more wedding pictures...

The happy couple..

A stop by the grandparents homes

On the way to Alleppey we stopped in to visit both of Praveen’s Grandparents homes. Both his father’s parents are gone, but his sister now stays in the family home. It is a Nair tradition for the property to go to the oldest daughter. The Nair traditions are matrilineal so the woman is actually the most powerful member of the family.

Praveen spent much of his early years with his Grandfather (Mutachen) so it was nice to see where he had grown up. I noticed an instant change in Mutachen as soon as the wedding was over. I suddenly felt accepted were prior I wasn’t so sure. Praveen says he is just traditional so he has to do everything in the proper order.

Avaneesh and Akilesh

I have inherited two new cousins, Avaneesh and Akilesh. They are totally adorable. Unlike many kids their age, they don’t shy away from hugs or kisses. I like that in a child.

Unfortunately, one of their current signs of affection is biting and I mean hard. I was happy it took some time for me to get into this select group of people. After the wedding people slowly began to disperse, leaving just a core group of us in Coimbatore. After people started to leave, the twins really started to warm up to us. I think they were understandably very overwhelmed.

Kovalam Dec 29th

We arrived in Kovalam late in the night and had to take a boat to the island where we were staying. The resort was on freshwater, but about 100 feet away there was a sand bar where the ocean hit the beach. The waves were big and very powerful. I managed to sprain my ankle while being tossed around by one of these waves and I have been hobbling around ever since.

The beach was really nice.

We sat around drank some beers, swam and played with the local kids. They are always happy to hang around and have their picture taken. They love to see the digital images of themselves. Shaggy had bought a cricket bat and he, Ang and BG played a game of cricket with the kids and then gifted the bat and ball it to them. They were really happy with their prize.

For lunch we took a boat to a close by floating restaurant where they made some fish fry. We had a Snapper and some Seer Fish. I have been pleasantly surprised how much I have loved the fish here. Fish is one of my favorite foods, but I am very particular about how or rather, how much, it is cooked. Typically I have found it to be cooked perfectly. This was another one of my favorite meals. We also had a cheese parotta, which I found to be quite lovely. I am sure it is made specifically for tourists, as Indian cooking doesn’t use much cheese. The closest thing they have is something called paneer, which I am also quite fond of. It is more of a hardened cottage cheese that is often times cooked in curry.

Again, it was really cool to see the local village communities coexisting with the modern day world. We watched villagers in boats carved out of logs. The kids who were clothed were wearing a short skirt like cloth that some how managed to stay on them in the rough sea water. We watched kids bathing cows in the river as well as mothers doing laundry.

The trip is winding down. Our Paramount airlines flight was canceled so now we are stuck driving 11 hours back to Coimbatore. We will chill there for a few days then we will head back home….

Kerala Dec 28th

Sreedhar, Vijay, Angela, Greg my mom and I arrived in Kerala last night. It is so beautiful here. They call it “God’s own country.” The hotel we stayed at was right on the water with private decks that you could sit on and check out the water with the coconut trees surrounding it. It was totally romantic, especially with the 7 of usJ Actually, the group honeymoon isn’t too shabby. I get the best of all worlds- family, friends and my new husband. I’ll never get bored. Today we jumped on a beautiful houseboat which is apparently all made by hand.

It is constructed primarily with the leaves of coconut trees and rope. The top of the boat had a nice little sun deck that we could lie on soaking up sun and plenty of beer. For lunch they made us a fabulous array of curries. Beet root, one of my favorites, was on the list. We had stopped to pick up some fresh prawns . Well that is what they called them. They were about 2 feet long. The food was some of the best I have had in India. Although I have had some really good food over the past few weeks. I had the best Dal of my life in Delhi, then we had some really good food at praveen’s grandparents the other day. Then there is the chef that has been cooking at praveen’s house and she also does a good job…Anyway, the food on the boat was good for sure. It may have seemed better because the hotel food was pretty lousy. It’s funny if there is one white person in a group the restaurant will usually totally kill any spice or flavor so that the whitey can handle it. It drives me nuts.

