Katmandu is great

After 26 hours of traveling - 8 hours by train, 4 hours on bus, 1 hour on a bicycle rickshaw, 13 hours on another bus, and 15 minutes in a taxi - I arrived late last night in Kathmandu. The longer second bus ride was through the mountains and extremely scenic, and I met some nice people on the bus, so the trip wasn't as horrible as the length makes it sound. Needless to say, after checking into a hotel, I gobbled some protein bars and quickly fell asleep. Today, I woke up late, drank a pretty good cup of coffee and searched (successfully) for a used guide book. I then took the walking tour suggested in the book. The city is beautiful and the people are friendly. I am having a great time and I am really glad I made the trek here.

Ever since I was little I have wanted to visit Kathmandu. I'm not really sure why, something about the name sounded romantic to me and I have not been disappointed by the city's charms yet. I've already taken a bizzillion pictures and I'll post them when I get back to Lucknow.

A wonderful wedding!

On Thursday evening, my friend Pankaj married a beautiful woman named Jyoti. Their marriage was arranged and they met briefly at the engagement before the wedding. I am so happy for them both and I am really looking forward to getting to know Jyoti.

I put on my fancy sari (so useful, I've now worn it 3 times, but very nice to have) and jumped on a rickshaw to take me to the wedding. I had some travel confusions, but eventually arrived at the house where the grooms wedding party was waiting to go the shadi ghar (marriage hall). There were some snacks at the house and I sat and chatted with Pankaj and some of his friends.

family and friends, as well as additional musicians and lights. Most of When the appropriate time arrived (about 1.5 hours later than the invitation specified), the bharat was formed. The bharat is the procession that takes the groom from the house to the marriage hall. There is a truck in the front that blasts loud music. Following this are Pankaj'sPankaj's friends danced as we walked down the street. I also danced a little bit, but I felt a little silly. This is because women, in general, never dance in the bharat. At the end of bharat came Pankaj in a car with some of his family. There is a picture of this below, along with the lights. I love the lights the men carry on their head. These days, because it is a popular wedding season, during the day I often see lines of men walking down the street with these lights on their head on their way to the night's wedding.

After we arrived at the shadi ghar, Pankaj, his father, and the bride's father and grandfather performed a puja (Hindi devotional offering) with two priests. I have also put a picture of this below.

When the puja was finished, Pankaj sat in a tent and waited for his bride. His friends kept him company while he waited and it was a pretty long wait. As you can see in the picture above and the picture below (of Pankaj waiting) he is wearing a pretty special hat called a pagree. This is the traditional hat worn for this portion of the ceremony. The tent smelled so good from all the fresh flowers hanging and they passed out even more food while we waited.

After a long wait, the bride arrived in a processional with her friends and female relatives. As you can see in the picture, she is wearing a red lahenga, the traditional outfit for this portion of the ceremony. After she arrived, she and Pankaj each put a mala (flower garland) around eachother's neck. Once this was finished, all of the guests were invited to eat dinner outside the tent. The food was really delicious and I especially enjoyed the salad bar.

After the mala ceremony, the bride and groom took many pictures and then ate. After this, they went to change their clothing for the portion of the wedding in which they walk around the fire - this is called the shadee ka bundan and is the actual marriage part. For this portion of the wedding, the bride wore a yellow sari (the traditional outfit) and Pankaj wore a traditional man's Indian outfit consisting of a lumba kurta (long shirt) and pyjama pants. This ceremony usually takes place between midnight and 4 am. After this, Pankaj's friends returned with him to the nearby house, where he waited for his bride to arrive in the morning - at around 8 am. The arrival of the bride is called the vidli ke rasm and is the final part of the wedding.

Originally, I was going to wait with Pankaj for his bride to arrive. However, after dinner I was exhausted as it was already midnight and I left before seeing the shadee ka bundan. Even though I left a little early, I had a really great time and was so happy for the invitation.

We are having a short break from classes, so I am going to go on a short vacation to Nepal. I'll update the blog when I get back (next weekend) and let everyone know about my adventures....

Sudar Bazaar and a Wedding Invitation

Today was a pleasant day. Nothing much exciting happened, but my life has fallen into a comfortable pattern of being and I feel well, so no complaints.

The day was sunny and I went for a run in the early afternoon and I actually felt HOT just wearing my T-shirt while running, which is a great sign for the improvement of the weather. I do enjoy not being cold.

After my run, I needed vegetables and fruit for my meals, so I went to Sudar (it means president) Bazaar. Below is my absolute favorite subzi walla (vegetable seller), he always smiles, has good quality vegetables, and is extremely friendly. His name is Ustad, which means teacher. An apt name because from him I've learned many new names of vegetables as well as some yummy recipes. I bought my usual staples of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, hot peppers, bell peppers, mushrooms, etc. Nothing too exotic today.

I then headed down the road and around the corner to the phal wallay (fruit sellers) area. I usually buy all my fruit from this guy, but the little boy (below) selling papaya - which I eat every morning with granola, pomegranate and soy milk - was too cute to pass up, so I bought my papaya from him. Living in Lucknow, I've really developed a love of papaya and I am afraid that when I go home, I'll go through withdraw. Here, papaya is cheap and I can buy enough for a week for less than a dollar.

After buying my groceries, I rushed home to drop them off and headed to the coffee shop that is around the corner from my house. I love this coffee shop because they will make me a soy cappuccino if I bring the soy milk and because the men who work there are friendly now that they are used to me and my bad Hindustani. They have a lovely outside seating area and a restaurant too, but I rarely eat at the restaurant because its a tad on the expensive side. They also tend to play American Top 40 music and I sometimes have weird moments when the song on the radio was a song I enjoyed when I was in high school and I reflect that I never thought I would be sitting in a small city in India reading Urdu at a coffee shop when I was 15....

But the reason I was rushing to the coffee shop was because I was meeting my friend Pankaj. I've known him since summer and he is a really great guy. We were meeting so that he could give me an invitation to his wedding. The wedding in on Wednesday and I am so happy for him and excited to attend the wedding. The match was arranged a few months ago (early December) and his fiance, Jyoti, is Pankaj's father's coworker's daughter. Before the engagement, they had never met. Now they speak on the phone, often. She now lives in Varanasi but will move to Lucknow to live with Pankaj and his family after the wedding. After the wedding I'll send a detailed blog about all the happenings. I've put a picture of Pankaj with the wedding invitation below. The invitation is sooo fancy with glitter and pictures. Hooray!