Friday, June 8, 2012 at 12:11PM Ward's Street in Wasilla, bicycle, horse Friday, May 18, 2012 at 12:40AM ;)
An amazing thing happened last night - I got a really good sleep. Actually it took until well into morning - about 10:45 AM - to get it, but I did. After I awoke, I felt better and more alert than I had felt in - hell, I can't remember how long. I had to go to Abby's for breakfast. Margie was still in Anchorage and I kept feeling very troubled about the horse shadows on the wall that I blogged in my last post.
I just didn't know how the sun could possibly have struck the horse statuettes at the just the right angle to cast the shadows the way it did.
So I went back and figured out the mystery. Today, there was a shadow of only one horse head, but that was enough to trace the light back to its source of origin. I discovered that it was not coming directly from the sun, but from sunlight reflecting at an angle off the windshield of Abby's truck, which was parked in about the same place as yesterday.
Meanwhile, Meda Lord spotted another source of light. Meda was waitressing in Allie's place. The source of light was Colten, Shelly's new baby.
;)
Once again, I had worked out in my head some problems in the project involving the B-24 that I mentioned two posts and one day ago in my head, the one that had vexed me with writer's block for a week-and-half. I felt like I could now write, and write good. I wanted to get right to it, but a totally unanticipated survival problem arose and I had to spend some time to deal with that instead. I believe the problem got solved, but I will not know for certain for a day or two. It is the kind of solution that cost me over $1000 loss in anticipated income, but such is the life of a freelancer.
Once that was out of the way, I started to write. Everything flowed. It felt good. But I couldn't stick with it for very long because I had to put it aside and drive to Anchorage to pick Margie up and bring her home for her three day weekend.
I did not want to go. I wanted to stay put, right here and write. I wanted no interruptions. But I could not leave Margie in town so I got up and went. On the highway approaching Anchorage, I looked in my mirror and saw this guy coming fast from behind. I thought it would make a good picture as he made his pass. I was in the center lane and so rolled down my left hand window in anticipation that he would follow the law and pass to my left.
Instead, he passed to the right. It was a very tough shot because in this kind of situation, a photographer must keep his eye on the road, he cannot raise his camera to his eye, he must rely entirely on his shoot from the hip aim and he must get all of his shots off in half a second. He must rely on his autofocus to grab the subject he wants to photograph, but the right hand window was up, dirty and the camera was most likely to focus upon that dirt.
But, as I have noted before, there are sharpshooter photographers and there are quick draw artist photographers. I am quick draw artist, a regular Clint Eastwood with a camera instead of a gun. The cyclist passed on the right, but my draw was quick, my aim was good and the autofocus found the mark.
;)
As I waited out a red light at the corner of Boniface and Northern Lights, these two boys crossed the road in front of me.
;)
When I arrived at Jacob and Lavina's to pick up Margie, I saw Kalib, peering out the window at me.
;)
Lavina and Jobe returned home shortly after I got there. Jobe grabbed one of many Thomases.
;)
Then I headed for home, with Margie in the passenger seat. As we motored down Lucille Street in Wasilla, I saw this lady, engaged in conversation from the back of a white horse.
We got home about 8:00 PM. I left Margie alone in the living room and charged straight out here, into my office. I still felt good. Words were still flowing through my mind. I returned to the writing I had struggled with for so long and had been interrupted once it finally got going. For three hours, the words just flowed. I feel good about them. Then, suddenly, it was like my brain slammed into a wall. Exhaustion swept over me. I could not write another word in the project. I had to stop. I am not worried, though. I still feel the flow. It will be there tomorrow and hopefully I will have no interruptions and can just sit and here and get it done.
Then it suddenly occurred to me that if I wanted to get a blog post up, and I did, I had better get to it.
So I downloaded the few pictures I took today, selected these six, processed them, uploaded them and then put my fingers on the keyboard, curious, having given no thought to what I might write for the blog. I then sat here for a spell, waiting to see what kind of words would come.
These are the words that came. And of them all, here is the last: one.
Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 1:36AM ;)
As shadows of horse statuettes fell upon the wall, Allie, the poet who graduated early from high school, who recently turned 17 and went to her first "R" rated movie, told me another story about being a teenager in Wasilla.
This time, she and some of her friends, boys and girls, decided they wanted to go camping at Ninilchik, on the Kenai Peninsula.
;)
Her dad didn't much like the idea. He said he didn't think so. She reminded him that she had graduated from high school, didn't live at home anymore, had a job of her own and was free to go camping with her friends if she wanted to.
He said, okay, but be sure to text him every day to let him know she was ok.
Ok, she agreed.
Concerning the diners above, it was an even larger group than it appears to be. I have two favorite tables and always try to sit at one or the other. They had pulled both tables together and so I had to sit elsewhere. I was glad, though, glad to see all the business at Abby's. I told the big group of diners about my ongoing essay on Abby's and asked if they would mind if I took a photo of them - as they were the largest single group I had to yet to see there (although one night when I was working on my India series I came in and every single table in the restaurant was occupied).
