Madurai - Part 2

Madurai is a relatively clean Indian city. Here are some street views:

Our full-size tour bus somehow made it through this narrow street.

Women setting up for the day's sales of pulses and vegetables.

Thirmalai Nayak Palace

The main court in the palace. About 2/3 of the palace was dismantled and the materials used for a new palace for the builder's grandson. Much of what remains has been restored to its original splendor.

View of the detail at the top of a column.

Balcony and ceiling at the corner of the side aisles.

Ceiling above the king's platform.

Detail of the top of a column in the theater to the side of the main court.

Madurai - Part 1

We spent most of the day getting from Mumbai to Madurai, so we only had time today to take in one museum and drive through the city. The Gandhi Museum was not as good as others I've been to -- partly because half of it was closed for refurbishing, partly because there was very little English explanations -- only Hindi and Tamil, and partly because it duplicated much of what I had already seen.

On the other hand, the city itself is quite interesting -- a center for textiles and temples.

The Vaigai River is dry during non-monsoon -- especially after several years of minimal monsoon here.

The Vandiyur Mariyamman temple and tank (at least that's what Wikipedia calls it). For an annual festival, the tank is flooded. During the rest of the year it is basically a park (below).

Our hotel is on a hill overlooking the city. It's an old colonial estate with several sections of rooms.

The view from just outside my room.

The view from the swimming pool.

Mumbai

Lunch at the Taj between trips to Elephanta Caves and the Prince of Wales Museum.

A look back at our hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, as we leave on the ferry to Elephanta Island.

Elephanta Island & Caves

There are about 120 steps up to the caves. They are lined with stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs. In monsoon, the ubiquitous blue tarps keep off most of the rain. In the dry season, they provide welcome shade -- and give an odd color cast to the scene!

The entrance to the main cave.

Looking into the cave.

Elephanta is notable for it's exquisite scuptures. This one shows the wedding of Shiva and Parvati.

The main sculpture of Shiva.

Prince of Wales Museum

After lunch, we visited the Prince of Wales Museum, which now has a very long name that no one ever uses. This was probably the most "professional" of the museums we have visited in India, although a number of our group remarked that you had to pay extra for a camera pass, but no one kept you from actually touching most of the artifacts.

The exterior and grounds of the Prince of Wales Museum.

A small terra-cotta tiger. The finding of these terra-cotta figures reset the date of "civilization" in India back to about 3500 BCE -- much earlier that had been previously known.

Vishnu lying atop a cobra.

Mumbai Night

We're starting a two-week tour of southern India with a Carleton College alumni group. Tonight we're at the Taj Palace and Towers Hotel near the Gateway of India.

The Taj

The Gateway of India bathed in red light. The spotlights cycle through the spectrum -- I particularly liked the red.

A horse-drawn carriage for hire outside the hotel.

Cricket on Sunday

It may be a British game, but India is the epicenter of cricket. MWV had a company sports weekend. In addition to cricket, there were competitions in badminton (another Indian passion), chess, and karom (carom?). We went to the finals on Sunday afternoon.

The cricket pitch at the Ashardham School -- the school at the Catholic church in Vapi. NH8 is along the right border of the field, so this is in the heart of Vapi.

Similarity to baseball stops at using a bat to hit a ball. Some of the words may be the same ("run", "innings"), but they are very different beasts. In a way, it's like baseball-in-the-round. There are two batsmen who both run when the ball is hit. The action is in the middle of the field, with 10 fielders at various points around the field. The bowler (pitcher) is the 11th player, and the bowler changes after every 6 pitches.

The celebration after the final game.

After the finals, MWV upper management played a short game against the winning team. Lon had to take a turn as a batsman. Here he is running between the two wickets. I'm glad that women don't play cricket, or I'm sure I would have had to take a turn as well!

On the way home we had to walk through the inevitable herd of cattle. This one is unusual because it has both cows and buffalo. NH8 is on the left.

The buffalo in the middle of the herd had an unusual patch of white hair on the top of her head. (My excuse for another cow picture!)

Knowledge and Weddings

Today is "Vasant Panchami" -- the 5th day of the "bright" half of the month of Magh in the Hindu calendar. (That means the 5th day after the new moon in this particular lunar month. "Panch" is five.) This day is set aside for Saraswati -- the goddess of knowledge.

Saraswati, Goddess of Knowledge. This was drawn on the white board by one of the Spice Academy teachers.

Spice Academy, where we have our Hindi lessons, celebrated Puja Saraswati. Prayers, songs, and gifts were offered to her. This was followed by a traditional Bengali lunch served on leaves as plates while sitting on the floor.

Floor art for the day -- drawn by the same teacher.

Pinky, myself, and Paromita at Spice Academy. Pinky is our Hindi teacher. Paro is a serious student of classical Indian dance and has been our information go-to person for learning about Indian culture. She also teaches at Spice. Yellow is Saraswati's color.

I took advantage of the day to get photos of some of the Spice regulars. This is "Kaka", which means "Uncle" in Hindi and Gujarati. He is a retired gentleman who works around Spice Academy -- especially on the weekends -- mostly he does some light sweeping and serves tea and water.

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Yesterday evening we went to a wedding reception in Silvassa -- about 15 km outside of Vapi in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. (It's not Gujarat, so alcohol is legal, and, much like Daman,  it is another nearby resort town.) The wedding ceremony itself is today in Surat -- about 120 km north of Vapi. This must be a particularly auspicious day for a wedding, because even as I type, a huge wedding is taking place on the other side of NH8, and I can hear the sound from the PA system as if it were next door.

The entrance to the wedding reception venue. This is pretty typical. The tent basically covered 4 sides of an apartment block, and you walked as if in a maze to the main reception area.

I wore a sari for the first time. Everyone seemed pleased.

Sunday Miscellany

An un-themed set of recent photos.

Today we walked to Daman Gate -- the checkpoint between Gujarat state and the Union Territory of Daman -- about 5 km down the road. Daman is a former Portuguese colony on the Arabian Sea, taken over by India in the early 1960's. It still retains much of its Portuguese character, but is mostly notable for alcohol that is available and abundant, right next to dry Gujarat.

Our very shy neighborhood feline. It was climbing the tree outside our kitchen window this morning, but quickly left when it realized that we were watching. I'm surprised there aren't more cats around here, given the abundance of potential prey (i.e. rats).

Three weeks ago this mostly-empy plot held the big tent for the Hindu gathering (see "This Week in Vapi" ). Now it's the favorite spot for dogs to take a nap.

When I took my pedometer out of my pocket one day last week, it greeted me with "hello". Of course, I was looking at it upside-down: