Seen on the Street

This little girl is standing near a public tap, waiting to fill the jugs with water. I presume she is just holding the jugs and another family member will fill them since she is too small to carry them when they are full. This sturdy, plastic jug design can be seen all over India for carrying water from whatever source is available to a family's home. I don't know what fraction of Bangalore's citizens have water piped to their homes. In the high end apartment complex where we live there is always water available at the tap. It is not really safe to drink so we have a purifying unit which uses a combination of filters and ultraviolet light kill any harmful organisms in the water. During a drought last fall the city was not able to supply water to the apartment complex and the management arranged to buy, trucked in water. We were all asked to wash cars only on alternate days and minimize watering of plants.

Meanwhile many of Bangalore's resident depend on public taps and plastic jugs. These boys are transporting water home on their bicycle. When I saw them going the opposite direction the boy in the plaid shirt was leaning forward and peddling while the other boy sat on the seat. The jugs were hanging off the seat behind them. In areas where homes do not have piped water public taps are placed along main roads every few hundred meters so people don't have too far to go for water.
This picture was taken on a fairly busy street near the Cantonment Railway station. In previous blogs I have shown workman building iron bars for windows and repairing bicycles on the sidewalk. This entrepreneur is one step further into public space using the side of the street.
This picture is pretty hard to see, I took it from a moving "auto". Auto is Indian slang for one of these three wheeled autorickshaws. If you closely you will see that two autos are connected by a foot in a white tennis shoe. The driver of the one in the rear is actually pushing the one in the front which apparently has some kind of mechanical problem. I have actually seen auto rickshaws being pushed like this several times before but was never quick enough with my camera phone before. These are actually quite light and you often see a driver pushing it into or out of a parking place. If he has to backup, the driver also pushes it since autos not have a reverse gear. Backing up is rarely needed since the front wheel can be turned until it is perpendicular to the body, giving the vehicle a turning radius less than its length.

I took this picture because it is almost unheard of in Bangalore for anyone other than the driver of a "two wheeler" to wear a helmet. It is a legal requirement to wear a helmet if you are driving a motorcycle or motor scooter. If you click on the picture to get a larger version you can see that there are actually parts of 5 two wheelers in the picture. The one in the center, carrying about I assume is a father taking his son to school is the anomaly because both are wearing a helmet. On the left two men are riding without wearing helmets although there is a helmet on the handle bars which the driver can put on if required. In front of the father/son pair are two motorcycles each with a single rider. One is and one is not wearing a helmet. Finally, following the bus on the crossing street is a scooter with man driving (wearing a helmet) and women riding behind him without a helmet. Although it's hard to tell from the picture, the woman is wearing a sari and sitting side saddle.

The two boys stopped to talk to me because they saw me standing by my bicycle and looking at the map; trying to figure out where I was. I snapped their picture as we were both riding away from that spot.

Rock Cut Temples of Ajanta

We arrived in Arangabad for our visit the world heritage sites of Ellora and Ajanta early in the morning after a very short night's sleep near the Mumbai airport. So after hiring a car and driver we stopped at a road side stand for some coffee. In India coffee is generally made with milk, not water. So here you see a pot of milk simmering on a wood fired stove. The mechanical thing down amongst the fire wood is a hand cranked fan to keep the fire hot. To make cup of coffee the vendor scoops out some hot milk with a large, metal cup, adds some ground coffee then filters the coffee into a glass.


The Ajanta "caves" are actually temples and monasteries carved into the face of a solid rock cliff. The caves are quite dark and in many of them flash photography is prohibited. So while the pink and green tones of this picture are not entirely accurate the picture conveys the dark, other worldly feeling of the interior of the caves. The caves at this site are all Buddhist and so there are a great many statues and paintings of the Buddha. This Buddha has his hands in the "teaching" position, a very common occurrence in the caves. In the next statue the Buddha is surrounded by other figures. In such scenes the other figures are always much smaller than the Buddha indicating their relative importance. The tightly curled hair and large ears on the Buddha are also indications of his importance--or so the guide told us.
As you look at these statues keep in mind that these are not pieces of stoned carved and then set in place. The entire room is carved into solid rock. So the excavators had to plan for where statues, pillars, etc. were going to be and leave stone in place to carve whatever is going there.

