooms, but we didn't find need of them. Ceiling fans cover a good portion of the ceiling. Everyone was very sweaty in no time, and I understood Pavan and his father saying no one would care. Eshwar told us that there are very few of these places that have a/c and the ones that do are very expensive. Outside the hall, they had constructed a wide entryway with gold panels and images of some Hindu deities (Ganesh, for one). Outside, billboards and signs above the entryway proclaimed, "Sujana weds Pavan." g Clearly waiting for our arrival, which was at 8:01, due to traffic heading to the hall, Pavan had called to see where we were. We were greeted with paparazzi, along with Pavan's father. It was a little surreal! We were lead up to Pavan and Sujana, all decked out on the stage and getting ready to hold court as well wishers had their photo taken with them and wished them well. They also gave them gifts at that time. A live band was playing traditional Southern Indian music - with both a male and female singer. They were fun, but loud. Pavan introduced us to his good friend, whose name escapes me as I write this, but who was lovely and introduced us to people and told us what was going on. We met Pavan's mother, sister (who will be moving to the US soon) and nieces (adorable). There were several children there who found me and Dan fascinating. One had on a shirt that said "Portland" on it, and Dan told him about Portland, OR, because we'd been there. One little boy asked if he had a dollar he could see. I didn't hear the question, or I'd have given him one. Dan said that he wasn't begging though, just asking to see it. g There was a short ceremony when the family presents gifts of food, saris, nuts, fruits, prasad (blessed food/sweet) to the bride. It was quite a procession! At one point after the presentation of things that will care for the bride, Sujana left and changed into one of the gifted saris and then the family stuffs the folds of the sari with nuts and fruits. I'm guessing this is a fertility blessing. Most of this ritual was carried out by the women. g I suppose the best way to describe this first evening was a prenuptial dinner, with some wedding gift giving and many photos. In Southern India, the dinner is an interesting thing. It's served on a banana leaf and eaten with fingers. We ate with a group of Pavan's friends, who were all so wonderful to hang out with us. Pavan had tried to anticipate our every need and had place settings for us with silverware and plates. He was quite impressed with us when he found that we ate with our fingers for the most part! (We'd been practicing.) The wedding dinner had some elaborate sweets, one of which is covered in vark (edible silver leaf). The sweets are eaten first at a wedding dinner to ensure a sweet start to married life. g Shortly after dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed. The next morning was the wedding ceremony and the blessing of the marriage at Tirumala, the pilgrimmage temple and richest church in the world - rivaling the Vatican. The exact time of the blessing is deterimined by Jyotish (Ayurvedic astrology) and Pavan had wanted us to go with them to Tirumala for that, but our flight times conflicted, so he and his father arranged for us to go before the wedding ceremony with two of his father's work colleagues. The 4am departure would greet us all too soon, considering that we'd only had about 3 hours of sleep in the past day and a half!

Mezza9

A word about toilets...

So far, we've been lucky. Anywhere we've gone and needed facilities, there were Western toilets. Before leaving the hotel, one must make sure to use facilities that one knows about! There are, in India and also in Europe, the squatting variety of toilet -- these are the type with two indents for your feet and a hole. I don't really want to think about this type of toilet. I admit it! I don't know if my bad knee would support such squatting activity and frankly I'm afraid to try it. There's a whole different protocol for how one cleanses when using one of these, if one doesn't have one's own toilet paper. (Of course, one does have one's own toilet paper in purse at all times.) I won't get into it, unless someone is vastly interested. Most places seem to have modern toilets and less modern toilet paper and I for one am grateful. However, there's been much interest in the toilet at the hotel, so I will tell you that this is my favorite type of toilet -- the big flush/little flush variety. The button on top of the tank allows one to choose. So much more efficient. So, now you know. :-)

The hotel room

(This is our cleaning and making the bed, not housekeeping. The bed is on the other side of the glass art partition.)