The cruise was about 5 hours long. We floated along very romantic little water ways. Along the way we saw lots of local villagers doing laundry, swimming and building boats. It was pretty fascinating. I loved to see how people live in small villages here. The kids are always totally fascinated and happy to see white people.

About half way through the boys and ang went for a swim. I had ripped open my foot the evening before and I didn’t want to risk infection so I just watched.

We also stopped along the way to pick up a local liquor called toddy. It is extracted from the coconut tree. I think it comes from a kind of sap like stuff that is near the top of the tree. They collect it in the mornings and evenings and it ferments very quickly. We had some old and some new. The older stuff I couldn’t handle. It was quit vinegary. The fresh stuff was very sweet and coconuty. It was really nice. One of praveen’s friends had tried to get some for me in Tamil Nadu, but he couldn’t because it is illegal there. It does something controversial to the trees. Or maybe they just don’t want people drinking it. I was reading the back of a beer label the other day and it said, “Liquor kills, country, family and life.” Wow! I was shocked. Drinking in the south is generally not seen as acceptable. I guess in a country where you either make it or you don’t many things are live or die and you don’t want to risk anything by dabbling in something that may destroy your life.

Anyway now we are in the middle of a four hour drive from Alleppy to Kovalam.

The Bedroom

Ang and my mom decorated the bedroom for the first night. It was really beautiful with rose petals everywhere. they used the resources that they had available. I found one of my skirts draped around the lamp for extra mood lighting. The only part that was a little weird was when my mom invited praveen's dad in to see their work!!?

Wedding and Reception

Dec 26th

Well we’ve done it. The big day had finally come and passed. It was a really nice experience to get to be an Indian princess for a day. Angela, Greg and my mom all ended up participating in the ceremony and it was so nice to have them around for some support. Ang was my right hand girl- checking in on my powder and tequila to make sure all was in order and available when ever I needed it. The reception was held first and the wedding the following day. Unfortunately, we had to be up at 8 am to get ready for the wedding so a late night was out of the question. Praveen’s family did a great job organizing everything on their own. Typically it is the girl’s family that does most of the arranging but in our case that just wasn’t possible. My favorite part was probably the band. They played all Bollywood songs, just like I dreamt about, and we all danced. One of Sandhya’s friends is a small time actor or something and he was leading several of the dances and we all just followed along. I kept waiting for him to start making us do pushups or headstands or something. Anyway, it was good to have a leader. When I wasn’t following him I was following Sandhya, who is also a very good dancer.

Meeting Sandhya was probably one of the biggest highlights of the trip. She is a very well composed and beautiful person inside and out. I can see why Praveen is so attached to her. I saw some pictures of them in their very early years and even then you could see how happy he was to have her there. She however, looked a bit scared of him. I guess because he spent much of his childhood in boarding school she would often forget that she had a brother and when he came back she didn’t always know who he was. It must have been difficult for the whole family.

Well, we have tons of pictures. I will try and get them uploaded so you can look at more of them but it is difficult because the connections here are very slow.

I will see if I can recollect some of the events of the last few days. The reception was interesting. Praveen and I sat on some chairs that looked like they had been hijacked from the Palace of Versailles or something. Everyone lined up to come and shake our hands and congratulate us. Apparently the bride is not really supposed to touch any men and I think there is suppose to be no hugging. I skipped those guidelines, but only because I had permission from Praveen. (on a side note Praveen has been really great juggling what his parents, his society and what I want- this has to be one of the hardest jobs of the trip). I can’t help but hug the people that want to be hugged and maybe even a few who don’t. I had a hard time being able to NOT show affection to people I care about. I find it really strange that Indians typically have no public displays of affection and it seems to be looked down upon between men and woman even after they are married. At the same time, you see lots of men walking down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other. I asked a few people if they could explain this phenomenon to me, but no one seems to know. One of the best things about being married is now I’m free to touch Praveen when I want to touch him. I guess some cultures are more open and touchy then others. I know when I was in Europe there were times that I would be really uncomfortable with people coming inside of my little bubble. I learned there that Americans have a reputation of being very cold and standoffish. I had never realized that before. I really learned to appreciate the additional affection that people would give. Upon meeting someone they often times would hug or kiss. I adopted this tradition and took it home with me. I have noticed even friends that Praveen has had for a long time, are not always comfortable with that level of touching so I have backed off. It has become so much a part of me that it feels really unnatural now to say good bye to some one I really like without hugging them, but I can respect others boundaries.