This picture shows an unfinished cave. Rooms were carved from the top down. You can see in this picture a large area which is higher than the floor, left so that workers could stand on it to work on the ceiling. There are a number of unfinished caves at both Ajanta and nearby Ellora. Each cave was supported by a king, and if he died or needed to shift his resources to fighting some other king before the project was finished, it might never be finished.

As this view shows, caves are arranged in a line along the cliff face of a horseshoe-shaped mountain ridge, with the Waghora River bed at its base. There was water nearby necessary for survival, and the secluded, hidden location was ideal for the monk's work and study. This shows only the center section of the string of caves. There are 27 caves in total. While most of the caves were carved between 200A.D. and 500A.D., their location within this interior semicircle prevented their discovery by outsiders until around 1820, when an Englishman out tiger hunting realized that the bit of the red and yellow he'd spotted was actually paint seen through a doorway, almost hidden by bushes.
In modern times some of the walkways and stairs have been reinforced or extended with concrete. Originally access was by stairs cut into the rock and flat areas in front of the entrances was created by cutting back the face of the cliff before carving the rooms into the interior of the hill.


Ajanta caves are actually most renowned for their paintings. It is said that the paintings and carvings were all done without any artificial lighting. They were worked on when the sunlight was from the right direction to penetrate the cave openings. This was aided with the use of metallic mirrors that were aimed to shine light in through the windows. Since there is no sign of accumulated soot from lamps or candles, I think this must be true. It's difficult to get good pictures in the caves with the best preserved paintings, because flash photography is not allowed. Most of the paintings depict scenes from the Buddha's life. As you can see here, scenes and figures are packed together and in many caves cover all of the walls and the ceiling.
The next two pictures were taken in a cave where flash photos are allowed and restoration work is in progress. The one on the left is a small part of one wall. There are 500 paintings of the Buddha on this wall and 500 on the opposite wall, commemorating a miracle in which the Buddha appeared as a 1000 images of himself at once. The second image is from the ceiling of the same cave.



And while were talking about painting I have added this picture of the floor of a cave. These holes were used for mixing paints back when the caves were initially cut and painted. Paints were made from ochre, lime, lamp black and lapis lazuli.

This is one of the older caves at Ajanta. It was cut before the time when Buddhists began to think of the Buddha as divine and to make images of him. The center piece of this temple is a "stupa" (burial mound). When the Buddha died, his body was cremated and the ashes were distributed to eight stupas in various places in India. Over time more stupas were built and used as a focal point for worship. The brown posts in this photo are about a meter high and rope off the area were tourists are allowed to walk. Notice the ceiling has "rafters" carved out of the rock as the room was cut. They of course have no structural purpose but make the room look more like a building built from pieces of stone rather than cut out of solid rock. This cave is quite well lit because of a large door and a large semicircular window above it.

Many of these caves were living quarters for monks. They had a large central room and small cells around the sides. Here you can see me inside a one of the cells which varied in size from about 2 by 3 meters to 4 by 4 meters. Two even had a stone bed "built in", complete with a stone pillow.

On our way out of the caves I took this picture of a woman, also on her way back to the bus parking lot. To reduce pollution all private vehicles must park a few kilometers away from the caves. An electric bus takes you to a spot near the caves from which it is a moderately steep half kilometer hike to the caves. If you prefer to ride, for a fee, four men will carry you in one of these chairs to and from the caves. Once the rider is comfortably seated they lift the poles up to their shoulders and take off at a brisk trot.

