The Hugging Mother

We've been in the southern state of Kerala, in the Wayanad District, since we left Hampi on Friday. Kerala has been unique for us in that the people are fantascically friendly and gentle. Like yesterday, as we scaled a mini-mountain on top of the Eddakal Caves, masses of locals greeted us with their pleasentries and proud attempts at english.

Hahlo...Whed you from...what is yord good name sir...how ahd you...

Sometimes small groups would spontaneously look at us and exclaim...OBAMA! Shira especially loved this, and at one point when we were seperated, I looked over my shoulder to see her and a group of young men clapping and dancing for Obama. After telling this same group that she's planning on becoming a doctor, they started calling her Dr. Shira...

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Food...

I don't why I failed to predict that we'd be doing this while in India, but we've been eating Indian food for pretty much every meal since getting here. At home, makhani, samosa, aloo gobi, pakora, kingfisher, palak paneer, are special (and expensive) treats, but here, they're cheap, and now for us standard. We even eat Indian breakfasts in the mornings. Like this morning we had chai tea (not like the chai we drink at home. The Indian version is majority milk and sugar and delicious), and a dosa masala, which is essenctially a big, flat pancake filled with onions, potatoes, and masala spices.

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This evening we'll board another bus, this time heading further south into Kerala to a town called Alleppey. We'll likely stay for a week, maybe two. We also plan on going to our first Ashram of the trip. This one seems cool beacuse the guru there is a young woman, Matha Amrithanandamayi, better known as The Hugging Mother (because this is how she blesses people, sometimes holding all night hug/bless sessions)!

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