The wedding we went to in Delhi

So, we got all suited up for the wedding last Wednesday for Joel's co-worker Suchitra.

Here is Joel in his Kirta.

My Saree... BEFORE the Jewelry. OOPS.

It didn't fall off, so that was good. Pins are a good thing. For two people who hardly knew what we were doing, we did OK. Joel did a very nice job.

Below is the outdoor venue shots. The weather was nice... Well, if you are Minnesotan I guess. Many folks there were a bit cool.

Here is the stage area that the ceremonies and some events would occur.

Here's the dance floor. PROOF that they sell parka's here in India. :)

HERE is a picture of my Indian Boyfriend and his friends. He's the one on the left.

He was quite the well spoken gentleman. SO polite and formal. He spoke and understood English VERY well. We had many a good chat.

He competed quite heavily for my time from Joel. He introduced me to his Mom, aunt and a bunch of his family.

He clinched the deal when he asked me to dance though.

So, I'll be back in a few years. :)

Sorry Joel. What's a girl to do!

He's there... behind me...

Here are some of Joel's Co-workers.

Here are some other of his co-workers. :) The boys!

The groom arrived at about 10:30PM or so on horseback. Much music by a brass band and fire works celebrated his entrance for a good 15 minutes plus.

A while later he made his way to the stage where things that I didn't fully understand happened. One of the ceremonies where various people... I think from his families and the holy person who married them, circled candles around the groom. It was cool. I wish I knew why, but I thought it was cool.

Joel with some dudes who asked if they could take their picture with them.

No, the groom ISN'T trying to escape by flying away.

A young lady chatted me up as well. I'll probably butcher her name if I put it in, so, I wont.

Suchitra came to join the groom for pictures and things on stage that we couldn't see due to the crowd.

Sadly, they never stopped the music to focus on the happenings with the bride and groom. It was kind of sad. We had a good time chatting with everyone and hanging out, but sort of felt like we missed the meat of the sandwich so to speak.

The bride and groom came from the stage and headed to the dance floor for a bit of dancing and also for the guests to greet them and take pictures.

A more full shot of Suchitra's outfit

Here they are with the Genpact crew.

We stayed till about 1:30AM. The vows were scheduled for them which would have been really great to stay for... but it was 1:30AM!!

We got a sneak peak at the bride before she was fully ready.... Not sure this was OK REALLY as far as tradition goes, but none the less, it was good to see her and the only time that night were were able to say hello.

It was a great time!

I'm really glad we were able to stay to attend.

Art... Named in honor of Jim S.

Judy here again.

This was our temporary visiting Gecko... His name is Art. :-)
(I came up with it, you can blame me for the bad humor... but what else do you name a lizard?

Quite a dashing little fellow don't you think.

I think I am at fault for letting Mr. Gecko in one night when I had a deck door open to listen to the outside music at a festival in our court yard.

We tried to get him to leave at first but he went the wrong way from the den to the living room IN to the air conditioning vent. The next day we found him back where he started. That night I opened the door to go on the deck and I don't know if he was near the door when I did that, or if that cued him where to go... Joel found him by the door a while later. SO, we coaxed him... OK, JOEL coaxed him out. I cheer leaded!

Look at those little finger nails man!

Good bye Mr. Gecko... May your travels be safe. Though our time together was short, we grew to love you Art.

Tid bits.

From Judy again.

Genpact had an Ingenix billion dollar celebration. Joel's not here to give me better explanation. But things are going very good obviously!

Joel didn't seem to get shots of people AFTER the festivities started... We were all busy festiving and stuff.

But here is his cafeteria where the event was held. YES, we were there early... Wait, actually we really weren't that early. :) Folks did show up for the fun.

You know it is not an AMERICAN cafeteria when...

There is ONE vending machine. Blurry but there.

We... the crew at his work went out to celebrate by seeing Om Shanti Om, a Hindi movie at the City Centre movie theater. It was in Hindi mostly. But an active enough plot that it was figure- outable and fun.

As we were waiting for Manoj, our driver, we... OK, Joel, saw a little mouse hanging out on the ground beside us.

We were at one of our grocery store today and walked through an aisle and heard a weird movement beside us... His mouse relative jumped one shelf down to 2-3 below it. Yup... not in America.

Here we are at subway...

The sign on top of the trash tells us that this is where we can put our unused condiments packages.

DUDE!! Where's MY cow!

Shiny happy cows EVERYWHERE!

I LOVE this country!

I'm already having postpartum syndrome and I haven't left the cows yet.

If you look at the folks beneath the tree...

A local barber shop. Joel or I haven't been brave enough to try that yet. It would be cool though.

The challenges of cutting hair in the wind.

