I saw Haile Gebrselassie!

Yesterday was the Berlin marathon and, being that Haile Gebrselassie was planning on running it and breaking his own world record (set last year also here), we made plans to go see him run. Lucky for us, the marathon course went near our house around kilometer 12 (~mile 7.5), so we made it there just in time to see the elite runners go by. Of course, Haile was first, surrounded by a running (almost flying!) entourage of pace people and other fast runners. I was beyond excitement! Sadly, I had forgotten my camera, so my Man, sweet as usual, went back home and got it, and I just stayed there cheering for the runners.

40 minutes later or so, we decided it was time to go by the Brandenburg Gate, which is right before the finish point, to see Haile finish. We got a pretty good spot and waited... and waited a little more. We got to see some of the handicapped people on wheelchairs go by... then a music car drove by, then a bunch of pacer bikes... and then there he was. Haile again, all by himself, running like the wind, at about 2:02 or so... then, a minute later, came the next runner... and about 17 minutes later came the first woman, Irina Mikitenko. Then we heard one of the marathon volunteers tell a guy standing next to us that Haile had in fact broken the world record at 2:03:59 (his record last year was 2:04:26). Irina finished at 2:19:19 (which is 7th right now, the record holder is awesome Paula Radcliffe with 2:15:25).

Run Haile Run!

Seeing Haile run was awesome. He is so small! And strong! His legs are all muscle! And the speed! To hold 4:44 min/miles for 26.2 miles! Yikes! I mean, just for lame comparison, I finished my last half marathon at 2:06:09... that is 3 minutes over his time and only half the distance! Maybe my next half marathon's goal should be to run it under Haile's marathon world record time. Ummhh... No. I think I'll still shoot for under 2 hours, but Haile's time will definitely be my 2nd goal.

The one thing that annoyed me was that people around us were kind of quiet, and every time I would yell they would look at me like I was a freak. Hey! I have done a marathon, and I know how important the cheering towards the end is! And many runners clearly appreciated it, as they would smile and straighten up and run a little better after they heard my cheers! The other thing that drove me insane was the fact that lots of people around us were smoking as they watched the runners go by... smoking! WTF. Clearly these people are not runners, otherwise they would know that the last thing you want when you're running is to take a deep breath and inhale the disgusting smoke from your cancer stick! Yuck. I'm telling you, smokers are one of the things I will definitely NOT miss when we leave the Vaterland.

The rest of the weekend was ok. On Saturday we went to visit Heike and her family - we hadn't seen them since August last year. We are all busy people, what can I say. But we did go for a walk around Volkspark Friedrichshain and then we went by the Kollwitzplatz market on Prenzlauer Berg. I always forget how much fun it is to walk around those markets with fresh food (fruits, veggies, cheese, bread, and yes, meat, but I don't care about that), as well as with crafts and clothes. From there we went by Alexanderplatz to have a late lunch at Dolores Burrito (no Michi Beck this time) and then walked some more back home. I'm glad we did, as we caught the skaters of the marathon (the roller skate marathon is the day before the actual marathon) going by Strausberger Platz.

Rentals of this week included The Brothers Grimm (which inspired us to go buy a book with the complete fairy tales!), Michael Clayton, and The Pianist (that wasn't a rental, actually, we borrowed it from Heike). All were good, although the latter was excellent.

You can see pictures of Saturday's walk and the Berlin marathon here, and click here to see a video of marathoners running on Unter den Linden and about to go under the Brandenburg Gate.

Another year...

So, I celebrated my birthday earlier this week. Unlike last year, when we had the awesome views from the top of Mount Bre in Lugano (video here) to make me forget the fact that we're far away from our family and most of our friends, this year I was confined to the apartment for most of the day. My Man was kept at work until later in the day, and my only outing was to the gym for an easy 2 mile run. The whole day was just blah - it was cold, gray and rainy. But it cleared up by the evening, and my Man and I went to have a celebration dinner at Amrit, a really good Indian restaurant in downtown Berlin (almost as good as the real stuff in India!).

Yesterday my Man took the day off (he usually has to take 2 days off after the shift weeks, so he took Monday off to sleep after Sunday's shift, and then yesterday) and we went to Babelsberg. We had been planning to go there forever, but just had not gotten around it. But since I got my year pass for all the palaces around Berlin, we figured why not just do it.

We first stopped by my doctor's office, where I hadn't been since the days of the miscarriage back in April. It was somewhat depressing. My doctor's first question was if we were trying again, to which I responded not really. It's going to be stressing enough moving back and finding jobs and a dwelling, to on top of that deal with health insurance and pre-existing conditions.

Our next stop was in Wannsee to visit the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island), a little island by the Havel river where the Hohenzollerns had a summer residence. To get there we had to take a bus from the train station and then a ferry across the 50 meters of water between the mainland and the island. The castle itself was really small (and by that I mean still a lot bigger than our apartment, but small for castle standards) and cozy, the major room was a dining hall around which were all the other rooms (bedrooms, visiting rooms, etc). After the tour we walked back quickly to the ferry and made it back to the train station to take the train to Babelsberg.

As soon as we got off the train we found some food (falafels never disappoint). Then we found the bus stop, only to realize that we could probably walk to Babelsberg Park in the same time it would take to wait for the next bus, so we decided to walk through town a little bit. The major attraction of the park was the Schloss Babelsberg, a beautiful stone castle with lots of towers around. The tour through the castle was short, as lots of it is under restoration right now. The gardens around the castle were amazing and very colorful. Then we followed a "major points of the park" path that took us through a small court, the sailors' house, and the Flatowturm, a beautiful tower that made me think constantly of trumpets and the Sword on the Stone movie (in Spanish, actually, so La Espada en la Piedra is more like what I was thinking, and here is a youtube video with the dueling scene en Español).

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb the golden stair"...

The rest of the day was pretty low key. We rented El Orfanato last night (thanks to Hugo's suggestion). It was really good. We actually have been catching up on rentals lately. Last weekend we rented My Blueberry nights and Be Kind Rewind, both of which were really good, too.

Anyway. That's pretty much all for now. My last paper is slowly coming along... I am just not very motivated to write the discussion. In fact, most of it is completed, but I need to really discuss the results and add the modeling stuff, which always makes me procrastinate. This weekend should be exciting though. We are catching up with friends on Saturday and on Sunday we're hoping to see Haile Gebrselassie break his own record at the Berlin marathon. That means, of course, that my 6-mi run is going to have to be at some ungodly hour in the morning. But that's ok. I am excited, especially after today's 5-mi interval run went super well.

You can see pictures from the Wannsee and Babelsberg adventures here. Enjoy!

Life after India

I cannot believe it has been over a week since we got back from India, it all seems like a dream. The dream, of course, awoke to reality as soon as we landed in quiet (for India standards, especially) and cold Berlin. After temperatures in the high 30s (yes, that is Celsius), we were welcome by temperatures in the teens and earlier last week, I finally broke down and turned the heater on. That was quite depressing. This was the first time I had ever turned my dwelling's heater on before my birthday... before even Mexican Independence day (which incidentally is not May 5th, don't get me started). But, as long as it stays as it is, I think we can manage. I do like being able to snuggle on the couch, with my pajamas, covered with a blanket as I enjoy the wonderful masala chai we brought back from India. We are still experimenting with the water / milk ratio for the tea, and even though we have not gotten it to be up to Manoj's sister's wedding reception standards, I think we're doing well so far.

This past week was a little insane. My poor Man had night shifts, which meant that since his trip to Korea 4 weeks ago, he has not actually lived on a normal schedule. I lazed around, mostly blogging and uploading pictures. In fact, I think I only went out of the house once to go to the supermarket, and a couple of times to go the gym, as I have 7 weeks left for my next half marathon. That is right. I signed up for the Ticino International Marathon, and I will be running only half of it. My friend Ricardo, who is also an avid runner, suggested I could give that one a chance. He claims it will be as nice as the ones in the US that I love so much. We shall see. I am sure the views of Lago Maggiore will be amazing.

