New Delhi - New travels

When our friend Adi invited us to India to attend his best friend's wedding, we jumped at the chance.  India? a place I had never traveled to but always wanted to?  With locals?  Staying with locals?  Seriously, where do I sign up? 

After a long day of traveling and some crazy India driving, we finally arrived at Aradhana's house, where she had graciously prepared a late dinner of mutton and curd (or as we say it, lamb and yogurt).  Much much much better than the beans and chickpea a la American Airlines dinner.  

Immediately upon arriving in India, it became very evident that there is a huge distinction between those that have no money and those that have even just some money.  Those that do typically have live in help, along with hired drivers.  Those from extremely wealthy families can have upwards of 10-20 servants living in their homes.  

For our first full day in New Delhi, Adi and Aradhana took us clothes shopping.  I picked up a beautiful blue saree (which I still have no idea how to tie - YouTube?) and Kevin picked up a navy kurta.  The sheer amount of choices at the saree store is overwhelming - kind of reminds me of wedding dress shopping.  

 

After a jetlag induced nap, Adi invited us to the Puja, which is a prayer ceremony that happens a couple of days before the wedding.  It is supposed to invoke the wedding Gods and is done on an auspicious day.  Because it is a religious ceremony, there is no alcohol allowed in the house, even after the ceremony is done.  So what did they do?  They had a car bar (literally.. in the trunk of a car), out in the courtyard, past the property line.  Probably the most amazing thing were the dhol drummers.  Loud, but amazing.  It was really fun to see everyone get really into dancing.  There is just something about cultures centered around drums and beats (e.g. they can actually dance).

Some interesting things I noticed about India:  rather than saying "my neighborhood" (or as Kevin says, "my hood"), they say "my colony."  And rather than being 13 hours ahead, New Delhi is 13.5 hours ahead.  Yup, there is an extra half an hour added in.  Definitely threw me off for a day or two.