Blogs from Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 133

The first day of the Wedding ceremony was today. There are three parts/days to a traditional Indian wedding. Today was the Mendhi ceremony, tomorrow is the Wedding Ceremony, and the next day is the Party. The Mendhi ceremony if mostly all about the women. They get henna tattoos on their hands while the men stand around holding purses, drinks, and taking pictures. Speaking of taking pictures, since Vikram is a celebrity here, there was some paparazzi here and I felt really bad because they kept interviewing me about my Best Buy commercial which I felt was extremely inappropriate since it was Vikram and Melanie’s day, but you can’t control the media. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, real events. Vikram got a little bit of henna on his hand as well, but Melanie looks like she ... read more

The Wedding Ceremony: Oh wait, before the wedding ceremony. I forgot to say what also happened at the Gateway To India... Gateway to India: A "holy man" dressed in robes grabbed my wrist and tied yellow and red strings around them. He then blessed me. I thought it was pretty cool and said Namaste (thank you) to the guy. But nothing is free in India so he asked for a donation and shot him a ten. Later, in the shower, my religious strings bled and I had to throw them away. It looked like psycho in the shower as my blessings went down the drain... back to... The Wedding Ceremony: This is what I wore my traditional Indian dress for. Yes, the Kaftan, scarf, and shoes. The whole nine yards. Danielle didn't wear a sari (because ... read more

LAST OF THE WEDDING: I failed to mention in the last email that there was a portion of the celebration that was simply magical. An event that none who were present will ever forget. A kid, around 11 years old, named Haresh but I think pronounced Harsh began to dance. The kid was good. It was like a scene out of Grease as everyone left the dance floor and started to clap as Haresh flailed around to this rocking Hindi song. I have been known to be a tad sarcastic in my emails, but I’m being 100% serious when I say that this kid was good. I wish I could describe his dance moves, but if I did, it wouldn’t do “Harsh” justice. He did this one move that was a kind of sprinkler/cabbage patch hybrid ... read more

2006: Gotta get used to '06. I wonder if in the year of 1 A.D. if they also screwed up on their checks and wrote 0 by mistake. Some interesting things about the New Years Eve/birthday at the Grand Hyatt. They checked under each car arriving at the hotel with mirrors to check for bombs. Yes, while rich westerners were partying the night away, they were worried about terrorist attacks. Gotta love the state of the world in 2006. It was a bad year for the world in 2005 with the natural disasters Katrina, the tsunami in Asia, Earthquake in pakistan, and of course Bush. AND NOW... ELEPHANTA ISLAND Since Danielle and I were templed out on our trip to Asia, this was the main attraction that I wanted to see in India. Yes, it's a ... read more

While I'm always grateful to accompany the EFICOR staff here as they work, and fascinated to learn about what it is they do and why, there haven't been many opportunities where I'm able to actually be of much help to them, (mainly due to the language barrier). The main exception to this has been what little technological know-how I have - I've helped Jitu learn to use the new office camera, continue to give Sujal frequent computer lessons, installed a CD burner on the office computer, and yesterday succeeded in setting up internet access in the office! So I'll now be able to access the net much more frequently, work and electricity permitting, (there are at least two lengthy power cuts a day, which the state government excuses as "load-shedding"), and hope to catch up on ... read more