Okay I think I am done with that tangent. Now where was I? The reception….After saying hello to around 400 people ( I am guessing) we went to eat. I was somewhat surprised that after shaking all these hands I had no option to wash my hands with soap before eating with them. Normally I carry hand sanitizer everywhere but I didn’t really have an option to carry a bag with me. Despite my concern, I did eat and the food was good.

The next day I got up around 7:30 to take a shower and get ready. Amma had hired someone to come and help me get ready. She did a pretty good job on my hair the day before with some guidance. She suggested that I do my own makeup since I knew my colors and after looking at her makeup bag I was really glad. The choices consisted of some very loud, low quality material. I decided not to wash my hair because I was going to have the hired “professional” add some curl to it before covering it with the traditional flower arrangement. I was suppose to leave the hotel by 9:15 to be at the wedding early so that we could get in without being seen. The stylist arrived with Sandhya at 9:20. I was livid. To top it off, she didn’t bother to bring a curling iron with her. Had I known I would have washed and blow-dried my hair. After throwing a small temper tantrum by slamming a bathroom door instead of slamming her face, which is really what I wanted to do, Sandhya helped me work with her to do something with my hair. I asked Sandhya if it was acceptable for someone to be so late for a wedding styling and she said “no.” I just had to check because the time schedule here is much more loose then the tight time schedule that we keep in the US. When I got to the hall several people asked me who had dressed me. Apparently, she also did a terrible job putting on the Sari. There are many rules about exactly how the pleats should go, how many there should be and a bunch of other stuff I am sure I will never understand. Anyway, I am still working on letting go of that one. Poor Sandhya was in such a rush trying to put everyone together that her Sari was half cocked, she had no makeup on and she still needed to be down stairs to be welcomed into the hall with the rest of Praveen’s family as is customary in the Nair families. She managed to pull it all together and get to where she needed to be and still looked fabulous.

So several of Sandhya’s friends, who were supposed to be my wedding party came out to welcome the family. At this time in the wedding it is customary for all the eligible bachelor’s families to check out the single friends of the bride. If there is some interest then the talks between families can begin and perhaps an arrangement can be made for a wedding. For a wedding to be arranged the two candidates should be from the same caste so that they have several of the same traditions and customs. Also, this would insure that they speak the same language. Every state in India has its own language and several different dialects. Praveen, since he is from Kerala speaks Malayalam but he was raised in Tamil Nadu so he also speaks Tamil. He only speaks Malayalam with his family. He cannot write or read in either language as he was schooled in English. He has several friends from various parts of India that the only language they have in common is English.

After Praveen and his family were welcomed to the stage the same bridal party came to get me out of a back room. Angela and my mom walked me out and stayed on stage with me. The wedding was massive chaos! I had asked several people what to expect and what I needed to know and I was told not to worry that I would be told everything as I needed to know it. Organization is not one of the strong suits of the Indian culture, I’ve observed and this can be quite disturbing. When I got up on stage Praveen was waiting and I was ushered around here and there- making three trips around the stage first with an Aunt then with Praveen, both of whom I had to tell to slow way down so that I wouldn’t trip on this Sari in front of all these people. Apparently no one knows why these things happen in threes only that it was an auspicious number and there are many things that happen in threes. I find this is a common answer when I ask why certain customs are performed. Most people don’t know why they’re doing something, only that they that is just the way it has always been done. We have similar things in our culture that we, ourselves, wouldn’t think of because we have just always been doing it this way.