People in this country look PRETTY GOOD so perhaps they get special above and beyond the usual training. :)

2 additions to the last blog entry

I was a bit tired and not fully thinking straight so I didn't explain well that we live in Haryana. Haryana is the state and Gurgaon is the city. Haryana borders Delhi. The earthquake epicenter was on the border of Delhi and Haryana and we are... well, I'm not sure, but as the crow flies probably between 1-2 miles from the border.

(The poor crow.. So much responsibility to fly so straight!)

And the dude and chic coming out of the bathroom. OK, I do NOT believe they were up to nefarious doings... There is no place out side the door and they were saving time and space... that's all I'm saying.

And, though it says this is posted by Joel... It is actually Judy

Hows about THESE apples??

World News
Minor earthquake rattles New Delhi; no reports of injuries, damage

Print article

Refer to a friend © AP
2007-11-26 00:48:17 -
NEW DELHI (AP) - A minor earthquake rattled India's capital early Monday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.An official with the Indian Meteorological Department, which monitors earthquakes, said the 4.3-magnitude quake was only felt in New Delhi and the surrounding areas. It struck about 4:43 a.m.

n earthquake measuring 4.3 hit the Indian capital and its surrounding areas at dawn on Monday, shaking high-rise buildings, the weather office and Reuters witnesses said.
The epicenter of the tremor, felt at 2313 GMT, was near the border of New Delhi and the neighboring state of Haryana, which surrounds the capital on its north, west and south.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the tremor was "somewhere around the 4.0 range".
One local TV channel said there were some cracks in buildings near the epicenter but the report could not be independently confirmed.

YES, yes it did!!!
We live in Haryana by the way.

That was fun. I WAS going to go to bed... though a bit late... NOT so much at the moment!!

Few days left and yet EACH day I'm thrown by something new. The other day it was a guy and a girl walking out together from a unisex restroom at a restaurant, today, an earthquake.

OK, we can stop now!! :)

Peace and stability to you all!
Judy... and Joel too


Magnitude
4.6
Date-Time
Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 23:12:17 UTC
Monday, November 26, 2007 at 04:42:17 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
28.677°N, 77.204°E
Depth
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region
HARYANA-DELHI-UTTAR PRADESH REG., INDIA
Distances
NEAR NEW DELHI, Delhi, IndiaNEAR Delhi, Delhi, India60 km (35 miles) SW of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India120 km (75 miles) NW of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 17.8 km (11.1 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters
Nst= 13, Nph= 13, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.94 sec, Gp=173°,M-type=body magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID
us2007kdb6

Hey - a Post from Joel... Sort of.... (Fashion Show)

Well, it is a post from Joel, insofar as I'm the one writing it, but, and with no ill-intent, the post is all about Judy. I'm finding that hillarious, but it is pretty late, and I've had a little too much sugar of just recently.

I'm still alive, and starting to absolutely freak out that in 14 days or less I will have to do my own dishes again, but other than that silliness, I am doing quite well. Looking forward to Thanksgiving, but sad that there is no turkey in my immediate future. T'will be fun to be out and about on Thursday and Friday with no places either closed, and/or no day after Thanksgiving craziness. It would be fun to see someone pick up on that over here and have massive sales or something really early in the morning, when absolutely NO ONE would be out...

Anyways - Below follows a Judy Fashion Show with some of the clothes that she has been diligently travelling to and from the tailor to get made while she is here. There have been some requests to see what she was buying, and this would be some of those. Sorry about the quality of the pictures - we wanted to put out an idea of what she is buying and finding, but were slightly rushed.

Peace Ya'll - See you soon!

Another India fascination

So, if you listen to popular radio here, you will find that the word "gun" and the word "Butt" are silenced out in songs like "hip hop police" and what ever song the big bad B word was in. However the OTHER big bad B word. the one meaning female puppies and the F word... the one that means - to meddle (usually followed. by around or with). Those 2 are PERFECTLY fine! One song uses the F word quite liberally. Then BUTT comes on and there like. OH, can't handle that one. Would be interesting to understand the mind set of standards. What they see words as meaning, and what meaning that meaning carries as to what is not respectable, etc. But them, when in the U.S. if we swear in another language, that is usually left alone and not edited. So, I guess it is the weight it carries. We are probably devastating some nice foreigners visiting the US.

OH YA! The A word that Jesus says is ALSO OK here... Kinda like it is in the U.S.

We did learn that the word "rascal" is NOT acceptable here. That used will get you in a fist fight. Seems to be worse then a harshly used effinheimer at home. We were at a party and a Indian lady called an Indian man a rascal and we had people holding arms for punch throwing.

Gotta wonder how the movie The Little Rascals did in the theaters here. Probably NOT attended well or by kids. That was probably the movie kids SNUCK in with out their parents knowing being all rebellious and stuff.

Crossing cultures is fun.