Tady goes to the time of the dinosaurs

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One day, Tady was sitting with her mom on the front porch. Just then, the magic eagle flew by. Boom. She went up and up and into something that looked like space. It was twirling around and around Tady. Then the spinning slowed down. It was the time of the dinosaurs! Tady was frightened. She saw the king of the dinosaurs, the T-Rex. It was heading her way. Tady did not know what to do. Then Tady had an idea. She knew that T-Rex’s were big but slow and humans are small but fast. Tady just thought she could do it, but she was quite sure. She ran through a forest of brown legs. She managed to get through. But now, a whole herd of dinosaurs! They were so pretty. But how would she get past something as big as this? Then she had an idea. She saw a Troodon, a friendly dinosaur. Tady crept behind the Troodon and if she was in an enchanted forest. When she got through she saw a beautiful lake. She tasted it and it tasted like rich caramel and melted marshmallows.

Dictated:

She jumped in and it felt so nice! She wanted to stay there forever. Then she saw her mother down in the lake too. Then since they got together it was a magic moment and the magic eagle flew by. She went flying up and this time went whirling down into her house again.

The End

final pictures

steam train, roof repair, custard apple aka "sitafel", horn okay please

Highlights

Here are Josh and Yona's highlights.
1) Being on the shockingly beautiful Kanolla/Kannur beach in Kerala, watching dolphins, swimming in the warm water, nice ocean breezes, beach combing and finding grandma toenails, canoeing in the mangrove swamp and watching/hearing all the birds, and watching the sunset over the ocean every night.
2) All the great fresh fish available in S. India, which Yona liked to eat with her hands. Josh liked Trishna Restaurant in Bombay a lot and we both enjoyed the grilled fish tikka masala. For that matter, all the delicous food like sweet lassis, falooda (tapioca and icecream concoction), coconut water, as well as new main courses we had not had before.
3) Visiting the elephants at the Dubare Elephant Camp. A little touristy, but we got to feel the whiskers that pass for fur. Also, there was a baby elephant who liked to wrestle/shove/play with the teenage and adult elephants.
4) Riding the rails of India. We did a few night trains, which were shockingly comfortable when we were in 2 tier AC. The Blue Mountain Steam train up to the hill town of Ooty was cute (small, lots of windows and doors) and offered stunning views. We stopped often to top off the water and monkeys used the opportunity to visit us and beg handouts.
5) Being hosted and/or made to feel at home by so many people including Priya, Raghu, et al; Leela; Namhita,Vishal, Amita, Ashish, Saachi, et al. This includes the nice tour we got of Blue Mountain Montessori by Amukta and being invited to a wedding by Akshay. And recieving blessings for our baby from everyone from taxi drivers to stangers.
6) Having locals explain concepts that were foreign to us, like Jain philosophy (while sitting on a Jain priest's bed having snacks with some crazy planet-of-the-apes-like-hindi tale on the tv in the background).
7) A wonderful walking tour (in Chennai) and a fun village trek to a cave temple with a stop at a farm house for an impromtu dance party and a warm greeting by every child we passed (even though almost all of them mistakenly said bye bye instead of hello).
8) Seeing the millions of stars (not quite of the southern hemisphere, but close) shining brightly in the Osian desert on the roof of a camel man.
9) The relaxing stay and interesting plantation tour at rainforest retreat in Kodagu where saw vanilla beans, cadamom, tea and coffee, pineapples - all grown in an organic, sustainable method. It was especially cool that the owners are scientists who could tell us about the geology/biodiversity of the area including the wasps that pick up caterpillers, paralyze the them, stuff them in a hole, lay eggs in there and close up the hole. And the frogs and orchids too...
10) Seeing (and trying when safe) all the fresh fruits and vegetables including custard apples, nungu, mangosteen, chickoo, passion fruit, water pumpkin, drumsticks, amla, fresh barley, something called water chestnuts that were not really water chestnuts. The markets, especially devaraja market in mysore, were really cool. And all the boiling vats of milk and other products were fun.
11) The astrological observatory of jantar mantar in Jaipur. That emperor dude was serious about horoscopes!
12) Some other random highlights: helping repair the thatch roof of a traditional house during a home stay south of Jodhpur, the cultural activities and food meditation at The Attic in Delhi, flying first class and using the lounges (where we are this moment).