Getting back in shape was easier than I thought it would be last Sunday, when after not exercising for 10 days while we were in India, I attempted to run 5 miles and could barely finish 4. But I stuck to my Runner's World Smart Coach training program and did 2 easy miles on Tuesday, 30 min of rowing on Wednesday as my cross training, a 5 mile tempo run on Thursday (which included a mile warm up, 3 miles at 9:20 min/mile, and another mile for cool down), and 1 h of biking nowhere on Saturday (cross training as well). Then yesterday I went for a slower-than-usual 6-mi run (at 10:40 min/mile as specified by the program). I am hoping this new program, which includes tempo and interval runs, will help improve my time for the next half.

This week should be fun. My Man is taking the day off today and then on Wednesday, so that we can actually go out tomorrow night and celebrate my birthday. I am already missing all of our friends who were always around to make the celebration even more fun. But I should have some work to do, too. While we were in India I had another paper accepted, which brought me joy. I just need to use that feeling of excitement to motivate me finish the last paper I am working on and send it for review. Only then will I be able to completely enjoy, in a guilt-free manner, my unemployment.

The Pink City

So, following on the previous post, we left Agra around 2 pm on Sunday, and started our road trip to Jaipur. It's about 140 miles, but with the road and traffic conditions, the trip took almost 5 hours. Speeds varied from 15 mph to 70 mph, depending on whether you had to deal with lots of people and bikes in the small towns, or camels on the actual highways. The actual highways were all right, except for the fact that sometimes there would be tractors on the road going at really slow speeds, water buffaloes just chilling on the median, camels pulling carts, jeeps stuffed to their brims with people (and sometimes people riding on the roof of the car or bus) or rickshaws going the wrong way (when there was a perfectly spacious lane going in their direction on the other side, but as Manoj pointed out, what if the place you were going was right there? Surely you didn't want to go to the next return available miles down the road!).

The views from the roads were amazing. We got to see the Fatehpur Sikri complex (the one Manoj and I had visited the day before) at a distance from the road, so my Man at least got to see the magnitude of the Buland Darwaza (the gate of magnificence). We did pass a lot of towns and villages, so our landscape varied from the little houses and huts, to the extended green pastures, sprinkled with water buffaloes, temples, and brick kilns. Lots of them. It was amazing. I would say that our trip was uneventful, but what with the crazy driving and all, that is hardly the best word choice.

The one thing that completely bothered me was the fact that our car (it was sort of a Land Rover discovery, boxy and tall) was missing some seat belts on the back seats. I had one, but my Man didn't. We were, as usual, assured that we didn't need them. This reminded me of Germans telling me, after my mentioning that I'm quite terrified of a tire blowing up while driving at those ungodly speeds, that there's no need to worry about that because their tires are very good. Now repeat after me, that's why their called accidents. You don't plan for them to happen, they just do. At some point as we got to a rest stop half the way, I expressed my concerns to both our driver and Manoj, and Manoj, whom I was sitting behind from, assured me that if we crashed, he would catch me as I was flying over him. Right. He then went to give me evidence of how, when in a crash in Nashville, he had the clarity of mind to put on his hazard lights as his car was still spinning out of control. That didn't make my uneasiness go away, as I doubted our driver would have caught my Man. But thankfully we didn't have any trouble, and the only thing that took a toll after the drive was my head, tired of the constant honking at everything that moved around us. I hated it, especially when it was directed at old people crossing the road, or at a car driving on its own lane, minding its business, just because our driver was too impatient to wait to pass.

Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear...

Upon our arrival in Jaipur we saw lots of old, small houses built almost out of the mountains. Then, after lots of calling the hotel to make sure we had the address right, we made it to the Anuraag Villa, a small hotel off a bigger street. We had reserved 1 room for the 3 of us, and I felt a little bad that after the awesome accommodations in Agra, this time the 3rd bed was just a mattress on the floor for poor Manoj. He didn't seem to mind. We had some room service that night (more palak paneer for me) and then saw a bunch of Bollywood videos before going to bed.

The next morning we got up, got cleaned up, and went down to the hotel patio to have breakfast. We had asked for a driver to get us at 9 am, but somehow the guy at the front desk didn't make the reservations the night before (when we actually asked for it) and instead, did it that morning as we had breakfast, which meant we had to wait another half hour. My breakfast was pretty much the same the next 2 days we spent there, cheese omelette and a sweet lassi, except for the last day, when I stole some of Manoj's chai.

After breakfast we got our tour started and our first stop was Jantar Mantar, an old observatory, which supposedly is the largest of 5 that some Maharaja built back in the 1700s. This place was really cool, and had lots of dials for telling time and other things. It had a dial for each zodiac sign, which was kind of funny. We walked around that place for a while, and at some point my Man had to take an umbrella out to protect his skin from the sun.

That day I had chosen to wear a salwar kameez, so at least my arms were protected. Our next stop was the City Palace. One interesting thing we had learned from a pamphlet was that the flag for Jaipur consists of two flags: a big flag with colorful stripes, and a smaller size copy on top, this in memory of a child prodigy that at some point ascended to the throne, and who was so knowledgeable, that the King gave him the name "Sawai", which means "one and a quarter", and thus the little flag. Inside the museum were several buildings, the main one of them containing a museum with old clothes of maharajas (which frankly looked like dresses to me), and an impressive collection of shoes, turbans, and shawls from old times. One of the palaces had a huge room where local artists are allowed to sell paintings, tapestries, ceramic and other crafts, so we actually browsed around there and, to my heart's content, we got 2 beautiful wall hangings for the house we don't have yet. In the first courtyard we also got to see the armory, where I was fascinated by the old knives and the ring-like-attachments where claws would come out (and which supposedly the king used to kill some people in a place where he wasn't allowed to bring a sword). Then we moved on to a bigger courtyard, in the middle of which is a pretty palace which houses the 2 largest silver jars in the world (as recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records). Then we moved to the next and final courtyard, one with 4 beautiful doors symbolizing the seasons. My favorite one was the one with the peacocks, whatever season it was.

One and a quarter flag over the City Palace...

At this point we figured it was time for lunch, so we asked our driver to take us to a nice place for lunch. On our way to this unknown (so far) place, we stopped by the Hawa Mahal. Now, this place I really had wanted to see, the Palace of Winds, which is mentioned in the English Patient, my source of wanting to see the world. This palace is on a street that runs right in front of one of the old city gates (where Jantar Mantar and the City Palace were), and which is filled with shops on both sides. Unfortunately the palace was closed, so we only got to see it and take some pictures from the road as we drove to our lunch spot.

Now, lunch, that was quite the adventure. We were less than impressed when we got out of the old city gates, and stopped at this place by the side of a big shopping road that really was less than optimal. Manoj did some Hindi talking with our driver, and when he asked if we wanted to eat there, my otherwise cool-self was quick to say no, and we decided to go someplace else. Manoj had read there was a Moti Mahal in Jaipur, a nice Indian restaurant that has locations in some other cities (and where he had eaten before in some other place... perhaps Singapore? Is that right Manoj?). So we told the driver to take us there (and by we I mean Manoj). Our next stop was right in front of a Moti Mahal that was quite scary. Upon the driver stopping in front of the place (it was Moti Mahal after all), I was speechless, but even priceless was the look on Manoj's face. It had WTF written all over it. Clearly that was not the Jaipur cousin of the one where he had eaten before. So we drove down the road, paying careful attention to the places, and eventually find the other Moti Mahal. Now that was a nice place, so we relaxed for a bit and enjoyed our food, which was heavenly.