Camel Safari

Planes, trains and automobiles are all more comfortable ways to travel around India than riding a camel. But then we didn’t ride the camels to get anywhere; just for the experience. For the record Donna says she was pretty comfortable sitting on the camel. My first problem was that the stirrups were too narrow for my shoes. When I got my shoes stuffed into the stirrups they pinched my feet. After I took my shoes off my feet were more comfortable but I still felt squeezed between the saddle in the back and the camel’s hump in the front. All the time we rode them the camels were walking with a gait and a feel very much like a horse, except that a camel has a much longer stride and takes fewer steps per minute.

Camels kneel down to let a person get on their back, then stand up. In fact it has callused pads on its knees and its chest where it rests on the ground. Here is Donna's camel getting up with Donna on it's back. We were the only paying guests on the safari, which also included 4 crew members and 3 camels. Donna & I each rode a camel and each of these camels had a handler. Most of the time the handler rode on the camel cart and loosely held the camel’s reins. The camels knew the program and mostly followed the cart anyway. Also riding on the cart was the driver and the guide. The cart carried a tent, folding table, cook stoves, gas cylinder, food, bedding, etc. So the one camel pulling that had a much harder job than the two we were riding. Donna asked if they switched the camels around but apparently the camels are specialists. The camels and their handlers are also paired long term, just like elephants and their mahouts.

We met our camels and crew in small village south of Bikaner. This is the view as we head out from the village on the road to the desert. We were there in the dry season and the land was mostly empty of people. Later in the year , during the monsoons, people will return to the empty huts to raise muskmelons and other crops.

Here's a view of the land a little further out. Out here there really isn't a road, although in places you could see we were following a track where other camel carts had gone before us. We rode for a couple of hours then stopped for some lunch at a spot where several small trees offered some shade. A camel travels about 6 km/hr so by then we were out of sight of any signs of civilization. They unsaddled the camels who immediately rolled in the sand.



The crew brought along two gas cook stoves. They made chapatis (flat bread) on one and heated rice and vegetables in sauce on the other. They also sliced some fresh vegetables and had a variety of cold drinks in a cooler. It was hot in the mid-day sun so we all took a break after lunch.

While we were resting we couple of shepherds came through driving a herd of sheep and goats.
Here you can see the white sheep and black goats spread out over the land eating whatever green they can find. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you see that the dot in the upper right is one of the shepherds. As they went by we noticed that the second shepherd was carrying a tool with looked like a small hatchet with a four foot handle. Later in the afternoon we passed him standing in a tree using that tool to chop the high branches out of the tree. He was throwing them to the ground where some of his flock was happily eating the leaves.

In the middle of the afternoon we started off again and traveled another couple of hours to a campsite where there was a concrete building and a couple of huts built of sticks and thatched with straw. The concrete building was used to store equipment like a dining table. The huts seemed to be of use only to the birds who had built nests inside and liked to sit up on the roof.

The camel handlers rode home on the two camels we had ridden, leaving the third camel to bring the remaining four people and all the gear back in the camel cart. Here he is eating his dinner. I have boosted the contrast a little so you can see the patterns cut into his fur. These serve as identifying marks so the owner can always identify him.

Donna and I went over a small rise to watch the sunset over the desert. When we came back these two musicians were waiting for us.


The one on the left played the double flute on some songs and the harmonium on others. He plays the melody on the right hand flute by covering and uncovering various holes. On the other flute he plays a single note. The box in front of him is a harmonium which is not an instrument native to India but is now widely used, especially in north India. It is similar to an accordion with a keyboard and a bellows to pump air through reeds to make the sound. The bellow comprises the whole side facing away from him, which hinges at the bottom. While playing he used his right hand to work the bellows and his left hand to play the keyboard.

