Udaipur and Fukhar

Lori and I are now in Udaipur, who's recent claim to fame was the filming of a James Bond movie (Octopussy) a few years back. It's a beautiful city with several huge palaces from the old Maharaja days. I attached the above video of a scene we witnessed from our hotel balcony. We were in our room and heard drums and singing drawing closer from outside. We opened the door and the noise had scared the monkeys and they were running and jumping all over the rooftops trying to get away. We waited for the monkeys to clear and came out to find a procession of women in flamboyant saris marching behind a band which stopped just at the Hindu temple below our balcony. We later learned this was a bachelorette party! I hope my friends throw me something as lavish someday when I get married.

A funny thing happened to us on our way to Udaipur, which I probably shouldn't write in my blog but I will anyway. We were in a rickshaw on our way to catch our overnight bus. This rickshaw was a little different from most in that the seats faced backwards and we had to stare at the traffic the whole way. We thought the station was a quick 5 minutes away, but it turned out to be more like 20 minutes across town. Two large, white girls facing all the traffic was quite a site and we had several honks and waves and flashing headlights directed our way.

Now I try to be very humble when encountering Indian men. Unless they are with their wife and kids, I don't make eye contact because unlike the U.S., it might be miscontrued for wanting something more. Those who know Lori will not be surprised that Lori is the opposite and never saw a person she didn't want to wave and say hello to. So when a couple guys on a motorcyle followed us for a bit and then turned off and waved, Lori waved back and yelled "Namaste!" The next thing we knew, that bike was right behind us again and they were following in full pursuit. Our rickshaw driver stopped briefly and one of the guys ran over to talk to Lori. He told her it was destiny that they met and he immediately gave her his phone number and e-mail and tried to set up a time to talk the following day.

When he introduced himeself, I about choked at his name. It was "Fakhar" but sounded phonetically like......well, you get the idea. Lori and I did everything we could not to laugh while he explained that Fakhar meant "proud." When we finally left, Lori said, "Fakhar, I will never forget your name" and he stood there and beamed at the compliment. We both yelled out, "Bye Fakhar" and "Take care Fakhar" and couldn't stop laughing as we pulled away. Lori stated, "He's one proud Fakhar."

We finally arrived at our bus to find we were the only women on board and our sleeping berths were about 5'x 2' and could barely fit us. In addition, the 3 berths surrounding us were filled with men who looked and dressed like the Taliban. The whole bus stared while we tried to fit our luggage in the berths and get sorted out. And low and behold, I turned around and Fakhar had followed Lori across town to make sure she got on the bus okay.

I squeezed into my berth and shut the curtain and fell asleep chuckling to the Taliban's horror at Lori as she yelled down the bus, "Goodnight Fakhar, thanks for checking on me Fakhar."