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The highlight of the day was finally meeting my remaining Saalis, Rama and Uma. After a harrowing, long and delayed overnight train ride from Hyderabad, they made the 45 minute trip from their parents house to the Chola to visit me. Again, I cannot express my appreciation for the warmth and graciousness I was shown. Not to mention yet another gift; a very nice navy blue polo.

The rest of the day was spent running around to shops and tailors to get stuff for the wedding. We went to a tailors called the Raymond Store. Here I was fitted for a matrimonial Kurta set. Not overly traditional for a South Indian wedding, but a compromise made for my benefit. We’re not sure 100% if it’s going to be pajama or suit style… Geetha and I were both a little confused by the total event… I guess we’ll know when I go for my trial fitting today. Never had anything custom tailored before, that aspect of it I could really get used to!

After that adventure we went to several Jewelry stores looking for a wedding band for me. Unfortunately Geetha has her sights set on platinum, and although there were ample selections at the stores, none of the styles we liked had sizes to fit me. Given that the exchanging of rings is not part of the South Indian wedding ceremony, we opted to hold of until we return to the States. Too bad because there is would be a remarkable savings if we could find one here.

Next stop: Nalli Sari store. Here we picked up wedding gift Saris for the Grandmothers, Aunt, Amma, as well as a dhoti for Appa.

All and all a busy day, even if this entry doesn’t reflect it.

We then returned to the shop I mentioned in yesterdays entry to have a quick browse, which turned into about a 2 hour adventure in being sold “Kashmiri style.” There is no such word as no! There was an extraordinary wall hanging there that would fit perfect on the wall of our stairwell where the previous owner had hung a quilt which we still may purchase after doing some research. You can see the piece in the photo album hanging on the far back wall. After a quick lunch in the Hotel Cafe, we hired a car and went out to do a little sightseeing.

Our first stop was the Government Museum complex. which is a series of former British Government Building that have been turned into a collection of Historical Museums. As usual, we were running late and didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked. Today’s photo album contains a few pictures of some of the buildings that comprise the complex. We did get to see a very interesting collection of Archeological Artifacts. There were even some rudimentary tools that were found in the very first Civilizations of India; Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, which existed in the Indus River Valley as early as 2500 BC. Most of the statuary in the exhibit were religious, focusing mostly on Hindu, but there were some excellent examples of Buddhist sculptures as well.

Our next stop was Valluvar Kottam, a memorial to the Tamil Poet/Saint Thiruvalluvar. I am currently doing more research on this individual, and will post more as I find out more. In essence his collected works are called the Thrukkural, which loosely translated means Sacred Couplets. The poem consists of 1333 stanza’s broken into 133 chapters, all dealing with the philosophy of how to live one’s life. I have found one article which gives a much better overview then I can here. The memorial itself consists of an Auditorium, which has a walkway around it’s perimeter containing the entire volume of the Thrukkural carved into wall mounted plaques. This walkway also contains innumerable paintings which provide artistic representation of various couplets from the poem. Unfortunately the lighting was not adequate for capturing these paintings, as flash was required, and they were placed behind glass. The other major feature of the memorial is a sculpture of a temple chariot which stands over 37 meters tall, and depicts a life-sized statue of Thiruvalluvar.

Geetha pointed out that the walkway itself is probably the most “secluded” place that young Indian couples can visit… which held true, as this was perhaps the first place where I saw public displays of affection between young couples. It was really cute, oh the things we take for granted in the West! :-)

After our visit to the memorial, we decided to use the rest of our time in the hired car to do a driving tour of the city… Unfortunately, this never happened, as Geetha wanted to stop into a shop to check the pricing of the wall hanging I mentioned way back in the first paragraph of this entry! Well, we were in this shop for well over an hour, and in that time never had a chance to look at the wall hangings! We wound up spending our entire time in the shop looking at Kashmiri Wool Carpets… All of which were pulled from the walls and rolled out onto the floor for our review. We finally picked one and have yet to decide if we will purchase it. I have to admit, I almost walked out of that shop the proud owner of a carpet! If anyone out there reading this has any insight on Kashmir Carpets, or Oriental Carpets in general, please drop us a line so we can ask some questions regarding the pricing/quality! Gorgeous Carpet…

Well late as usual we returned to the hotel with just enough time for us to get ready… time to meet the parents!!! I won’t dwell, but I will say the Geetha’s parents were amazingly gracious, warm and welcoming. We struggled a bit with the language barrier, but even that eroded once we all relaxed a bit. So all is well and moving forward. PHEW. We had a great dinner at Peshawri, a Northwest Indian style restaurant. I ate my entire meal with my fingers and stumble through a few mispronounced words of Tamil, and everyone was happy… Enough said, all is good! (I’d love to say more, but I’m afraid I’d embarrass my very charming Saali, Usha! ;-) )

Well that’s it for today. You’ll notice I’ve added “captions” to the photo album, and be forewarned this one has a lot of images, and I’ve not tested the download times, it may take forever over dialup.

Slept for about 5 hours, and couldn’t anymore so got an early start on the day. Took a stroll around the hotel, pretty swank, not quite the Taj in Calcutta, but very nice. The staff here is amazingly gracious, but a bit more distant then at the Taj. Had a great South Indian breakfast consisting of Idlies, Vada, Aloo Paratha, and some various rice/potato mixtures which I do not know the name for. After breakfast I visited the shopping lobby of the Hotel, where I had an interesting conversation regarding my upcoming nuptials. :-) I think my favorite lines from the conversations were: “You mean Black and White? You like black?” and his explanation to me that, “Indian woman are tough, it is not like the West, you cannot see other women when married to Indian woman…” I can only imagine what the general perception of the West is for Indians having never left their home! :-)

Geetha met me at the Chola around noontime for a fairly lazy day, I unfortunately could not get out of my own tracks. Eventually we hired a car: a nice old Tata Ambassador with a somewhat humorless driver and headed out. (Note: relatively comfortable car and driver, 8 hours: $25) Our mission didn’t really have any focus beyond getting me off my butt, and doing something so the day wouldn’t be wasted. Before we left we visited the Hall at the Chola where the reception is going to be held. Seems quite large, but then again I’m told there will be over 100 people attending.

After leaving the Chola we went to another hotel, I think it was called the Kanchi. This is where the actual wedding ceremony will be held. It was interesting, and in retrospect it will be just fine, it will be an adventure to say the least. My understanding is that Geetha and her parents will be staying there the day before the ceremony to get things all squared away, then after the ceremony they will transfer everything to the Chola for the reception. I think all this effort is taking place out of concern for my comfort, which is greatly appreciated, but I wish they had made it easier on themselves…

Our next adventure was a trip to the Spencer Mall, which I belive is the largest shopping center in Chennai. The shops were busy, and ran the gamut of a watch store specializing in Rolex and Cartier, to “Trouser World” where you could buy a pair of pants for less then $3. Geetha kept assuring me that it wasn’t really all that crowded, but it seemed that way to me. I am told that there were some not so nice passing comments about Geetha and I being together at the mall. I was blissfully ignorant, until Geetha told me… and well… I was pissed… but I chalk most of my attitude up to being over-tired. These people lead a hard life, and if they can gain some self-elevation by disrespecting others, well I guess my sympathies are with them. We eventually bought a couple of books in Thamil to use as learning aids as I continue to struggle with this language.

No pictures today, which is too bad, saw a lot of interesting stuff. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that wall outlets have their own switches here, and that the switch is ON in the down position… The camera sat charging all night, in an outlet that was turned off… oops… That’s all rectified, so I should have more pictures for the entry on the 16th.