School..Family and a Tiger Sanctuary

I have found an e-mail place but once again I have limited time. I am heading into the mountains today with Nallasivan and his colleauge. I travelled Nallasivans school in the village (20% of the students are orphans) I met a Canadian and English girl who were working at the orphanage nearby so I went and visited them as well. Nallasivan's staff put on a welcoming ceremony and I was the ambassador for their Green movement. I got to plant some trees in the court yard. I am going to try and upload the pictures of the ashram orphanage and me doing some quick hair-cuts for some of the girls: the one's name was Sashee..very sweet.

I spent yesterday in Meena's kitchen learning how to cook and she was also filling me ino some secret ingredients that are not so secret in India but until now have remained a mystery to me...like why the tea tastes so much better here than at home!

She also took me through the traditional Hindi wedding and the reasons behind some of the reception. We ended the day with a lesson of saree dressing. I think I am close to being able to dress myself. Vydyha looked on and giggled but she told me I looked very nice. It is a real treat to be dressed and have your hair done with jewels and flowers.

I going back to the village and visiting water dam area. Nallasivan is trying to get special permission to have me enter a certain area. Okay, so the areas we were in was Tiger Sanctuary..unfortunately ( fortunately?) no tiger sitings. But two different species of monkeys..pretty cute in my books. As well we ended up hitting one of the waterfalls and went for a bath. This entailed me undressing in front of an audience...if you recall the male female ratios here, this was no different..22 men, 2 women ( that two is including me!) They

had a guard stand nearby and clear the rest of the men out of the waterfall. I stood in my sarong while the onlookers stared and stared and stared ( Kit that was for you..I thought you might be missing those horrible TV commercials haha)

For a country that is very particular about seeing legs and shoulders of a woman, this was quite the experience. But very refreshing..if not a whole lot revealing.

The Royal Treatment

So I was met at the airport by teachers from Madurai. they took teh The Royal Court Hotel and I rested from my days journey. I was met the next morning and taken to my room to be dressed. Lakshimi had brought a sari and jewellry and Jasmine for my hair..as well as the bhindi and I was magically turned into an Indian woman. I felt very beautiful. Lakshima and her son Vidya and Robert another teacher and a friend took me throughout Mandurai..the best day in India yet.

Our first stop was teh famous Sri Meenakshi Temple.....HUGE. I was very appreciative to have the guidance. However I also become a site seeign attraction... western woman dressed in saree, with mendhi hands and after a special pooja ceremony, completely garlanded with wedding garlands from Meenakshi... so I was surrounded by people from Kerala who wanted to know who I had married...not married just feeling like a Hindu princess.

I took pictures with some of the ladies adn one of a little girl that was simply beautiful.

We headed up the mountain to a temple that had water flowing from the depths for over 3000 years...I was again was given a special pooja ceremony and taken down into the specail bathing area..where I stepped in and joined the rest being blessed by the water but looking slightly like coralled animals. It was brilliant, Vydia, Lakshima and me were first to dip in and splash. We then finsihed with a little picnic right in the temple of rice wrapped in banana leaf and some very sweet treats. I was blessed with the ash and garlands and then we finished our day with a stop at a coffee shop and walk through of a Mahatma Ghandi memorial... all in all a very Hindu day the left me in awe. I did not have enough gratitude for the kindess of my hosts...I was heartbroken to see them leave. It was a very special day.

t

Pimpin' a ride

Soooo I am on my own and I was transferring to to get to Madurai. Option A wait in the airport for 5 hours. Option B get harrrassed by a taxi driver to let him take me around the city for free...nothing in India is free. So we negotitated and he took me back to his rattle trap car and I started thinking..what did I agree too? Wellt eh arragnemetn was five stores that I had to go into..he would get paid 200 Rs a store for bringing me.....and I would see Bangalore. As he drove me down some back alley and through some deserted streets the only thing goign through my head was: missing tourist in Banglore. He grabbed my hand and pinched my fingers and laughed. He then looked at me and said 2 chidst..??? two chidst You will have two children hahah. The first store we went to a took his keys and a taxi liscence and went in and had masala tea with some beautifil Kashmir men. I came out of the store and he said: you are very smart lady and I thought: I don't think my mother would think that right now:)

I went to the stores and visited with the Kashmir men and learned many interesting things.... my driver took meout for lunch and said I will pay if you stay one more day...I laughed and said takeme back to the airport please....free taxi, free lunch free tea and a free tour of the city..with only one or two panic atacks.. all is well and I am on my way to Madurai

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Mendhi and Old Delhi

If you have ever watched the Amazing Race you will know the day that Kit and I had shopping. Our taxi driver got lost and we ended up on teh opposite ened of where we wanted to be and ended up walking through the some of the streets of old Delhi. It put your senses to the test between watching where your footing, watching your bag and the action and odours.. you found your head spinning. We ended up grabbing a bicycle rickshaw and it was much nicer. We ended our day with mendhi... we negotiated the price, got the henna on our hands and the ladies cahnged their price. It is the first time that we have been out and out lied to... not bad for a one month stay in India. The henna goes on and must stay on your skin for one hour. Then you have to scrape it off and not wach for one evening. The henna dies your skin an orange color that keeps getting darker. It is a chocolate brown color right now and will last a couple of weeks. It is wedding henna. Brides get it done on their hands and feet before they get married.