Minor Shopping

For a day where not much happened, I'm sure tired! As you may recall, Dan is working nights here, as it's day in the US where the clients are. I'm trying to keep the same hours. Essentially, there's not a lot of difference to our schedules back home, except that we're trying to sleep when it's VERY hot out and the morning sun is on our windows, near the bed. This is a really lovely hotel, and I'll post pix of our room, but they can't seem to figure out that we're working nights, so won't make it to breakfast in the morning. Yes, we'll definitely call housekeeping when we take the "do not disturb" sign off, so they can bring us clean towels and make the bed. We're still in it, though, so it'll be awhile.... ;-) g We ended up too awake after only 2 hours of sleep and decided to explore Pune a bit. We went to Pune Central, which they call a mall. In the US, we'd call it a department store. I did find some tops, which was a small miracle, as I'm sure not an Indian body type! Tops are interestingly decorated and were just about $20 each. Even the very elaborately decorated Salwaar Kameez (long tunic top, pants, scarf) were under $200, with more casual styles running maybe around $30-40 or so. Still, I'm hoping to find a good tailor who can make me some things. The salespeople here really, really help you. I went into a trial room with more clothes than I think I even could have packed to bring back! None fit, but still. And two people were trying to find things I liked. That never happens at Dillards or Younkers! I bought large, so hope that the cottons will withstand washing. After 6 floors of exploring (top floor is grocery and food court), I was beat and we had to come back to the room to nap before Dan's car arrived to take him to work. (A cab here is an auto rickshaw -- a three wheeled motor vehicle. A car is what Americans think of as a taxi cab.) As for store content, think Dillards or Kohls, but with smaller selection: shoes, modern clothes - women's men's, teens, kids; designer lines, cosmetics, appliances, a few toys. The addition of traditional/ethnic clothing is the difference. Another interesting note was that while there were mainly men in the men/boys clothing depts., there were fairly equal numbers of men and women working in the women's clothing. g It's interesting to note the food courts here. Americans are used to multi-ethnic food options. Indians seem to prefer Indian cuisine almost exclusively. The food court has a counter for dosa (huge, thin pancakes generally filled with spicy veggies or potato mixtures), snack-type foods (things that would be considered street food: small stuffed breads, what looked like finger food/hand held food, etc.), Southern Indian specialities (usually hotter and drier/less saucy), and another region, like Punjab Cuisine or Mahastastran Specialities and then perhaps a noodle counter or Chinese counter. This particular mall also had a gelato stand, which was so helpful since ventilation in the dressing rooms was less than comfortable. ;-) )(Fitting rooms were well lit with nice mirrors, but back behind the main shopping floor and apparently ductwork. It sure could use a fan overhead!) From what Dan describes, the food court at his office is very similar, minus the gelato, which was a bonus prize this afternoon. g It is interesting to note that there is security everywhere you go. For instance, the shopping mall had armed guards and a couple of military people posted. You pass through/metal detectors to enter the store. The driver had to get out of his car and was wanded, then had to open his trunk for inspection. I believe some of this might have been in place prior to the terrorist activity in Mumbai last year, but suspect that it's been elevated since. g Tomorrow, I think that we might try to go to a museum and possibly shop for musical instruments. Hard to say what the day will bring when our schedules are so completely off! We're both hoping that our energy levels out so that we can get out more. Of course, this weekend is Pavan's wedding and we want to save up a bit for that!

The huge flower mala (necklace) we offered to Ganesh. It's to my knees!

Outside of Pune, like AZ but with monkeys!

Sitting side saddle and one of the decorated trucks

Spotted cows in traffic, Mumbai

Us at the Gateway of India

Gateway of India and the bay

Flowers outside of temple

Most excellent holy guy with strings to tie on our wrists...

Mumbai traffic

Breakfast at the hotel

At long last...India

GETTING THERE - APRIL 11-12

The journey of a thousand steps begins with a four hour delay! Yes, we had 2 hours of sleep, sped out of the house and sat at the Omaha airport for 7 hours due to weather delays in Newark. We passed the time chatting with a couple from Belgium, she was from England, he was from Northern India. Got more travel tips from them, which almost made it worse for us as we sat there delayed and thinking we might not make our connecting flight. As we were sitting there, forging plans if we couldn't make it out of Newark or to Newark, there was a page for "Mr. Shiva." Um. Ok, things are probably going to be ok. ;-)

When we FINALLY got to Newark, it was a mad, mad dash from the A concourse to the C concourse via 2 disorganized and very slow shuttles. We were supposed to have a 4 hour layover and as it was, barely had time to stop at the bathroom before we boarded.

The flight over was long, over 15.5 hours, but we passed time watching movies and catching up on a couple of HBO sitcoms we alway seem to miss. It was a miracle that we didn't have a 3rd person in our row, so we got to spread out as much as one can in an airplane seat. There wasn't much sleep going on though!

The Mumbai airport wasn't at all what we expected. I guess it's the Delhi airport that's the busy/chaotic airport, perhaps. As it was, it was pretty quiet and organized, though it was 8:30pm or so. Customs/immigration was really organized and easy to manage. We landed early and breezed through customs, but our driver was there with our names on a sign. Signage was all in English and easy to follow. Over all, it was way more organized than our experience at the Prague airport!

