Out and about

For the last few days, we were up and running by 9AM, so sleeping in until 11:30AM was quite a treat! After a wonderful, hot shower and black coffee, we were ready to go!

Our host turned out to be super-resourceful. At the drop of a hat, he was able to book tours of the places we wanted to visit and got a driver arranged. The car was there by 1:30PM, so off we went.

We got the same driver who picked us up from the airport and began to get around the town. Food was the first order of business, so he dropped us off at the Friends Colony Community Center for lunch. It was an open-air mall of shops, packed with convenience stores, fast food restaurants, shops and more. As we walked along, we noticed many stores had security guards at the doors. They would open the door for you as you approached and great you with a smile or say "nameste" as you enter. The stores with guards seemed to be the cleanest and most likely to cater to westerners. As you can guess, the cost of labor is lower in India than in the US - a guard is a much cheaper way to cut down on theft and keep beggers out.

We stopped at a McDonald's for some fries - it tasted like home! After nearly a week of spicy, exotic Indian foods, my stomach was in dire need of something a little simpler. Since it was next door, we went to Pizza Hut to grab a bit of pizza as well. After connecting with our driver, we were on our way again.


Our first stop - Humayun's tomb. This was built in 1572AD, well before the Taj Mahal, as a mausoleum for Emporer Humayun. The site shares many similarities with the construction we would see at the Taj Mahal the next day. As we wandered about, we met the first of many westerners touring India - Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, a professor at the University of Kansas. Whacky how us academicians seem to find each out, halfway around the world, eh? He gave us several tips on getting to see a few more of the sites around town. It was nice to converse a bit as walked around the grounds.

Next up, we headed to the Indian Crafts Museum, near the Delhi Expo Center. The open-air museum hosted stalls of vendors, displaying artwork and handmake crafts. We wandered around a bit, taking in the various work. Of course, it was hard to leave without a few souvenirs, so Ramona negotiated some great bargains!


After the Crafts Museum, we were on our way again. We drove past the Rajghat, the site of Ghandi's cremation, now a national landmark. Our next stop was the Jami Masjid, one of the largest mosques in all of India. Unforunately, we arrived at sundown, so only parishioners could enter (guests can visit before sundown). Even from the entrance, you could see the beautiful domes and spires. It wasn't until Ramona showed me the description in our tour book that I could even appreciate the scale.


Right next to the mosque was Chandni Chowk, a bustling market, once known as the 'silvery moonlit square'. Two upcoming Bollywood movies feature this area prominently, so we were fortunate to see it while we were here. Our driver hailed a bike rickshaw driver to drive us through the market. The skinny lad spoke the right English words, so we were off on our way. We worked our way through the Kinari Bazaar, with its many stalls brimming with beads and garlands. Many of the wedding adornments we saw the bridal party wearing in Ahmedabad. After a turn, we passed perhaps hundreds of stalls on 'Sari Street' with wholesalers selling every type of cloth you can imagine. I'll bet that a skilled planner could get all of the necessary decorations for wedding here. We also passed the spice market, with its array of spicy goods. Not exactly what my stomach was craving! At the end of the bazaar, we passed the Digambar Jain, the oldest Jain temple in Delhi.


The rickshaw driver dropped us off at the Red Fort, constructed by the Emperor Shah Jahan in 1639 AD. At one time, thousands of army soldiers lived within the walls. For us, it was another piece of well-preserved history. In the pavilion, the Red Fort hosts a sound-and-light show, highlighting key elements in the Indian fight from independence of British colonial rule.


After a busy day of sightseeing, we were happy to get back to rest. Our host greeted us at the door. He informed us we needed to be ready to go by 5:15AM. We needed to meet our driver promptly, to make our way to the Delhi train station. Why so early? To catch our 6:30AM train to Agra, site of the Taj Mahal! We were eager to see one of the wonders of the ancient world, so after a quick shower, it was time for bed.

Delhi Bed and Breakfast

We arrived at the Delhi Airport late in the evening. I was surprised to find the airport still crowded with passengers and travelers, but I'm getting used to that. "It's a different part of the world, I have to remind myself!" After fetching our luggage, we stepped out and met the first of many wonderful drivers. Actually, that's not entirely true - the drivers we had in Ahmedabad were very good at quickly and safely getting around in the chaotic streets.

Our driver, Shamphu, worked his way through the crowded streets (starting to see a theme here?) and told a bit about life here. Near the airport, you could see construction projects on many major roads. I wonder what all that is for?

