I knew that they played different sports in India than in the US. I knew cricket was popular. I thought soccer was popular (I was mostly wrong - I think I assumed that soccer was common everywhere but the US). But I had no idea that badminton was so popular.

In the evenings, every well lit area is filled with people hitting a shuttlecock back and forth. They play in the streets under the streetlights. Courts have been set up in vacant lots, and some kids in our building have started to set up a court on the side of the building.

Dolly is an avid badminton fan. She played on her team in high school and went to the state tournament. Last night we played for the first time, though she has wanted to since we've been here. She doesn't think hitting it around in the street is "real" badminton though. She wants to play competitively in a gym, free from air currents. She has heard of a gym down the street that has a women's league in the morning, but its hard to get going in the mornings, so I suspect that we'll just play in the yard.

Not too much happening right now. We have a ton of pictures and videos to go through and post, but Dolly is away, and I promised her we'd do that together. I've been learning how to use Phototshop, though, and here's an image created from a photo that I think looks pretty cool, especially in large size.

It has been a little sad in Bilaspur after out fun trip to Bombay with our American friends. Dolly has been travelling for the past week, and after being home for two days is about to leave again for a week, so I am mostly alone in the apartment.

The bright spot is that the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. This is the nicest "winter" I have ever experienced, and that includes four years in Southern California. The evenings are chilly, but a pair of socks and a blanket is enough to keep warm, and the days are all 72 and sunny. The Bilaspurians think its cold, and often wear hats and sweater vests. Everybody has sweater vests.

I don't know if its coincidence or a seaonal thing as well, but it appears to be the time of year for baby animals. There are a couple of puppies occasionally running around campus, and a couple of kittens hanging around the canteen. The small cows we used to see on the side of the road are now joined by even smaller cows, the size of medium-sized dogs

We did not buy our return tickets before we left, as we were not sure exactly which day we would be leaving. When we went to buy the tickets on our first day back from Ajanta, we were dismayed to find that all the trains were booked! To our disbelief, it was a busy few days because of yet another festival! (The number and frequency of festivals had reached the point where it seemed like a joke over a month ago, and they're still going strong.) Luckily, there is some kind of emergency scheme, where a block of tickets is released a few days before, and we were able to get those, although we had to pay an extra 1000 rupees to have someone go to the station and wait in line at just the right day and time.

We got on the train without incident, and when it made it first stop on the outskirts of Bombay, I was surprised to see a crush of people pushing onto the train. Families and individuals of all ages were packing into the train with their luggage, and many people were left on the platform. From then on the train was filled to at least double capacity, with the same scene being replayed at each subsequent station, although with less room on the train for them to fit.

It was a difficult night, as I was on the lower side bunk, and people kept sitting by my feet and stomach. I didn't get much sleep. People were everywhere, including one man who laid his blanket downin the aisle. The train remained crowded throughout the next day, and is wasn't until 1PM that a conductor came through to check tickets. I don't know if the other people on the train had tickets or if it was just a free for all. But we eventually made it home, though now we miss our friends!

Wanted to share an update on our status here: Dolly's work on SRI at JSS will be finished in 3 months, and past that we're not sure what's going to happen. She may stay with JSS in another capacity, or we may move on somewhere else, either another job (for her... my visa doesn't allow me to work) or travel for 6 months or so and then come back.

This change is due to difficulties in working with the resident Agricultural expert, and though funding was secured for a year, Dolly is going to finish up what she is working on by the end of February. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out the next steps sooner than later. All this uncertainty (housing, funding, etc) has been stressful!

The reason we went to Mumbai in the first place was for our friend Aradhna's wedding to her husband-to-be Tanmay. We stayed in her family's guest house, a few km from where her parents now live, and they treated us with amazing hospitality.

We were not the only guests, of course, and the guest house was also used as a meeting/eating place. They had hired a cook for the occasion, so every meal was cooked fresh. He was much better than our cook, and he even made me corn rotis after he found out I couldn't eat wheat ones. I think it also helped that after one of the first meals I liked his cooking... I think I got extra attention after that.

Two days preceeding the wedding was a ceremony known as the engagement, which involves the exchanging of rings. It was a smaller ceremony than the actual wedding, and women got henna on their arms, and there was music and dancing. One guy, who was a distant cousin on the bride's side was dancing like he was auditioning for a Bollywood movie, with a never-ending sequence of over the top moves, complete with goofy faces.

The next day was on off-day, so we went to Bandra, a posh neighborhood of Bombay, to see it and do some shopping. We went to a bazar and Dolly and Pampi bought some shirts, and Jen got into haggling for scarves. We then went down the road where I bought some shirts, and then headed to a very late lunch. Unfortunately all the places recommended by locals were closed until 7, but fortunately we found a very nice place named Basilico.