They were all good with it except for one lady, who had a baby on her lap and she thought her hair didn't look good, even though it looked fine and she looked good and so did the baby. I positioned myself behind the lady and the baby so the lens wouldn't see them and then shot a picture that showed everybody else, but not the baleen on the wall, or the picture of the chicken. There was no way to include the baleen and chicken without also showing the woman. It was a decent enough picture, too, but after awhile the lady and the baby left. I shot this picture with them gone and liked it better, because it shows the baleen and the chicken.
;)
Did they catch any fish? I asked. No, she said, they just went to camp. It was a cold night. They built a fire and sat around it, visited, and told stories.
Did you cook hot dogs on the fire, roast marshmallows? I asked.
;)
No, she said. There was a lodge nearby, so they ate their meals there - but they brought a lot of junk food to camp - chips, pop and such. They ate a lot of junk food. A huge amount - she stressed. So much so she stuffed herself and it hurt her tummy.
;)
There were some posts adjacent to the campground, along with a sign that said not to park beyond the posts. But they had gear and provisions to unload and carry to the fire and their tents. It would be easier to do this if they parked beyond the posts, closer to the camp, so they did.
(In recent months, I have begun watching "Thomas and His Friends" on TV with Kalib and Jobe. This sounds to me like the very kind of thing Thomas and his friends might do.)
As to what is going on here, the big group has left, others have come in, and Allie is telling this gentleman that he had better behave himself and not call her a 12 year-old again or she will make him go to the counter and pick up his own food.
He enjoys the scolding.
;)
The young campers stayed up late, visiting, laughing, talking, eating junk food, having fun - but at some wee hour of the morning (which, as a reminder to you folks down south, would not be dark here the way it is down there.) they became too sleepy to last anymore.
Allie left the fire and crawled into her sleeping bag - and that sleeping bag was COLD! It practically froze her to climb inside it and then it took about 20 minutes for her body heat to warm it up and for her to get comfortable enough to sleep.
;)
At a horribly early hour for teenagers who had been visiting and eating junk food all night by a fire, but who were now all fast asleep and wanted to stay that way, someone came in to camp and woke them up.
No - it was not a bear or moose someone - it was a cop! A lady cop!
She didn't even give them a warning, either - she just got right to business and wrote two tickets - one to Allie - because they were illegally parked.
$110 tickets!
She scolded them pretty good, too.
To make it even worse, if Allie wanted to sleep some more - and she did - she would have to subject herself to the whole, terrible, 20 minute ordeal and climb back into a freezing sleeping bag andwarm it up all over again.
Still, she was very glad she went. It was fun, she said, and she drove all the way home without anyone spelling her at the wheel. She was pretty proud of that. She did it in good time, too.
;)
I had never seen these horses prancing on the wall before and, until I took note of it with my camera, not Allie, not Abby, not anybody there had previously noticed the horse shadows, which are a bit behind and to the side of where they would normally be looking. The sun has to be in just the right place and once they appear, the horse shadows don't last long.*
Abby was very pleased. "It looks just like at home!" she said.
So I pulled her in for a picture.
And speaking of home, that couple in the frame to her left?
That's the late Paul and Iona Mahoney, Abby's homesteader parents, both of whom now lie in Grotto Iona.
(For anybody who might have read the post I put up two hours and twenty-six minutes ago - I struggled a bit more, but the words just did not come. I hope they come tomorrow. I must finish this piece and send it out to where I have promised to send it. It has to be good, too. This is what they call "writer's block." I hate it.)
*Update, 12:39 PM May 17: Ever since I posted this, I have been bothered by the question of how the sun could possibly have come through the window at just the right angle to cast these shadows, so I went back this morning to check it out and to eat again. I discovered that, indeed, the sun could not shine directly through the window at such an angle. Instead, it was reflecting off the windshield of Abby's truck.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 2:11PM ;)
I will begin here, with Manoj astraddle the white horse, his bride, brothers and other family behind him, even though the wedding had commenced earlier. The day's ceremonies had begun with a symbolic making of the marital bed, a portrait of Lakshmi at the head, bride and groom dolls and an abundance of food, fertility and prosperity laid out over the bedspread. This was followed by a blessing ceremony, after which the bride and groom changed into their wedding clothes and gathered outside.*
The groom then mounted the white mare. The bride stepped up behind him with his brothers, sisters and other family members on both sides of her. At my side, the blue tail end barely in the fame, was a kind of motorized, rolling, double electric organ set; in front of this, the wedding band from last night's post and, all about, well wishers and wedding guests.
The custom extends back into antiquity, when grooms would carry swords as they rode their white mares and sometimes, in some places, still do.
The procession would sometimes take the groom and his family to the home of the bride, sometimes to the wedding place. Destinations can vary.
;)
The destination today will be a Ganesha temple not far away and then back again. The music is struck by the band and the rolling organ and then Manoj follows them to the road, as his bride follows behind.
;)
And here is the band, and there is the rolling organ, the groom seen through the window behind. The music is loud, strong, energetic.... FUN... the members of the band tilt and jerk ever so slightly this way and that way, in a manner that strikes chords of "reverence," "cool" and "soul" all at once.
