..SouthAsiaRocks..

So Sharon wanted to know about the "dots" that people wear on their heads here in South Asia... So here is my attempt to explain them :) OK, so the "dot" in the picture below is generally called a Bindi (in other parts of the country it can be called other things - Pattu, Teep, Bottu, Nande, etc). It comes from the Sanskrit word - Bindu - that means a dot, drop or small particle.... so technically it is a dot :) So what is the meaning... well.... The area between the eyebrows (where the bindi is placed) is said to be the sixth chakra , ajna, the seat of "concealed wisdom". to followers of Tantrism , this chakra is the exit point for kundalini energy. The bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration (like a lid to keep the energy in! - haha!). It is also said to protect against demons or bad luck. BUT If you ask most people what the meaning of the Bindi is... they'll just say that it just means that you're married or it's ju...

My parents left last night to go back to Tallahassee. Here's a few pics from their last few days here :) I dressed my mom up in a Sari (below) - she thought it was fun :) Yesterday we went to a famous H'ndu temple here (you can see it in the pic below in the background)... as always there were a bunch of school kids there on a field trip... My parents had fun with the kids (see if you can see my mom in the pic below)... In the park area of the temple, they had these fun marble slides!! The kids were having a lot of fun going up and down the slides.... My dad did too - haha!! We also too them to a famous Sikh Temple. You have to cover your head when you go there... and since my dad & Adam didn't have head coverings with them, so they got to wear these really cool orange head coverings :) This Sikh temple is famous for the HUGE amount of people that they feed each day (they said about 10,000)... In the pic below you can see them making the bread. We had a great time ...

Today we went to the awesome Tughlaqabad Fort . It's REALLY cool! It's a HUGE fort! This was built at the begining of the Tughlaq dynasty in 1321... so it's really old :) It was abandoned in 1327!! Can you imagine doing all that work and then abandoning it just a few years later?! In the pic below is a pic of our awesome tour guides :) Connor and Clayton have started up their business (HUT - High Urban Trekkers) - so if anyone is interested for a tour - I highly recommend it! The kids in the pic below followed us around for most of it :) The pic below made me think of Indiana Jones :) This was in the Mausoleum of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq.... I know, long name :) haha! Here's a pic of Adam, Aashini & me inside the walls of the fort... They're doing a lot of repairs on the fort right now. I thought the lady below was cute and had a great smile :) My parents had a lot of fun too :) They had fun playing with the kids too. It's so fun that there are so many c...

Yesterday we went to Humayun's Tomb . It was fun :) It's always cool to see something that is so old! We had fun exploring and taking pictures! Mom & Dad had fun exploring and looking at everything too :) The next stop was the Zoo - or the "bird cage" as it's called in Hindi. The zoo here is really funny! There are TONS of different kinds of deer - TONS! and there are TONS of birds... with a few other animals mixed around :) There are also.... LOTS OF MONKEYS!! Most of them aren't in cages though :) haha!!

Yesterday we took our parents to our old stompin' grounds of M-town :) They wanted to meet all our friends over there. First stop was K-block :) That's the area Adam and I hung out at every day for language. We had to make sure Aashini was bundled up super warm so that we wouldn't get lectured too much :) haha! She definitely looks like a South Asian baby in these first two pics! The sweaters she's wearing are from one of the ladies that live here (she had her son bring them to us about a month before so that Aashini would be warm :)) Aashini handled the day like a champ - she was handled a ton and was SUPER exaused by the end of the day! We had fun visiting with the Kumars. We really miss them :) - haha! I changed Aashini when we got to their house - which was a good thing because the poor girl was sweating like crazy! Mona did give me some funny baby advice though - you shouldn't let the baby wear a hat & socks at the same time - hmm... ok :) My parents real...

Tonight we went to a play. A friend of mine was in it and invited me, so I wanted to check it out :) We all went... Me, Adam, Aashini, Mom & Dad. I really didn't know what to expect. It was a college drama performance.... well... it was AWESOME! It was like watching a bollywood movie (but shorter). The play was making a lot of political statements all having to do with helping people who were poor, crippled, with leprosy and people that are persecuted for what they believe. There were tons of singing and dancing numbers. They took really popular bollywood songs and changed the words, so it was super fun. It was cool. Aashini was a champ through the play... she slept thought most of it. At the end they did a question and answer time, and Aashini started making a lot of funny grunty noises. They were really loud and it was really funny! At one point she was so loud that everyone in the theatre looked at us! It was funny! In the pic below you can see my friend AJ in the yellow :)...

Today we went to a really fun Craft Mela (Festival). It was in the state below us. After a fun trip via rickshaw, we made it to the Mela. It was HUGE!! We spent almost the whole day at the fair! They had crafts and fun performances. There were a lot of performances from the colorful state below and West of us. The ladies did some really cool dances. Mom had a lot of fun meeting the ladies that did the singing and dances. There were a lot of kids performing and dancing - they were really cute :) Some of the guys in the crowd really go into some of the dancing - it reminded us a lot of M-town :) It was seriously one of the most colorful fairs I have ever been too! They decorated some bicycle rickshaws and they gave rides through the fair - they looked so funny!! There were some awesome camels... I like this pic b/c the guy in the background is making a face that looks a lot like this camel :)