The Eagles’ song, the lyrics of which are cited above, is well known. It applies this week to us because this afternoon we got a call that the daughter and two grandsons of a Sister in our branch were in danger and needed a safe place to stay (that her husband and his associates wouldn't know about) until Monday when she has an appointment at the US Embassy. We, apparently, are now running a safe house. Other than having a spare bedroom and knowing the mother/grandmother, we really don’t have any idea what is going on.
One thing about India, it is rarely dull. Woohoo!
On Friday night Rae and I went to a reception for
representatives of the embassies here in Delhi and business representatives.
From a business standpoint, it was okay. I made a few contacts; our Dean made a
few contacts. There was a very interesting program which consisted of numbers
representing various states of India. Once again, we got drug on to the dance floor.
During the last number of the program dancers started to go out to the audience
and attempted to bring guests to the dance floor. Rae had just said, “I think
we should move over a little so we are less conspicuous,” when one of the
performers grabbed my hand and started pulling me to the dance floor. Despite
what she said, I knew Rae wanted to get up there and cut a Punjabi rug so I
grabbed her hand too. Next thing the two of us are in a dance circle with a
half dozen performers. I am sure we were the hit of the night.
My mobile battery was almost dead so I only got
the two pictures below. This was an amazing display the one guy was triple
blind folded; the other guy was kneeling with some kind of vegetable on his
hand, another one on his head, and a “straw” in his mouth (I couldn’t really
see what it was other than it was red). The first guy starts dancing around the
stage waiving two swords. After a few minutes, including taking swings of the
swords right by the second guy, he split the two vegetables and cut the straw.
After that, the blindfolded guy was brought back to the front of the stage.
Another guy was brought in and he laid down. Again a root vegetable was
applied, this time to his stomach. Again, blindfolded guy danced around the
stage, this time with a short-handled pick axe. This time he smacks the ground
with the pick axe all around the head and body of the guy lying on the floor.
Finally he splits the vegetable on the second guy’s stomach. Funny, they
couldn’t get anyone to come from the audience to help with either of these two
numbers.
Not much else from me this week other than work,
and more work. So I am going to pass off the blog to Rae.
I will just warn you now, that our “out and
about” blog entries are numbered. This morning we went back to the temple of
Akshardham. We had gone there a few weeks
ago with my niece, her husband and the McConkies. Our time there was limited and we were not
able to see everything, so went back to see the rest. This temple is one that doesn’t allow ANY
cameras or phones (trust me they do a thorough pat down), so there was
absolutely no picture taking. This is the temple that had the elaborate
elephant carvings. It is truly a
beautiful modern day temple (Indian style anyway).
We heard they have a big screen movie, a
historical display a boat ride and musical water fountains, (the fountains were
all torn apart and being completely redone).
We thought the boat ride sounded
pleasant and the other stuff okay so, we went back to see those things. The
fountains were still under construction and it turns out that if you want the
boat ride you have to do the other two things. I thought the boat ride would be
this pleasant excursion, but it turns out it was more like a Disneyland’s “It’s
a Small World”. Well, not “it’s a Small
World” exactly, there was no music. Perhaps, “Pirates of the
Caribbean”. It covered (in about 15 minutes) 10,000 years of Indian history.
There are an amazing number of things that originated here. It was all
enjoyable, but not quite what I had expected. As I noted, no cameras nor phones are allowed in Akshardham, so naturally we have no photos of our own, but here are a couple we got off the Internet.
Now, back to my original comment. The weather here is quickly heating up and so
our days of wanting to be out and about will soon be coming to an end. Hopefully we will still be able to get in few
more sights before we begin entertaining you with the more human interest type
posts.
Namaste.
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