deb65251
Deb Mac Joined: November 23rd 2005
Logged in: July 6th 2006
Logged in: July 6th 2006
If you would like to read Ruth's travel blog you can find it at www.ruthmac.blogspot.com
I left my home town, Fulton, Missouri, on December 8 to fly to San Francisco where I met up with the kids and flew together to India on December 9. We didn't return until January 5, 2006.
Our two families met for the first time in July of this year when Prasanna and Santhana, Praveen's parents, came here to visit. During this trip it was great getting to know them better and to meet the whole family on their own turf. Being hosted by a family who lives there made the trip really special. We got to be "more" than tourists, we were part of the family! Of course, the highlight of the trip was the wedding. It's a trip I'll never forget. Debra
Travel Blog Posts
View from the Car Window
I took these photos from the car, mostly as we made our trek from Japiur to Agra (in Northern India). Admittedly they are not the greatest photos, but hey, the car was moving! Some of them were taken in a city, I'm not sure which one, probably either Delhi, Jaipur, or Agra. Most of them though, I took when I had my turn in the front seat and Praveen #2, our driver, was taking us the long hard stretch from Jaipur to Agra. I thought I'd try and capture the variety of vehicles that were sharing the road with us. I have another set of photos to post soon that were focused along the roadside, instead of ON it. Note to my family and friends who live in India: I realize you may not be too ... read more
The Vegetable Man
Here are photos that were taken from Prasanna and Santhana's yard or near their home. They lived on a fairly quiet street with businesses just a few blocks away, easily within walking distance. Their local temple was about a half block away down the same street. All the homes (pretty much everywhere in the country) had walls around them which defined their yards. Someone told me that if there weren't walls around the homes, how would people know where the street ended and private property began? ... and what would prevent people from coming into private yards? Some walls had large double gates which would permit a car to be driven in and parked in the "yard". While we were there, Santhana parked their car on the street, but as you can see in one of ... read more
Yard Decoration
Prasanna and Santhana put up traditional decorations in their yard which announced to the neighborhood that an auspicious event was taking place in their home. (I'm not sure, but I don't think it's specific just to weddings, but to any "auspicious" event.) Side note: "Auspicious" is not really a word that I'm particularly familiar with, but it's used often in India. Looking it up in my thesaurus (after using the spell checker), I find that it means: favorable, positive, promising, fortunate, propitious, lucky and good. There was a canopy of woven banana leaves that covered over not only the entrance to the yard, but the whole yard. (you can’t tell this from the photo, only the part over the gate is visible). At the two sides of the gate there were two full sized banana trees ... read more
UhOh...
The plane trip was uneventful and boring...and LONG. I don’t remember the exact amount of time we were held captive but I’m thinking it was about 10 hours to Frankfurt where we had a couple hours lay over and then another 12 hours to San Francisco. We had a bit of a hassle at Chennai when our reserved, TWICE confirmed seats, appeared to have been given to someone else and we were reassigned to three seats separated and spread out throughout the plane. Praveen was not happy, especially after confirming them twice before we went to the airport, and especially after a similar incident when we first started the trip in San Francisco. The nice lady behind the counter told us that there was nothing anyone could do and she had no idea why the seats ... read more
As I write this, I’m sitting in the office at Ruth and Praveen’s house. We made it home fine and will tell you a bit about the mostly uneventful plane trip and slightly more eventful homecoming later. First, though I’ll write about our final day in India.. When we first arrived in India, we spent a few days in Chennai then took a 40 minute plane trip to Coimbatore. When it was time to leave India, we decided to expand our experiences and take an 8 hour overnight train trip to return to Chennai. Prasanna, Santhana, and Sandhya accompanied us and as it turns out six was the perfect number because there were six “bunks” in our little section of the train. When we first entered the train the bunks were not immediately recognizable…only two wide ... read more
Back Water Boat Trip
I will post more of the photos relating to this entry later. Saturday, December 31, 2005 Time is a funny thing these days…sometimes it seems like a day is a week because of all the experiences one day can hold… other times it seems as if it’s flying by. Our trip is almost over. Several days ago (I can’t say exactly how many because of that time thing I just mentioned) we left for a trip to Kerala. At the start of the trip those traveling included Praveen’s parents, Prasanna and Santhana, his sister, Sandhya, his uncle, Mohen, aunt, Vina, their toddler twins, Vina’s mother, two of Praveen’s close friends, Shaggy and hummm…. Schrader (spelled incorrectly I’m sure), Greg, Angela, Ruth, Praveen, and myself. We took a large van as well as a car. The van ... read more
King Sized Bouquet
Note: I have had some trouble posting photos and you also may have had trouble seeing them. It's just a temporaty glitch in the system, so be sure to try again if all you get are black squares. I was waiting to post this entry and the next one until I had photos to add but I will just send them along now and post the photos in a seperate blog later. The Reception ....I have already attempted to tell you about the wedding so this one is about the reception, which was held the night BEFORE the wedding on December 24. I can’t remember much about how we ended up on the stage, but it must have been something similar to the wedding minus the big procession of pretty girls in front of us. Mostly ... read more
Pretty Cool, Huh?
You should take a minute and go to Ruth's blog at: ruthmac.blogspot.com or click here: Ruth's Blog She has posted some pictures there and I will try to post different ones here.... Also you will enjoy reading what she has written...don't worry, she is not nearly as long winded as I am so it won't take forever to read like mine does! These were all taken either right before, after or during the wedding. They are not in order, although I tried.... read more
Hey, We're Almost Pros!
Bananas… Did you know that banana trees are only good for one harvest They grow to full maturity in about 10-12 months and then the whole tree is down. I learned this when we visited Santhana’s family home in Palakkad where his eldest sister now lives with her husband. (His parents have passed away and the oldest daughter inherited the family home.) She said that it’s not a worry because each tree has children that will quickly grow in their place. It really surprised me, that the tree only produces fruit one time. Bananas here are a big part of the diet and they come in many varities, but none like the ones at home. Most of them are real small, about 4 inches… and very tasty. They have a slight citrus taste to me on ... read more
Mr. & Mrs. Praveen Krishnan
This morning I have been attempting to sort through about a (thousand photos from two cameras) of the wedding and reception. It’s not an easy task, but it’s a fun one. The hard part is choosing a few of the best representative photos to post quickly. These photos are only of the wedding (and events immediately before or after it) which was yesterday morning. There are also many photos of the reception which took place on Saturday evening, the night before the wedding. I’ll post those in another entry as well as many more of the wedding itself. The photos here were taken by Greg and by a friend of Ruth and Praveen’s. A professional photographer was there also taking photos as well as video which will be edited and put on DVD. There was bright ... read more