Although you cannot see anything on this video you can hear what they sounded like. After the concert the musicians walked off into the darkness so civilization can't have been too far away. But is was far enough away you could not see any buildings or road. You could not hear it either although after it was dark you could see the glow of lights over the horizon.
The crew pitched a white, 2-person tent for us and put a thick pad on the floor of the tent for us to sleep on. I slept pretty well but Donna found that the noise of the wind flapping the tent kept her awake. She considered moving outside but noticed that the crew was also sleeping up off the ground and decided that might be necessary to avoid unwanted critters sharing your bed.
In the morning we headed back to village where we started.

I actually took this picture of a youth heading out into the desert with his camel cart the previous morning. But it seems a fitting way to end this post. A reminder that there are still many different people in this world and for some the rhythm of daily life is very different from that of an urban office worker like me.

16th Century Astronomy & Astrology

Jantar Mantar means “Instrument for Calculation”. Jai Singh, founder of Jaipur built five sites, each with multiple instruments for astronomical observation. We visited the one in Jaipur which is quite well perversed including the world’s largest sundial, shown here. The edge of the inclined ramp casts a shadow either to the east or the west depending on the time of day. The slope is carefully constructed to be parallel to the earth’s axis of rotation. Jaipur is at 27 degrees north latitude so the angle to the ground is also 27 degrees.


The basic principle of operation is more easily seen in the second picture of the “small” (prototype sundial which was built first and) which is 1/10 the size of the big one. The shadow of the long ramp falls on the inside of the cylindrical dial (being examined by the tourists in the second picture). The cylinder is split in two and spread apart so that each edge of the ramp is exactly at the center of the corresponding quarter cylinder. The cylinder of the large sundial has marks representing 2 second time intervals. The graduations are carved in white marble and so are still quite sharp. The smaller sundial is only marked with 20 second time intervals. It was overcast and drizzling when we visited so we could not see the operation of the sundial. The sun subtends an angle of about half a degree which corresponds to about 2 minutes of time at the earth rate of rotation. So it seems that it would be difficult to read the sundial to even 20 seconds of resolution, let alone 2 seconds.


There is a second instrument near the "small" sundial which consists of two flat, circular surfaces perpendicular to the earth’s axis, one facing north, the other south. By observing which face is illuminated by the sun you can tell whether the sun is north or south of the equator. There is a post in the center of each face and marks by which you can also tell the time, albeit much less precisely than with the large sundials.

This instrument is designed to measure the position in the sky of the sun at anytime of the day. It consists of small hole in a disk suspended by wires over a hemispherical dish. This picture shows only half of the instrument. The other half, which is located nearby, completes the hemisphere because sections which are missing in this part are present in that one and vice-aversa. The reason strips are missing is to allow an observer to get close enough to the inside surface of the hemisphere to read the location of the spot at the center of the disk. The sundials also have marks on the edges of the ramps so an observer could in principle make the measurement of the sun’s declination using those marks. But this instrument is marked with two sets of spherical coordinates, one centered about the vertical and another centered a line parallel to the earth’s polar axis, eliminating tedious calculations. When discussing this instrument, the guide explained that Indian astrology is much more precise than western astronomy. This is because it accounts for not only your zodiac sign but position in the sky of the sun at the time of your birth.

There is a second two part instrument which appears to allow the same measurements. Is consists of two large, vertical cylinders with poles in the center. The walls and floor of the cylinders is marked with radial divisions and vertical divisions so the altitude and azimuth of the sun can be read from it’s shadow.



There is also an instrument dedicated to observations related each zodiacal constellation. They appear to be similar to the large sundials and each has a ramp with a different slope and is pointed in a different azimuthal direction. The guide explained that each points at a different elevation because of the different positions of the zodiacal constellations relative to the equator. However she did not know why they are aligned in different azimuthal directions or exactly how they were used.

