Above – Today’s image of the day. At the end of our Alandi visit today, Nana nodded over to this man and said “Go. Take that man’s photo.” The man wasn’t smiling until I said the magic words Nana told me to say “Jay Hare” and pointed to my phone making a “can I take a photo gesture.” I immediately got a smile which I interpreted to mean yes. Nana said he’s a holy man.

Alandi is a small pilgrimage village about a 45 minute rickshaw ride out of the city of Pune. It’s the final resting place (Samadhi) of 13th century St. Dnyaneshwar. Indians come to Alandi to visit the many temples and pray.

Nana picked us up at 10:30 this morning. We were there several hours and never saw another westerner. In fact, some of the people there behaved as though they’d never seen a westerner at all. People were staring at us all over the place. I visited Alandi with Sharon when we were here in 2013 so I was prepared for this.

Below, after Nana parked the rickshaw (behind the tree) and we had a chai in the restaurant (building in back), this family was having a group photo taken. I decided to start early by asking if I could take their photo. No problem. 

Making more friends after walking into the village.
  

Jill & friends.

Same friends & me – selfie.

We weren’t there long before two boys came up to us and reached up to stamp our foreheads. Nana called this forehead paint “warchari” (pronounced war-chari) and said we were Warcharis (holy persons) for the day now. Ok, whatever …

An entire family excited to see, meet and talk with us.

Women in the chai pub happy to pose for me.

People working in the chai pub. I didn’t want to leave anyone out.

Chai selfie!

More chai store friends. 

This man was very interested in us, welcomed us to Alandi and gave us each a banana. He claimed to have owned at least a section of Alandi (a building and a couple of vendor carts), so he must be a very important man (note the mustache). We’ll call him The Mayor.

We went into a few temples and Nana gave us some history lessons. How nice is that? Nana is not only a safe driver who knows his way around, he can translate for us AND is a wealth of knowledge.

After lunch we came across a group of women and children waiting near a bus (I believe it was a chartered bus). They were so colorful I asked if I could take their photo. Oh, the joy. Yes. Yes. Giggles from everyone. It was a total giggle-fest. Even Jill and I were giggling. Even Nana was giggling!

Then women and children who were already on the bus came out of the bus to be in the photo. More giggles. Everyone was giggling. I’m still giggling!

After showing the photos to the women, I turn around and there’s Jill already being asked to be in another family’s photo (Nana looking on in back).

Another group of women happy to see me. Just look at the joy in their faces. In particular, the woman right next to me. This is the best thing ever.

When we were in “The Biggie” (the temple where St. Dnyaneshwar took Samadhi) Nana told us we should say to people staring at us (because everyone there was staring at us) “Jay Hare” or “Ram Krishna.” We followed his direction and immediately those who weren’t smiling instantly grew big smiles.

This baby, too, must be a Warchari.

Jill finds more friends.

Here’s the boy who christened my forehead earlier in the day. He actually came up to me three times today wanting to put more paint on my face. I made him happy by taking a selfie with him.

People standing nearby also wanted selfies.
  

As we were preparing to leave the village I saw these kids playing in a walkway. I tried to get them to pose for a photo but they didn’t speak English and I think they were either afraid of me or thought I was a crazy woman. Understandable. So Nana rounded them up and posed with them. Beautiful!

This is the guard outside the restaurant who kept an eye on Nana’s rickshaw all day.

On the way back to Pune, Nana told us he was really happy and that he had a really good time with us. We all had a good time. We laughed a lot and giggled some too. C’mon, admit it. You’re smiling, too. 🙂

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Today’s post is dedicated to photos taken with the people of Alandi. I have many other very good photos I took today (more people, the river, temples, colors) I’ll be categorizing and will post throughout the week.

Blogged on Amma’s MacBook from iNdia with LOVE!