Today we went to Sw. Sham's for lunch. It was Southern Indian food for lunch. Fantastic.

The most delicious food I have had in India. I can not say enough about it. Delicious. Delicious, and spicy. There were these disc shaped cooked rice cakes, like rice squished into a disc shape, and then a soup-stew poured over it. Then we had potato mix with a pancake thing - awesome. Loads of great food.

For a FREE recipe book of Indian Vegetarian Recipes click here: Indian Cooking

After lunch we showed them all a website Nirav and I created to display the apartments - hoping to get a contract to design a site or two. The son's loved it and want us to design a site for them. So we have negotiated our accommodation for free and some money for Nirav to take the photographs.

Gotta go now.

Nirav is trying to connect us to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the apartment. We shall see. . .

Yep, sitting by the swimming pool. Lisa is sunbathing, relaxing in the sun.

We just ate at "Prems", the vegetarian restaurant we ate at the first night we were here.

I love Vegetable Hydradbadi - it is spinach and yogurt based with vegetables and Paneer chunks. Paneer is a soft cheese fried in cubes and added to food (where we in the west would normally cube and fry a meat of some sort.)

Lisa couldn't have her usual Chili Milli, and had a delicious Chinese spicy vegetable dish. She is happy.

In the distance, we are listening to Nirav "jamming" informally with a group of other musicians at Osho Basho Restaurant.

I know it is Nirav because his instrument is very distinctive. It is even more obvious than a tuba or trumpet, well more interesting anyway.

He is a washtub-bass virtuoso.
He really plays the washtub-bass! It's really cool.

He went into town and bought a metal trash can, a bamboo pole and rope - painted the can gold (because it looks more beautiful that way) and it is now an instrument.

We are going to meet a man named Arhat who lives in a house with no walls or windows. I don't know, don't ask. He is a keen amateur photographer and wants me to look at some of his photographs and let him know what I think.

Speaking of Photography, Here is a full collection of Photographs of India - enjoy.

I am interested, so I am going. We are going to a music session later this evening in Buddha hall where Nirav is also playing (the electric bass this time) for a bit of dancing.

So that is today for you. I am hot and have to go soon to meet this wall-less house photographer.

Hope you are well. Bye.

We just got back from lunch. We went late and had to eat bread and fruit. Lisa had bread and honey, and I had bread and what I thought was peanut butter, but turned out to be sesame seed butter - yuck. I still have problems with ordering food in foreign countries!

[At least it wasn't fried cheese and duck like I got in the Moulin Rouge, Paris with my parents!!That incidentally is a fabulous place to visit. It cost us about £250 for the night but it was WELL WORTH IT!]

Anyway, we are back at the apartment now. Lisa is sitting in the back yard painting. I was intending to do some work, but I am not really feeling very well. I had to take Tylenol and knock myself out last night to make sure I slept.

I feel better than yesterday, but not yet up to scratch. Duncan Francis sent an e-mail asking if either of us have had bowel problems yet. (He didn't put it that nicely, but you get the idea.) The answer is no. We do not intend to either.

Ric told us to get Diaorlite in case, so now we are overwhelmed with packets of Diaorlite.

But other than me having the "sniffles", we are as good as gold - - - - -

Going out to sit with Lisa. Bye for now.

Well, when we got closer we saw about fifty well dressed Indian people dancing in the street. A man on a white horse with an umbrella of purple glitter, twenty people carrying big propane lanterns on their heads, a wheeled mini-band consisting mostly of drums and a synthesizer, and a crowd of onlookers smiling and clapping.

The caretaker of Sham Sharan, explained that it was a wedding procession. Apparently the man on the horse is the groom, and his bride is waiting at the marriage place (somewhere down the road) for him to arrive. I think she will be waiting a while!

Find out all about the Traditional Indian Wedding Procession here.

A lot of you have been asking for photographs, but it is impossible to buy a digital camera in Pune!

Here are some photos Nirav took for you.

Photos of India: Here, enjoy. 
This is EJ buying a teapot!!

