India in Pictures: Part 2

Here are some more pictures from my trip to India.  (Check out the first group here).

In India, but especially at the ashram, everyone calls each other brother or sister. I took the picture below on the first day I was there, mostly because I thought it was funny. By the last day of my trip, I was referring to brother this and sister that.

When you enter any place whether it is a store, a room, etc. it is required that you take your shoes off. Sometimes you would forget where you left your shoes and end up barefoot for half of the day. In some ways I grew to really like this custom. Since I have been home, I now have a different take on wearing your shoes in your house.

At the ashram, there were several different sleeping arrangements. Some people were assigned to camp out underneath the meditation hall. Thank you to my wonderful mother, for we stayed at an apartment outside of the ashram with beds and air conditioning!

I made sure that I got some henna done while I was there. The design itself only took about 15 minutes but the drying process took 3 hours. My mom feed me my lunch like a baby 🙂

Definately not our best look. However, I thought it nessecary to at least document the fact that we were in India in full effect.

Usually all day long you could purchase chai tea at the cafe, but after lunch the cafeteria type place had it for free. They serve it to you in these tiny little metal cups with rims. It is always extremely hot but delicious.

There were moments that were just too beautiful not to photograph.

Right after I slipped on and then stepped in cow poop on the street, I looked up and saw this. I thought it was hilarious because I was feeling mad and from Manhattan. It is just ridiculous.

I didn’t think a post on my trip to India would be complete without a picture of the bathroom setup. Day one, sure it seems daunting, by day 3 you think maybe you are getting the hang of it, by the last day you hop right in there like it ain’t no thang!

The line to use the phones was usually pretty long, however if you timed it just right and late enough in the U.S. it was all yours. The Indian “sister” below was hilarious to me. She kept trying to tell everyone in the nicest way that she worked too many hours and thought we were all pretty annoying. I think she liked me though 😉

I got into a pretty heated discussion with an Indian friend about the brooms in the U.S. vs. the brooms in India. You see, in American, we would never use brooms that would require so much effort. But my friend explained to me that there are MANY different kinds of brooms that serve different purposes. Before I knew it I was sweeping his entire shop convinced I had to get myself one of his brooms. It is kind of awesome, isn’t it?

The picture below is of the inside of the taxi that drove us around Chennai one day. It reminded me of my little brother (not sure why) and I thought it looked like it had been on an Indian version of “Pimp My Ride.”