All the news that's fit to print...

Look what we found online!

When we were at Jenny & Jose's "Le Royale" inn in Cochin in the state of Kerala, we had a visit from a reporter friend of Jenny's.

Now, back in America, we find that a piece about our visit and the Community Health Center ran in The Hindu on November 18! (By that time, we'd moved onto to Bangalore.) They've even got a picture of all of us in Jenny's living room.

Click on this Newspaper story.

It's nice to know we left a little piece of ourselves in India, in addition to all those socks.

Sightseeing in Mumbai

With an agenda and timeline spelled out in Maggie's notebook, we set out to see some of the sights in Mumbai.

First we try to catch the "Great Tiffin Transfer" of Mumbai, which is an amazing lunch-delivery system: after someone heads off to work for the morning, someone at home makes their lunch and gives it to someone who delivers it to the nearest train station. With a few simple color markings, the lunch makes its way through the train system, till it reaches the train stop nearest the worker, where it is picked up by a sort of bicycle messenger who carries all the "tiffins" to various people throughout that district. How does the right lunch get to the right office and the right person without any name or address written on it? Mark really wanted to find out the answer to this question, but we were a few minutes too late to catch the tiffins in transit, so we'll never know . If you are curious, you might read this: Hot Lunch in Mumbai. Instead of tiffins, at the Churchgate Train Station, he got this photograph at a newstand.


Much of India is a kind of Nirvana for newpaper readers like Mark. He's had a blast comparing editorial styles throughout the country -- his favorite is The Hindu.

Then we head for Malabar Hill, the leafiest and most upscale neighborhood in downtown Mumbai. First we stop at a Jain Temple.

The Jains are a reformist sect of Hinduism that split many hundreds of years ago -- much like the division of Catholics and Protestants in the West. They are a small minority in India, but are generally an affluent and well-regarded religious group. One of the hallmarks of Jainism is their reverence for all animal life. In October, while in Delhi, we made a brief visit to the bird hospital that they run there, but the Delhi temple itself was closed for a mid-day rest. So we are happy to get to visit a functioning Jain Temple before we leave India!

Photos and video were allowed, as long as you follow the rule of not turning your back to any of the idols.



The Jain Temple is incredibly beautiful, with jewels inlaid in marble, as well as bright muraling and sculpture on the exterior. Inside, there are shrines to Jain saints, each carved in white marble. The person in this photo has their mouth covered with a white cloth, which the most devout Jains do to avoid accidentally killing any bugs by inhaling them.

There are priests singing (with electric keyboard) and chanting in the main chamber, and several women sitting and making small mandalas with rice as they listen to the prayers. People circle the temple, stopping to pray at the shrines of the saints which are placed in niches in the wall.


It's a little hard to tell, because the floor is tiled in the same shades of white, black and tan, but this larger design is made from different colored grains, and covers the center of the temple floor.

A word about the iconography here: the Jain Temple, and many Hindu temples, often have swastikas as a primary design -- it took us a while to accept that this image has nothing to do with Nazi Germany and is an ancient Indian symbol that Hitler mis-appropriated. Here in India, this symbol is a sign of good luck and well-being, and is found on everything from clothing, temple idols and driveway gates (to indicate the home of a pious Jain family). Even knowing this, it is unsettling to see it used everywhere.

The courtyard outside the temple acts as a sort of town square, where people sit on benches and chat, surrounded by the shoes of other worshippers. A little girl strikes up a friendship with Kobi.

Yanna is an exceptionally friendly 4-year old visiting the temple with her mother. She asks great questions of Kobi: What's your favorite toy? What's your favorite thing about me? Her favorite thing about Kobi is his hair. Kobi is smitten.

When we have to leave, Kobi asks "What color is your house?" and when she answers "Black and Brown", he says "Ok, now you told me and I can find your house and visit you and play with you again." When we're dragging him away, he calls back "What's your number?"

Then we drove on to the Hanging Gardens, so-named because they are built on a hill over-hanging the waterfront.

With a mix of manicured lawns and topiary peacocks, rhinos and lions, it's pretty clear that this park is a creation of the British Empire about 100 years ago.

