http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/India/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from India en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:50:06 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:50:06 +0000 We are back in Mumbai in our final days. Today walking through Hardick's neighborhood I recognized the gulley alley that we had explored one of those first days. I've acclimated. Being back in the gulley reminded me of how wild Mumbai intially seemed to me with its scuttling rickshaws and motorbikes unhampered by traffic signs their frequent use of horns clusters of freestanding shacks in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-51327.html We fed the cows with Kantuba Amit's 92 year old grandma ba refers to grandma. It was a very special occasion since although she climbs up and down the stairs two or three times a day Kantuba rarely leaves the yard. Mukenmama Amit's uncle and Kantuba's son who she lives with concieved this plan to feed the cows for two reasons as he will tell you first reason is that I like Kantuba v http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Gujarat/blog-49937.html I find enjoyment here in India in the freedom to do things that I was never allowed to growing up. For example I can walk barefoot wherever I want. Oh how I wanted that Indians are barefoot on the street and in shops and of course always in the house. You take your shoes off when you travel on the bus or train. It's required to go barefoot before you enter the temple. I likewise needed to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Gujarat/blog-49298.html Everyone goes to temple. They are everywhere small roadside temples little more than freestanding huts in the dirt encasing headsized deities on top of platforms housesized temples every couple of blocks in cities towns and villages their extravagant faces decorated with rainbow painted deities winding along the top shrouding the gods within and extravagant temples with multiple intri http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Tiruchirappalli/blog-48452.html It's weird to be a Westerner in India. I've been waved at by full busloads of schoolgirls in villages who call out to me Hallo hallo to get my attention. Children approach me constantly some to practice English which usually consists of little more than hello and what country and others with open palms to beg. Men look at me mostly curiously some more openly gaping. A shirt that I br http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Madurai/blog-48093.html We spent a night at the ashram of a guru who calls herself Amma or Mother. see httpwww.amritapuri.orgammaamma.php From the 14th floor balcony of the building where we slept we could look onto a forest of palm trees broken on one side by the Arabian Sea and on the other by a long river part of the backwaters that are fed by the sea. At night we saw few lights except for a few ligh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kollam/blog-47065.html Amit has bought an armful or should I say backpackful of the comic books he was given as a kid on his trips to India. I'm learning the myths of Hindu gods and heros from them. I have already read the great religious epic The Mahabarata in comic book form Krishna Ganesha known to us as Ganesh and a comic life of the devotional poetess Mirabai. Ironically Amit is learning about Ch http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Trivandrum-/blog-46268.html American cities are sanatized to prevent exposure to the kind of foulness that is found in Indian cities but I think this also has the side effect of insulating Americans from some lovliness. When you walk down a street in Mysore within a few steps you may smell fragrant jasmine blossoms cow dung sweet grass or putrid garbage. In Mumbai we stood on the street at the center of vegetable and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Mysore/blog-45755.html After a rollicking overnight bus from Banglore we arrived in the town of Hampi this morning as the sun was just filling the sky. We stumbled out of the bus and pushed by men offering us rickshaw services and wandered into the temple square still somewhat sleepy. At that time of morning the air felt cool the sky was tinged with pink. At the far end of the square the temple rose gracefully int http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-45094.html Yesterday in Mumbai despite Amit's misgivings about getting to the airport in time we sat and ate a leisurely lunch set out by Jyotiben Amit's cousin that included multiple dishes rotli and rice. We left in the car at 215 pm for a 255 pm flight a possible example of Indian Standard Time IST. Luckily the airport is only about ten minutes from Jyotiben's flat. Even so in his haste to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-44768.html Mumbai at night from the back of Hardick's bike is spectacular black sky covered in haze presumbably from pollution the orange glow of streetlights dark green shadows of palm trees above a prevasive sweet smell like something fermenting mixed with dirt a moist cloying heat relieved at times by a sooty breeze streets crammed with two person motorized rickshaw cabs men on motorbikes s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-43962.html Long before Amit and I talked about traveling to India together I heard about his cousin Hardick. Amit described how Hardick a 25 year old speed demon would navigate the streets of Mumbai on his motorcycle dodging pedestrians rickshaw cabs which are small motorized cars and whatever else was in his way. Once we started making plans to go to India I asked if he thought Hardick would take http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-43573.html Amit's phone rang unexpectedly early this morning surprising us out of sleep. We had slept in the guest room of some friends who were away for the weekend just a few blocks from the place in San Francisco where I was living until yesterday. I had slept fitfully and woken several times in the night some combination of going to bed late in the rush to get everything done yesterday and anticipati http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-43253.html