12.13 wedding anyone?

walking down the street tonight and we get caught up in a procession of loud music, drums, fire, lights and someone being carried around in a carriage atop horses. we are in the middle of a wedding procession.

it's december 13th and apparently its a very lucky day in dehli. there are 36,000 weddings in the city today. indians take astrology very seriously. when a young couple wants to get married, they are sent to the family astrologer, who will choose their wedding day for them. the astrologer will look into the stars of the bride and groom to be and choose a suitable day that is aligned and is especially lucky for a happy and prosperous destiny.

sounds romantic, but could you imagine trying to find a caterer for your wedding day, knowing there are 35,999 other weddings on the same day??

the procession itself was pretty cool. the poor groom though. everyone gets to sing and dance in the streets, and he is stuck up there on the back of a stinky animal in a ridiculous getup!


Share on Facebook

12.12 take a spit

people in india love to spit. it's like a national passtime. when you've got nuthin to do, just spit.

the popularity of this activity is evident by the dripmarks i notice down the side of a city bus in dehli. then i notice more of these, and come to the realisation that it's not a morning coffee poured out the window, it's dried spit.

everyone does it. it's the crazy amount of smog and pollution that's built up in the streets. no matter how classy someone looks, walk alongside them for a while and eventually you'll either hear a warning hork, or it will just happen. i think some folks just hold it in as long as they can until they can't handle it anymore. you see a long squirt of liquid torpedo from someone's face. a big spit.



Share on Facebook

12.11 what's the dehli?

i've arrived!! safe but with a cold, we were welcomed by the bright face of sanjeev, the owner of nexus tours and travel, with whom my father has arranged the first several days of our trip. i'm instantly thrilled to see the gleaming white ambassador - not a man, but the penultimate tourist vehicle of india! this thing looks like a true vintage, a lada or trabant - always in white for the tourists!

our driver is kharak bhadur. he sounds exactly like my uncle. you listen to him and you want to go smoke a cigarette and play some pool with the man. i was thrilled. sanjeev piled in the car with us and we drove off, i have been equally interested the whole time in listening to him tell us everything the first time traveller to india would like to know, plus taking in the sights: the abundance of everything on the road, from cars to beggars, the roads with their roundabouts, the temples, and mostly the people. everyone is brown! i'm finally in india!!

the one cultural thing i notice right away - dehli-ites don't say "dehli" the way we westerners do. to be a true delhi-ite, you gotta say "dilli", as in "yo, what's the dilli!". that's right. say it now. out loud a few times. yeah. you'll get it... you'll get the dilli.

after we got ourselves settled and warmed. dehli is cold at night this time of year. i didn't realise how far north we actually are. evening time, it was off to dinner, but not before a night time visit to the beautiful and lit-up laxmi's temple (a must for the first time visitor, laxmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, and good luck as i believe). bring it on i say!


Share on Facebook