Here's the view from the Hanging Gardens. This haze hangs over Mumbai until evening every day.

Next we head to the Haji Ali Mosque, which we've seen hovering offshore, and was built to honor a Muslim saint who drowned on this spot while trying to reach Mecca.

At low tide, worshippers can reach the Haji Ali mosque over a landbridge.


In one of our most difficult experiences in India, we walk the long path to the Mosque, which is lined with especially desperate beggars -- there is an overwhelming sense that no amount of help would make a difference. We grownups try to answer the kids questions as we pass groups of beggars with ampuations, skins diseases, blindness, and impoverished toddlers who follow us up the path.

We believe that instead of "giving alms", it is better to contribute to organizations that can provide real assistance, and we know that beggars in India are often part of an organized crime system which provides basic care in exchange for the day's earnings. Even our trip -- where we are spending money on food, lodging and so many things -- has helped people all across the country make a living. But, here in front of the Mosque, it is impossible to face such misery without responding in some way, so we give the kids some rupees -- Karma and Maggie look out at the mass and say, but which one should I give it to?

Inside the Mosque, we find the men and women filing in separate entrances to pray in the beautiful jeweled chamber. The courtyard is filled with familes and musicians, with the view of the water and the city skyline around us.

The courtyard of the Haji Ali Mosque.

After visiting the Mosque, we take some time to re-group and try to make sense of what we've seen. India is an amazing country with so many beautiful and culturally-rich resources -- but it is also In-Your-Face with it's willingness to leave so many people behind in the race to get ahead. And yet it is also the country where Mother Theresa continues to inspire people like Vidyaker in Chennai to serve people who are living in misery -- it makes your head spin to try to take it all in.

At the far opposite end of the spectrum, we take an evening drive down Marine Drive to see the wedding tents which have been constructed on a bit of open land to provide banquet space for the glut of mid-December marriages. Mark stops in at a few tents that are still in the set-up phase. Amid the exhuberant mood, the designs fall into two categories: Grand and Grander!

At this wedding, catering stations are labeled with different cuisines....Italian, Swiss, Desi...

A giant poster of this couple sits at the entrance to their wedding reception.

On this strip of Marine Drive, a half-dozen outdoor wedding receptions sit side-by-side, each with a grand entrance.

Exploring Colaba in Mumbai

Mark, Jen, Maggie and Karma, go out around Colaba (south Mumbai). First we pass a statue of Ambedekar, the hero of the "untouchable" caste, now called Dalits, since he rose to political prominence and was a primary author of the Indian Consitution. The recent 50th anniversary of his death, celebrated by huge crowds but less honored by political leaders, shows that he is still a controversial figure for his ambition of raising the lot of the most disadvantaged people in India.

Ambedekar near the Oval Maidan in Mumbai. As VS Naipaul writes, for Dalits, Ambedekar is more significant than Ghandi as a symbol for their freedom.

Next we visit the Prince of Wales museum, a turn-of-the-century British building which now holds an extensive collection of artwork and archeological findings.

Tour buses, school groups, and the Masselli's. That's the crowd at the Prince of Wales Museum.

Maggie and Karma spend most of their time with the audio tour in the Hindu sculpture collection.

After more than 2 months in India, we can recognize this fragment of an ancient statue as Vishnu, taking a rest on the coils of a cobra.

Looking up in the octaganol center hall of the Prince of Wales museum.

Then we head over to FabIndia, a store with the winning combination of good ethics and great cotton clothes and house stuff.

We've been to most of the FabIndia's in the country! How many of you can say that?

The rooftop of our hotel has a playground, so Kobi gets to go on the swings.

The "grass" is astroturf, but the trees are real. The kids decide we could just stay here, instead of our hotel room.

Dancing at the Sangeet

We wake to newspaper stories about how this is the most auspicious time for weddings in India, and that there are more than 15,000 nuptials planned for the next few days in Mumbai. Choosing your wedding date with the input of an astrologer is very important in India, at least in the Hindu majority, and the next 3 or 4 days are prime time because of the alignment of Jupiter and Venus. If you don't get married now, you have to wait until the end of January.