Okay, so then I bowed at several important peoples feet including Achen (Praveen’s dad), Amma (Praveen’s mother), my mother, Praveen’s grandfather (Mutachen), His uncle and Aunt (Mohan Mamma and Veena) and I can’t remember who else…..then I think we exchanged rings. Things where happening so fast I can’t remember what was going on. Mostly I remember being very confused. At some point Greg was pulled on the stage to do I have no idea what, then there was a necklace put on my neck as a gift from Achen and Amma (it was gorgeous) then a gold bracelets from Mohan Mamma and Veena, then we exchanged some clothes as gifts from my family to his family and visa versa. At some point we exchanged rings. The most important thing was Praveen put the Thali on me and Sandhya tied it, which I think is when the marriage is really set. Oh and there was also an exchange of a lime, which I also don’ t know what was for. The whole thing really was about ten minutes long. The decorations were really nice. Everything looked beautiful. After shaking more hands and getting congratulated by hundreds more people we went down to eat. We were served on banana leaves, which is customary. This is the event that I had been practicing for and it was actually quite simple. Under the banana leaves they used puppy chow paper to cover the tables as a make shift tablecloth. I was shocked. After spending money for a professional decorator and caterer it was hard for me to understand the oversight. I let it slide. It’ll be one of those things I can laugh about the wedding sometime in the future. Praveen spoke to the caterer who basically professed his ignorance that he had not noticed and didn’t think about the puppy chow being offensive or unappetizing. Idiots. After that they turned over the paper but pretty much everyone had already eaten. Good times, good laughs.

I mentioned to Sandhya that for her wedding we should have a rehearsal so that she knows what is going on and she can enjoy the ceremony and she said that chaos is part of the fun. Praveen had a similar reaction to my suggestion. I guess some people are comfortable with such things and some are not. It is interesting that in the US where most weddings are pretty similar there is always a rehearsal, yet here were most weddings are totally different they just go with the flow. Again it’s a difference in culture.

Anyway, all of these things are what make the experience fun and interesting. Over all the wedding and reception when very well and I am totally happy to have a much larger, beautiful family.

On the way to Agra- December 20, 2005

Visit to see Praveen's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin (Valeamma, Valeache, Jayanthi Chache, and PakashChetten and Rohon) in Bangalore.

Greg w/ Driver Praveen.

I am currently on the way to Agra, the drive from Jaipur is about 4 hours and it has been an interesting trip. We had a pretty bumpy ride for part of the way. There must have been at least an hour of potholes and I was in the lucky seat- the back of an SUV. I got a bit thrown around from one side to the other. The driving is insane, particularly in Agra. There are tons of bikes, carts pulled by oxen and camels, pedestrians and cars all in the same street going different ways and the only rule is look out for yourself. It is quite frightening. We hired a car and our driver did a great job keeping us alive. I asked if he has ever run anyone over before and he said, “Thanks to God, I haven’t.”

We arrived in Delhi on Saturday and rushed off to the international airport to pick up two of my best friends, Greg and Angela. We were very fortunate to find each other because we never were able to exchange any kind of contact information so we were just crossing our fingers that everything would work out okay, and it did. Surprisingly, even a 20 hour flight had not depleted Angela of her energy. Praveen checked her back to see if there was some kind of battery that was keeping her going. She has an amazingly undeletable source of energy. Our driver, (also called Praveen) took us back to a very luxurious house owned by a friend of ours in the states. The place was incredible and the people were beyond hospitable.

The following day we cruised through GK market and looked for a Lehenga (a north Indian style dress with a separate top) for myself and possibly one for Angela. The prices continue to baffle me completely. I have decided that the whole marriage push in the Indian society is actually an attempt to keep their economy going. I couldn’t find any even halfway decent looking Lehengas for less than $300us! What the #$%@. I have heard from my Indian girlfriends back in the states that this is the case, but I guess it just didn’t sink in until my credit card was being charged. By the time all the accessories and everything is finished I will have spent close to $1000, in Indian alone, on wedding attire. I guess it could be worse in the US. Anyway, after settling for a Lehenga that I felt was overpriced and I wasn’t passionate about, I was happy to be finished with the main shopping. If I never shop again until I die I wouldn’t care. Okay so maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but I find shopping stressful when you have a timeline that you have to buy for and you can’t wait to get what you truly want.

