The Mango Dumplin' Gang

Noah, Jimmy, Grayce, Cody, Kay, Billy (Noah and Cody's Dad, Shawn in supervision mode)

This is a good portion of the kids that were on the ex-pat Zoo outing. (It's not all of them due to the nature of this animal at the zoo. A complete photo is nearly impossible as they are very fleet of foot and endlessly curious making them unable to stay in one spot for any length of time.).

Many of the the ex-pats have their family in India with them. I was surprised to discover that many of them have kids in the same age range as the Murphy clan. On the other hand, kids age 2-6 are perfect for the experience as they easily adapt to the changes and are also at the very impressionable age to take the wonderful experiences of India with them through life.

The Murphy's live in a gated community with some bigger houses so ex-pat playmates are a built-in advantage.

The Mango Dumplin' Gang seems mostly like kids in the U.S. at the same age....the 6 year olds are into Animal Planet and Power Rangers. The 4 years olds are into non-stop movement of any kind and art (Kay). The two year olds are...well, a lovely two. I am not being snide- I didn't see any 'terrible two' in India.

What's different? The younger kids easily learn and understand when Hindi is spoken to them. The older kids (Jimmy) are able to correct my pronunciation and sing the commercial jingles in Hindi. Ha! Kids memorizing commercial jingles....some things are just universal, huh?

Peace- W:)

Really like that Rangoli thing

I was really blessed to be in India around Diwali. One of the traditions associated with Diwali fascinated me, Rangoli decoration. Of course I liked them, it's artistic. :-D

What's a Rangoli?

"Rangoli is a traditional Indian art created to decorate the ground in front of houses and places of worship to attract Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of wealth. Designs are created using decorative patterns marked out on the floor. The drawing of Rangoli patterns is often combined with rituals associated with auspicious occasions, such as major festivals and celebrations. The patterns are usually drawn by the women of the household in villages in parts of India; and in some places it is a daily ritual to mop and clean the entrance to the home and then make beautiful drawings in the doorways as a message of welcome."

The hotels that I ate or stayed in had Rangoli's set everyday...many times made of flower petals which were made with fresh petals early each morning. Because I was there around Diwali, and the Rangoli's are meant to attract Lakshmi (the Hindu Goddess of wealth), and a Lakshmi puja (blessing ceremony) is the focus of Diwali, many stores, and individual homes had beautiful Rangoli arrangements. Tracy and I went for a excercise-walk early a.m. on the day that Diwali was celebrated and many homes in their neighborhood had Rangoli's on the front walk or landing to the front door (unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with on the walk). I'd be interested to know if they are all unique designs.... my thought is that they are unique to the occasion and the individual 'setting' the Rangoli.

W:)

The Bangalore Zoo- haven't you always wanted a Monkey?

The day before Dewali was celebrated, 11/8/07, was a vacation day for the kids from school. What better time for an ex-pat outing? The ex-pat pals that the Murphy's hang with in their neighborhood (Whitefield) is a large, kid-rich group. No better place to hang that day than at the zoo!

The zoo was unitque in that there was a section of the zoo that we traveled safari-style in a 'caged' bus and the animals roamed free. In India, they have tigers (photo) galore! We also saw leopards and a lioness hanging about.

The rest of the zoo had beautiful, well kept gardens....and some unique displays. The pheasant display, apparently unique, rang a little weak with the Minnesota crowd. There were many, many snake displays- yuck! I am still filled with curiosity over the need for a pigion display, and wonder if there is any coincidence in the proximity of the pigion display to the snakes?

What was most unique about the zoo were the Macaque monkeys who really live there...they are not in cages. We had an endearing visit from a group of them...one bold monkey decided that the kids apple juice box was exactly what he needed. (photo) No worries, the kids are well trained for this occurrance...drop the box and run, man. The monkey had seen these juice box things before and opened up the straw hole a bit and tipped it back. After the big guy finished his juice, we had this this more tender visit from a Mom and her baby. (photo)

The outing was good fun, and exactly what the Dr. ordered- the kids were tired out!