Kids traveling in Bangalore

These three pictures were taken on the roads of Bangalore this week. Many kids travel on a motor scooter like these three girls on their way to school. That head in front of the father belongs to the smallest girl and she is standing in front of her father between his legs. This is the safest place for a kid on a scooter because the driver's arms and legs provide some protection against accidentally falling off. You can tell these girls are going to school because it is early morning and they are wearing their school uniforms. I took this picture while I was on my bicycle and both vehicles were in motion. They are passing me and I think the motion, has somewhat distorted the girls heads in the picture. This was the third time they passed me as we both picked our way through the traffic. The one in the middle smiled and waved at me each time.

This little girl appears to be asleep. Donna snapped this with the camera phone as we were sitting in an auto-rickshaw at a traffic light. The girl did not stir when the light changed and the scooter moved forward, nor when a car passed blaring its horn. It is the law in Bangalore that the driver of a "two wheeler" (scooter or motorcycle) must wear a helmet. The law does not apply to "riders" so you almost never see anyone but the driver wearing a helmet. And helmets on children is virtually unheard of.

This boy is riding on a bus. We were both stopped for a traffic light and I was trying to capture the sleepy expression he had on his face when I first pulled up next to him. But he became more attentive when I got out the camera.

Plane Tickets

I bought plane tickets online for a trip to see Ellora caves and attend the wedding of one of the IBM compact modelers. I thought pricing of tickets was worth a brief blog post. The screen shots below show two options for traveling from Indore to Bangalore via Mumbai. The first one offers a fare of 51 rupees (about $1) +tax per person. Even after you add the tax I would expect that to be cheaper than 2024 rupees +tax /person. However, when you click on the "Fare Summary" pop-up you see that the 51 rupee fare is 9500 rupees total for 2 people, while the 2024 fare is only 9466 rupees for two. (9500 rupees is about 200 dollars) I know that these prices typically include both a fuel surcharge, collected by the airline, and tax collected by the government. I have no idea how these amounts are calculated.



These screen captures are much clearer if you click on them to see the version with less compression applied.

Train Tickets in India

Donna and I have taken trains trips twice before in India. In each case someone else bought the tickets for us. On our last trip, which was partly by train and partly by plane, I used the IRCTC (India Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) online reservation system. Although I read the online tutorial, this still required searching the internet for answers to questions like "What does 'RAC 4' mean?". I found all the information I needed on a helpful discussion group about India.

The website asks for where you're leaving from and where you're going to, what date and what class of ticket. There are eight classes of ticket, although not every train has cars of all eight classes. There is first class AC (air conditioned). In the movie "The Darjeeling Limit" the brothers traveled first class(AC). There is also first class--which is not air conditioned, but this is disappearing. There is AC 2 tier and an AC 3 tier. We have described these in an earlier post. Sleeper class cars have the same layout as AC 3 tier, but no AC. Also the railroad doesn't provide any bedding, so you need to carry your own. There are also AC chair cars, which is what Donna and I took from Chennai to Vijayawada, a trip of about 450 km which took about 6.5 hours. The cars have rows of seats, two abreast on one side of the aisle and three on the other side. Seats are similar in size to coach class airline seats, but are spaced to give a little more leg room than that. They have a rack for luggage above the seats on either side. On some trains there is an executive chair class and finally, there is 2nd class sitting class.

After answering all the questions, the system will find all the trains on your route, on that day, with that class of car. You can select one and pull up the availabilty of that class ticket for the selected day and the next 6 days. It will have indications like "WL 7 / WL 2". There is a key at the bottom of the pop-up which tells you that WL=wait list and RAC=reservation against cancellation. So WL 7 means that there are 6 people on the wait list and you can buy a ticket and be number 7 on the wait list.

It doesn't explain why there are two designations for every train. It turns out the the first one is a running count ignoring any cancellations which have already occurred. Once you buy a ticket you will be WL 7 on that train and that number doesn't change. The second number accounts for any cancellation which have happened. Once you buy a ticket you can track your progress on the wait list (using the website or by phone). Hopefully it will go from "WL 7/ WL 2" to "WL 7/ WL 1" to "WL 7/ RAC 4" ... to "CNF". CNF means confirmed--you will get a set or a berth on a sleeper.