More pictures and maybe final thoughts to follow.

just a few little things

we're on our way back now, at the amsterdam first class lounge which is very very nice. yet another reason to fly first class, thank you patti and wayne. yesterday in mumbai we went on a walking tour and went to crawford market and did other stuff too. at a supermarket thing i saw a bottle of soda that was masala flavored. masala means "spice'' pretty much. so i thought that was funny. also the other night we were talking to some mumbai-ans and they were interesting - when they äsked us where we're from and we told them america, one of them shouted '"nelson mandela!"" and we asked them if they work together or how they are friends, and one of them told us he's a vegetarian but the others are not. he said veg, nonveg. that's what a lot of restaurants say. they call themselves veg or nonveg or both. also when a place calls themselves a hotel, it often means it's a restaurant. and there's often an a/c section and a non a/c section, and it costs a few rupees more to eat in the a/c section. but it's often worth it.

oh, also at the supermarket we saw a lot of tea for sale that came with a free/included bottle of ketchup. weird.

made snana, hindi stories

we're in mumbai and we're leaving tomorrow. trying right now to upload
pictures. i saw a truck the other day that said on the back: "horn
please okay". i liked that.

so one thing i wanted to write about was "made snana." in mysore we
saw a lot of stuff about this in the newspaper. i've been really
interested in caste stuff and this goes along with it. apparently
there's been a very old tradition of lower caste people who roll
around naked in the unfinished food of upper caste people. and there's
discussion of a ban or a prohibition of some sort, that this should
stop. there were photos in the paper of people rolling in the food. i
might have it totally wrong, but this is my understanding of what's
being discussed.

another thing interesting is about cultural hindi stories. there are
something like 613 million hindu gods. and there are stories and
stories about them, and they have personalities and long drawn out
details about them. and this is like a standard set of stories that
are written about and told to children, and they instill morals and
ethics and Good Advice about How to Live. this is really cool. we
don't have anything like that. i mean i guess there's shakespeare, and
fairy tales like the three little pigs. but we don't have a set of
moral stories like that. we should, i think! i think that's really a
good thing.

we went to a cool weaving loom place yesterday that was cooperative
and i liked seeing that a lot. it was interesting to see both men and
women working the looms - usually it seems like certain jobs are all
men or all women. something else we see sometimes is at construction
sites - it's both men and women carrying the bricks. on their heads.
really. when people carry something on their head, they put on a
padded doughnut thing on their heads, and then the heavy thing. often
the heavy thing is a bowl or basket of bricks.

okay i'm gonna sign off for now. more later today or tomorrow.

more photos - funnel web spider, making batik, 11 am dance party

more photos - pineapple growing, mosquito zapper under our mosquito net

photos! bathing an elephant, beachcombing

photos!

Kerala Beach Wonderland Looms Large

We are in the southern state of Kerala and it is beautiful and super friendly. We were walking on a country road yesterday and someone pulled over, hands appeared out the window, hands were shaken, and the car drove off. Also, people have thanked us for visiting and everyone wants to know our good name and where we are from. So welcoming.

We stayed a few days at the Kerala/Kanala Beach House and it was so relaxing. A perfect antidote for the honking and pollution that goes with much of India. We stayed at a beachfront cottage and looked out over swaying coconut palms onto the breaking waves.

If you sat on the rocks in the morning you could see dolphins swimming by maybe 50-100 yards away and we now have one suitcase just devoted to shells. My plan is to tip the airline personnel to ensure that they never arrive in the US.

We spent one evening canoeing in a mangrove river. Soooo many birds to see and hear. We ate seafood for two meals a day and just lazed around and maybe swam a little.

We leave for mumbai tomorrow so we left the beach house for a place closer to the train.

Breakfast and dinner (lunch optional) were all included and since the beach was free, it was nice not worrying about money for a few days. It also has a nice mini spontaneous community because the 5 or 10 of us who are there at a time eat together and see one another on the beach, etc.

On the way out we stopped at a weaving cooperative. (Not only was it a cooperative, but Kerala State has a communist government to boot and there are hammer and sickles everywhere to show it) (But really they are pink and not red because they believe in private property and free enterprise.)

The looms looked like they were from the industrial revolution, huge heavy dark wood contraptions with lots of fast moving parts. All hand (foot powered). Whoosh click, whoosh click, click click click, they went as the men and women shot pieces of fabric up and down, back and forth.

Pictures will come once we get a better internet connection.