Basilico was an middle-eastern/italian/american-ish restaurant, with a large and varied menu. It was the first place I'd been in India that wasn't strictly Indian or Indian/Chinese. They had steaks on the menu, but they were only serving pasta and sandwiches, but they had a beef burger, which I ordered. Jen got gnocci, which she said tasted fresh, as in "made after she ordered it", and the other dishes were very good as well. My burger was about cafeteria grade, dry and probably from the freezer, but it was very satisying and the best burger I've had in months.

The next day was the actual wedding, and started in the traditional fashion, with the groom being slowly led in, preceeded by a band and his dancing family. The ceremony was very long, as is common in India, and instead of sitting at attention, people milled around and socialized, crowding around the platform for the good parts.

The ceremony was followed the reception, for which the bridal parties (and many other people) changed outfits. By the end of the night over 800 people filled the reception hall, and Aradhna and Tanmay left a newly wedded couple!

(We don't have pictures past the morning of the wedding... our camera filled up, and we are waiting for the rest of the pictured to be sent to us)

My first impression of Mumbai was not a good one. Getting off at the station, we jumped into a taxi (a real car not just an autorickshaw!) and started our journey to New Bombay, which involved a lot of traffic. Even though it was 9 at night, we were sweating, so the windows were down, and hot fumes from standing trucks and buses poured into our vehicle. This, plus the 20 hour train ride, made me sick to my stomach, and I vomited, which made me feel a little better.

When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by our friends who had come from America, Jen, Pampi, and Sandeep (we were meeting Sandeep for the first time). We were all there for Aradhna's wedding, and were staying in Aradna's childhood home, now her parent's guest house. We had planned to relax for a few days in Bombay, but we were talked into leaving early the next morning for a side trip to the caves of Ellora and Ajanta.

They had booked a car for the two-day excursion, and we left as early as we could to try to get as much time at Ellora as possible before sunset. We arrived in the nearby city of Aurangabad around 2, and booked a couple of hotel rooms. Dolly did a great job of haggling down the rate, and we grabbed some snacks and headed out.

We first stopped at the wrong parking lot, at a fort a few kilometers from the caves. We didn't intend to - we were misled by the UNESCO World Heritage banner, and soon realized our mistake and jumped into the car to head down the raod. That is, all of us but Sandeep jumped into the car. He had been distracted by a vendor selling old coins, and all of our yelling didn't cause him to budge an inch until he selected the specimens which pleased him the most.

We finally made it to the caves of Ellora with about an hour before the sun went down. We took a guide and he brought us first to the most impressive "cave". To call these structures caves is misleading. This was a giant complex, carved out of the solid rock. In the middle was a two story temple, with intricate carved decoration. There was then a 20 meter wide pathway, and the sides had hallways hollowed out, with statues carved into alcoves. We were told that it is the largest monolithic structure in the world.

We then saw a few more caves, including one that had a great resonance for "Om"-like sounds. At the last cave, the guard was about to lock up, but since our guide is an offical employee, he was able to take the keys, and we stayed until the light ran out.

The next morning we left early again, and stopped at the Bibi Ka Maqbara, a tomb that looks a lot like the Taj Mahal, only quite a bit smaller. It was still a beautiful structure with nice grounds, but we didn't stay long as our day's agenda had us going 100km out to Ajanta and then all the way back home.


Ajanta was a lot more slickly run. We paid for parking (by the head!) and then ran a gauntlet of gift shops to the bus, for which there was also a fee, before entering the caves, where there was the expected entry fee.
The caves range from 2000 to 1300 years old, and are situated around the outside edge of a horseshoe shaped gorge. These were rediscovered in the early 19th century by some hunters. The fact that they were rediscovered means that at some point people forgot about them! Ellora grew in popularity and significance, and became the center of activity, but it blows my mind that as a result of that these caves were forgotten.

The caves are not as large, but are in a far more beautiful setting, and they contain surviving paintings on the walls and ceilings and columns, as well as numerous statues. We were not able to stay as long as we liked because we were on the clock, but as the others stopped for a rest, I quickly walked down the far end. Some of the these were less impressive caves, and I was rewarded at the end by a cave with a reclining Bhudda and a number of other carvings.

We endured a long and hungry ride back (the only available food for a long stretch was at Dhaba's of questionable hygene), and arrived back at around midnight. For two days and 1200km, we owed the driver around 9000 rupees - under $200! In the end we were glad we went on the trip, both to see the sights and spend time with our friends.