Fruit Seller at Mumbai Market
Little boy with Grandpa, Mumbai
Andrea & the girls
When last we spoke we were leaving Ahmedebad. We had described the rooftop parties during the kite festival but did not show you the photographs, sorry. We will include them in this Blog as well as other misc. photographs at the end of the blog. Also we will be putting our names under our respective photographs.
Ahmedebad to Anand, India
We are currently in Anand for our friend’s 3 day Hindu / Gujarati Wedding. Pratik was nice enough to book us into his family friends Hotel, La Casa Inn. Of all people to meet at Icy Spicy, a local veg restaurant, Stan and Gina from… wait for it………. Huntington, NY told us about a new resort not far away, the Madhubhan Resort & Spa. We asked our driver to give us a tour and we were hooked. We moved in that same day. I will be including photos of this very chill paradise in the middle of a Great sea of trash, horn honking & walking, and mooing meat with horns. Situated on 170 acres of land (formerly a fruit farm) in the middle of an Industrial area, Mudhubhan is the complete opposite, filled with incredible sculptures (from Bali), flower and rock gardens & 2 fantastic pools; one is the biggest I’ve ever seen. We are staying in a Cottage room – very nice! It seems that this resort is known for it’s wellness center and the whole place has a wonderful Buddhist like atmosphere. The spa is amazing and lying by the pool and reading was incredible!!! We got a few great massages (despite the throw-away undergarments – banana hammocks – they made me squeeze into).
The Bride being showered with flowers
The grooms 1st cousins
The Bride
The wedding: Last night was the first of the 3-day party, a dance party with a seriously good Indian band. Andrea, Latasha, Sumeida & Tamika showed up looking like a 1950’s Indian singing group – “The Water Girls” maybe? Since the only people dressed the same were passing out water and drinks at the party. They all looked great but all they matched. I don’t know, see the photo. Carlos & I showed up in full Sherwani, an Indian Sultan looking wedding outfit and fancy shoes – I looked like a pretty princess (I’m still straight). Of course we were up-staged by most of the other guests. Damn you, well dressed, fashionable & hip Hindu people!
We ate all the things it tells you not to in every “Don’t eat it in India“ type guidebook and not one of us are sick (jinx). At least if we get sick we are staying at a 5 star wellness resort (that sounded like I was bragging). Otherwise India Rocks and we are having a crazy trip as usual.
Second Wedding night… The wedding precession!
Bass Drummer from the wedding precession
Tuba Player
The Groom on Horseback
The Groom's brother mid-air
The Groom's shoes
Holy Sh_t, that’s all I’m going to say. Seriously one of the crazier things I have ever seen.
One thousand people showed up for this party, hosted by Dipti’s family. Pratik rode on a white horse up the street wearing pink shoes and shiwanee (Sultan type outfit) following a procession of a great old-timey-tuba-playing-base drum marching band and Pratik’s family dancing up a storm. Some of the guy’s were doing the whirling dervish thing-Crazy! The rag-tag, red-uniformed band made up of about twenty musicians played their asses off. They had great faces, one who kind of reminded me of Ruprecht the Monkey Boy – please reference Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Once we arrived at the party hall/arena, Pratik’s mother-in-law tried to steal his nose (really?) (a traditional type of thing) and someone from Pratik’s side had to save it. This place was as big as a stadium and looked like an amusement park on acid.
Pratik and Dipti spent the night under a ceremonial type gazebo doing a lot of things…including, throwing flowers, putting red dots on the other’s forehead, touching each others feet, touching their feet to something that looked like candy, toughing their heads together and setting things on fire. We may have been the only people out of a thousand who wanted to watch most of the ceremony. We didn’t know what was going on or the meaning of anything, but it was beautiful. We need a little lesson on what it all meant.
Third Wedding night was a little more chill. Band (different one) was good, but their outfits didn’t match – the girls did! See photos. Pratik and Dipti had to smile for four hours straight while they took photos with every guest at the wedding. Food was typical Gugarati. We tried to eat just a little, some rice and dal, but the people we sat with insisted we try something from every station at the buffet. They explained everything (and that it was all veg) and how to eat it. Then, we had to head over to the stage for the pictures of our group with Dipti and Pratik. Met Pratik’s grandmother and Andrea took her comment “watch out for Pratik” to mean that he goes after the girls, wink, wink when, in fact, she meant to watch over him at work. Oops.
The Group
Tamika, Tasha, Sumeida and Carlos left early on Tuesday to catch a flight to Delhi. That left us at the Resort for a nice long relaxing day. It went something like this… breakfast, photos of the grounds, 90 minute massage (Adam traded the banana hammock for the throw-away big girl panties), lunch, a swim in the biggest pool in the state of Gujarat, reading by the pool, more photos of the grounds, tea and cappuccino with a really nice Indian couple from Delaware, and then we picked up a cake to bring to dinner….
At lunch, Andrea started chatting with a woman and we were invited to their home that evening for dinner. A very interesting Indian couple, picture Indira Gandhi mixed with Mother Theresa and her husband, action adventure guy (he looks like a light skinned Indian Mussolini) (younger people please Google) both Doctor’s, who work, lecture and organize all over the world. He travels the world helping poor people in dangerous places (shot 3 times in the leg in Sierra Leone) (again young people, please Google). Joining us were their relatives from New Jersey, but born in India, the very wealthy Doctor Diamond, a 47
th St. diamond dealer, turned hospital administrator (no medical degree?), and his sweet wife, the big hearted Hospice lady, also a fantastic cook, she made us Gujarat dumplings –Great! They were all in their early sixties. We drank beer and whiskey and talked and ate for hours.
Got up to drive to Udaipur in the morning. Went to pack the car and --- the driver had left our kites at his home. That’s the third time we have tried to bring kites back to the States – we are destined to only experience them in Ahmedabad.
Just now as we sat here eating a late breakfast at the hotel the staff brought over a chocolate mouse Birthday cake for Andrea, a really nice surprise and we shared it with everyone in the restaurant. Happy Birthday Old Lady.
P.S. Bloom – our pepper mill at breakfast was made by Peugeot (Say it with me… poo-zju-oe)
AND NOW - RANDOM PHOTOGRAPHS
Spinning kite string on drying racks, Ahmedebad
A spice stand in Mumbai, the merchants were total jerks!
International Cancer Symbol?
Wedding Elephant Driver
As usual thanks for looking,
Love,
Us
