Some photos.

Couple of waterfowl of some kind.
Sorry don't have my bird book and there were no labels.



Parrot very colorful.



A red bird.



Bride.



A garden at the resort



Reception venue another look.

Trip to Bombay area - part I

All of a sudden near the 8th of this month, I decided to go attend a friend's wedding near Bombay (Mumbai) on the 12th and then a music festival in Pune. It was a fun time although getting there was a little challenging. You might think because of the recent terrorism in Bombay there would be less travel to that part but you would be wrong. I was in the waiting list in the second position for the train from Chandigarh straight to Panvel where the wedding was being held. This was the only train where I was that close, other waiting lines were much longer.
I was hoping that the place would open up and I would have a easy time getting there in the train, while checking out the landscape on the way. On the 10th I showed up at the railway station and found out that there was no room anywhere.
So, I decided to fly and booked my ticket for the 11th with return on the 16th. Flying is faster but more expensive. On the 11th I was off. I landed in Mumbai and got a taxi to Panvel from the airport. After 2 hours or so I was at the resort.
On the way traffic was heavy in the city. Mumbai is very crowded. As soon as we got just a little bit on the outskirts, I noticed the awful smell of burning things in the air. The stuff that was burning was most likely of industrial origin. The street lights had their lightpath made visible by the dark particulate matter in the air. If you have ever seen street lights on a foggy night you will have an idea of what it looked like except that the dark floating matter in the air made everything look dingy. If you can afford it get an ac taxi. Its expensive, but you will be spared the humid heat and pollution of the city to some extent.
When I got there, the dinner party was going on. I was assigned a room in a "cottage", I went and freshened up and then came to the party. The food was great. I did some dancing and introduced myself to the family. The arrangements for the wedding were made by the parents of both my friend and her husband, although how the various events were divvied up, I have no idea. The whole thing had been going on since the day before. Many of the relatives from both sides were staying at the resort.
Next day wedding ceremony was held. The breakfast was south indian style: coffee, idli, some fried dough stuff etc. Very nice. Lunch was also excellent. There was fish curry in Goan style and other vegetarian stuff. I was moved by the dessert preparation of wheat flour mixed with some other kind of flour, almonds, pistacchio, raisins etc. called 'Halwa'. The flour is cooked in clarified butter then sugar and water and other stuff is added. The resulting texture and flavor of this dish, which was floating in this clarfied butter called ghee, was heavenly.
Afterward, I checked out the zoo that was built inside the resort. There were a several birds, a lot of peacocks, some turkeys etc. A little boy followed me along on this expedition.

Turkeys in our path.



Anyways, the main dinner was in the evening at the reception after the marriage. During the day I performed on Tabla for my friend's family during one of the ceremonies, which was fun. I had never met her family only her brother. Everyone was extra nice and wonderful. I liked the family very much. Their ways were punjabi, very hospitable. Her husband-to-be, was also quite welcoming and seemed to be a very nice person.

Reception venue


So back to food, I do apologise for not taking photos of all this great stuff but I was too busy eating. Dinner was grand to say the least. It was all vegetarian, (their particular customs forbid them to eat meat or drink alcohol on the day of the wedding) but what a spread. There was punjabi food, moghlai food, mongolian barbequed veggies, chinese noodles etc, snacks of many varieties, ice creams, juices, mixed non alcoholic drinks.

Non-alcoholic shots of which I imbibed this one called chilli shot several times along with the bride's brother. It was a mixture of tabasco and mango juice and the shot glass was dipped in some salt and crushed chillies. I tried a little of many things and still there was so much more I could have tried.
So after this mega feast the next morning I took my leave from this very nice family and headed to lonavala.