I will say I had been really looking forward to having something custom tailored so I bought some extra material to match the skirt to my Lehenga and had it made. Because we were short on time, it was delivered to me with out being able to check it, they did an awful job, and I was completely disappointed.

We drove through Old Delhi, which seemed pretty crazy. There were people, camels and cattle everywhere in the street. It seemed like a fun place to get lost in, but we couldn’t find any parking anywhere. We had the driver drop us at The Red Fort, which was built sometime in the 1600s….anyway that was about it in dehli. Shopping took ¾ of the day, yet again.

Off to Jaipur we went. We stopped off at a place called Amber Fort which use to protect the city. It seems there are tons of fortresses here in Northern India. Most of them date back to the 16 or 1700’s. It seems that there was plenty of money to spend back then on some pretty elaborate architecture. We decided the best form of transportation to the top of the fort (which sits on a hill) was by elephant! Mom was, of course, not sure if she wanted to ride on the Elephant but opted in after all. I was hopping to dance on top of an elephant at my wedding but I have now realized that it just is not possible. When you sit on the elephant you shake back and forth as if you are on a very rocky boat- during a storm. I just can’t see dancing during a hurricane. So that dream has been laid to rest.

In Japure we wanted to do some shopping and check out the “pink” city, which is actually terracotta. Now I know what the problem was in that Sari shop when I kept asking for blue and they would bring me yellow or green. In the US we must work off a different color chart. Jaipur seemed nice. It was very busy but the shopping seemed great. We arrived so late that we couldn’t do very much at all. It would have been great to spend another day there getting lost in the crowds of people. Jaipur is known for its textiles and a big market that sells everything. I managed to find some really fancy bed sheets that I bargained down a few thousand rupees. I normally don’t like bargaining too much but I have found it a good source of some fun here in India. It really does make a difference if you speak the language and when I bargained it has always been in English.

We had dinner at this really cool place called Chokki Dhani. It was a traditional Rajasthan style meal. I guess it was suppose to be the same kind of food that they eat in the villages. The food was fabulous. The waiters again, thought that Praveen was the guide, which we all found amusing. The place was quite quaint, with little lights and performances everywhere. They had everything from little kid dancers to camel rides to a Ferris wheel with out a motor.

On the way to Agra we passed some 10-15 people who had captured a black bear, tied it up and pulled out all their teeth. They were making them stand up and do tricks for the drivers passing by. I read something about it being illegal, but you would never know it on this road. The bears looked famished and sad. I tried to take a picture but I didn’t want to give the guy any money and encourage this practice so I missed it.

Just out side of Agra is a deserted city called Fatehpur Sikri. It was pretty cool. Apparently this king built it about 600 years ago and then after living there for 14 years the water dried up so everyone left the town. Emperor Akbar (the guy who built it) seems pretty interesting. He was Muslim but had a Christian wife, a Muslim wife and a Hindu wife. Oh, and about 300 other girl friends. The guy was totally into talks on religion and managed to incorporate much of the Muslim, Hindu and Christian architectural styles and symbols into each building.

The Taj Mahal was really beautiful. The thing that makes it so breath taking is really the enormous size of the structure. It is so huge! I was surprised that once you get inside there is a very small, dimly lit room with the fake tombs of the king who built it and the wife he built it for and that is it. The place is huge but our guide says there are no other rooms to see. I think there must be some secret really special rooms in there, right? There is a bunch of precious and semiprecious inlayed stones, but you can’t see the ones inside because it is too dark. If I went again, I’d bring a flash light. The summitry is truly spectacular. The whole thing is symmetric and everything including the three buildings that surround it use the same symmetry.

The Coconut Farm

Friday 16th of December…

Today was fabulous. Thank you to all of you who wrote to tell me that my spelling is atrocious. I only spell this way so that I can provide amusement to all of you! I know I am careless, but guess what? too bad. I am easily frustrated and I really just want to get down what I can on paper (or screen) and get on with it. I was plagued by a very bad spelling gene. It seems to have hit several in my family so at least I know a few understand. If you need a good laugh I recommend you keep reading my blog.





