Puttaparthi Fashion...

Well yesterday (Tuesday) dawned bright in Puttaparthi but I am a little surprised that it is not as hot as I thought it would be. It is still in the mid to high 30's during the day but is not the scorching 40+ temps we were expecting. Mind you, we still sleep with the air con on all night and Charlie is a little miffed because although he got the bigger room, the air con don't work!

Anyway, the day was full of surprises, which is normal around this town. We ran into a friend of Chris's, Barbara. She's from the UK and a very nice lady. She and Liz got talking and before long they were off to the tailor to get white silk darshan made to measure. I think I already mentioned this. Well Charlie got some darshan pants too and it was decided we'd go to the 4pm darshan where Sai Baba comes into the ashram to be greeted by a silent 1000-2000 people. Barbara would accompany Liz and Charlie would come with me on the mens side. I was really surprised that Liz and Charlie wanted to go but, what the heck, we're here so we might as well see what all the fuss is about.



So we joined the thousands and sat quietly for about 45 minutes until Sai Baba is wheeled out in a wheel-chair and slowly wends his way through the crowd. It was quite a scene and quite moving. Afterwards, we headed off to the Blue Lagoon cafe which has become our favourite meeting place and we chatted and had dinner.

Wednesday....

The inevitable has happened... Charlie arrived at our door about 8am and declared that the dreaded Delhi Belly has stuck him. So today we take it a bit easy but manage to fit in a drive in the surrounding countryside and a visit to two Indian villages where we are greeted by the village folk and welcomed into their homes. This is the real India that tourists don't get to see ... a family of seven living in one room about the size of a small Australian bedroom. All cooking done outside on wood fires and water carried in by the water wallahs in plastic drums. It was a very special and moving day and I'll write more later.



Liz was taken with the small babies and ladies who although poor, dressed immaculately in their colourful saris. These people live so simply, they are not concerned that the price of Unleaded has risen to $1.70 ... they are trying to survive on 1000 rupees a month. That's $25 in Australian money! Still, they seem happy with their lot and the families help each other in the village. Altogether a special day in the real India.