Lots of Blogs in One

I’ve had wonderful company for a week now, and it's kept me hopping.  We've gone some interesting places as well, so here's a quick recap with some photo links, I hope.  The new FLICKR face may be fun to view, but it's a little awkward to get around still, for me.  Can anyone tell me how to find the "grab the Link" function?

Picture Set #1 features the big fruit news, Alfonso mangos, king of the fruit, are here!  They have a taste like no other, but also a very short season from what I can tell.  They are pricey, so I rationed myself to 6 when I first went.  When I went back, they were no more, with sad faces on the eager vendors.  However, yesterday I was driving by a vendor who I knew sold choice fruit, asked our driver to stop.  When I asked about the Alfonso, he smiled broadly and reached under his table, and pulled out an entire box of 9.  SOLD!  Today we have 4 remaining. I also photographed the exterior and interior of a lychi for all of you who have eaten the canned-kind at a Chinese restaurant.

Also in this set of pictures are photos of Rambagh Palace, a palace turned luxury hotel, where one can take a champagne tour of the grounds at sunset.  It was pretty incredible, but honestly all eyes were on the resident peacocks, who are now in full display because it’s mating season.  I’ve been trying to capture the male with its tail feathers fanned all year, and on that evening I saw about 3.  The ritual is quite elaborate, and involves fanning, then doing a 360 slowly so all the females can see exactly how cool you are.  There is also involved much shaking of the shorter back feathers and attendant rump, which are rust colored.  However, all the females I saw were quite unimpressed.

Set #2 of photos features two fun events, one of which is our visit to the iconic movie palace, the RAJ MANDIR.  It’s a huge one-theatre affair, decorated in what looks like a mix of art deco and Indian color love.  The experience itself was wonderful; people were talking loudly to each other, clapping and hooting when their favorite star came on, talking to the screen sometimes, and in general having a great time, with a requisite intermission for grabbing snacks and more chatter.  It was a family affair, with several babies in tow who sometimes were down with the movie, and sometimes decidedly not.  However, no one even noticed, or at least didn’t register any concern at all, and that was refreshing to see.  Although we smartly pulled in the driver to help us not do anything stupid (although he said that’s what movie theatres are for!) we rarely needed to ask about the plot, even though it was in Hindi with no subtitles.  We weren’t there for the plot, and it was as predictable as it gets.  The dancing of my favorite Bollywood star, Ranbir Kapoor, was incredible.  Google a promo for our movie, “Yeh Jawaani, Hai Deewani” for a treat.  He’s quite the hoofer.

The second fun happening was a return trip to the famous Hawa Mahal, this time from behind the wall’s façade, the interior.  It was fun to see what the women saw as they peered through the windows.  Finally, we returned to a place Abhas discovered, a guy with a 150-year-old Zeiss black and white camera, who still takes pictures with it, the old-fashioned way. Our visitors enjoyed seeing the process, although it was pretty hot posing in the sun.