Caught up in the fever, we are so excited to be attending the sangeet and wedding of Sidd Shah, who Mark knows from the Health Center world. He's coming home to Mumbai to marry Ronak, and it just happened to fall on the days we were schedule to be here, so we have been invited!

We do some shopping in the daytime on Colaba Causeway, first for shoes:

Mom, I think I found one that fits me!

Okay, nothing surprises us anymore, but really...does this sound appetizing?

A Pizza Hut...in a gas station?

And here's one way to cope with the excruciatingly slow pace of Mumbai traffic:

We had a sympathetic "AWWWW" when we saw this girl trying to read in traffic while riding on the back of a motorbike. We couldn't see the title, but it must be a good book.

Later in the evening, we get dressed and head to the Sangeet. This is a party thrown by the younger relatives of the couple, with hours of performances of Bollywood-style dances by friends and relatives.

We are delighted to have the chance to dress up in Indian style:



Tenzin, Jen and Karma

Jen in an choli (blouse) and sari, and Mark in a churidor (pants) and Kurta (tunic).

The dances were really impressive, and everyone seemed to know all the words to the Bollywood songs. We've clipped two pieces of video.

First Ronak, the bride-to-be in a red two-piece sari, dances with her girlfriends and relatives: Girls dance at Sangeet

And second, lots of couples in a flirting dance. That's Ronak and Sidd in front (he's in a green tunic), which you can watch here: The bride and groom-to-be dance

What a great night! We had so much fun!

Kobi lasted until about midnight, and then just sacked out. We carried him home in the wee hours -- still asleep.

My Oh My Oh Mumbai Oh

Wow, Mumbai is very intense. This is the largest city in the world, according to the Internet. Our drive in from the airport was deceptively easy, but we soon came up against the contrasts which are even more intense in Mumbai than in the rest of India.

We went to a giant shopping mall, had great Italian food for dinner and drove on a 12-lane highway -- our first in India. We also saw countless beggars, immense slums and sat for hours in immovable traffic jams. We saw women in pants and heels, full muslim burkas with just their eyes showing, rags and colorful saris -- an incredible diversity.

And that's just the first 12 hours. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Goggie architecture in Mumbai! You could be in Anaheim, CA in this shot.

Karma at the food court at the InOrbit Mall in Mumbai (Subway in the background -- here and Bangalore are the only places we found turkey sandwiches in India). Karma has lost two baby teeth on this trip, and we can tell you that the Tooth Fairy's exchange rate is nothing short of spectacular.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

Although the majority of people in Goa are Hindu, the presence of Christians is much more obvious. There are large churches and crosses all over -- testament to the hundreds of years of Portuguese occupation here.

During the Inquisition, most of the Hindu temples in Goa were wiped out and the people forced to convert to Catholicism. When people wanted to save their Hindu idols, they took them outside the Portuguese territory to Ponda, a forested area to the East. We take a trip there to visit two temples, the Shri Mangesh and the Shantadurga...they are quite similar in appearance, and completely unlike any temples we have seen elsewhere in India.

This is the Shantadurga temple, dedicated to an incarnation of Parvati, Shiva's wife. Except for the domed tower, it looks like something out of the Sound of Music.


The Shri Mangesh temple was built in the 1560's to hold a Shiva Lingam idol that was rescued from Old Goa and brought here -- not only does the outside resemble church architecture, but the inside is filled with stained glass and dozens of chandeliers. Other than that, it functions as other temples do, with people queing up to pass the idol and take a bit of holy water and ash from the priests. In a side hallway, priests are sitting and reading texts outloud, and others are performing rituals, as shown in this video.

We were at the Shri Mangesh at the same time as a few school groups, and as an American teenager, Tenzin caused quite a stir. Karma, too, was a popular prop.

People were waiting in line to get their picture taken with the kids.

In the temple yard, the chariots sit waiting for a festival, when they will carry the deity through the streets.


Ponda is also the site of the oldest mosque in Goa, which seems to be a much less-visited site on the tourist trail. It was also built in 1560 -- the same time as the temples in the area.

The mosque is a tiny white building, without any visible minarets, which is unusual. In front of the mosque is the ritual pool, where several imposingly large fish are swimming.

