Humorous moments in India

Many wonderful, touching things occurred during our trip. And then, there was the occasional humorous moments, some caused by the cultural divide and others, well, we’re not sure…

In Ahmedabad, outside of the Gandhi museum a tree climbing creature “squirreled away” with Kristeen’s socks, which were actually borrowed from Stacey earlier in the day. The squirrel was last seen ascending a nearby tree rapidly. Stacey might have found this story a bit far fetched were it not for Albert’s timely photo shots of the little creature during his/her getaway. I picture him/her now snugly outfitted in a squirrel size sleeping bag up in the treetops — good thing the socks were fairly clean. :)

Carolina, inspired by the current fashion wave of stick on bindi’s, decided a pink Pepto Bismol tablet might not look so bad either. During lunch she tried one on and to our surprise she definitely looked chic.

Kristeen while taking shots of the flowers and fauna, of Dharamsala, accidentally caught two monkeys on film during a very private moment (needless to say the monkeys were not as shocked as Kristeen, who suggested they get a room).

Okay we all know flights can take off late, but early? Air Deccan, an India domestic airline, has a notorious record of flights being cancelled and taking off late, much to our surprise taking off earlier than scheduled, 2 hours early in the case of our flight, without us on it.

Kristeen, Laura and I experienced our 15 minutes of fame at the India/Pakistan border crossing. After witnessing the one hour ceremony of the gate closing, I was approached by some university students who asked to take their photos with us. Before we knew it we were posing for a dozen of so cameras and then we were asked for our autographs (if they only knew they won’t get a dime for them on Ebay). Brittany quickly brought our feet back to the ground, afterwards, by letting us know how ridiculous the whole scene appeared and reminding us that she was the one with the famous name after all.

India is crowded but really… Albert while walking down the street was bumped hard in the back. He turned to see who had knocked him and was surprised to be greeted by two large brown eyes and a pair of horns, obviously this critter, also know as a holy cow, definitely had the right away.

You can drink the Pepsi but please don’t take the bottle with you. We stopped at a roadside stand and asking for a cold soda, taking it back to the car. A few minutes later as we started the car to continue the journey, an angry stand owner banged on the window demanding the bottle back. India has taken recycling to the max, you can’t leave the premises without returning the empty glass bottle. Needless to say, the shop owner thought we were quite crazy for even thinking of driving away with his bottle in hand.

When moving to another building at the Gandhi ashram to stayover we arrived at night. As we were tired, we all marched in through the front gate past what looked like a graveyard with headstones, a little unnerving, but we were really tired. In the morning, with a little shut eye behind us, we were surprised to discover it was not a graveyard, but unexpectedly instead a yard full of toilets, each toilet with it’s own sign and marker. Jayeshbhai’s father, a social entrepeneur whose specialty is sanitation, is affectionately known as “Mr. Toilet”at Oxford University. His inventions have revolutionized sanitation in the state of Gujurat and this outdoor exhibit displays some of his inventions.

On the return to Ahmedabad while visiting Virenbhai, Stacey’s shoe was absconded by a neighborhood dog who was last seen jumping over the neighbor’s wall with the shoe securely in its mouth. The neighbors kindly offered to go after the dog and search the next door lot, but the shoe was never found. Later that night I was told in India having one shoes taken is good luck.

I wonder what having your socks taken brings you??? Hopefully, like tossing a coin in the Trevi Fountain of Rome, it means a quick return back to the place where we enjoyed so much laughter, fun and where we attempted to bridge the cultural divide.