The Delhi Bed and Breakfast, our homestead for the next few days, wasn't too far from the airport. It was in a nice, quiet neighborhood set back from the hectic Delhi streets. We were greeted by our host (who unfortunately lugged my suitcase up two flights of stairs - sorry!). Breakfast was set for 8:30AM, but after our travels of the last few days, I didn't expect we'd make that.

Seeing the sights in Ahmedabad

With a good lunch in us, we were off for a quick sightseeing tour. First up was the Akshardham temple complex on the edge of Ahmedabad. Unfortunately, we found it was closed when we got there. Bummer - it was supposed to be a pretty neat temple.

From there, we traveled to the Ghandi Ashram, a museum at the site of one the homes Gandhi lived and worked in. The museum was full of pictures and memorabilia of Gandhi's life, his work and his message of peace. It was an uplifting experience, to say the least.



Our driver took us past many ornate buildings belonging to the local government and the high court as we made our way to the airport. Later, I learned that quite a few of them dated back to British colonial times when they were originally constructed. After a short, uneventful flight, we were now in Delhi!

Farewells

With the fun of the wedding ceremonies and behind us, we moved to a more somber note in the wedding. Now that Pranav and Smita are wed, she will be moving in to his home. For the bride's family, this marks a change in her status, as she "leaves" her family's home to join another. The occasion is a mixture of happiness and sadness.


At the beginning of the wedding process, Pranav brought a coconut with him - a traditional offering at the start of the marriage rites. Now, this same coconut is placed beneath the wheel of the car that carried them away. Breaking the coconut is a wish for good times for the couple ahead.

We ride along with Pranav's younger brothers to their home, where the ceremony rites will conclude. We arrive at a tall, high-rise complex near Law Garden, a large public park. Inside, we learn that Pranav, his brothers, parents, grandparents and great-grandmother live under the same roof in the multi-story condo. Given that the cost of land is so high in India, it's very common for many generations to share a home.


As we lunched and mingled, we learned about the couple's plans for the near future. Pranav was taking time from work for a month-long vacation for the newlywed's honeymoon in New Zealand - wow! As this will be Smita's first time out of the country, I'm sure it will be an exciting experience for her.



In a short while, it was time for us to share our goodbyes. With several hours left before our flight back to Delhi, we had time for more sightseeing in Ahmedabad.

The Wedding!

Wow - it sure was easy to get behind on the blog! Each day has been full of traveling and adventures; each evening has been full of fun!


The day of the wedding turned out to be a pretty busy day. We, had another buffet-style brunch - more high-quality Indian food. The menus continue to have a variety of dishes. However, I'm starting to miss being able to eat a salad or non-fried vegetables.


During the brunch, there was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Pranav's grandparents. There was plenty of cake to go around, so everyone was invited to have a piece. Immediately following, the younger folks began to separate, to get ready for the wedding. Ramona had a dress to pick up at the mall; I had received a nice, ethnic shirt and pants to wear for the occasion. It took a little work to get every thing arranged in the proper order. I was pretty impressed at how comfortable the whole outfit was. I'll have to save it for another Indian wedding someday...

Before things got underway, we paused for a few pre-wedding photos.


Before the wedding ceremony, we participate in what's known as a bharat. In ages past, the groom's friends and well-wishers would proceed the groom on his white horse, as he walked through the village from his home to the bride's house. All the way, his entourage would dance and sing in his path, trying to slow the groom down. With more time to think, he might decide not to get married at all, avoiding all of the headaches of wedded life.

As we prepared to walk along in the bharat, that's when I got my biggest surprise of the trip: the groom's friends all get turbans! Yup - I got to wear a turban for the event. Ramona snapped a great picture of me and another friend, Devansh, in our turbans. Later, I will upload video with all of the guys in our turbans.


The groom was preceded by a marching band, a troupe of drummers, and a throngs of wedding guests. We all paraded back and forth in front of him, dancing in his path. This gave everything a wonderful, carnival atmosphere, as we occassionally stopped for pictures, songs, and so on. Our celebrating delayed the procession for nearly an hour; not bad, all-in-all. Fornatunately for Smita, our delays couldn't change Pranav's determination.

When we finally got to Smita's home, it was marvelously decorated. Flowers everywhere left a wonderful scent in the air. Guests were treated to a wide array of Indian and international dishes, to the first night of the wedding. As usual, we grouped up with the younger crowd. Our table was overflowing with good food and even better conversation !

While we ate, Pranav and Smita performed the marriage rites with a priest in a small shrine. Their families gathered nearby and looked on as the formalities proceeded. Once things finished, the newlyweds moved to the head of a receiving line, not unlike a western wedding. As groups of extended families or friends greated the newlyweds, professional photographers would snap group photos. As Pranav and Smita had an army of photographers (and videographers), the wedding events were well-recorded. I can't wait to see how their pictures turn out!

