Hi-Tech, High-Rise, Hy-derabad

From Udaipur to Hyderabad, it's been a jet-set week for me. Within a single week I saw the Himalayas and spent a couple of days in the almost Southeast Asian-esque environment of Assam, where people from the mountains and lowlands meet and speak the totally foreign language (to me) of Assamese. From there I spent a single night back in Delhi, only to take an overnight bus with my friend Pooja to visit her joint family in Jaipur, Rajastan. We spent the first day paying homage to her family's guru-ji in his incredibly peaceful and beautiful ashram under the trees, in the sand - an oasis amid the dusty, desert city. After receiving darshan (blessing of his presence and words) from him we went to the Shiva temple which was equally beautiful. Peacocks sat in the enormous bodhi trees as pilgrims streamed in and out of the ornate and colorful shrine. Mustachioed men dawning turbans and curly-toed shoes can be seen driving camels (or sometimes elephants) through packed streets. Amid the chaos, women in the most beautiful yellow and red saris thread through the traffic, hiding their faces and ducking the sun on their way to temples and colorful markets. The desert is a world unto itself.

In Jaipur, Pooja's grandparents reside over four sons and their four wives, and all of the couples' children in one house. 17 in all, and I made the 18th member of the lively and joyful bunch. After two quick days of ultimate treatment I got on an overnight train again, stuffed my all-too-long American legs onto the upper sleeper birth, and woke up in Udaipur. And now from cushioned belfries overlooking palaces and desert splendor I hopped a plane, spent a quick layover in Mumbai (after our descending plane practically ripped tin rooftops from the vast and cascading shanties), and ended up here, where electronic billboards and high-rise hotels lick the skyline. Two days is not enough to learn the language or the script of yet another Indian language, Telagu, so I will continue south with my now non-useful Hindi to Kerala for a two week yoga retreat. Despite the rising temperatures of this quickly hottening continent, I am really looking forward to some time in the tropics to unwind, unloose, and relax. I had the best masala dosa of my entire life today, which really got me excited to spend some time in the South (I LOVE dosas) even though I will be crippled again by language barriers. But so it goes in a country with as many diversities as India, only a handful of which I have seen during this last week, and I will certainly be sampling all varieties of masala dosas and the famously spicy foods of South India while enjoying a whole other aspect of this country that I have never seen before. That is, after yoga, of course.