Getting to the car, we did feel that we were definitely in a different climate. Very humid and definitely hot, even at night. However, it wasn't significantly different than walking outside at the Orlando airport and smelled about the same. Car exhaust and humidity. Actually less cigarette smoke than I'd expected. After about 25 hours of travel, it was much less of an assault of the senses than either of us had thought. We were wondering if we've become jaded somehow, that an exotic port like Mumbai should seem not so exotic to us.

IN MUMBAI - APRIL 13
We were very grateful that we'd thought to spend the night in Mumbai before traveling to Pune. We tried to set up our phones for India and had trouble doing it, but thankfully, Dan can email from his Blackberry and was able to get a message to Mom that we'd arrived. The Hotel Pretam Midtown, where we spent the night, was very nice. There's much granite and marble everywhere, as some is mined here. Makes things very elegant. Our laugh for the morning was watching Indian infomercials and filling in English equivalents for the dialogue. We had a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel -- sambar (spicy and watery lentil soup), lentil doughnuts (vada), sweet curd (yogurt) with potato-pea paratha (who knew!?), more sweet curd which we mixed with papaya-watermelon jam. This was a flavor I don't know that I'd have purchased if I'd seen it in the store, but which we both found pretty entrancing! I wonder if one could find it in Omaha, because it'd be swell in trifle! Anyway, the staff was great, very pleasant and helpful. We'd recommend it and would stay there again.

Our driver, Balaji, from the previous night, picked us up this morning for a quick tour of some Mumbai highlights. Driving in morning traffic (actually, just normal traffic), was interesting. Many motorcycles with entire families on them - dad drives with helmet, mom sits side-saddle in sari, kid #1 is in front of dad and kid #2 is between mom and dad. Many children sitting in the front seat with chins on the dash board. No seatbelts, no car seats. Actually, I haven't seen a stroller with pedestrians either.

Smaller cars are everywhere. Three-wheeled trucks whip between cars, highly decorated trucks with all kinds of cargo from water to bundles unknown have paintings on the back that proclaim "honk please!" and "honking OK!" We're assuming that they have large blind spots. Mumbai outlawed elephants as transport several years ago, but we did see some cows in the side lanes, so it wasn't a huge disappointment. ;-)

In India, when you're passing someone, coming up beside them, just want to let you know that you're there or you see them, you give a couple of short horn blasts. (We were on a fairly busy street at the Hotel Pretam, so heard quite a bit of the horn honking over night. We were tired enough that we crashed, but others might want ear plugs.) While pedestrians weave between vehicles, often tapping a car as it's about to move to tell them to stay put and let them cross, motorcycles drift between larger vehicles, making their own lanes. For the most part though, for a very large city, the traffic was very organized. Certainly less frantic than other driving situations we'd encountered in Cairo and say, Rome.

SIDDHIVINAYAK TEMPLE
First stop this morning, was at the big Ganesh temple, previously mentioned http://www.siddhivinayak.org/. This was a fascinating experience. People at the hotel seemed to be surprised that we even knew about it. We saw only Indians there, so drew a bit of attention. We were immediately semi-accosted by some pretty clean beggar kids. You can't give them money though, or even more show up and are more persistant. If you truly want to help the cause, find a place to give charity to hospitals, orphanages or schools. There are donation boxes in many businesses we saw in the few stops we had in Mumbai.

At Hindu temples, one removes shoes as a sign of respect. After reading a friend of a friend's blog where her shoes were stolen at a temple (by monkeys, but still), we bought cheapo flipflops to do the temple experience. You walk down a row of vendors all with beautiful flower necklaces (malas), jasmine bud bracelets, bouquets, little sweets, small coconuts (representing ego - the toughest nut to crack) and things like that, all on a tray to be offered to the temple's deity along with your prayers. One leaves their shoes with the person whom you purchase the offerings from. You pay for your offering when you return the basket and then pick up your shoes.

The offerings are all touched to the altar and to the murti (the enlivened statue, which is considered to be a living being), then given back to the person who brought it. (We didn't know that last part, though at a high volume temple like this one, if they didn't return things, they'd be buried in flowers in about 15 minutes flat!