Thanks to a day of dancing in the streets, Ramona and I were pretty worn out very early in the evening. Since the newlyweds would have to close the place out to receieve the hundres of guests, we took our leave. Our drivers took the wedding party back to the hotel, to prepare for another early morning of wedding events.

Ahmedabad - Day Two

The morning schedule was just as packed as the previous day. Per custom, the groom's family has a function called a mayara to recognize many family members. The bride's family has a similar function to recognize family members on their side as well. As with the previous functions, there was live music - this time in the form of more traditional Indian instruments and a female singer. As each family member was introduced by the mother and father of the groom, there was a song sung in their honor. The event concluded with a lunch buffet, similar to the night before. I was detecting a pattern - buffets and music - developing here...

After lunch, we stopped by another mall for a second attempt at shopping. I found a couple of ethnic shirts - Ramona scored a pretty dress, shoes and a just-slightly-too-small clutch. Even though today is the 14th (Valentine's Day), I didn't get a chance to get her any of these for Valentine's Day. Ah well - next year!

The evening's event was another auspicious dinner, this time, held at a country house owned by the groom's family. The festive decorations were right out of Monsoon Wedding (if you rent the movie, you'll know exactly what we're talking about). We walked around, taking in the live entertainment that had been hired for the event. There were all sorts of artists, reminding us of a carnival atmosphere. There was a portrait artist, entertaining the children with pictures. There was a slight-of-hand magician, amazing us with his disappearing change. A puppet show, pottery wheel and dancing troupe rounded out the mix. I couldn't believe there was enough to keep so many people occupied.

Late in the evening, various members of both sides of the family put on a series of dances and skits. It seems to be very popular to perform dance numbers from famous Bollywood films, so several couples took the stage. Two of the girls from our party - Amanda and Manisha - also performed a dance (job well done!).

We were a little too worn out for dinner, so we snacked a bit and returned to our hotel. Tomorrow brings the actually wedding ceremony!

Ahh, yes, Ahmedabad

Okay - we're definitely in another corner of the globe. After claiming our luggage, we were met by our driver just outside the terminal. He worked for the travel agency the family was using to help coordinate things. We found out they had hired several cars for the weekend, to get the guests to and from all the destinations. He was a nice guy and told us a few things about the city and the weather on the drive.

The first thing you notice about the roads in India - there's no traffic control. In our whole time here, we've seen only one stop light and it was flashing yellow. The bus we took simply muscled it's way around - how would a sedan fare? The best analogy I can thing of is getting a drink in a busy pub. Imagine having to slowly, methodically work your way to the bartender, all the while trying not to bump other patrons. Yup. That's what it's like on the streets. There were few, if any, fender-benders that I could see. However, traffic wasn't moving quickly at intersections, with a few bursts of speed on the straight segments. Just like our bus driver earlier, our chauffeur knew how to negotiate this chaos, and made it look like he'd been doing it for 20 years.

After I got used to watching us careen in-and-out between other cars, I noticed that not only were there cars and bicycles the road, we also shared lanes with mopeds, motorbikes, pedestrians and the occasional cow. Yes, cow. I believe the ones with horns are called bulls.

At the hotel, we got ourselves checked in and met up with several of Pranav's friends. Some of them were his friends from Georgia Tech; others were friends from work. All-in-all, we met folks from every segment of his life. Ramona spoke very highly of him - his friends were equally nice.

After exchanging pleasantries, we headed to our first event - the mehendi party. If they wish, the women basically get henna tattoos on their hands and/or feet. The men mostly hang around and chat. The event was catered with a variety of snacks and appetizers; little did we know this was soon to become the standard for things to come! I got to know a little more about Pranav's friends (who I now call our 'handlers'), their backgrounds and so on. Once her henna was applied, Ramona had a little bit of difficulty keeping it on. She had a natural tendency to rub it a bit. It turned out pretty nicely - you'd be amazed at the intricate details in the loops and whorls.

We had a few hours before the evening's dinner party, so our handlers took us to a nearby mall. We poked around, looking for clothing and what not - I scored a few shirts, but Ramona didn't fare as well. Hopefully, we'll have better luck before we leave Ahmenabad. After we changed at the hotel, we were off to dinner.

The dinner party was an incredible event! It was held in the backyard at Smita's parent's home. We told more than 500 guests had been invited. We never knew how many showed up, but it was not crowded and more than comfortable. Besides, they would have just taken out the lighting rigs, speakers and performance stage. There was a live music act, a dancing pop singer with contemporary, upbeat, danceable pop music.

