Seeing the sights near Bhopal, India: Sanchi and Bhimbetka

Two world heritage sites a stone's throw from Bhopal. Sanchi is the site of a Buddhist Stupa that is in the process of being restored. We were very lucky to see it on a day when it was hot but not extremely so, and being right after the rainy season, the surroundings were lush and verdant. I confess I spent more time enjoying the peacefulness of the surroundings than listening to our tour guide.

Being a caligrapher, I was fascinated with these carvings on the main stupa. Our guide explained that these are similar to what you would see on a monument today, the 'this brick donated by so and so' but from ancient times. Here's a few I took pictures of:

Bhimbetka is the site of very ancient cave paintings. I thought I would be descending underground to see them, but all of the caves were like giant rock outcroppings in a wooded area. We had a somewhat overcast and cooler day here, and it was fascinating to walk through the rock formations and see the ancient drawings on the cave walls in white, black and red. Our guide on this trip was very helpful and informative about when the different drawings were made, and letting us know that before the site was made a World Heritage Site, the people in the area never really took the cave paintings very seriously.

Shopping in Bhopal

Although my time in India was limited, there is always time to shop. We were staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Bhopal and there was a very nice, large mall connected to the hotel that we wandered around in quite a bit. We spent a lot of time in Chhabra 555 which I was told was a popular chain store for buying saris. I ended up having a suit made (a long tunic top with drawstring pants) and others in our party bought several saris. In the picture below of the front of the store note two things- all the mannequins are caucasian, which I noticed in all the stores we went to everywhere, and the mannequin on the far left is wearing a sari made from tartan plaid.)

There was a very large grocery store in the basement level of the shopping mall were we picked up a few necessities (like toothpaste). Here is a photo my husband took of a display of colas (he's responsible for the majority of the photos in these India blog posts by the way).

One of our outings included a trip to New Market, which is in downtown Bhopal. (Being the only tourists there caused us to be the subject of a lot of looks and picture taking.)

We spent close to two hours here, checking out bangle shops, sari shops and just walking around taking it all in. Sari shopping in Jackson Heights, New York and in Bhopal were very similar experiences. You enter a shop and ask to see saris in a particular color and they just start flinging beautiful fabrics down in front of you until you feel overwhelmed by color and beauty. In Bhopal it was men running the businesses so if you wanted to see how a sari would look, they would graciously drape it around themselves so you could see it (if you didn't want to have it draped around yourself). Note all the packages on the walls of the shops, they are filled with saris of different colors and designs.

The bangle shops were beautiful to look through. Many of the bangles here are made of glass and are bought in sets. Bangles are selected to go with a sari or suit and it is considered very important to match the color of the bangles as closely as possible with the color of the fabric in the outfit.

Whirlwind India Trip

I recently spent a week in Bhopal, India to attend a special post wedding reception for my daughter and son-in-law. To say it was a whirlwind is an understatement. A wedding for 200 people in the US and then a wedding reception in India for 100 more inside of a week is a once in a lifetime experience. Colorful, chaotic and humbling, both the wedding and India presented themselves as a joyful celebration of life in all it's beautiful messy adventure. Here are some of the colorful highlights from my week in India.

Pre-trip Preperations:
Since we would not have much time in India, we had to purchase our special wedding reception garments before we left. We checked out several shops in Jackson Heights, NY but ended up buying our saris at a store called Lavanya. Here is the fabric I picked out to have my sari made up.

When we arrived in India there were several special events including a special ceremony welcoming my daughter into the home of her husband's family (his grandparents home). We were greeted a block away by a music truck and a small band of muscians who escorted our cars to the house. The house was decorated with lights and flowers, and my daughter had to walk barefoot over the threshold knocking over a small urn of salt and then into a large platter of red colored water surrounded by flower petals. (Since this happened at night and I was part of the procession, I was not able to take pictures). We were all greeted with flower garlands which were beautiful and smelled wonderful.

Our next visit to the house was for henna tattoos, which are traditional for the bridal party. The henna is in small plastic bags that are like icing bags you'd use to decorate a cake. There were three artists working that night, two for the bride who had her hands, forearms, legs (below the knee) and tops of her feet done, and the other one worked on decorating the rest of us. Here is a picture of me going through the process, which is about a half hour long for the both sides of my hands.

Then there is the hour or two to let it dry completely and you can start to brush off the dried henna.

We were advised to put on mustard oil or vicks vaporub (we went with the vicks back at the hotel) to let the henna set in and darken overnight. I covered my hands with cotton socks to keep from getting vicks and henna all over myself and the bedsheets. It is an amazing process. The artist work freehand, and quickly.

That brings me to the big event, the official reception held at the Marriott in Bhopal. The bride and groom were seated in throne like chairs on a dais, and guest walked up to meet them and there were refreshments. I spent most of my time with the grooms mother, since neither of us spoke hindi and most of the guests (I assume) did not speak fluent english. We had the chance to speak with many of the guests who did speak english, and it was a beautiful event. Here is a photo of the whole family up on the dais, all decked out for the event.

Next Installment: Shopping in Bhopal