Okay, so today we went back to the Sari shop to get one more Sari, which I couldn’t get my mind off of. I had bought two but then when I got back to the hotel to look at the pictures I decided that maybe the one that I didn’t buy was the right choice. I still haven’t decided which to wear. I have three and I can only wear two. Two of them are close in color so it seems I should wear the other which is different, but I really like the two close in color….tough choices. Anyway, it was easy this time, as I knew what I wanted. We were in and out. Mom wanted to be dropped off at the hotel where she could finally work on her pictures and blog and be alone.

After dropping Mom, Praveen took me to Sampath’s place and he and Sangeetha took us for a ride out to a village where Sampath’s family owns a coconut grove. It was so beautiful. I was reminded of one of the things I love about traveling. With all the preparations for the wedding, we have been doing little other than shopping and visiting, so it was nice to get out and see something new. I felt really bad my mom didn’t go, because I know she would have really enjoyed it. She has been such a trooper with the wedding preparations. We just have to remind ourselves how much work happened before we arrived that we had nothing to do with, which was pretty much EVERYTHING. Thank you Amma, Achen and Sandhya.

Okay, back to the village. We drove deep into a forest of coconut trees. The sun was streaming through the leaves leaving that magical, heavenly light on everything. I instantly felt at ease. When we arrived Sampath’s family was waiting with the carts and the bulls to give us a ride. Man, can those things get up and run! Sangeetha and I were in one cart and Praveen and Sampath in the other. We had a few short drag races. It was a ball. We drove through the village, it was like a parade, everyone came out to line the streets and see the foreigners. I did my duchess wave for the kids and they laughed and screamed with glee. It was really cute.




Sampath‘s family were really nice. They split open some fresh coconuts for us to drink and made us feel like royalty. It was truly a beautiful day. Okay, I am off to bed then to Delhi tomorrow.

Thursday, December 15th.

Well the majority of the shopping is done. I still need one more sari, some jewelry and we (my mom and ) I need to buy a few sets of clothes for Praveen. The tradition is that during the wedding ceremony the groom’s side gives the bride two sets of clothes and the brides side gives the groom two sets of clothes. I will ware one of the Sari’s that Praveen’s parents give me home from the wedding. That will be my only change of clothes- not too bad!

Okay so the shopping was crazy. We came in and everyone in the store stopped to watch the white girl put on a sari. The owner of the store came over to introduce us to some famous film director, as if we would know who he was, and himself. It was quite flattering. The attention was overwhelming but I tried to take it all in stride and have fun with it. Here is a pix of my two moma and amma. My mother is wearing her new outfit purchased for the reception.




When we were leaving they put all of our newly purchased garments into a suitcase. I felt as if I was part of a very special drug deal. See below (right) Amma with our special suitcase.






We shopped for a North Indian dress for Praveen it is called a Kuta ( I will have to get proper spelling later). It makes him look like a prince.






I managed to get some fun shots in the streets as well. I had my first fresh grape juice today. I decided that at this point my body can probably take some processed water. Let’s hope we’re right. It would really suck to get really sick before the wedding.

Arriving Coimbatore

Tuesday Dec 13th
We arrived in Coimbatore today, praveens home town. His parents and several friends met us at the airport.

The town is a bit smaller than Chennai and a bit cleaner as well. We checked in to a local hotel that has no broadband internet and a lovely smell resonating through out the room resembling urine. Tomorrow will probably be a good time to go and check out something else. Praveen, his family and his friends have been very careful of seeing to it that we are as comfortable as possible. I have been a bit of a terror, as I don’t handle lack of sleep or not feeling well particularly well. I am hoping my moodiness subsides soon. I have been feeling like there is this evil demon waiting to get out of my body and I can’t seem to figure out how to let it go. I think it is just a matter of time and rest.

I finally had a chance to read my mothers blog and I am realizing I might as well save my breath. I don’t think she has left out any details of the trip. I have let her have my computer for the last few days as I know that she sleeps really weird hours and may need it to occupy her time. Now that I have it back, I get to read her blog to find out what we have been doing. I have been walking around in such a daze it was really nice to read a recap.