So what is RAC 4. "Reservation Against Cancellation" means you can get on the train, but you and someone else have both been assigned the same berth. So you can both sit on it but you can't lay down on it and sleep.

By the time I went to buy tickets (about a week before departure) there were no tickets with status "available" in any class on any of the trains from Bangalore to Chennai. So I actually bought two tickets. One in Sleeper Class with status "WL 2 / RAC 3" which meant I would definitely be able to get to Chennai. This ticket, for the 200 km trip, cost 176 rupees (about 4 dollars). You can cancel tickets up to 24 hours before the train starts its run with no charge. When I canceled the day of the trip I got 126 rupees refund. I also bought a ticket in AC2 (air conditioned with bunks stacked 2 high.) This level of luxury cost me 676 rupees (~$15) My ticket was "WL 7/ WL 3" which my friends assured me that it would be confirmed by train time and it did but not until the day of travel. My sleeper ticket became confirmed a day after I bought it.

My train started its run in Mysore and was schedule to stop at my station just before midnight. It was a little late so I had time to wander around the platform and snap these pictures.

My cell phone camera does not have a flash so the pictures are not that good. The first one is a close-up of the print-outs on a bulletin board. The second contains the names and car/seat assignments of everyone on the wait list/RAC list. They are arranged in order of the first number in our status when you first bought the ticket. I got to the station knowing my seat assignment because I checked the website before coming to the station. Otherwise you can find your seat using these boards.

The second picture shows the board which shows the order of the cars in the train. For example, I was in car A2, which was in position 9 (counting from the engine). These positions are marked on the platform and the train stops aligned to these marks, so you can wait for the train at the point where your car will stop.

Traffic Rule #3--Always Advance

I took these two pictures a minute or so apart on my way to work. In the first picture the sand truck and the auto rickshaw are simultaneously trying to navigate a tight corner in opposite directions. It is obvious from where I took the picture (sitting on my bicycle) that someone has to backup. However that does not stop the motorcycle coming toward me from squeezing between the truck and the white van as the truck is trying to back up.

And in the second picture it does not stop another motorcycle, now nose to nose with the auto from inserting himself into the congestion. They can't help themselves, they are impelled the third law of Bangalore traffic; always move forward if possible. Eventually the truck and the auto each backed up a bit, the motorcycle slipped between them, then the auto went around the truck on the other side. This allowed him to then proceed down the street toward me, using the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road. The truck was then able to make the turn and traffic proceed as normal.

As I have discussed before the laws of Bangalore traffic are
0th Law: The cow has the right of way.
1st Law: Don't hit anyone.
2nd Law: Don't put your vehicle were the laws of physics make a collision inevitable.
3rd Law: Always Advance.

Traffic Lanes

This road is has two lanes in each direction ... they're just not always the same width. It's OK because no one in Bangalore pays any attention to traffic lanes anyway.

Right of Way II

I took this picture while waiting to cross the Outer Ring road, the closest thing Bangalore has to an expressway. Obviously it's not an express way because traffic has to stop every kilometer or two for lights at intersections like this. But it has a service road running down either side and between intersections traffic sometimes reaches speeds of 80 kph(50mph). While I and the rest of the traffic were waiting for the light this lady and cow walked up the road from behind us (using the right side of the road since the left was full of waiting traffic and without any hesitation walked across the outer ring road. All traffic in both direction stopped and waited for them to cross, then resumed. The second picture is just a piece of the first one enlarged so you can see the woman and cow more clearly.

Shrinivas's Wedding

There is one less bachelor in the India compact modeling team, and Donna and I have now attended two Indian weddings. This wedding was in Pune, a city in the state of Maharashtra south- east of Mumbai. Here you see the bride and groom dressed and adorned for the ceremony.

