India - Days 2 and 3
(Original post date - January 11, 2017)
Day 2
I swear that overnight I heard an owl hooting. Are owls even indigenous to India? What I do know is that a pack of dogs went nuts for what felt like at least 30 minutes. Anyway, today started out with breakfast of hard boiled eggs and toast with jam, and a pear whose skin I sliced off to be extra cautious.
Cynthia and her mom showed up and informed me that the original plan to pick Lori, the other bridesmaid, up at the airport was on hold because her flight was delayed from Ethiopia to Mumbai (but as a consolation prize was upgraded to business class). So we waited outside for Isabelle, a Japanese Brazilian born woman who has lived in India for the past 20 years, was kind enough to lend us her family’s personal driver to escort us to various places so Valerie could finish buying souvenirs. He was very good except for the time he tried to drive off while Valerie was only halfway in the car. I was paralyzed with fear, but thankfully Valerie could speak up for herself and we managed to avoid a tragedy. We eventually found ourselves back at the mall, where, apparently, some floor tiles were being replaced or repaired unbeknownst to us.
Valerie: I keep getting the feeling that I’m going to slip and fall in this place.
Me: …?
Not 30 seconds later, I tripped into a small hole where a tile had been removed, and before I could warn her, Valerie was in the hole with me. Luckily it was only a little stumble and we all emerged unscathed, but amazed at Valerie’s premonition abilities.
Cynthia had wanted to get bangles for Lori and I to wear as part of our wedding ensemble, so we searched and searched for the perfect blue and gold bangles to match our saris. After much deliberation, and scouring images of Lori’s hands on Facebook, we determined that the bangles probably wouldn’t fit her as they only had one size. But we foolishly decided that we should get them anyway, and make Lori oil up and squeeze her bones together and MAKE them fit.
During all this driving around town, I got to see some holy cows meandering down the busy streets. I attempted to take some photos of houses and streets to show my mom when I got home, but that was not easily accomplished from a moving vehicle. Especially one that’s traveling through India.
Our last stop for shopping was at Djibouti, or whatever it was called (a grocery store actually called Dorabjee’s, but I couldn’t remember) for Valerie to get even more essential oils for her collection.
Cynthia and Arun had to have a meeting with their pastor about some logistics for the wedding, so Valerie and I chatted at Cynthia’s house. Meanwhile Lori’s flight was so delayed to Mumbai that she missed her connecting flight to Pune and instead of buying a brand new plane ticket that would have gotten her to us 17 hours later, Arun arranged for her to take a 4-5 hour cab ride instead. She arrived while they were still with the pastor, so Valerie and I welcomed her and got caught up on the saga of her journey during which I was analyzing her hands to determine if we could squeeze them through the bangles. Turns out we could not.
Next we went back to the tailor who was anxious to get Lori’s measurements for her sari blouse as the wedding was only in 3 days, and the chai tea man again supplied us with more scalding hot tea in plastic cups. Then we retreated to the comfort of Suman’s house to settle in for the night, and order some food. Thankfully an adorable Indian teenager was visiting Suman, and helped us to place our orders over the phone. Even then, there was a bit of confusion, but we eventually got our Chicken Masala, Chicken Tikka Masala, garlic naan and butter naan.
After dinner, Lori got the hot water heater to work. Either she’s a magician or I’m an idiot. You can probably guess which is most likely.
Day 3
Lori and I lounged around and ate breakfast until Cynthia and Valerie came by and we took an Uber to meet with the woman (Neda) who would do Cynthia’s hair and makeup and drape her sari for the wedding. She was also helpful in finding someone who could do henna for us and directed us to a place down the road that does nice manicures and pedicures, which Lori and I desperately needed. But first we ate lunch at a western sort of place that served fresh lime sodas. Lori and I made the mistake of taking the waiter’s recommendation to have it with salt in it. :-/ The lamb burgers that promised to have mint aioli also didn’t deliver.
After lunch we traipsed off to the nail salon where they made us change into “pajamas” which were very large drawstring pants that swallowed me whole. They sat us down in some chairs and offered us tea or coffee and when I declined, the woman said “you really should have something” so I chose green tea with honey. Lori requested chai because they said it wouldn’t have any dairy (as she is lactose intolerant). I knew it was a false statement and when it arrived, we switched drinks because as I could have predicted, it most definitely had milk in it. Since Cynthia would prefer to do her own nails, she patiently waited outside for us to finish. The experience was lovely, but the actual painting of the nails was subpar and it took a little longer than expected. Oops.
Lori didn’t have any shoes for the wedding, so we found our way back to that crazy mall, but were sadly unsuccessful in our quest.
As a bachelorette party, if you can call it that, we decided to be low key and order some Korean food, watch a chick flick (Serendipity) and pray for Cynthia whose nerves were all in knots. Lori and I left her to rest and picked up a few items at the local grocery store on the way home (tea, chocolate, Indian spices for Lori to replicate some of her favorite Indian dishes), and went to bed.