The jet lag is finally wearing off but days are still exhausting. I find it very difficult to be “ON” every minute of the day. I have realized that for me it is essential that I have some down time away from the crowds of people I have come all this way to see otherwise I just spaz out. So after lunch I took a trip back to the hotel for some decompression time, which included sitting in front of my computer sipping some fine Tequila and catching up.

So I went and got a massage in the hotel spa the other day. It was quite an interesting experience. I will say that any massage is a good one, even if it is not, particularly when you have been sitting on a plane for 23 hours. When I arrived the room was freezing. It think that AC is such a luxury that perhaps it was suppose to feel good but laying naked on a bed with a cool breeze chilling you to the bones wasn’t my idea of a relaxing experience so I requested it would be turned of and it promptly was. “Yes, ma'am. Anything else ma'am?” The hotel workers are super formal and polite and now I have a better understanding of why it is that Praveen always tells me to quit telling him thank you. To me it is the polite way in which I treat everyone, but to him it sounds to formal and should be reserved for people he is not close to (like the help, I suppose). I am not sure I will ever be able to accommodate him on that request. I like to say thank you and let people know when I really appreciate things they have done for me.

Anyway, where was I? Back to the bone chilling cold. So I layed there while my body was scrubbed down with some herbs. The only identifiable ones were lavender and mint. The untrained “masseuse” was rubbed me down completely. I was a bit uncomfortable at times when she came extremely close to my rather private parts. She really didn’t miss a thing. I have never had my breasts massaged, at least not during a massage and I found that a little strange. An hour later after showering off the body scrub and getting a rather puff and fluff massage (I like my massages deep not gentle) I was ushered off to a steam room, which was my favorite part of the experience. I have never been in a wet sauna before and I found it really nice to sweet a bit. It think I am missing my sweaty yoga rutine. I have however, been able to get to the gym quite frequently. The toughest thing to get use to is someone watching you ready to help you in case you drop your towel, but then again, a Duchess should be pampered, right?

After arriving in Coimbatore, We made a trip to Amma and Achen’s (Praveen’s parents) house and had some lunch. My mom and I are getting good at eating with the hands. It is not something that I am particularly fond of at this moment in time but I think that it probably just takes some getting use to. I do understand the arguments about how Stainless Steel in your mouth with food tends to taint the flavoring of the food. My problem is that I am just not use to stuff all over my hands while eating. It is a cultural thing where I feel some how dirty eating this way, but while I am here I’d like to try it out and see how it is.

The house is quite nice. It is a three bedroom, three bath home with an office upstairs. It was a traditional style at one time where you could see straight through three small rooms to the end of the house. They have since renovated and made the three small rooms one room that has a beautiful curtain, which can close, off the dinning room to the living room.

I was quite worried about my mom hating the food as she is not the most adventurous sprits when it comes to trying new food items, but she has been doing great. Her endless hours of research seem to have paid off and continuously impress myself and everyone we encounter. She was explaining to Praveen the other day what she read about how exactly to eat with three fingers and flick it into your mouth without letting your hands enter your mouth and he, being raised eating in this fashion, had never thought of it and found it amusing to realize that that is, in fact, how it works.

The other thing that I was worried about for myself and my mother was the busy streets. I had spoken to her shortly after a trip to Chicago and she told me how frightening she found the traffic. I immediately called my doctor to ask for a prescription of Zanex so that I could feed it to her should she start to wig out. Although the streets are crazy and noone seems to follow any sort of rules, people only drive about 30 miles per hour so, it is not to bad, even for my mom.

Dehli, I am still a bit worried about. We visited some ancient temples carved out of one rock, which were very impressive. They are about 1500 years old. We had a few people bothering us to buy this or that and she was a bit perturbed as anyone would be. I explained to her that this is only a small portion of what we will later encounter. I can only imagine the Taj where there is thousands of tourist a day with vultures waiting to capitalize on their visit. It is difficult but I guess you have to turn on a little switch inside your head that says, “I am ready to deal with this now.” It always takes me a minute as well. I have had a bit of practice on this in MEX when I studied there my senior year.

So much for saving my breath- I guess it runs in the family- gotta run. RM