India 2006

Thursday's log (sorry, no creative title today...) | 30 Mar 2006

Thursday morning we swung by the Chennai airport to get the ticket situation figured out. After standing outside the airline counter for about 30 minutes, we finally walked away with our tickets to Delhi. Yay! They said that things should be squared away now, but the final test will come on Sunday when we try to get on the plane :)

Much of Thursday afternoon was spent hanging out with Malathi, Amar's mom. We looked through a bunch of old photos at their house - the kids growing up, family vacations, etc. It was neat to see a few pictures of Amar when he was little, though he probably wasn't thrilled as I was ;)

Later that day, we headed out for ice cream and shopping. Since it was the Telugu New Year, called "Ugadi" in Telagu, we went to see a traditional dance, called kuchipudi, at one of the temples in town (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuchipudi for more info).

The first dance that we saw was really interesting. The dancer was dancing on the floor, which was covered with sand. She would scoot around the floor on her feet, barely moving her upper body. The instruments were playing, and the vocalist was singing as she moved around the room. By the time she was finished, she had created a picture of a lion on the floor in the sand.

The next dance that we saw was a bit different than the first. She danced on stage for awhile, acting out a story that the vocalist was singing about. Eventually, she stood on top of a wide brass plate/bowl, and using her toes and edges of her feet, danced on top of the plate. I'll try to upload some pictures in a bit.

Friday we're off to meet some friends and do a bit more shopping. Talk to you then!

Locations Visited: Chennai

Add Comment

Comment Policy:

Only signed in members can comment on journal entries. Please sign in now or register if you would like to leave a comment. Comments are sent to the owner of this journal for approval before being made live on the site.