Beautiful India

Saturday 3 January 2009 Pune, India
The light of day echos the sounds of children playing in the playground near the building, with screams of laughter and delight. The temperature has picked up to a lovely 25 degrees, and we've had the best nights sleep in a long time, along with one of the best showers on our trip. We were also able to say good morning to Corbind, Karishma's Dad who had slept through our early morning arrival. We are feeling pretty lucky to be here and are already feeling very taken care of. Vijaya and Karishma had us soon in the car and we went for a drive around Pune. Our first stop was a building in honor of Mahatma Phule who was a revolutionary of his time in the mid 1800's. He and his wife 'Krantijyoti' were pioneer's in women's education, opening the first school for girls in India in August 1848. He also stood for equat rights, and was considered an important figure in Social Reform. Outside the building we saw many games of cricket being played by young boys, all running around with smiles on their faces, with dreams of becoming the next Tendulkar. They asked Pete if he wanted to join them ... I think he would have liked to but we kept on moving along. We then visited the Raja Tinkarkelkar Museum which contains one mans collection of household items, some antique and others not quite so antique but all give you a look into some amazing objects used in India. We then met up with Corbind for lunch at a lovely restaurant called Ramkrishna. It had great food, which tasted fresh, vibrant and flavorsome - I suppose India is the best place to have great Indian food isn't it!
In the afternoon we swung by home for a nap (I like India), before getting dressed up to head of to a wedding. The wedding was the daughter of a friend of Vijaya & Corbind, and they had kindly welcomed us to come along. The wedding was held at the Pune Racecourse, which one a lovely moonlit night at 20 degrees seemed the perfect setting. It wasn't a 'traditional' Indian wedding but nearly all the women were wearing beautiful sari's and the atmosphere was great. We met Karishma's boyfriend Sandib, and some of Vijaya & Corbind's other friends. We were so welcomed and felt very much part of the festivities.