India Fine Fact, #5. If you want chicken, just buy one.

So we were out running errands a couple days ago and stopped to get some chicken for dinner. Seems simple enough. Nothing is ever quite so simple here, however.

When you buy chicken here, apparently you tell the vendor how much you want and the vendor gives that weight to you. Unfortunately, the vendor starts at the top of the bird, including every and any piece of the bird to make that total weight.

After a few chicken dinners, an edict was set in the Murphy household... there will be no more mystery pieces of chicken. You know, pieces that can't be traced back to a physical location on the original bird?

Not knowing the detail behind this, I was somewhat surprised when we showed up at the chicken vendor to buy chicken....and saw only cages filled with chickens.
The process is that you tell the vendor about what weight you'd like. Based on that, you agree upon a single bird. The bird is immobilized (the wings are broken) to allow the vendor to easily weigh it (fully dressed) and then, well....it's undressed, entirely and put in a plastic bag for the trip home.

Really there is no problem about it, just....surprising to those of us accustomed to foam trays and plastic wrap.

You should see Russel Market where you buy beef, mutton, etc.

There is no refridgeration capability in these markets....part of why most of the country is vegetarian?

I keep learning......

HUGs, W:)

Plagorism.....

For additional viewpoints on my adventures here, check out the Murphy Blogsite at:
www.loudamericans.blogspot.com

Entries on 11/5 for "Wendy's Here, Wendy's Here" and "If Kay had 100 rupees" account some of our group adventures here.

Diwali Approaches!

As it so happens, I'm flying home tomorrow on Diwali. Diwali is one of the biggest holidays celebrated by Hindus. It is celebrated much like Christmas is in the U.S.; family gatherings, rituals around food, decorations, fireworks and gift giving. Even among non-Hindu folk, the holiday is still celebrated (the Sikh's celebrate this day as a return of a guru).

This festival is celebrated for five continuous days, with the third day being the main Diwali or 'Festival of Lights'. The day is celebrated with people lighting many small clay oil lamps called diyas and candles around their house. Lakshmi Puja (blessing) is performed in the evening to seek divine blessings of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. Diwali gifts are exchanged among all near and dear ones.

The ritual behind these customs is that the fireworks and lighted diyas bring "supernatural brightness and joy with the hope of finding light in darkness, achieving knowledge where there is ignorance, and spreading love amidst hatred." Light signifies goodness in Hinduism. So, during the Festival of Lights, 'deeps', or oil lamps, are burned throughout the day and into the night to ward off darkness and evil.

So this is a very fine and good holiday. I'm pretty much here taking in the parties that would normally occur right around Christmas at home....except that the one that I'm attending tonight requires more traditional Indian attire.

What happens in Bangalore, stays in Bangalore.

I'll be home soon.

HUGs, W:)

Meet the Murphy's....and check out the photos!

I've added photos to my previous blogs to give you a clue what I've been seeing. While I'm at it, please meet the Murphy's (Tom, Tracy, Jimmy 6, Kay 4, and Billy 2).

Peace- W:)

Auroville

We took a short day trip from Pondicherry to a township named Auroville. Part of their charter;

"For millennia, we have been developing outer means, outer instruments, outer techniques of living, and finally those means and techniques are crushing us. The sign of the new humanity is a reversal in the standpoint, and the understanding that inner knowledge and inner technique can change the world and master it without crushing it."

Auroville is an international commune of 1800 residents started in 1968. It is a VERY BEAUTIFUL place. The residents renounce religion and meditate for 6-7 hrs a day in the meditation center, Matrimandir. With their free time, they do what it takes to keep the community together. They strongly stress education and applying learning and understanding from the world at large. They engage in ; research into a cashless economy, environmental regeneration, organic farming, renewable energy, health care, education, handicrafts, etc.

In addition to sustaining this in Auroville, the township also provides a major source of employment to the 40,000 inhabitants of local villages and works with those villages to improve their infrastructure and provide education and health care.

