When is a motorcycle full?

If you spend much time on the roads in India it can make you start to think, "When is a motorcycle actually full?" Clearly one or two people is an easy fit. Three is seen fairly often. Four seems doable. But what about five? Ah, yes, we've seen that. I've seen up to six on one motorcycle...transportation for the entire family, especially in smaller cities or towns.

So if a motorcycle can hold at least six, what does that mean about a scooter?

Or one of these?

 

 We counted 28 piling out one day.

Village walk

They dropped us off by an overlook with a lower pond and a view of the hills. A place where stone structures like diving boards jutted out over the void. They said there was a village just down the road if we wanted to walk a bit. After several hours in the car the idea was delightful and we all grabbed our cameras as we got out to stretch our legs a bit. I couldn't turn down the opportunity to see a village from the ground instead of out the car window as I so often do here in India. Those women you see hauling piles of hay on their head - they're coming out of the woods to join us on the road, a big smile on their face. Small children may seem shy at first but will soon overcome the strangeness of our skin in the joy of taking photos and sharing the few words of English they know. The old man, face lined with life, will continue to sit silently on the porch, just offering a nod as I say "Namaste." Women in bright saris peek out of doors and sweep the ground in front of their house. They go about their life as usual as I come the closest to rural India as I've ever been. An hour that reminds me of the two years I walked villages in Guinea as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Muscat by night

This past weekend found me in Muscat, Oman for the volleyball tournament with my boys (our best result yet finishing fourth place). The only problem with travelling for sports is that all you really get to see is the inside of the gym. I have to admit that I still hear the refrain that our players were chanting all weekend: Everywhere we go everywhere we go, People want to know people want to know, Who we are who we are, So we tell them so we tell them, We are the tigers we are the tigers, Mighty mighty tigers, mighty mighty tigers....aargh! Enough already.

Thankfully I have a friend that I taught with in Turkey who is now in Muscat. She graciously came and picked me up one evening after we had finished so I did get to see a little bit of Muscat, but only what is lit up at night. A promenade along the beach front, the beautifully lit opera house with its strong angles and arches, the golden lit dome of the Grand Mosque. I have to admit that I like the way things get lit up at night, even if it does mean things are not really open for an inside views.

Happy Diwali!

May you have a bright and well lit holiday

Welcome the goddess Lakshmi with your lights

Turn away evil spirits with the burst of firecrackers 

Celebrate good over evil with your row of lamps