;)
And here is the view from inside the rolling organ. Even now, way up here in Wasilla, Alaska, when I look at this picture I can hear and feel the music all around me; I feel the heat of the sun, roasting the air. I remember the glare of that sun upon my head and the burn of it against my skin.
;)
The band, leading the way up the road.
;)
The band leads the way to the temple.
The bride and groom make their alms...
;)
They kneel before the altar...
;)
They look upon and hold their offerings out to the idol of Ganesha, symbol of the Hindu diety Ganesha.
;)
Ganesha.
;)
The couple turns to leave the temple and return to the wedding hall.
;)
The bride, in the midst of the groom's family, as she follows his horse back towards the wedding hall.
;)
The procession suddenly stops - but the music continues. I had attended two previous Hindu weddings, both down south in Bangalore. There had been no dancing of any kind - not during the wedding, not during the reception and feast that preceded and followed the ceremonies.
But now, two young women begin to dance...
;)
Then men begin to dance.
;)
Such beauty, here beneath the hot, harsh, sun! I felt blessed, just to be able to witness such a moment.
;)
The men danced with men, and the women danced with women. Those from Southern India joined right in (right). All laughed and had fun.
;)
Now, joyously, both families mix together, they walk to the large opening into the hallway to the open-air wedding hall.
;)
The bride and groom enter.
;)
Soon, the bride and groom are on the wedding platform. The priest leads them through a number of blessings and rituals.
;)
Finally, the priest hands two necklaces to the groom.
;)
After placing the necklace made of thin, black beads around Sujitha's neck, Manoj follows with the gold.
;)
Manoj and Sujitha are now formally wed in Hindu tradition, as practiced by the Lingayat. For any westerners who might think of Hinduism as a monolitic religion, it is not - no more than is Christianity with its multitude of different sects, each of which shares a certain basic belief in Christ but with countless variations and interpretations of it.
So too is it in Hinduism.
;)
After draping each other with garlands, the bride and groom stand between their parents as rice flies. There are more events to happen - the washing of the feet of bride and groom by Sujitha's Uncle Murthy and Aunt Vasanthi, the placing of rings upon the toes of the bride by her mother, the giving of gifts, the posing for pictures...*
;)
Even as the more than 1000 guests continue to file through the reception line, bearing gifts and offering congratulations and best wishes before moving into the dining room to eat, I join Murthy and Vasanthi in a cab. Ravi and Buddy give us their goodbyes...
;)
And off we went, to see ancient new places in India, to the north and west. Before returning to London in a week, Sujitha and Manoj would stay in the Biradar home in Pune, and would make a series of visits to a number of temples.
Originally, it had been my plan to follow them through it all, but then Murthy bought me a couple of airplane tickets, reserved multiple touring cabs and hotel rooms for us all and invited me to follow him and Vasanthi on their tour of northwestern India. Suji said I must go, that Jaipur, The Pink City of Rajasthan was wonderful, a place she would like to go. I must not miss such an opportunity, she said.
So I did - and The Pink City was wonderful, as was Udaipur and Ahmadebad, where I got to wander through a quiet and serene compound that Mahatma Ghandi had made home.
At the beginning of this series, I stated my three purposes in coming to India on this, my third trip:
To attend Sujitha and Manoj's wedding, to learn more about India and to attempt to come to terms with the self-inflicted death of Soundarya by visiting the place where she had left this life, the crematorium where her physical matter had returned to the basic state of ash and dust, and to the sacred waters into which her dust and ash had followed that of her husband Anil's.
This journey with Murthy and Vasanthi would accomplish the second goal as stated above - to a degree. India is so vast and varied in landscape, history, culture and tradition that it would take a lifetime of study and travel to even begin to grasp it - if even to begin to grasp India is possible.
I never intended to draw this Return to India series out anywhere near this long, but it was just a slow process for me to work my way through the photos to this point. Essentially, what I have done here is to make an initial, rough, edit as I have crept along and I have involved readers in the process. Except to drop in on a few images here and there for spot checks, I myself had not looked at my different takes until just before I posted them here.
I have not yet looked at the takes I made while traveling with Murthy and Vasanthi. I will save that material for later times, to be dropped in a piece here, a piece there, as I must turn the attention of this blog back to Alaska very soon.
For now, this leaves only the journey in search of coming t terms and peace in the wake of death of the beloveds. Sujitha and I took this journey together, before we left Bangalore for Pune. So I will make one more post to relate something of this journey, followed by a quick post-script.
*I plan to made two slide shows as addendums to this post. One will be a more complete view of the wedding, to include images of the preliminaries to what I have posted today, as described in the narrative above, along with a bit of the followup. The second slide show will just be a score or two of portraits and faces of some of the many people who came to the wedding.
Before I make these slide shows, I will create the final post and post script and set them to appear tomorrow, the final post about 24 hours from now, the post script either the next day or late tomorrow night. If time will allow, I will then make the slideshow addendums and drop them in between this post and the final before I go to bed tonight. If time doesn't allow, I will drop them in tomorrow - but I want to get them in tonight.
Series index:
;)
