Visiting southern India (first post of several)

Chris & Dharma with pal Vihaan (in front of snake-guarded temple, Bangalore)

Visiting Dharma’s family in India has been a priority ever since the time of C&D’s wedding.  PJ and I had such high expectations for the trip – and they were far exceeded in every respect. (Among other pleasant discoveries, we learned that we didn’t really know what to expect!)

Still working through photo sets now so am just including a few initial pix here; eventually I will be putting up multiple posts on this trip (yes it was utterly unforgettable - but I want to remember as many details as possible!)  In terms of written description - for now, just below is a summary taken from an email sent to EMG and my siblings/siblings in law –

Sreedhar and Dharma wander the grounds of the fantastic Mysore Palace on a gorgeous evening.

Three-acre banyan tree (first selfie)

From:  Paul Gales
Subject: trip

Hi everybody –

[Here's an interruption on a different topic; read on if interested in a few observations from our India visit . . .  Patricia and I arrived in Bangalore 24 May and returned to Phoenix 5 June; Chris and Dharma (cc'd on this) were with us in India and then they spent an extra week, mostly in Bangkok.]

Bottom line:  we can’t imagine how our time in India could have been finer.  I’ve not yet found an adequate way to describe the mixture of south India exotica (MONKEYS (which are endlessly entertaining), coconuts, wandering cows, Bangalore traffic/nonstop mayhem, bullock carts ON THE HIGHWAY, auto rickshaws everywhere, markets and vendor stalls with fantastic merchandise, banyan trees (a single tree, full of monkeys of course, covered THREE ACRES), we are served delicious meals on a BIG BANANA LEAF and became pretty adept at eating with our fingers, etc., etc.!!); multiple-fine family encounters (Dharma’s extended family is entirely amazing, the hospitality traditions (including lovely nods to the married couple and the parents-of-the-couple) are deeply warm and welcoming; a family-and-religion emphasis that is quite familiar; lots of family time during this trip (as we had requested - and will request on future visits!) but also some wonderful tourist site visits; a road trip down to Mysore, where MAHARAJAS ran things and the palace still amazes; TEMPLES (the ones we saw are simply unbelievable – and guarded by carved SNAKES); the utter absence of whites pretty much everywhere we went (we – as curiosities – were asked to pose for selfies with locals far more often than we saw non-Indians); a setting where one constantly seems to feel the reassuring-weight of thousands of years of tradition and development; some of the family members still live in a VILLAGE with a FARM (but not like Iowa:  coconuts, bananas, sugar cane, mango, papaya, teak trees, sandalwood trees, a bit of corn, plus I saw a rice paddy!); we absolutely loved ALL of the food and miss it quite a bit.  And so much, much more– just wow, I guess.

PJ wandering Chamundi Hills (as is a random cow - a not-unusual sight).

And a bonus – no jet lag (we slept some on the plane flights, just stayed up through whatever day we landed and woke up fine, allowing minor dozing on the metro or wherever on the first couple days if a touch of fatigue set in; and no stomach ailments (about which we had been warned quite often) – we felt fantastic throughout. 

Any of you would have so enjoyed – we kept thinking EMG would have felt really comfortable in this setting.

Sreedhar and Janu (your friends, now family, from the November wedding - also cc'd here) and Dharma planned things perfectly and took care of us every step of the way - nonstop thoughtfulness - and we had a ton of fun with six-year-old Vihaan (Janu's so-energetic son, you probably saw photos of him back in November). 

We felt very fortunate, it was rather overwhelming. 

Paul M. Gales

Taken at maternal grandfather's growing-up
home - in the village - where we were treated so well.