After lunch, our next stop was the Amber Fort, in the outskirts of Jaipur, almost up on the mountains. The whole area was almost surrounded by an old city wall, and in the middle was the old palace, which is now the Jaigarh Fort (which was closed) and the Amber Palace. Most of the palace was painted (old or new paint) in a cream / yellowish color, and with the blue skies we were able to get some amazing pictures with almost real texture. There were 2 things that caught my attention. The first was the hall of mirrors in the Palace, which was undergoing restoration work. It was amazing to see the little mirrors on the walls and ceiling coming back to life after being polished. We were only allowed in the outer corridor, but we could still peek into the inner part and see the walls still lined up with jewels and all. The second one was the women helping with the construction efforts. These women were dressed up in really colorful sarees, and were wearing ankle and hand bracelets, and big earrings and rings, all as they were carrying containers with red cement on their heads all over the palace. We walked around the palace for a while, saw the courtyard were supposedly a part of the Jodha Akbar film, which I still have not seen, was shot. The sights were beautiful. On the way out, we got to see some elephants taking a bath in a pond right in front of the fort.

Construction women in Amber Fort...

On the way back, we stopped by the Jal Mahal, a beautiful palace in the middle of a lake, and had some pictures taken, then our driver took us through a shopping center, so we looked around in hopes of finding either a big wooden elephant or a brass Nataraja. I was very jealous of Manoj. You see, as soon as the vendors would see my Man and I, they would pretty much walk along beside us (and if you know me, you would know how much I enjoy pressure when looking around!), while Manoj was left alone (being an equal brownie, of course). We had no luck finding the elephant (I had seen one in Agra, but at over 200 Eur, and some more for shipping, I figured we could wait), but we found a beautiful Nataraja. As we left, our guide went back in the shop, surely to get a commission. Oh well. We made it back to the hotel, had some room service again, and called it a day.

The next day, our last in Jaipur (and for all purposes, our last of Indian touring), we went to the Samode Palace, a beautiful palace in the mountains near Jaipur which is now a 5 star hotel. As we drove on the little streets of the village around it, we had to fight for road space with some goats and a couple of camels. At this point it just seemed normal. We got to the palace and went in. This place would be amazing to spend a relaxing long weekend. I loved the pool area, where there is an open corridor with flowing orange and yellow curtains. We had a guide to take us through the main areas inside the palace, mostly a dining hall and a big ballroom. The detail on the rooms surrounding the big ballroom was unbelievable. Some of the walls had glass embedded on them as part of the whole decoration. The paintings over the big ballroom were mostly in red and beautiful. After our tour we went to the restaurant, as our entry fee was pretty much a balance in our favor to have some food, so we sat there and relaxed for a while. My chai was great. Outside of the palace was a big tree where lots of monkeys were hanging out.

We went back to Jaipur, and after having lunch at McDonalds (yes, we were lame, but we just had to see the actual Maharaja Macs! My Paneer Salsa Wrap was actually not too bad and neither was my Man's McVeggie burger) we were to make a final shopping stop by the super busy street in front of the Hawa Mahal. The trip back took forever, as I suspect our driver was either lost or just wanted us to see the scenery. The tea was taking its toll at this point, and with all the road bumps I was ready to pee out of the window! But we made it to the shopping area and I mentally prepared myself to hold it for another half hour or so. I was looking for some purses and Manoj wanted to see some tapestries, so it was the perfect place. We had to walk fast, which I didn't enjoy very much, but if you actually stopped somewhere to just look, you would be surrounded by vendors offering you prices and all, and being that I don't like bargaining much, I just can't deal with all that pressure. I got a cute little bag early on, and then we kept walking. At some point, Manoj went in a store to see tapestries, and I got 3 more bags there (interestingly enough, the bags I bought there were the same as in the first store, so I asked for the same price as before, and not the almost twice as much they wanted for them). As we were walking back to the car, we went in a shop where they had a weird collection of items. I wasn't sure what exactly we were looking for in there, but Manoj knew better and asked for chai. They brought some from the back, he smelled it for a while, and then got some for us. I was a bit worried that with the bag of powder and leaves we may pass as smugglers one we were back in the EU, but we had no trouble. And the chai is great. I've actually been doing trial runs with the milk / water ratio to see what works best. More about that in a later post.

Once back at the hotel we just chilled. My Man slept for a while and Manoj and I watched a movie about the Indian mafia. Then, after having dinner, we played some poker, drank some German liquors, and I danced to the Bollywood movies. My Man danced with me for a while. Manoj not so much. Then, after getting packed and all, we called it our last night in Jaipur.

Sidestreet produce vendors...

The next day we met our driver and, after breakfast, got ready for our almost 5-h road trip to Delhi, where we would catch a flight out of Indira Gandhi airport back to Chennai. Manoj was frustrated for the first half of our trip, as our driver was kind of slow (I saw it as safe, but Manoj didn't agree). Then, as we crossed the state border, and after having stopped previously at a gas station, our driver got out of the road all of a sudden and said something to Manoj. You see, when you hire drivers you're supposed to pay the whole rental fee, plus the tolls and parking. Well, he and Manoj got to talking (all in Hindi, of course), and at some point I saw Manoj counting money. My first thought was "this guy is trying to get money from us or else he'll just leave us in the middle of the road!" Yes, I'm crazy. Manoj got on the phone with the hotel and talked to them for a while, we got back on the road, and everything seemed good. I couldn't wait to ask him what the hell had happened. Later at the airport he told us that the driver had said we had to pay him some thousand rupees for "road taxes". The hotel, of course, said we didn't have to pay anything else. We made it to Delhi wihtout any trouble, and went to the airport to wait for our flight. After checking in, we went to have our last full Indian lunch at the airport lounge. That was wonderful.

During the flight, my Man slept for a while and Manoj and I listened to Hindi and Tamil songs on his tiny iPod (perhaps it was a nano, I don't even know these days). I did ask Manoj to make us a CD with some mellow, lovey dovey Hindi and Tamil songs. Some of them were really good, and since, I have found another one that I love: Tum Se Hi. Do listen to it, it is beautiful.

When we got back to Chennai, Manoj left us at the airport (with all his luggage, as he was leaving about the same time as we were) and he had to go visit with his aunt and uncle and pick up his sister's wedding album. We waited for an hour or two at the airport, and when he got back, with his uncle, we quickly said farewell to his uncle, and then went to check in. We went through passport control without too much trouble, other than the whole "how big is your hand luggage" question from a guy that told us to break it up in two, which was annoying. We already knew it fit in the overhead compartment, and I'd think that one is better than 2, so after checking in, we moved the stuff back into the one big backpack we had with our purchases. We grabbed something to eat (Manoj, of course, had a nice meal with his relatives), and then waited near our gates for another hour or so. Then the time to board came up, so we sadly said goodbye to Manoj (at least for the time being) and got in line to board. I thought it was weird that our gates were next to each other, so as we boarded our flight to Berlin, Manoj was boarding a flight next to ours to go to Singapore.

The flight back didn't seem as long as the flight there, and we actually got to sleep for a big chunk of it, we were so tired. Our flight out of Frankfurt to Berlin was delayed for a bit, so we just talked to a couple from Canada for a while. And then we were back in the land of civilization and no honking on the streets, and it really was almost like a dream that just 24 hours earlier we had been in India.

And that is all the detailed ramblings of our Indian adventures! I am sure I'll have random thoughts in the next few days, as there really was so much to see and share. But for now, this is it. You can see the pictures from Jaipur here, and a video of the Indian landscapes between Agra and Jaipur here (if you pay attention, you may get to hear Manoj speaking Hindi), and an awesome video of the shopping, busy streets of Jaipur here.