The dinner was a buffet-style dinner. There were more than a dozen tables and an army of people serving dinner. Early on, we were assigned a server (he's standing behind Ramona in the picture to the right). As we walked past each table of food, he would fetch a plate, take food hot from the grill, and supply us with silverware. I have a picture of the menu to post later - it was unreal! It took me almost an hour to realize I was only eating vegatarian dishes. I'm not even going to attempt and butcher the names of the good stuff we ate. There was a barbequed tofu dish that I couldn't get enough of. We spent the evening gorging ourselves on ever manner of tasty dish. As the evening wound down, we piled back into the car and were driven back to the hotel. The schedule of the next day was equally full, so we had to turn in as soon as we could manage.

Arriving in New Delhi

Many hours later, we found our flight landing in the darkened city of New Delhi, just a few minutes from Midnight local time. From the air, the grouping of lights seemed no different from any other city I've flown to. From the ground, however, the three-wheeled cabs (which seem to be called rickshaws) and streams of Land Rovers told me where we no longer in Kansas. The terminal was considerably warmer than Amsterdam – a welcome change from the rainy, 30° days we'd grown accustomed to. I could smell strange mixes of scents - smoke and dust from nearby construction projects, tall grasses - wet with the night dew, burning motor oil and rich tobacco pipes.

As we walked around, I was only slightly surprised to armed soldiers in the airports. The men and women of the Indian Self Defense forces stood at just about every intersection, assault rifles slung (I think the army uses the AK-7, a clone of the AK-47, but I'll have to look that up when I get home). On the plane, we were instructed not to take pictures of the interior of the airport or the military, though I didn't see any signs as such. They were generally an austere-looking bunch, so I opted not to press my luck.

The weather was foggy and hazing, but still very warm, which seems to be common this time of year. Making our way through customs, we grabbed our bag and changed our cash to Indian Rupees. The going rate was 47.90 INR per US $, so we suddenly had several thousand INR. Later, we'd find that bottle water or cofee cost as little as 30 INR; a small soda was 50 INR. Seems like your dollars really do go further over here!

Outside the exit to the airport, cabbies hung around, eager to take you into the city to the hotels. We were told to only take cabs called for by your hotel or to make arrangements to have a driver meet you at the airport (as was our arrangement in Amenabad).

Expecting to catch our flight from New Delhi in a few hours, we wandered around to flight lounge and spent the hours playing cards (yes, she beat me pretty often). Our flight from New Delhi to Amenabad was supposed to leave in a few hours at 6AM local time, so we headed in the direction of the gates to find our next flight.

After showing our tickets to a gate attendant, we got a few puzzled looks back. The language barrier held us up for moment, before we collectively figured out Ramona and I were at the International Terminal. Our flight to Amenabad was at the Domestic Terminal, located 10km or so away from here. Ha! A guard got a us pointed back to the International Terminal to catch a shuttle bus to the Domestic Terminal, right where we first exited the airport. We found a cache of shuttle buses, but no other passengers or drivers. As we looked perplexed, we met another guard, to whom we explained our situation. When he figured out we were trying to get a shuttle, he spoke with some local attendants. The two of them had a conversation that lasted an eternity, but they finally unlocked the door and let us wait in the shuttle bus lounge. It seemed this was where we should have waited for the next flight in the first place. Oops!

In just a few minutes, the bus boarded and whisked us to the Domestic Terminal. As we careened (and yes, I use the word in the proper context), we saw India's road traffic in all its crazy splendor. There were no traffic lights on the roads and highways, so turning and change lanes required judicious use of one's horn. Lanes weren't totally optional, but were occasionally necessary. It seemed like every turn was a car accident waiting to happen, but there we no collisions that I could see. I guess the horn is used as the turn signal over here...

At the Domestic Terminal, we arrived about four hours before our flight. By now, we'd been awake for about 20 hours, so I expected us to get situated, then cat nap for bit. The first order of business was food, no, coffee, so we struck out through the terminal.

The most curious sight I found was a "burger" stand called McIndian. Their veggie burger and French fry plate seemed rather appealing, though we opted for just the fries for now.

I walked back over to the time table board, to see how long we had before our flight. The flight information now said 'Delayed'. Hmmm. This was the start of an unfortunately long day!

While we waited for the flight, we learned that the heavy morning fog delayed all of the flights out of the airport. The delay was first expected to last for an hour or two. Then it was clear, three hours later, that estimate was a bit inaccurate. Our flight finally boarded around 11AM, almost five hours later than expected. Once we got onto the tarmac, a mechanical problem was discovered, delaying our departure until after 1PM. With our initial arrival in Delhi just before Midnight, we'd eventually waited over twelve hours to get to Amenabad!