Love and Marriage

More picture of the Taj Mahal’s detailed carvings and marble work..and some info on Love and Marriage in India

So my investigation into love marriages and arranged marriages continues. Furthuring my interest Kuldeep answered many questions that I was curious about. When getting married, there is a dowry that the bride’s family needs to pay. It is usually all of the household items and money, dependant on the wealth of the family. The bride will also pay for the ceremony ( which can be as long as 5 days). It is tradition that the brides aunt and uncle will give the couple a gift as well…usually 20,000 to 50, 000 Rs This is the traditional sense. Kuldeep to0ld me that he and many others do not always expect a dowry and the money from the aunt and uncle but it is the way.
He also told me that in India it is based on a joint family tradition. The brothers will stay together in living arrangements with their mother and father while the daught is expected to move in with her husband’s family and brothers. He was surprised that Canadians live independent of their families in many cases. He said that the other families take care of the children and duties in a communal sense. How old? Well for women 20-25, for men 25, 30 to 40. The one thing that is essential is that child brides have been outlawed and men are not allowed to marry before 25.
I asked him if he got to meet his wife prior to marrying him and he laughed and said yes…but this is not the traditional way The men and women that have love marriages will receive no support from their families or friends..he was very clear that they would be isolated and not supported.. He said these marriages do not often last. He told me that to see the young couples out who are not married and in his words “making fun” of the traditions of India were very disrespectful. I was a little sheepish in the idea that I could not tell the difference between the married and unmarried couples. He noted a few in the places we were…I asked about dating and he said that it is not approved of but media and movies are eroding the traditional values.
I have seen this in the youth going to discos in the hotel. It is a shock to see anyone’s legs here, westerners and Indian people included. I have been here a short time and I will catch myself staring. So, to see music videos and young women in short skirt is not fashion dress that is approved of here. And dating before marriage is a hidden secret and does not have the approval of the majority.
Big or small it is okay to show your belly (except in Haryana and Punjab) but to show your legs is obscene.
As for infidelity, if it does happen it is denied profusely. Arranged marriages are defended and believed to work better than love marriages. But it is questionable when one sees t-shirts that say MBA: married but available and many people of all ages are on love match sites in the internet places and there are many people seeking connections with westerners

In my own experience I have had a few seeking my affections, some more persistent than others. But the mother intervened on my behalf: she told him that I was the moon and he was the cloud and the cloud could not talk to the moon. She told him to wish me a happy journey from her and from him and to let me be. It was very sweet way of putting it. I told Rufas that if I was the moon then he must be my sun :)

...times are changing and many are resisting the change, but the times just keep changing,
t

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

I traveled to Agra yesterday and there is not enough words to detail the grandness and beauty of the Taj Mahal. I will post some pictures..but even then it does not capture the feel of the place. So with requests, I will post three pics..the one with the back of my head so that my sister can pretend that it is her. One for my fellow yogis who won’t laugh at me when everyone else is haha! And of course the one that left me breathless: A group of school children in bright red uniforms running in between the mosque and the Taj Mahal. And the last one is the interesting thing about India: I go to take a picture of the Taj Mahal and the Indians want a picture of me...these were my new friends haha!

The beauty and the sadness of the Taj Mahal is wrapped in its story. A tribute to his wife, the emperor had many workers build the white marble structure. With devotion and love it was builton the bloodshed of many workers. After the artistry was complete the Emperor had the thumbs cut off of the men who constructed the beautiful symmetrical masterpiece so that they would never be able to copy the artistry anywhere else. It did not end there… he had most of the labourers killed so they could not replicate anything from the structure.
Once the white marble Taj was built he intended to put a black mirror image across the river. This did not happen. He started the outline and before any brick was laid he was imprisoned by his son in the fort facing the Taj Mahal. It is here he was imprisoned for the remaining eight years of his life. He had a complete view of his masterpiece and tribute of love…but also his unfulfilled dream.
His son believed he had already spent too much money and to build a black marble Taj Was too extravagant and he was taking too much money away from the people

I visited the fort and veiwed the place of imprisonment but I also saw the area where the golden chain of justice used to be. It is believed that there was a long gold chain that reached down to the common people. Any person could call for justice by shaking the chain and bringing awareness to the emperor of the justice being sought.

I also visted Akbar’s tomb with its 70 foot ceiling that allows an echo to carry out for longer than 5 seconds.

The most memorable things about the trip would be the kindness of my host Kuldeep who walked me through all of the areas while fending off many peddlars of tourist items.

The symmetry and precision of the artistry: large slabs that had perfectly symmetrical carvings.

And of course the drive to Agra: the roads in India are riddled with donkeys, camels and horses pulling carts beside large lorries filled with anything from dead cows and camels to people spilling out and hanging on precariously out the sides of rickshaws or on the back of bikes. Loads of immense size tilted and twisted to fit on too small of transportation. Donkeys next to small cars, right next to fancy jeeps, beside bicycles. It is a shock to the senses with complete and utter disbelief flowing through your veins at every moment of every moment forward in traffic. The only thought being one of wonder at how it all works. And the deafening sound of horns beeping to indicate anything from I want to pass to just simple..I am am right behind you. On the backs of trucks it says please use horn...as if anyone in India needed a reminder to use their horn haha!
I may make it home but it will be after my heart has taken a licking from mini-heart attacks and slight cases to extreme case of whiplash, and with some hearing loss all the while my driver is giggling to himself and singing little tunes completely unphased by the chaotic nature of the road.
Kit and I keep laughing that there are signs everywhere saying lane driving is safe driving and I have yet to see anyone drive in one lane..in fact even when there is no other vehicle the trucks still drive in the middle of the road (however there is rarley, if ever just 20 vehicles...)

It was a long trip there and back...the distance is not long but the traffic is intense...nonetheless well worth every twist and turn on the road.

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Hosts

Nice hosts and beautiful gifts...they joked about the use of mobile phones but there is no secretary or land line at this school, so it is the only way to have any contact with the world. the lady is the "sweeper" or the janitor of the place. She was so beautiful, I wanted a picture of her smiling..but I have found that there are few Indian people that will smile with their teeth showing. ( will add picture next time)

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