As we got closer to security, we were approached by a couple of priests who wrapped bracelets (dyed string blessed with prayers and dipped in herbs and sandalwood paste, called chandan) around our wrists and chanted blessings over us. They were very sweet and seemed to hone in on us among the crowd. The priest who tied my bracelet looked very much like Swami Krishna Bal Yati, whom we had met in Malmo years ago. The prayers are in Sanskrit, which is a vibrational language, meaning that the words are very precisely chanted so that they are both heard and felt. This is the closest description that I can come to at the moment. This man felt as though he were speaking directly to my soul and I felt a little choked up at the sweetness of his demeanor and chanting. I heard "Ganapataye" in his words, so knew that these were prayers and blessings to Ganesh.

Now security was another deal. We know there are no cameras allowed inside, but the guard had seen me taking photos, so even though the camera was in my purse, he wouldn't let me pass through. We were on our way back to Balaji, to give him my purse, when he came through the crowd and said, "I figured you were taking photos, but then couldn't get past security. I'll wait here with your bag." One obstacle removed already!!

We proceeded through men's and women's separate security lines. I had a pat down and security wand as well. Our offerings went through the xray conveyor. After that, the lines converge into about 8 different paths, from what I could tell. This is a very rich temple, the entire inner sanctum is covered in highly decorated gold, so security everywhere is pretty understandable. As you approach the actual building, there's a tree that you pass that everyone touched. It's draped with the strings that the priests tied around our wrists. I'm still trying to find out what the tree is about. As you get to the inner sanctum, the traffic is stopped on one path, as another continues. There are steps down to the altar and murti, and once you make your way to the front, you pass your offering to a priest, who touches it to the murti. Our little jasmine bracelets went onto Ganeshes crown and stayed there. I had written a tiny post-it note with all our friends who had asked for prayers to be offered and believe that it stuck to one of them or fell on the altar somewhere, because I didn't see it again. I hope the prayers are all heard and answered. You back out, up more stairs in a show of respect and then the path out leads to the gift shop!! Of course, we had to get a few Ganeshes from there! They were very inexpensive and if we'd have been able to get our card to work in an ATM, we'd have had more cash with us to purchase more! (So far, setting up phone, internet and debit cards have been the most difficult part of the trip.)

GATEWAY OF INDIA

Next, we went to the Gateway of India. It was a nice drive along the bay on Marine Drive to reach the Gateway. It was built to commemorate the visit of George V to Bombay. True to form for me, it was in scaffolding. (For those who don't know, everytime I visit a major monument, it's in scaffolding: the Sphinx, Colossi of Memnon, the US Capitol, The Raphael room at the Vatican, part of St. Peter's, etc., etc.)

As we were approaching the Gateway, a guy filmed us. We wondered if we should have asked him for a tip, as lots of people had asked us if we wanted to take their picture for money. (Not so much. lol)

ON TO PUNE

Then it was on to Pune. The maps show that there are hills here, but you really do some climbing to get to Pune. It's a lot drier here, but still hot. Easier to take than Mumbai's humidity, but still more humid than one would expect. So much of the countryside looked like Arizona, complete with mesas and rock formations. And then you realize you're not in Arizona when the monkeys run across the road!!

Something that has struck us both is that no matter where you are, there are people walking. You can seem to be in the middle of absolutely nowhere and there's one or two people walking. Also striking: road crews doing landscaping in the median including women in saris with safety orange vests. While they seemed to be completely unphased by the 6 meters of fabric wrapped around them, I know that I can barely garden in a t-shirt and pants without becoming a tangled mess.

Also, we've been struck with the huge amount of city sized construction that's going up between Mumbai and Pune (on a very nice toll road). There are billboards that talk about recession, but people were working fast and furious on these huge developments. It's pretty impressive. Our hotel is actually on the outskirts of Pune in one of the construction zones.

But I digress... We stopped at a little food mall and had a quick lunch with Balaji before heading about 90 min. from Pune. We didn't even know we were hungry, to be honest! We had rice, dal, aloo paratha (tandoor grilled bread stuffed with onions, peas, spiced pototoes), some saag. We bought lunch for Balaji, who had a masala dosa (large, thin pancake with spicey veggies inside) and for all of us with drinks it was about $4 US. Oddly, the digestive upsets we're having are the same we've had at home with spicy food. It's just on the verge of too hot for me, but curd helps calm it down a lot. As does Tums! ;-)

Our hotel in Pune is luxurious! Our room is a small suite with a living room with couch, chairs, tv, wardrobe, fridge and microwave on one side with a glass art wall separating it from the bed and bathroom area, which also has a tv.

