Day 6

In the morning, Swati came by the Club with the driver. We'd hardly seen her at all for the past few days, so it was nice to have her around again. She wanted to take us to see her engineering college. Ok, she really just wanted an excuse to visit her engineering college so that her old teachers and administrators could ooh and ahh at her, but I didn't mind seeing it myself anyhow!

A women-only engineering college could never even exist in the U.S. (no one would go!) so it was interesting to note that the students there didn't even seem particularly nerdy. Certainly curious about the white dudes wandering around school, but not nerdy. Though it didn't even quite feel like a college, or at least not the kind I'm familiar with. The handmade notices about upcoming intramural sports events or openings on the school newspaper, along with the multi-story open courtyard made it seem a bit more like a high school, or at least like a small liberal-arts college. Nice place though.

To complete the This is Your Life tour for Swati, we went for breakfast/lunch to the cool hangout place that she and her schoolmates used to go to. Recognition by the owner got us priority seating in the crowded indoor/outdoor restaurant, and the girl who used to order one coffee to split amongst six friends flashed the big rupees and sprang for milkshakes!

On the way back, the driver dropped me off along the way so that I could take a rickshaw to Jai Hind Collection to pick up my suit. After a while I realized that it was finally my first moment out on my own in India, though in India, you're never actually alone. Thankfully, my suit was ready this time, and ooh baby, it's hot. We'll see if I can get up the courage to wear something this sparkly back home. The good news is that it cost about the same as the tux rental for the American wedding, and this one, I get to keep! And that includes the custom-made pants, alternate buttons, and additional embroidery on the collar, things you'd never even think of asking to change in the States. The clerk timidly asked "the madam comes?" and appeared relieved when my answer was negative.

In the afternoon we drove to the Saxena house for the mehendi ceremony, when all the women get their hands painted with henna patterns. It basically has a bridal shower feel to it, and it's not really a guy thing at all, but I wanted to check it out and get some pictures. Tony and Dennis did join the fun by getting henna "tattoos" on their upper arms. The best part was when the women sitting together on the rugs (including Swati's grandmother) would play the drum and hand cymbals and sing marriage songs.

As night fell, the four guys met up to go out with Pankaj and his wife Chitra again. I almost thought I would have to miss it for a second time because my neck was stiffeing up again, but a couple of aspirin solved that problem. We went to a new upscale club called Palazo. Couples were Rs.600 and unaccompanied males were Rs.1000 ($23!) I didn't see what unaccompanied females were, maybe they get paid to attend. Here's a quick lesson in Indian haggling. Doorman: "That's 4600 rupees". Pankaj: "Can we get any special consideration?" Doorman: "Ok, 3600". The entry fee was returned in the form of coupons that could be used for drinks and food, so in reality it actually wasn't that expensive, but the system seems to ensure that only whities and upper-class Indians are let inside.

After that place closed down, we moved to 10 Downing Street, a somewhat more pub-like establishment, though there was still plenty of dancing. There we met up with a group of people from the UK that the other guys had met on their first night out in Pune. Since everyone was having a pretty good time, we couldn't get a consensus on leaving until that place closed down, which was sometime around 4:30am on the day of Dennis's wedding. Well, that's when bachelor parties traditionally used to be, right? Of course, Tony and Arjan met some guys who took them out to still another place until 7am (I know because they were nice enough to give me and Dennis a call in our room to invite us down to breakfast then, what sweethearts!)