Day 13: Bangalore

Today was the day of the wedding. I woke up with a 102 degree fever, but I was fine by the time we got there. I still have a cold. The wedding was very traditional, and there were blessings, and we ate off of banana leaves for lunch. My mom and aunt and Sue and Ann all dressed in sarees, and me, my cousin, and my uncle dressed in kurtas. Mine was green and bronze. There were many Americans at the wedding because the groom was from Montana. There was a band playing traditional Indian instruments. There were many pujas, such as washing feet and the groom refusing to marry. They got married, and I, along with the rest of my family, went and blessed them by throwing rice coated with turmeric. There were birds made out of peppers and leaves. On the way out, we saw a monkey eating a tamarind.

Day 12: Bangalore

Today, we went to a Mehndi ceremony for the wedding tomorrow, where there was a puja, or blessing ceremony, then lunch, then Mehndi, which is the same thing as henna. My mom got a henna which is very pretty. I dressed in a turquoise kurta. Breakfast was dosas and lunch was murgh chicken tikka with paapad and parathas. For dinner, we ordered Indian Chinese takeout.

Day 11: Bangalore

Today, we woke up and had breakfast, which was idlis and podi, we kind of hung around the house and went shopping for presents. We had lunch, which was fish and vegetable cutlets. We then dressed up and went to a wedding party. There was nobody we knew, and the food handed out wasn't great. We went home early, because my mom had a fever and I had an eye infection.

Day 10: Bangalore

Today, after we woke up, we left Delhi and flew to Bangalore, where we found my cousins and went to Sue and Chandru's, who are family friends. My cousins are staying there, and we are staying at Sue's mother's house next door. We went shopping on Commercial Drive, which has many shops. We bought Indian shoes for me, a pashmina for my mom, and presents for friends. We brought Sue a mask for her collection. We then came home to have dinner with more family friends. Sue and Chandru have a cute dachshund named Archie and a cute boxer named Nala.

Day 9: Faridabad

Today, we woke up in Agra, had breakfast, checked out, and went to see the Agra Fort. It is a huge fort, that we could only see about 10% of it, because the rest is being occupied by the Indian Army, and just that 10% took an hour and a half. I know the math doesn't add up, but the entire fort would have taken more than 24 hours to see. We then drove to Akbar's Tomb in Sikandra. Akbar was a great Mughal emperor, and he was buried in a huge tomb with his children. We then drove through many towns and cities on the way back to Delhi, but we spent most of our time in Faridabad, a poor, smoky city maybe two hours from Delhi, which had camels and many other things, like goats, pigs, horses, and bullocks. The rikshaws are also much bigger than Mumbai and Delhi. When we got up this morning, it was 4° outside! But luckily tomorrow, we are going to Bangalore, which is much warmer, almost 40°. We finally got to our hotel and crashed, because we were all very tired.

Christmas Post

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
(Even though it's Christmas here and it isn't Christmas back home)
:)

Day 8: Agra

Today, after we woke up, we had breakfast and then got into the car for a long six hour car ride to Agra, in which we saw bullock carts, camels, and a lot of smoke and fog. It is a little warmer in Agra than in Delhi, but they are both much colder than Mumbai. We checked into our hotel, had lunch, and then went to the Taj Mahal! I thought that it was a miracle of mathematics and engineering. There were things that if you messed up by a centimeter, the whole thing would not be as magnificent. Almost every single part of it was exactly symmetrical, except for the tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Each petal of each flower of each marble slab of each side of the Taj was a separate stone that was inlaid into the marble with infinity glue. There are probably millions of flowers on the Taj. The gate in front of it was made so that at a certain point, the Taj is perfectly framed within the arch of the gate. We then, with our guide, went back to the hotel, and we had dinner.

Day 7: Delhi

Today, we woke up at the crack of dawn, and for the first time on the trip, it had rained! We had breakfast, and went to the airport and got on a plane going to Delhi, India. Two hours later, we arrived in Delhi, and at the baggage claim, I got all three of our bags! We drove past baboons and other monkeys on the sidewalk to get to the Hotel Metropolitan, checked in, and had lunch. We then went to the Lotus Temple, a huge temple shaped like a lotus flower. We didn't go inside because there was an hour and a half long line to get in, but we took pictures from the outside. Then, we went to Qutub Minar, a huge obelisk that rises above the city, a miracle of Islamic engineering, where we saw magnificent green parrots. Then, we went shopping at the Indian Textiles Development Corporation (ITDC), where we got presents, scarves, sculptures made out of elephant bone, a jacket, and pillowcases. We then went back to the hotel and had dinner.

Day 6: Mumbai

Today, after breakfast, we went shopping for sarees and kurtas with my mom's cousin Hiran, where we bought a saree for my mom and two kurtas for me. One of them was dark green, and the other was turquoise. There were thousands of sarees at the store. Then, we went to lunch at NSCI, the National Sports Club of India, where Hiran is a member. We had chicken tikka masala, paneer, naan, and paapad, and we had kulfi for dessert. To get there, we had to go on the Sealink, a massive bridge that saves people about an hour of traffic. On the way back, we passed the Haji Ali, a huge mosque. For dinner, we went via auto-rikshaw to my mom's cousin Swati's house, where we had puran puri and potato balls that don't have an English name.

Day 5: Mumbai

Today, after we woke up, we saw out of our window, a traditional way to fish in India: dragging a net through the water. We had breakfast, then we went sightseeing. First, we went to the house of Mohandas K. Gandhi. We saw where we lived and worked. We also saw all of the countries that have dedicated postage stamps to him: Chad, Cyprus, Dominica, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guyana, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Niger, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Somalia, Suriname, Syria, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, Uruguay, USA, and Yemen. On the way, we saw a gigantic apartment building, which is the sixth picture below this. Post a comment on how many people you think live there and how many servants you think work there. They are both amazing numbers. Afterwards, we saw the Hanging Gardens. They are very cool and quiet, like Central Park in NYC. Then, we went to Nariman Point, next to the serene waters of the Queen's Necklace. After, we visited the Gateway of India, where we saw decorated horse and carriages, which have a name in Gujarati, but not a spelling in English. On the way back, through the bustling streets of Mumbai, we saw a "laundromat" where they soak the clothes in hot water, then bang them against a rock, then wring them out, hang them up to dry, and deliver them. After we got back, we had dinner, which was naan and samosas.

Day 4: Mumbai

Today, we walked on Juhu Beach, and then after we had breakfast, where we had mini-bananas, we visited my uncle's brother-in-law, Basichetan, at his house in Deonar, which has monkeys crossing the road and stray kittens and 2 banana trees in the backyard. This time, there were actually houses instead of flats, which is a first. Then we came back and had dinner at Olio's, the Italian restaurant at the hotel. I couldn't get a picture of the monkeys, but there was a cute baby one. I did however, get a picture of a cricket match.