EDIT (9/19/08): I got some comments from Manoj, and 2 of them do need to be mentioned here. The first one was a correction from his Nashville crash. Apparently his presence of mind didn't involve turning on the hazard lights, but the emergency parking breaks (my Man was right about this one) and the avoidance of a fire hydrant as the car was spinning out of control. True, that is a bit more dramatic, but still, I doubt I would have been caught as I was flying out of the windshield. The second, and more important, was that I forgot that our first visit in Jaipur was not to Jantar Mantar, but the Birla Temple, a temple dedicated to my favorite lord, Shiva. According to Manoj, who surely must be in speaking terms with Shiva, "Shiva has expressed his deep regret at your failure to recognize this error of yours."

An old time Paradise...

Apparently Agra was mentioned in the Mahabharata as a paradise, and indeed it was.

So, picking up from the last post, Thursday morning got off to a very early start, as Manoj and his Dad came to get us from the hotel and we made it to the Chennai train station to catch our 6:15 am Rajdhani Express to Agra. Manoj's Dad had to be on a later train to Bangalore, so he stayed with us making sure we were ok and settled in our 1st class cabin before he left. I thought it was very sweet of him to do that. I had never made a long trip by train, and neither had my Man, so we were both excited. My Man was still suffering from ocassional fever episodes, so he was looking forward to sleeping as much as he could (which he could do, being that the compartment had 4 seats that also worked as beds). Supposedly we were to be joined by a 4th person in a later stop, but that never happened, so for the next 26 hours we had the compartment to ourselves. That was really fun.

I felt like a hobbit with the service, which was remarkable. Around 8 am or so they brought breakast, which consisted of 2 donut-type fried thingies and some rice paste that I loved. And chai. Wonderful chai. I was a little bummed out that the train windows had a mesh, so my pictures don't really do justice to the landscape (except for one that looks as if it came out of an old newspaper, I kind of liked that one!). But I was amazed at the greenery, and the water! I usually thought of India as northern Mexico, hot and dry, but I was mistaken. It is green and has rivers with water (as opposed to most of the rivers in north Mexico)... sure, some of them were a bit on the low side being that it hadn't rained much in that area (nothing like the madness in northeastern India). I had brought along Gone with the Wind, which I borrowed from My Man's sister (and incidentally it was the first book I ever read in English some 17 years ago!), and somehow I found that being in India and dreaming of Maharajas really got me in the mood for some Southern epic love tragedy. I don't know why, but seeing the landscapes, and asking Manoj about hindu rituals and traditions, and thinking of Scarlett's troubles seemed to go all together. I just found out that Vivian Leigh, the actress who played Scarlett, was born in Darjeeling, India... Well, what do you know.

We went through a couple of Indian states in our journey, ate some more wonderful food for lunch, tea time, and then dinner, and were just merry. We talked about life, culture, and most importantly, we reminisced about the good old times in Nashville. Unfortunately, at some point my Man's stomach decided it didn't like the food as much, so he went from having the sniffles to having stomach problems. I really felt bad for him, but being that the fever was already going away, at least we were assured he didn't have malaria or something crazy like that. Just in case he had to make some trips to the loo, I took the upper bed and, after reading some more about the good ole' South and locking our compartment's door (it was interesting that the train crew actually suggested that), we went to sleep. I only had to wake up once and climbed down from my bed, and as I was going to the bathroom I passed through the compartment where our crew was sleeping. I felt really guilty. There we were, sleeping in comfortable beds with warm blankets (it was cold inside the train), and the crew guys were sleeping on the floor of the compartment or throughout the train aisles, with a thin sheet covering them. The next morning Manoj and I were up long before my Man, who was laying down on his bed, so I just climbed down to Manoj's bed/seat and we watched the sunrise. It was beautiful.

Wonderful Rajdhani Express dinner...

We arrived in Agra around 9 am, and the station was packed with lots of people and drivers offering their services. I was very glad Manoj spoke Hindi and could deal with them. We settled for a driver that just wouldn't let us go, and after getting our stuff in the car, we made it to our wonderful hotel, the Taj View Hotel. Since we arrived kind of early, our room wasn't ready, so we just chilled at the reception and then had breakfast. My Man was not feeling well at all at this point, so since we still had to wait for our room, we asked about a pharmacy and ventured to the wild streets around the hotel. We found our pharmacy down the street all right, and it was easy to spot as it had a big red cross on a sign in the front. The pharmacy itself just seemed surreal. It was basically a stand on the road, pretty much like your sidewalk taquerias in Mexico where the guys are cutting the onions next to the people sweeping the streets, no sterile white environment, no door, no windows... just a counter on the sidewalk and a little room where the medicines were neatly organized on shelves (This picture illustrates a bit). There was a guy behind the counter, and when we asked for immodium, he had no trouble finding it in the back and also giving my Man some lactic acid bacteria to replenish his belly's bugs. When we returned to the hotel Manoj and I had breakfast as my Man took it easy. After a long wait, in which I managed to check the tubes and walk around the hotel little stores, we were able to check in. Our room was awesome. The view of the Taj was a nice touch, even more with the occasional camel and the one elephant we saw on the street right in front of us. Words cannot completely convey what I felt upon seeing the Taj, in its wonderful white beauty, and the dirty crowded streets separating it from our 5 star hotel room.

After some debating, we decided that it was best to leave the Taj visit for the next day and let my Man rest, and after getting cleaned up, Manoj and I got a driver to take us to Fatehpur Sikri, to see the place where King Akbar lived. On the way there, the images of Indian living were passing quickly before my eyes, water buffalo after water buffalo, women riding in the back of motorcycles, hanging on to their men, or families with 2 children riding on a motorcycle, a little kid in front of the Daddy and another one between the Daddy and Mommy. The poverty in some areas was unbelievable. It makes Mexico look rich in comparison. The old guys, just crouching on the side of the walk, seeing life pass by. And the old constructions, painted in a light aqua and peacock blue... all coming together to the masala of humanity that is India.

We made it to Fatehpur Sikri and our driver took us to the bus that would then take us up to the palace complex. Once up there, we were quickly approached by a guide and, being that they are persistent, we just let him tell us lots of stories about the palace. I marveled at the sandstone buildings, all red and warm. This place was interesting because, you see, the king lived there and so did his 3 wives... and his harem. My Mexican woman mind cannot comprehend this level of coolness between all women. Our guide told us all this fairytale stories about how each wife was from a different religion, but I don't think Wikipedia buys that. Apparently Akbar, who was muslim, had a thing for all religious coexisting peacefully, and to show this, each palace had architectural details of major religions, such as jewish stars of David, christian crosses, hindu carvings and paintings, buddhist bells, and muslim arches. Each wife had her own palace, with the hindu wife, Jodha Bai, having the biggest of them all because she was the first one to give Akbar a son. Being that she was hindu, she also got to have a separate kitchen from the rest of them. From her palace, we went to check out Akbar's palace, which was in a separate area of the complex, overlooking a grand plaza with other buildings. His palace had different levels, and his living quarters were in the top one (in the bottom one would be security guards and in the middle one there were the dancing girls). His bed still holds some of the charm it must have had, as it is raised in the middle of the room where supposedly there was rose water on the floor, and a door, through which he could have one or 5 harem girls at a time. Of course, whenever he wanted to get it on with one of the wives, he actually had to go himself to her palace. I liked that, though I wondered, what if the wives wanted to have their own fun? Were they allowed to?

Fatehpur Sikri palace complex...

We went by the palace of the muslim wife, a small building whose walls used to be lined up with mirrors and jewels, and its pillars carved with the fruits of heaven. The view of the Diwan-i-Khas, the palace of private audiences, was pretty awesome from here. This palace is famous for a massive pillar in the middle of it, carved from a single sandstone, on top of which Akbar would stand as he had his private audiences. We walked some more around the complex, past the area where the queens would be offered products from all over the world, and from where a tower dedicated to a dead pet elephant could be seen, and then stopped at the palace of the christian wife. In the outer corridor it was still possible to see old blue paintings on the beams, and warring elephants on the upper part of the pillars. Inside there was a painting of Krishna. The combination of the faded blue on the terracotta was brilliant. Then we finished our tour of that part of the complex and walked the little stretch between the palace and the big mosque complex, which stands pretty much next to it. This mosque is the second largest in India. To go in there, the king had his own entrance, small in comparison to the amazing Buland Darwaza, the gate of magnificence, which was the public entrance to the courtyard where the mosque stands.