On our arrival, I was very impressed with the visitor center. A series of unique buildings built into a hillside and with many terraces w/vines and trees. It was a very clean, cool and modern place. The walk to the meditation center was about a 10 minutes walk on a beautiful path- lots of shade, a beautiful rock garden, benches to rest under a huge Banyon tree. The path is supposed to be walked in silence.... so I skipped ahead of the kids a bit to take that feeling in.

The center itself, Matimandir, is a huge golden ball (very Epcot center-ish) with a point at the top bringing in light to a prism where it is reflected on the walls. There is a deeper meaning to each reflection point....but, I didn't take notes on that. I may have remembered, except that when I got to the center, I discovered that I couldn't enter it. It was closed for remodel. "When will it be opened?", I asked the security guard. "Six months, Maam". Drats.

Well, of course, I sat down and did the meditation that I came to do, anyway!

Back at the visitor center, I did some shopping....could have done a lot more. It's probably good that the kids needed to go!

It is certainly one of my favorite adventures on this trip and points directly to the need to come to India again. I want to go inside Matimandir to meditate.

The reflection that I have on Auroville.....it's rather interesting that this community renouncing all religion is in India- a place filled with religious history and practice so powerful that it is an intricate part of daily life.

Here churches aren't important for most. Religion is practiced wherever you are. If you are Hindu (most are), there are temples everywhere, but you don't need to go to a temple and you don't enter into a religious community to offer puja....there doesn't have to be a service and other people...it's an innate part of each individual. In Auroville, the inhabitants renounce all religion, but it feels no different. It's an extremely spiritual place. It's just practiced in a different way. What I've been surprised by is that regardless of each person's religious beliefs, the culture here really respects all religion and is quite open and welcoming to anyone- even a Western female tourist.

Peace-
W:)

India Fine Fact #4: Whats with the shoes?

Here we go. I'm changing.

Let's talk about the small things first, shall we?

Shoes.

The first couple times I had to remove my shoes to enter a temple or building I felt a little bit of bother in the back of my head over it. My feet will get dirty (as if they're not). Everyone else has walked here bare-footed too (as if it matters).

I've gone through that ritual now many times to enter a temple or home.

I've come to realize that really, I was looking at it all backwards.

Removing your shoes is keeping the place that you are entering clean. It is keeping it holy.

Not removing your shoes seems to me now, very disprespecful.

I think I'll be removing my shoes more often.

You know what else? Going bare-footed is really fun. :-D

Ok.... I know. It's cold there. I've even heard that it snowed. I haven't worked the 'barefooted theory' into practice around that. Give me some time.

Got to go now. The sun is out. The pool awaits. And...I can walk the couple blocks there barefooted, if I want.

HUGs- W:)

Arrival to Pondicherry and the Bay of Bengal

I

know this trip to Pondicherry that I keep talking about seems to be going on and on.....but, the trip there really did take a very long time over the span of two days. Sometimes, it's really is more about the trip than the destination. No worries...in this case, both were great.

So, I last left you at the temple where I was blessed by the temple elephant. Blessed three times mind you. Tracy got a photo. Well....we can talk more about that later. ;-)

After the temple, we felt very blessed, but the car didn't partake in that.....the flat went flat once again. We pulled off into a small town. There was a bit of anxiety at this point, because we didn't have Sharmenon, the normal driver (and member of the family), we still had this hired driver who did not speak english.

Regardless, it felt comforting that we were in front of a tire shop. Our driver left in a auto-rickshaw, the tire shop worked on the tire and we waited. The did fix the tire with an inner-tube (blessed), but permanently destroyed the spare when they removed the valve from the tire (very not blessed).

These are mere details. We got underway and arrived at our destination- and, it seemed VERY SPECIAL to have arrived to Pondicherry!

The resort that we stayed at; The Kailash Beach Resort (photo) was very nice. Large pool, nice rooms, blah, blah.

Most importanly, it had been raining for 15 days straight before we arrived and Friday morning the sun was out and we walked down to the Bay of Bengal to check it out.

It was beyond great, y'all. I haven't seen the ocean for a year and a half, which is too long for me. The Bay was beautiful, the beach clean and empty of any development. Tracy, Tom and the kids played in the surf. I took my camera and went for a long stroll down the beach. (photos).