MORE INDIAN PHOTOS~ India, an exquisite photograph gallery: Click here.

Well, Nirav and I just got back from taking photos for Mr Sham (& sons) websites.Our landlord's company doesn't have a website.

So we are doing one and are taking photos.

Last night we went to a Hindi Fire Celebration.

It was the equinox as well as a full moon which I believe is a significantly special occasion.

We met some great people there, it was a low-key affair with about 10 people.

It was not your typical tuesday night get together.

We sat around a fire, in the middle of a rooftop apartment singing, playing music and throwing spices into the fire. Wow. I played the tanmandal, a stringed instrument nothing like a guitar or violin.

It was roughly rectangular with four large strings (for background music) and many smaller strings set onto the outside. It hummed instead of pinged. It was like playing an ocean of sound, slowly sending waves of sound out from the center. There was not much discernible difference when the other strings were thumbed, the sound just blended together slowly rising in pitch and then falling away.

A wonderful experience.

We haven't spoken much about our week, because it has been crazy and thoroughly enjoyable.

On Wednesday we cooked for Rabia and family - what an adventure that was.

We went to the market with Asim, Rabia's husband, into the Centrex of Pune. Wow. The fruit and vegetable market of Pune. It was . . . wow. We bought six peppers, an eggplant, seven big potatoes, several onions, a batch of spring onions, a clove of garlic, four oranges, four apples, a small basket of strawberries, a pineapple, six chiku and half a dozen tomatoes. This, cost us £3.00!!

In the West we really have so any implements to help in the kitchen that we all become lazy.

Here we had two burners, no oven, one knife, and a very small space!!!

Cooking was a treat, it became an adventure rather than just cooking a meal! What would be possibly use next!!!! It ended up delicious, and everyone raved about it.

I made mashed potatoes with spring onion and butter. Lisa's mum calls it champ. That went down the best. They never make mashed potatoes. I even got asked 'How do you make this potato dish?'

It was fun.

Cooking in an Indian house for an Indian family was not something I expected to be doing on my journey. . . and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I was so overwhelmed with the smell of spices and had turmeric all over my trousers - you know, the yellow Indian spice that probably stains, that I could not really taste anything.

Lisa said it was good.

This is a jungle painting. I did it during the 7.45 am morning painting session.

The left photo is of a "Chiku"; these are the best fruits I have tasted yet and I can't believe they aren't available in North America or the UK!

Below right shows Nirav at the Buddha statue in the nearby park...he is always smiling!!!!!

The lovely, unbelievable architecture of Pune!!! Cows everywhere!

They are oblivious to the speeding, very congested traffic around them.

Well, we are sitting in our room with one hand above our heads. Why, I hear you ask?

Henna tattoos!!

Henna is a skin staining plant which is mixed into a paste and drawn onto the body, with a pointed bag similar to a cake decorating bag.

Currently, I have a band at the top of my left arm about 1.5 inches wide with a crosshatch pattern, and a japanese symbol for Miracle on my right. It's temporary!

Lisa has a flower band around her left shoulder and a bracelet-like band on her right wrist. What we were thinking I do not know.

The stain is black, but leaves a colors somewhere between dark brown and red which lasts for approximately 15 days. I thought I would try it because I often thought about a tattoo, but never had the courage to get one.

It will wear off in about two weeks. We can't wash the stain off until tomorrow morning. It is dry at the moment, and sticking to our arms by a mixture of lime juice and sugar which she applied ten minutes after finishing.

We are going to a celebration for the Millennium tomorrow at the ashram.

Then there is a "laughter meditation" as the first meditation of the day.

One hour of laughing in Buddha Hall with a few thousand other people.

What a way to bring in the new Century. Laughing for an hour. I am looking forward to that.

I just received the news that Skippy, our long and very friendly dog, has died. For all those of you who knew her - wasn't she great? Existence take care of her...

Happy New Year everyone, and may your night fulfill all your wishes and grant you freedom for the coming year.

Today we spent the day in the Ashram.

We got up at 8:00am and did Dynamic Meditation

After that, breakfast at the ashram.