We took our shoes off, and upon entering the mosque, our guide announced he was going to lunch and passed us on to "his brother" so that he could continue our tour. Right. I think Manoj really liked the brother, especially when he started speaking Spanish to me and asked me if I was from Acapulco. I must admit, I was surprised by how multilingual the Indian guides seemed to be. The one we had at the Kapaleashwarar temple in Chennai spoke mostly in English with some French, Italian and Spanish words thrown in between. While at the palace complex, we heard some Spanish, French, and even Japanese. Interestingly enough, no German, which was a first, as Germans seem to be everywhere these days. It was funny, because all this time Manoj had been talking Hindi every now and then (to my heart's content), and at this point he even got to speak Tamil with the guide, but then he started speaking Spanish. I made my best to switch back into English, and we continued our tour. This courtyard had a white marble building in the middle, a tomb for Salim Chishti, a saint during Akbar's empire. We walked around under the hallways on the side of the courtyard, marveling at the big public gate. We also saw the entrance to the 40-km-long tunnel that goes all the way to Agra Fort, which was bulit so that if there was imminent danger, the whole court could be moved easily. At some point our guide took us by some people (his cousins and uncles) selling crafts. The most common crafts in this area were marble elephants and carved balls for tea lights. We declined, but as this was pretty much the end of our wandering around, we were quickly approach by kids selling postcards and stuff, so we walked across the courtyard quickly (and pretty much ran at the end, as the stones were hot and we were barefooted) and made it out of the mosque complex and waited for our bus to take us back to the parking lot, where our driver was waiting for us.

While we waited for the bus, some kids came to sell us things. No amount of "no thank you" would suffice. My heart was starting to ache after hearing their English phrases "just look, no buy" or "you come back, look at my face". This stirred memories that are deeply embedded in me, and there, under the tree, as a lady trying to sell me a fan was blowing some air on my face, I felt the tears come to my eyes in despair for the unfairness of the world. I appreciated Manoj pretending not to notice for the time being. I think putting all my thoughts into words would have made it much harder.

On the way back to Agra, I did ask him if people thought I was his wife (the sellers did come up to him at some point and told him what I assumed was to buy something for me), but apparently, since Indians are a bit racist when it comes to skin color, the first impression was that he was my guide. The irony. The first time I was in Mexico with my Man, I kept being spoken to in English. I guess I'll just have to come to terms with being an outsider everywhere. The joy of our globalized lives and relationships.

When we got back to Agra my Man was feeling a little better, so we wandered around the hotel patio for a while, as we waited for the restaurant to open for dinner. My paneer dish with corn was delicious. Manoj had some paneer kebabs that were yummy. My poor Man, whose tummy was not thrilled with the food, just had a sandwich. Then we walked around the hotel shops, where I got some Christmas ornaments made in Kashmir (that's probably the closest I'll ever be to that area anyway), and then went back to the room and started our Bollywood education by watching Koi... Mil Gaya, a movie with Hrithik Roshan (an awesome dancer) about some alien. Then we called it a day and got mentally ready to see the Taj Mahal the next morning. Sadly, we weren't able to see it at night from the hotel, as they only light it up during full moon.

Taj Mahal up close and personal...

The next morning our driver picked us up and took us to the eastern entrance of the Taj Mahal, where I had to check my gorilla-pod before going in. We went through, past the public entrance, and there it was. The Taj Mahal. The awesome, white, majestic, unreal Taj Mahal. We went in and a guide quickly approached us, promising we wouldn't have to pay him at all, but this time the three of us were adamant about wandering around at our own pace and just seeing stuff, so we basically walked around and ignored him. This tactic sadly paid off, and after 10 minutes or so he left us alone. The main gate was amazing in its own right, with arabic writing on its side and beautiful paintings of flowers. There were lots of people standing to take the obvious picture with the reflective pool separating the main gate and the Taj Mahal. We walked along the pool and made it to the bottom of the huge platform where the Taj Mahal stands. Here we were required to either take our shoes off or put shoe protectors on them, we chose to do the latter. We went around on its eastern side first, to the back, where we could see the Yamuna river and, far away, the Agra Fort. I was fascinated by the combination of white marble and sandstone, especially on the mosques flanking the Taj Mahal. In fact, their structure was pretty much the same as the big building, except that they were terracotta-colored and smaller.

Then we got on the upper marble platform and walked around. At some point we were standing just enjoying the view, and a family came by and started talking to us. At first we thought they were asking us to move to have their picture taken (which was annoying to think of, as you could easily move 5 steps in a different direction and pretty much have the same picture), but then we realized they wanted to have their picture taken... with us. I should say that we were not, by any stretch, the only foreigners around, and in fact, there were many blonde people around, who I would think would be a more interesting picture choice. But no, this family was happy to pose with us. Manoj, of course, just walked around like he didn't know us. Another family, who was with them (and who I had noticed before, as the woman was wearing a beautiful red saree), also wanted to have their picture taken. For this one I did ask Manoj to come stand in the picture as well, and let me tell you, he was thrilled to be in it. As we were getting ready to pose, the woman grabbed my hand. I don't know why I thought this was really cute. There we were, both of us fascinated with each other and happy to be together in one moment of life and with a photo to remember.

We walked around some more around the monuments, marveling at the scenery, and then left the Taj Mahal complex, got back in the car, and were driven to the Agra Fort, where the king that built the Taj Mahal ended up imprisoned by his own son (who was kind enough to let him have a view of his beloved Taj from his cell). This fort, just like Fatehpur Sikri, was a combination of a bunch of palaces and buildings, each one holding its own particular beauty. My favorite part of the Agra Fort was the Muthamman Burj, a beautiful tower overlooking the river and the Taj Mahal at the distance, with carvings and flower paintings on the marble pillars. This was the place where the King was imprisoned and died. It was amazing.

At this point it was around noon, and we had scheduled a driver to pick us up at 2 pm to take us to Jaipur, so we went back to the hotel where I purchased a couple of magnets for my collection (and a 2 GB memory card for the camera, as the 2 GB that I already had were clearly not going to be enough, yes, I take lots of pictures) and we had our last lunch at the amazing hotel before hitting the road once again. More about that on the next post, 4/4, the last of the Indian saga.

You can see the pictures of the Agra and Fatehpur Sikri visit here. You can see a short video of the Taj Mahal from the main entrance here, and a video of the Agra roads here.

சென்னை

That's Chennai in Tamil, the language spoken in the area, which to me just sounded like a bunch of sounds with hard Cs here and there. Almost like the alien sounds on Signs (which incidentally, was directed by M. Night Shyamalan). Manoj said that it is because they talk too fast. Perhaps. But I loved the written form, so curly and beautiful! And I prefer Chennai to Madras, the old British name... it just sounds cuter.

So, let's pick up where we left off in the previous post. The morning after the wedding we got off to a very late start. We rested some, had breakfast at the hotel (it was yummy, lots of Indian food for breakfast!), then just chilled in the room. My Man had started to develop the little cold he gets whenever I take him to places that are more affordable (interestingly enough he didn't get sick in Norway or London), so we just took it easy. At some point in the early afternoon Manoj came by and we just chilled for a while. He had been helping pack everything up from the reception hall, so the down time was good for everyone.