When we arrive, the mosque is locked, but for a donation of 80 rupees, the attendant opens it. Tenzin and Mark go inside, but the Jen and the girls are not permitted -- and Kobi stays out too.

Inside the mosque, small rugs cover the floor where the men kneel and pray.

This mosque is still in use for prayers, 5 times a day, and men are beginning to gather as we head back to Panjim.

The sign at the mosque.

Church Festival in Panjim

We start the day with a visit to the playground in Panjim.

Kobi gets pushed on the swings.

Maggie plays with the tiny lizards that live at the playground.

Then we go for a walk through the fish market.

7 days a week, the women sell the catch of the day.

An unusually large pomfret.

We're fascinated by the storefronts on the streets of Panjim, where a shop can be as small as a closet.

Considering it is about 5 foot square, this fabric store has an incredible variety cloth. This lady is trying to find a match for her bright green blouse.

This one is about 8 feet by 15 feet, a double bay. It seems to sell stationery supplies.

On our walk, we come around the corner and find thousands of people miling around, and it turns out that today is another church festival day, which explains why the schoolkids had the day off.

The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was overflowing for a mass. The stairs up have many beggars, which we haven't seen to this extent in Panjim before.

The street outside the church is packed with crowds and vendors.

We give in and get Kobi a foil-covered sword.

Nuts at the Church Festival.

Market & Bookstore & Movies

Mark took the big kids back to the Wednesday Flea Market in Anjuna, and Jen and Kobi stayed in Panjim. Mark takes this video which shows something of what it is like to walk through a gauntlet of vendors in India.

A rare bit of shade at the Anjuna market.

Maggie buys these pants at the market with her own money.

In the afternoon, Mark, Tenzin and Maggie take in the new James Bond flick while Jen, Kobi and Karma go to a bookstore called Reading Habit, where Karma is delighted to find Book 5 of Harry Potter -- she is blowing through the series here.

But the big find here is a travel version of Monopoly, which Karma has been hankering for since we failed to pick one up at Heathrow on our way to India -- she really wanted it because it was in pounds! So now she has one that is in rupees. Mom and Karma play a round back at the hotel, but the funny thing is that it is hard to get excited when, as Karma notes, the most expensive thing on the board only costs $9 (Boardwalk at 400 rupees.) They changed the name of the currency, but not the value. Sigh.

Palolem

It's time to go South to see Palolem, the unspoiled Goa where the hippies supposedly moved when the north became too commercial.

On the drive, we pass through Goa's biggest city, Margao.

This school yard was filled with marching children at assembly.


It must be some kind of special day, since we see other assemblies of children in schoolyards across the town.


It turns out that Palolem Beach is not exactly undiscovered.

Instead of tourist hotels, the beach is lined with shacks that can be rented for 300 rupees a night -- about $6 bucks for a bed with a mosquito net. We rent one for a few hours so we can change into bathing suits.

After taking this photo, Jen offers a bribe to Tenzin to get his nose out of the book and go in the water.

Tenzin catches the wave.

Look closely at this sign and you'll discover that Neil Alan and Bruce Weitzman have been running a little business on the side. Pina Colada anyone?


The kids succumb to the persuasions of a wandering henna painter, though Mark insists on bargaining down from an astounding 1200 rs to 350 for designs on the three kids. Here, Tenzin gets a little yin and yang.

Karma shows off the black henna design on her hand.


So it seems that Palolem is a temporary community that springs up in tourist season, and then disappears as the government periodically comes through and tears down the shacks. Befitting the price category, the beach seems to be filled with young people from Australia, Germany, Scandinavia and the U.K. And us, of course.

On the way back to Panjim, we stop at Bhakti Kutir, an eco-resort and organic restaurant, where we have salads, bread, fruit and soup in a shady garden. We buy a jar of natural peanut butter, since our supply of Skippy and Jif, brought from the US, finally ran out. The owners have kids, and Kobi finds one of their toys lying around, as shown here.

To his mother's horror, it turns out that Kobi has a natural talent for the skateboard. During lunch, he experiments with this one and finds that he can soon balance and teeter-totter between the two ends without falling. Here, he is trying to flip it up. Yikes.