Ok, so I packed 3 months worth of stuff and made it to India! Phew! The last couple of weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. It started off with my cousin’s wedding festivities. The women got mendhi on their arms, there was a pre wedding ceremonial night, and then the actual wedding. On the wedding day, the bharat (coming in of the groom on the horse, while surrounded by a dancing mob of his family and friends) came parading in to loud music around 11pm, which was about 2 hours after the wedding was supposed to start, but about an hour before anyone thought they would actually show up. Then by the time pictures and dinner were over, it was about 2am, and they decided it would be a good time to start the actual wedding ceremony. That lasted a cool 3 hours, so my parents and I got home just before 6, which was great because we had to leave to go to the airport at 7 in the morning!
We rested up an hour and caught a plane to the Jammu/Kashmir region, which contains part of the Himalayan mountains (which we saw on the flight). We hiked an 11 km trek in the Himalayan foothills to a temple called Vaishno Devi, a popular Hindu pilgrimage site. Considering we were going on just 1-2 hours of sleep, I’m super impressed we all made it to the top! Although my Mom and I later admitted that we were both dozing off while hiking near the end. Falling off a Himalayan mountain can’t be too bad of a fall, right??
After that, we visited my Mom and Dad’s hometowns, where everyone lovingly reminded me that I wasn’t married, and then kept reminding me over and over. I was already mentally prepared for this, and laughed it off and made jokes about how I wasn’t married because I thought they were finding someone for me. But then I quickly realized that was a bad idea and decided to act like I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Playing the “my Hindi isn’t too good” card definitely came in handy then...
Thus ends Part I and begins Part 2, the volunteering part. I start this week, so we'll see how bad I can mess up a non-profit in just 3 months!
6 comments:
FIRST!
I thought I saw you at work today but when I went up to 'you' to see why you were back it turned out to be a deer.
You win for being first! The prize, however, is 10 lashes with a whip. That's considered good here in India.
It must have been one of those really brown deer....
Ravi - please tell me that some of that luggage was your parents' and not ALL yours! ;-) Melissa J.
Hey Ravi. It's cool what you're doing! However successful the actual project will be, I'm pretty sure this will be a priceless experience for you personally. Good for you! Two years of working at a nonprofit with international focus in NY unfortunately somewhat cured me of the faith that I can really make a positive meaningful impact, and I wish they did not :( But good for you! Keep writing an posting photos if at all possible, we want to follow your journey! And anyway, are you accepting visitors? ;) (Lyd)
I am enjoying reading your blog, I can see a book coming
:)
I thought I saw you in seattle! but when I got close, I realized it was a horse's ass. :)
love,
your former fiance (at least tell them that you WERE engaged)
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