We went by the reception to set up some touring around for my Man and I, as Manoj and his family would be going to some temples in the next 2 days. We settled for a day visit to Mamallapuram, and another day of touring around Chennai. Once that was done, we proceeded to look for an ATM, which at first seemed like an adventure, but eventually, thanks to Citi Bank, was no trouble at all. Now, let me tell you. I am Mexican. I am all for wild living, but the walking on the street and not on the side walk was a little hard to do at first. Everybody does it. Why? Well, the side walks are usually not there or are filled with debris or people are just lying down there sleeping. So, instead, you walk on the street, next to the rickshaws, and bikes, and cars that will constantly honk at everything that moves. We walked from the hotel down to Panagal Park, and then got on Pondy Bazaar, a street bursting with vendors, people, and bright, colorful things. My 2 eyes were not enough to look around! There were lots of clay Ganeshas on the side of the street, some painted, some not. Manoj mentioned that the next day was a holiday in which people take these clay Ganeshas to the ocean and just let them dissolve. That sounded cool. Then there were the thousands of street stores, selling books, toys, clothes, shoes, accessories (lots of bangles and bindis), and the flowers... oh, the flowers... the air would just smell of jasmine as you walked past them.

Colorful Ganeshas on the side walk at Pondy Bazaar.

Then there was the poverty. People would come up to you, and follow you for a couple of steps, saying something that sounded like "ma" to me, as they made gestures with their hands, and asking you for food or money. Most of them were older women or children. You could see skinny men just lying on the side walks, their legs almost to the bone. Nothing had prepared me for that. It was heart breaking to see it so blatantly. Sadly, the rest of the trip would be just like that... or worse. But more of that later.

We continued walking past a couple of stores where Manoj suggested we could get our shopping done. I had mentioned to him that I was planning on buying lots of stuff, and we actually took an empty big bag, so we were set. What with the exchange rate between Rupees and Euros I felt like a had play money with me. We walked to one end of the busiest part of Pondy Bazaar and then back to the park, and since Manoj had to go back to his aunt's house, he dropped us off at Pothys, the most wonderful store ever (later we learned that Manoj's aunts thought this was hillarious). The store was huge, with 7 stories filled to the brim with clothes and people (and supposedly there's a food area on the top story, which we didn't see). Upon seeing all the beautiful clothes, I wished that I had married some Maharaja so that I could wear them all. We looked around and I was a little bummed to find out that the salwar kameezes they had there didn't have sleeves and all seemed to be too big for me. I was mistaken, but didn't know that at the moment. At this point, the madness was starting to take a toll, so we headed to Hotel Saravana Bhavan, an awesome restaurant, where I had some Palak Paneer, the first of many more. Then we made it back to the hotel and called it a day, as we had to be up early the next morning for our Mamallapuram trip and my Man, whose sniffliness had continued, needed some extra rest.

The next morning we had breakfast (more Indian food for breakfast!) and at 8:00 am our driver picked us up. He was the sweetest man. He would tell us random tidbits of history as we were driving around (like "that was the first tall building of Chennai" or "the south of India is better than the north, the people are nicer here"... now where have I heard this before?). We got on the ocean front road to Mamallapuram and started our trip. Looking back, we didn't see that many animals on the road around Chennai, but there was still some honking. In comparison to the drivers that followed, that driver was the best in terms of keeping my freak out levels at a minimum while on the road. When we got near Mamallapuram we passed an area by the beach that had some concrete squares on the ground. He told us that there used to be huts in there but had been leveled by the 2004 Tsunami and that many lives had been lost. It was very sad, because as usual, it was the poorest people that got affected.

As we entered the little town, we passed a spot where there were some guides offering their help. Being that this was our first trip and we didn't know any better, we got one, so he got in the car and we made it to our first stop to see some old temples that are now monuments. The first thing we saw was Krishna's Butter Ball, a giant rock that seems as if it is about to fall off a huge monolith underneath. Apparently at some point there were some elephants (I want to say 7, but I'm not sure) that tried to move the giant rock but couldn't. Around this giant monolith are a lot of old temples, called caves, also made out of a single stone. It was quite impressive. We walked around the little temples, going in and marveling at the detailed carvings of the gods inside, and then saw the huge Arjuna's Penance bas relief. The detail on that was unbelievable, and I was fascinated by the depiction of the Ganges river bonding everything.

From there, our guide took us to Sthala Sayana Perumal Temple, which was pretty much around the corner. We went in and got to go an inner chamber where they had a huge golden sleeping statue of a god (I want to say it was Govinda, but I'm not positive). The poor guy doing the prayers inside must have been in trance or something, it was like an incense smelling sauna inside! We got back in the car and then we went to the Shore Temple. This place was amazing, and ironically enough, the 2004 Tsunami left an added legacy other than the path of destruction, as it unearthed (unsanded would be more appropriate) some structures that had been long buried and forgotten. We got to see the waves crashing on the tallest points of 6 more temples that are now under water on the Bay of Bengal. I loved this place, and the view of the fishing colorful boats nearby. As we left this place, the guide took us through a shopping place, but we just looked around. The one big thing I wanted to buy was too big to bring back easily (yes, I want a big wooden elephant to put in the entrance of the house we don't have yet), so I will just have to wait.

Fishing boats near the Shore Temple in Mamallapuram

On the way to our last stop, the Five Rathas (Pancha Rathas, or the 5 Chariots), we got a nice glimpse of the old and new lighthouses. Surprisingly, they seemed to be a bit far away from the actual water line. The Five Rathas is another collection of old temples that are now monuments. Each little temple has detailed carvings to the gods and there were some big animal carvings here and there, of which the bull, Shiva's transport, was my favorite. We walked around the area, and I, just like my Mother imagined, almost had the camera taped on my forehead and was taking picture after picture. We weren't really the only pale tourists around, and in fact, I was surprised by how many women seemed to be traveling by themselves. I salute them and admire their courage. It is not that we ever felt unsafe during our travels, but without speaking the language and the many cultural differences, it does take some courage to make it there by yourself.

At this point we reached the end of our tour, we went back to the entrance of the village and dropped off our guide, and made it back to Chennai. My Man needed some rest and I was happy to have some shelter from the sweltering sun. We had a late lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants (and it was delicious) and, after resting for a while, ventured back to Pondy Bazaar to do some shopping. We first made it to Pothys, where I got a beautiful purple and golden saree and my Man got some nice shirts. I also got some salwaar kameezes and, now knowing that the little floating pieces of fabric were the sleeves, had them attached at the store (that was awesome, they do it while you wait!). It was funny, there were so many employees that the concept of leisurely looking around didn't quite work for us (sure, not quite matching the crowd didn't help us either). We would be looking around and would have a flock of workers asking if we were ready and if we needed something else. And the people are always so smiley while asking that after telling them once or twice "I'm just looking around, thank you", I would just give up, pay for whatever I had selected up to that point, and then go browse some more. I also got a bunch of pashminas and shawls. Things were so cheap compared to European prices I felt like I was stealing stuff! Then we made it to Naidu Hall, another store where Manoj had told me I could easily find the little blouses that go with the sarees, so I got a bigger size black blouse for my beautiful red saree, and a purple one to match the saree I had just purchased. I also got some shirts and salwar kameezes there. I love Indian clothes, is this not clear yet? Once it got dark, we made it back to the hotel (walking, on the street of course) and after ordering some room service for dinner (also great), we called it a day.