Until next time-
HUGs- W:)

India Fine Fact #3, Sound Horn

I'm not sure the history of the practice, but the car horn holds a very special place in Indian culture.

It is so important, that even trucks and some cars, have 'Sound Horn' painted on the rear of the vehicle.

The process is that when you want to pass, or if your are close to another bike, motorbike, auto-rickshaw, car, truck, Cow, Water Buffalo, street dog, monkey or chicken, you sound your horn to let them know that you are passing at high speed and that if they don't move, they will get hit. This is mostly effective, however, there are times where the driver has no choice but to slow or quick stop due to incompliance to the blaring horn.

With the amount of traffic, and the limited traffic laws horns are sounding constantly if you are near any road.

In all of this madness; there is one participant who is least likely to be injured, for sure. It's the wary street dog. They are all over doing what they can to get by....... and know and understand more about Indian traffic than I'll ever know.

And so it is.

W:)

Worlds Largest Temple or at least a very large one

Friday, 11/1, en route to our final destination in Pondicherry, we were traveling very close to one of the largest temples in India; the Arunachaleswar Temple located in Tiruvannamalai (Northern Tamil Nadu). This is a smaller Shaivite town where Shiva (a God) is revered as Arunachaleswar, an aspect of fire.

The temple dates from the 11th century, but was added to in the 17th and 19th centuries. It has four large unpainted gopurams (intricate pyramid gateway tower). The largest is 13 stories tall. We went through the main shrine and offered puja (prayers). As you pass through the shrine, the priest puts a bindi (forehead mark) on the men and offers ashes to the women to place your own bindi (as he can't touch a woman).

It was obviously a spiritual place and I was suprised by the level of acceptance, openly allowing Western tourists to take part.

We weren't done touring. As we walked through another shrine, the puja had obvioulsy affected Billy too (2 1/2 yrs old). He wanted a kiss and a hug and I toured the last building carrying him. This was the best of all because he is so observant. He pointed out every important sight to me in a calm sharing manner....he's quite the kid.

I' m saving the best for last...there is a resident temple elephant. We stopped with the kids to feed him biscuits.....of course, I participated fully as a kid. Tracy suggested that I see if the elephant would bless me. Huh? What's that? She told me to hand to elephant a 10 rupee note and see. The elephant toke the note, handed it to his trainer sitting nearby and then laid his trunk gently on my head. The elephant actually did it three times, the third time Tracy got a photo. This is a huge trip highlight to say the least.

It was a big day. More to come later.

HUGs- W:)

Halloween, how spooky.......

After a quick trick-or-treating round of the neighborhood, we were off to our weekend holiday to Pondicherry.

Starting late in the evening, our aim was getting 2/3rds of the way there.....a hotel 200km from home.

I know...sounds sort of funny, doesn't it. 200 km isn't very far. Reminder: I'm in India. My guess (I'm not looking up the direct conversion now) is that's about 170 mi?

Why does travel take so long?

• we had a new driver hired for this trip alone...who got a little lost
• traffic. traffic here is just not like traffic at home. We'll talk.......
• had some rain and darkness to contend with
• had road conditions including miles of potholes as big as Oklahoma 'lakes'
• because of the combination of most of the points listed above, we also had a flat tire.

Imagine it....the Indian 'outback', it wasn't raining but lightening was all around us. I saw a snake sliver across the road. It's 1:30 a.m. and we're broken down with a flat tire.

Now, that's a good old fashioned spooky Halloween adventure. :-D

Of course it ends well- I'm on the Internet! Unphased, we pulled into our hotel 7 and 1/2 hrs later.

The Murphy's are quite a hardy crew. That includes, you know, a 6, 4, and 2 year old. Yes, I also handled it well. I really felt that I shouldn't behave any worse than the 2 year old, so that didn't leave me any room for an emotional outburst. ;-)

The journey to that point was exciting and well worth the adventures of our weekend getaway.

More to come!

To bed now.

HUGs all- W:)