Happy Diwali 2006!

Click here to see a short movie of the celebrations in which Jennifer and I participated last night here at IFMR's campus.

Fireworks and firecrackers a major part of the celebration. It has been almost constant explosions outside for the past several days, with the climax happening yesterday evening around 7pm.

Here are some photos:
Jennifer outside the main office building on campus with a sparkler and a time delay.

Rock gingerly lighting a "spinner" firework.

Jennifer with a more powerful version of the sparkler concept.

Some IFMR students lighting candles in the entrance to the campus hostel. Light is also an important part of the celebrations. The candles represent the lights lit anciently to guide Lord Rama home from his exile.


The same students above but with a flash this time.

The final product at the entrance.

I spent the last 2-3 weeks unexpectedly in the States. My grandmother passed away, and I went back to be with my family (and especially my mom). It was hard to leave India -- I had this sense that it wasn't time to leave for good yet. But after being with family for a couple of weeks, it was very hard to come back. Despite my commitments in the country through December, if Rock hadn't been here I'm not sure I would have come back. Not even to see the Taj, if that would have been my only motivation.

I am back. My luggage got lost and they still haven't found it. It has been a week since it was loaded on the wrong plane. Luckily Rock brought my remaining clothing to Hyderabad on Sunday when he came to meet me. But even then, I'm living off of two work outfits. I gave one to the laundry walla the other day and the shirt came back with a big iron mark on it. Down to one pair of work clothes. Gotta love it. I wore jeans and a tee-shirt to work today because those were my only clean clothes. This despite a couple of interviews.

Anyway.

Every once in a while I see interesting juxtipositions. I think the most interesting one is that I once saw a woman in a full burka driving a motorcycle. Granted, motorcycles here are the main mode of middle class transportation and don't have the rebellious reputation here that we associate with them in the States, but even so it was an interesting picture. Today for the first time I saw a woman in a sari driving one. You will often see women driving two-wheelers in kurtas (pants suits), but it has got to be a challenge to drive a motorcycle (and it was a motorcycle, not just a scooter) in a sari. She was sitting in it sideways, saddle-style.

Hello Family and Friends. It seems that no one is reading this blog, in which case we will just catch up with you when we see you again and won't put the time and effort into posting pictures and stories. If you do read this on a regular basis and would like us to continue posting, please let us know privately.