The next day we got up early again, as our driver was to pick us up again at 8 am to get our Chennai touring started. This time we got to see some more of the Chennai traffic. Our first stop was the Parthasarathy Temple. We left our shoes in the car and walked in. There was some ceremony going on in the main courtyard, and we saw some people worshiping the carved gods on the columns, going around and around the column as they would mumble things. The temples themselves were really cool, and most of them would have this big cone structure at the entrance with lots of little carvings around, some painted in white, some in colors. There would usually be a courtyard and then a smaller shrine in the middle, where some people could go in all the way to pray. Our next stop was the Basilica of San Thome, which can claim a spot next to St. Peter's Basilica and the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as a place of burial for an apostle of Jesus. We walked around inside the church, and it was interesting to see some people taking their shoes off to go in. We then went underneath the church, to see the relics of St. Thomas, and as we were sitting there, a fellow visitor came and told us that we should take our shoes off because in such a powerful place our prayers were going to be answered faster. I was a gracious person and kept my mouth shut, but many responses came up quickly to my head, the first one being that this was a christian church, and in general we don't do the taking off the shoes before going inside our churches. Thinking about it though, I guess catholic Indians have the same weird issues as catholic Mexicans, both conquered by another religion but still clinging to some of their old beliefs (I doubt the Vatican is pleased with Mexico's adoration to the dead). Anyway. Moving on. We got back in the car and our nice driver (who kept addressing us as sir and ma'am, each time breaking my heart a little bit, as he was 56 years old and could have been my own father) took us to our next stop, the awesome Kapaleashwarar Temple.

The level of carvings on the main structure was unbelievable, and the colors! We left our shoes again inside the car, and walked in. As soon as we had crossed the door, we had a guide come up to us to offer his services. And let me tell you (and Manoj will agree), the Indian guides are persistent. You can say no thank you a thousand times and unless you utterly ignore them, they'll stay next to you throughout your visit to a given place and then, at the end, will ask you for a tip. So we were at the mercy of this guy, who was nice enough to tell us some stories about the temple. I was less than thrilled when he took my camera away and started taking pictures (that was the part I disliked about the guides the most - they would pretty much tell you "come here, take a picture from here", and those who know me well can easily tell how happy I am to be told to do something). We walked around inside the temple for a while, and got to see 4 or 5 weddings taking place at one of the halls around the courtyard. It was unbelievable. The sarees, the music, the flowers, the fires! A part of me wished I was hindu so that I could really take pride in going to these places and worshiping Shiva. Two interesting things inside this temple were that they would have posts with food for the birds around, and a tree where people would go and tie little ribbons as they wished / prayed for something. Oh, and a baby cow that was chilling inside. That was funny. I was tempted to leave a ribbon on that tree, but my thinking was cut short by our guide asking for a tip, so we pretty much left right after that.

The beautiful Kapaleashwarar Temple in Chennai

From here, we went to Mount St. Thome and visited the small Church of our Lady of Expectations. This church reminded me a lot of the Santuario de Guadalupe in Monclova, and the little statues in the front reminded me of the statue on the Cerro del Tepeyac where Juan Diego and the Virgin Mary are depicted. Our next stop was the Government Museum, where we visited the bronze gallery and a gallery with lots of stone carvings. The bronze gallery was amazing, and there were lots of dancing Shiva sculptures (Natarajas) and some Ganeshas and Buddhas. They were beautiful. The actual building of the museum was really nice and, like many things around Chennai, as soon as you would enter the premises, you would have some peace and quiet from the crazy traffic. Here we were a little better about not accepting help from any guides and just walked around at our own pace. We did get some offers, and sometimes, after asking where you were from, they would ask for currency of that particular country... unfortunately for them we were carrying neither pesos nor dollars. At this point, we took a break from the touring, went back to the hotel, and had some room service for lunch (we had gotten lazy). My Man was having intermittent fever episodes, so the rest was needed for a bit.

Around 4 pm, our driver picked us up again and we got our afternoon touring started. The first stop was Fort St. George, an old British fortress. The actual construction was beautiful, and just seeing the old paintings made me dream of having traveled with the East India Company in those almost biblical times! (My Man just told me that my view of history is very compressed, that's right). A long time ago, before Chennai grew into the big metropolis it is now, this Fort was just on the water front, overlooking the city. It is sort of romantic to think about pearls and silk and spices being traded, and the royalty, British and Indian, just hanging out. Sure, sure, I'm sure reality was not quite like that, but it's my dream, so in that dream I am also at least 5 inches taller and I have no gray hairs. Part of the Fort complex now houses some police quarters, so we got to see some of that on our way to St. Mary's, the oldest anglican church in India, and where Elihu Yale, later benefactor of Yale University, got married.

Afterwards, our driver took us through old Chennai, the streets so clumped and filled with people that the only images that would come to my head were those of the favelas in Rio. We just drove around before going to our last stop: Marina Beach. This beach is one of the largest in the world, second to Miami Beach. My Man and I were amazed not so much at the length, but the width of it. Our driver dropped us off by the edge of the sand and it took some effort to get to the water. And let me tell you, I hate having sand all over me. But somehow I didn't mind it as much while we were walking there. It was fun to see women in sarees getting in the water, and guys walking around with their arms on each other's shoulders. That kind of annoyed me a bit. You see, PDA in India is not too kosher... unless it's same sex PDA, then it's ok. I felt a bit left out. We walked around Anna Square (not Anna as in a girl, which is what I thought, but as in a guy, whose nickname is Anna) and then, after a long day of sightseeing, got back in the car and made it back to the hotel.

Later that evening we talked to Manoj, who was coming back to Chennai after the family temple visit and we made plans to meet him and his Dad at the reception of the hotel at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am the next morning, as our train to Agra was leaving at 6:15 am or so and we wanted to have enough time to get to the train station. More about that in the next post, 3/4 in the Indian saga.

You can see pictures of Chennai and surrounding areas here. You can see a video of the Five Rathas in Mamallapuram here, one with Pothys' madness here, and one at Marina Beach here.

A dream comes true: An Indian wedding

My Man got back from Korea Friday night (2 weeks ago) with no delays, which looking back, I guess was what Murphy's Law would have predicted, given that we had scheduled our departure to India for Sunday and not Saturday morning, as I wish we had done, so that we wouldn't have missed the first day of the festivities. But, I am glad he got a chance to take a deep breath before the craziness continued.

We made it to the airport in the wee hours of the morning and by 7:30 am we were flying over the German skies, en route to Frankfurt, where we caught our direct flight to Chennai, which would take us over several exotic places, including Iran, where our friend Kathy suggested we could make a stop to pick up some drapes for the house we don't have yet (she got some awesome ones done there).

We landed on Indian soil around midnight, and after a long wait at passport control, we made it out of the airport, where we quickly spotted Manoj, who was there to pick us up and take us to the hotel. It had been a long day for him already, as they had had an engagement reception that night, and later we learned that such event included lots of dancing and parading through the streets. I could go on and on about how sad I am that we missed that, but I will spare you those depressing details, as there are many more to come. As soon as we got in the car, I should've known what was in store for us. Let's say that Indians, just like Mexicans, haven't quite grasped the concept of seat belts. And even though they don't drive at German speeds, there seems to still be a risk factor, increased by the fact that you are sharing the road with cars with no lights, people with no reflective clothes, rickshaws, bikes, motorbikes, tractors all going at varying speeds and with people barely contained inside them.

But I am getting ahead of myself. We made it to the hotel, Manoj helped us check in, and we pretty much went to bed, as the next day would get off to an early start. Manoj's family had gotten us the clothes we would be wearing for the wedding, but I had no idea what color they would be. That's not an excuse - I should have been in super thinking ahead mode, but I was tired. So that morning, being that the wedding would take place in the morning and the reception at night (more on that later), I just chose a colorful pink shirt and appropriately put on a bright pink bra and didn't think more about that. A driver picked us up around 7 am and took us to the wedding hall, where Manoj's and Jay's, the groom, families had been staying for the last 2 days or so. When we got there, there were only a few people, but in the next hour or so, lots of people arrived. My eyes couldn't get enough of the beautiful and bright-colored sarees that all the women were wearing, and the smell of jasmine flowers that most of them had in their hair. The amount of bling was amazing too, and to my surprised slightly Americanized perception, not tacky at all. You see, we Mexicans are also big on bling and bracelets and stuff, to a much more extensive degree than our American counterparts (unless one thinks of the native Americans as the real American, in which case they probably would agree with us). I must confess I had never seen a child with dangly earrings though, but combined with the beautiful dresses that the little girls had, it didn't seem as weird as I would have thought. We met Manoj's parents and then his sister, Vidya, who was starting to get dressed up for the morning ceremony.