Dave Harame, who is an IBM fellow and the "godfather" of the IBM operation in India of which I am a part, happened to be visiting India the week before and after the wedding, so I invited him to come with Donna and I to the wedding. Dave was a little hesitant to come because he did not really know Shrinivas. I had talked to Shrinivas, who was delighted to have Dave attend and had met Dave when he interviewed in the US. (Donna says she's been told it's good luck to have perfect strangers attend your wedding.) When we arrived for the wedding the bride and groom were both out of sight, waiting for the time for their respective entrances. There were about 500 people in attendance and we found seats about halfway back. After we were seated Donna realized that everyone had a handful of rice, dyed red, so she went and picked some up for us.
Soon the groom came up the center aisle, accompanied by several members of his family. Two members of his party held up a curtain in front of him so he could not see the bride come in. The curtain has a red swastika, which is an ancient symbol widely used through out India both as a religious symbol and as a secular symbol of good luck. The backdrop for the wedding is decorated with flowers, including a large image of the Hindu god Ganesh, who has the head of an elephant. The on either side of Ganesh are the names of the bride (Vishakha) and groom (Shrinivas) written in Hindi.

After the curtain was in place the bride entered down a stairway to the right of the stage and came to stand facing the groom, but separated from him by the curtain. (It is a little ironic in this case that the bride and groom are hidden from on another since this couple choose each other rather than being selected for each other by their parents, as more often is the case in India.) Next a priest began to chant. I could not understand any of it, and a woman seated in front of us told us that it was in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is not in use as an everyday language anywhere, so I don't know how many of the people there could actually understand what was said. But somehow everyone seemed to know at what particular points in the liturgy to throw rice toward the couple. Since there were a lot of people there, most of us were not close enough to actually throw rice on the bride and groom so we threw it in that general direction and it landed on the people a few rows in front of us.
After the Sanskrit liturgy the curtain was removed. It was hard to see what was happening because the wedding party was standing all round the stage. However, there was not actually very much more to the ceremony. The bride and groom exchanged places, and he knelt down in, front of her to put on the toe rings which Indian women wear to symbolize that they are married.
Then everyone came up on the stage to congratulate the newlyweds and be photographed with them. In this picture, from left to right, are Joe, Shrinivas's mother, Shrinivas(the groom), Vishakha(the bride), Donna and Dave.

And of course a wedding includes a feast. After we had congratulated the wedding couple we wandered into an adjoining hall where lunch was being served. Tables were arranged in long rows with chairs on one side. This arrangement is easier for the people serving and for the family members to move about and visit with the guests.

When we first came into the room we thought the tables were full of people who had already finished eating. But one of Shrinivas' uncles guided us to three empty seats and we realized that the people sitting at the table were waiting for the next seating and the plates were left from the previous seating. Very soon a series of waiters and waitress came along the tables, each picking up a particular thing (plates, cups, etc.) They were followed by two people wiping the tables clean, and finally another uncle making sure that the final table washer got everything very clean.

Then the same people came around placing large metal plates, cups, small bowls on in front of each person. On their next trip they placed various foods on our plates. Each person had a large tray or bowl of a particular food and placed a serving at a specific location on your plate. Much of the food, of course, we couldn't identify since it was northern Indian food. At one point Dave pointed to small pile of something green on Donna's plate to ask what it was. The person who had just placed it there, reached back before Dave could get a word out and added another serving on top of the first one, then quickly moved on. As we ate they came by again and again offering you more food.

This was our second wedding in India; they were as different from one another as they were each different from a wedding in the U.S.--not surprising since India is an extremely diverse place and the two couples came from different parts of the country with different languages (at least as their first language). And yet all weddings have this in common, they draw on rituals and symbols from the past to create a timeless foundation on which the young couple can build something for the future. As Shrinivas and Vishakha embark on their adventure together Donna and Joe wish for them health, happiness and most of all the joy of "You" and "I" becoming "We".