As Dan is working nights here (which is daytime in the US), the 24 hour room service is FABULOUS! Dan will be sorry to have missed the lovely dal makani (lentils and kidney beans in spiced gravy), jeera rice (basmati with ghee, cumin seeds and cilantro), a beautiful naan and chicken kabob marinated in some sort of paneer (homemade cheese) that I'm nibbling on as I type.

We checked in and had a nap. I was still sleeping while Dan figured out the computer hook up and some phone settings. The guys from work called and though he was really pretty exhausted, they were too excited for him to come in to work, so he did. I was pretty sleepy when he left and we didn't quite realize that when one takes the room key out of the special slot, it also turns off all the power and a/c in the room. I awoke, hot, sweaty and pretty cranky and in the dark! Luckily, Dan must have gotten my psychic message to come right away. I wasn't awake enough to have thought to ring the front desk for another key. Mostly I was trying to text or call Dan. Neither of which worked.

Dan, meanwhile, was meeting with guys from work, discussing ideas and setting things up. They were also trying to help him get rupees, as the bills go very quickly! No avail. As it turns out, when we logged into the system from India, they put a hold on our account. Now, we'd called to tell them we were traveling to India and wonder now why that meant nothing.

As Dan hadn't eaten, and hadn't planned to go in on our first night here, they took him to dinner. We were told that they made awesome gin and tonics here, a remnant of the Raj. This place didn't really know what that was, but had a lemon tonic and some gin and Dan gave a remdial bartending lesson. He said the result was quite good.

So, he returned to the room and we got everything figured out with regard to computer and phones so that we can call each other and I have internet access.

TODAY - APRIL 14

Which brings me to today. We slept. We slept a lot. We slept all day. We got up, ate a very very spicy pizza, which was by far the hottest thing we've eaten and the only thing available at 4pm. The chef isn't in until 7pm for room service. Good to know. lol I'm not really sure that the sleep we're snagging is from jet lag, or the past month or so of no sleep... maybe some of both.

Hoping tomorrow to have someone show us around the town. We're hoping to find Laughing Yoga, the Naadi Astrologer, a place to have clothes made for me, fabric places, musical instrument stores...more adventure awaits!

We still don't know what schedule we're on. It seemed that we might just stay up all night here and sleep all day, which would be about right for the time back home. We're not sure whether that's going to work or not since we want to see things and shop, etc. We'll likely have to mix it up. I know that coming home is going to be harder than coming here, time zone-wise. It always is!

Yes, it's 3am and we're still packing...

We admit it. We went out for Indian food for dinner, came home and watched "Slumdog Millionaire." Probably not the best idea for two night owls with early flights. Obviously, I don't recommend this approach to travel for everyone. We're surely taking too much stuff with us, though much will get used along the way -- bug spray, SPF70 sweatproof sunscreen for the equatorial sun.

The snow only just melted out of the back corner of our yard a couple of days ago. It was 104 or 105 in Pune yesterday. Seems that the heatwave has passed Mumbai, where it's supposed to be 98-100. We'll ease into the heat though, as we'll arrive at 9pm, when it should be in the mid- to upper 70's.

Laughing Yoga

Something we're looking forward to finding, as it originated in Pune!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuGb-WlepvA

A couple of interesting videos about two of the major temples we'll be visiting. We're hoping to be able to drag ourselves out of bed on our first day to visit the "wish granting" Ganesh temple in Mumbai, before we head to Pune. We're not sure if we'll make it to arati (prayer service) or just darshan (a visit). No cameras are allowed inside temples, so this will be as good as it gets! http://www.siddhivinayak.org/ There is a webcam on this site. At about 9pm Central, you can see the pujari (priests who take care of the temple) putting offerings on the altar and murti (statue enlivened with spirit and breath and cared for as a living being)for blessings. * The wedding we'll be attending will be blessed at this temple in Tirupati. This is the one that rivals the Vatican in visitors (25,000 to 100,000 visitors per day) and is a close runner up in wealth! Holy schmoley! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqeaa5lL4pM&feature=related We've been reading that they have the equivalent of Disney's Fast Passes to get into the temple (timed tickets) and the queues look to be about the same as Disney too, now that I think about it. Of course, this is a very sacred pilgrimmage site. The main deity, Venekateswara (an aspect of Vishnu), is the "granter of boons" and is always depicted with eyes covered as their intensity would burn the universe. * More soon!

The adventure starts April 11...

Watch this space!

As is customary in India before any new venture, I'm invoking Ganesh, Remover of Obstacles, before we embark on our adventure.

Is it ever easy leaving town???

See you on the other side of the world!