Now, I'm sure Manoj can read this and say the proper names of things, but I'll just relate what I saw. Once Jay and Vidya were all ready (Jay was wearing a dhoti, which is basically a sarong - most men were wearing those and no shirt, but there were also the shy guys wearing shirts), there appeared a band almost as if from nowhere, and everybody got out of the hall on to the street, for Jay's journey to experience life was going to begin. Such journey only took about 3 minutes of walking around the street with lots of guys around him, including one holding an umbrella, you know, just in case it would rain during the trip. Once he was back at the entrance of the hall, he was received by Vidya's family, and there was some exchange of yellow coconuts and some prayers that they would repeat after the many Hindu priests that were around, their foreheads painted in white, yellow or red, depending on their God of choice. My favorite part of this bit was that at some point, bride and groom were supposed to try and run away from each other (aided by family members, which I thought was funny) and the other one had to go chase after them, you know, just to make sure you really want to marry that person. Maybe we should include that in our wedding traditions. Then came my other favorite part. Also outside the hall was a swing, where they both sat down, and then came a parade of all the aunts and other female guests, and they would sprinkle some milky liquid on their feet, and then, while holding a platter with red and yellow little balls, would make circles in front of them while throwing the red and yellow balls to the back, the front, and each side. All this went on as some of the aunts were singing Indian classical songs, including one to the god Govinda, which I really liked.

Morning blessings...

Then came breakfast. The back part of the hall had a big room with lots of tables set up and banana leaves as plates. We sat down and then came the food. The catering people would come with buckets filled with different food, and serve a bit of each on the banana leaves. And here I realized that Indian food, just like some African food, is also eaten with no utensils, just mixing the rice with whatever sides you have. All the food at the wedding was vegetarian, and the heavenly part of my trip thus began.

After breakfast, the actual tying of the knot ceremony started. There was a stage at the end of the wedding hall, with a colorful backdrop, and then there were lots of chairs to see what was going on, sort of like a performance. It was insane. There were lots of cameramen (and TVs distributed around the hall so that you could see what was going on without having to look up to the stage). It was a bit warm and humid, but felt perfect, at least for us. I am sure Jay and Vidya, with the little fire they had going on (literally) on the stage, thought differently. They were sitting in the middle of all the madness, a couple of priests sitting also with them, and then there were the rest of the people just walking up and around the stage. Every time an important part of the ceremony would take place, someone up on the stage would signal the band to play something, so that people could direct their attention to what was going on. We were sitting for the most part with Jay's boss and his wife Suzy, who had traveled from Wisconsin to the wedding. Other than the 2 of them, and an aunt of Jay's, an American, we were the only obvious outsiders. The wedding ceremony went on for quite a while, and at some point right after the actual tying of the knot, which consisted in Jay tying a big flower necklace around Vidya's neck while she was sitting on her Dad's lap and the immediate families were surrounding them, us the guests got to throw flower petals all over the stage. But then it continued, with more fire and smoke, and offerings and other things that I don't even know. I'd ask Manoj to give some enlightenment, but he already confessed that he didn't quite know what all of it was or meant.

Then came lunch. More banana leaves and wonderful food, including the dessert, which was Chinese noodles with sweet milk. After this, we got some down time and just hung out around the hall for the next 4 hours or so. Some people left to their houses, some people stayed in the living quarters of the hall and took beauty naps, some people just sat around chatting. We sat and talked with Manoj for the most part. There were some snacks given out, including some spicy samosas, and coffee with milk that tasted just like Mexican cafe con leche. The chai was quite good too. We also talked to some of his uncles, and I particularly liked one of them, who would come up to us every now and then to make sure we were doing ok, and trying everything we could, and giving us advice about things to do while we were in India, and how Manoj had to get married soon so that we could go back. That was quite hilarious (and I'm sure Manoj will appreciate my bringing it up here). It was the first time I had really seen a guy being pressured to get married by lots of family members. I'm used to women getting that, but not guys. Ah, there is some fairness in all of it.

Around 6 pm or so we started getting ready for the evening reception. I went in the room that had AC where Vidya was hanging out and starting to get ready with the help of her Mom and many aunts, and then the extra fun of dressing the foreign girl started. My saree was beautiful. The little blouse and skirt were black, and the actual saree was of a bright blood red with little black flowers and some sparkly black thingies on the side. Manoj's Mom helped me get started, but we had some trouble getting it to be on the right side because, as Vidya said, it is always harder to put a saree on somebody else than on yourself. At some point I had 3 women helping wrap it around. The blouse was a little tight, and unfortunately, here is where I realized that my choice of wearing a pink bra had been a poor one. You can totally see it in some of the pictures, which is quite depressing, but oh well. One of Manoj's aunts kept taking pictures of me with her cellphone, I think she was pretty excited to see a non-Indian girl happy to wear a saree. I was thrilled. I also had some bling going on with my earrings and a necklace. Sadly, the bangles were a bit too small for my wrists, and Manoj's Mom and I only got them on my left hand with the help of some soap. I couldn't bear the pain on my other hand. And of course, there was the final touch of jasmine flowers in your hair and a red sparkly bindi between my eyebrows. I think that, in spite of the pink bra, I looked pretty good, thank you.

Once I was ready, then it was my Man's turn to get Indianized. They had gotten him a beige salwar-kameez looking thing and a nice brown vest to wear on top. He looked quite dazzling. We had some pictures taken. But nothing prepared us to the awesomeness of Maharaja Manoj. His clothes were amazing. He was wearing this brown jacket down to the knees, all embroidered in gold thread on the collar and the chest, and with a nice beige scarf around. And the shoes! They were beige (I'll pardon the leather material for such a special occasion) with embroidered orange and gold thread. Just beautiful.

The reception started with a music concert by P. Unni Krishnan, which was really nice. At some point he sang the same Govinda song I had heard in the morning. I loved his rendition of it. Then, towards the end of the concert, once the other band members got a chance to shine a little more, we were amazed to hear the sounds coming out of drums and clay pots. Very, very cool. Suzy told us one of her friends had made a trip to New York to see this guy in concert, and there we were, seeing him at a wedding reception. Apparently Vidya is a big fan. I wonder if I were to have a big wedding reception, if Luis Miguel would come sing for me. I'm thinking probably not. All through this time, poor Jay and Vidya were standing in another part of the hall taking picture after picture after picture with all the guests.

The heavenly food...

After the concert was over, we had dinner, where the food was even better than the previous meals, which was a little hard to believe, being that it all had been so good. For dessert I had some pistachio ice cream. Around 10:30 pm or so we were picked up by a driver who took us back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

You can see pictures of this day's festivities here, and some video of the morning swing blessings here, and the evening concert here.

Adventures in Chennai and surrounding areas coming soon.

India Lantern Slides

Clay Ganeshas on the side of the Chennai streets, ready to be dissolved in the Bay of Bengal for the upcoming festival.

The hungry faces of children, their English phrases rehearsed as they sell crafts or ask for money.

Colorful sarees on women, whether they are at a party or carrying a bowl with terracotta-colored cement on their heads.

Green landscapes covered by blue skies, flanked by all types of life, busy and hopeful.

Hindi sounds striking a chord inside me and memories of Maharajas and Maharanis.

The white, cool marble around the Taj Mahal, and holding the hand of a beautiful Indian woman, both of us excited to be standing next to each other posing for a photograph.

Feeling the temples and palace courtyards barefooted.

Camels' faces and their long eyelashes.

Finding Hindu Gods fascinating, especially Shiva in his Nataraja form.

Wonderful paneer everyday and the warm spices of chai combined with the sweetness of lassi.

Drops of sweat down my back.

Tum Se Hi... Tum Se Hi...