4 posts from January 2009

When I was in Bikaner I did not only see the Camel Festival but I was also able to see the Karni Mata temple  which is known because of the all the rats that live inside the temple!   It is actually in the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of rats!   The rats never leave the temple they always remain inside the temple, and there are a few white rats.  If one sees a white rat than they are going to have Good Lcuk!   Unfortunately I did not see any white rats!

I also saw Junagarh Fort, which was built by Raja Raisingh, the sixth ruler of Rathore dynasty of Bikaner, on January 30, 1589 A.D.   It is still intact today and remains to be extremely beautiful!!!

Finally I saw the man in the Guinness Book of World Records who is known for having the longest beard mustache combination.  He was in the Mr. Bikaner competition at the Camel Festival on the first day!

 

Just recently I traveled to Bikaner, Rajasthan for the Annual Camel Festival!  During this festival there are many events, including Camel Dancing, Camel Hair Cuts, Camel Dress Competition, Camel milking and Camel Racing!   It was almost unbelievable how well people could train their camels so that they were able to accomplish such wonderful things!

These are some of the pictures that I took while I was there!   The first is of the stage, the second is of one of the Camel's dancing, the third is a decorated Camel, the forth is of the Camel hair design competition, the fifth is of the Camel milking competition, and the sixth is of the Camel races!

 

Before I went on this trip I had no idea how much a camel could actually do!  It was Amazing!

My school just recently had it's Annual Day function!  It was lots of fun because I was able to participate with the ninth standard kids!  The theme of Annual Day this year was Theater at it's Best!   My performance was of an Opera, and I was the Opera singer!   All the girls in my group wore makeup like Ballroom dancers and we all had lots of fun talking with each other!   I never thought that I would be able to talk with a lot of the girls I talked to, and they thought the same way!  It was a great experience!

The first and third pictures are of the performance, there was singing, and dancing combined in this Opera!  The middle picture is of the entrance way to my school!

 

Each school here has an Annual Day Production, it is similar to the Winter and Spring Band/Choir concerts, and Dance Recitals that are done in the U.S.   I am very happy that I was able to participate in this because it is different than anything I have ever done before!

The wedding in the village was a completely different experience from the wedding in Ahmedabad!  I was able to see more of the traditional aspects of the wedding!  For example, I was able to see when the wedding dress is brought to the Bride's house by her close relatives on her mom's side, I was able to see when the close relatives of the bride feed sweets to the Groom and his family, and much more!  It was also interesting to live in a village for a few days because their living style is completely different; in the cities people eat dinner around 9 in the evening, lunch around 2, etc.  But in the villages they wake up around 3 in the morning, and have breakfast then, so they are ready for lunch and dinner earlier, therefore their timings are completely different than those of the city folk!  This was an unforgettable experience for sure!!

The first picture above is of a swing in the village; when one walks through a village in India there is a swing in every house and the people just sit on the swings and relax and watch the people who are walking by!  The second is a picture of some of the ladies at the wedding who are picking fruits from the tree!   The third is of one of the rivers in the village; when I took this picture there were lots of Buffalo in it so I could hear the Buffalo move throughout the muddy water!