India series, part 1: With a little help from the Indian Air Force, I begin my India series without actually beginning it

I have spent the past five or six hours working on the first post of my India series, but I have encountered a problem. I promised to get the first post up today and today ends in just ten minutes. I have edited, processed and placed all the pictures in the post, but I am not even half-way through the text.

The text is vexing me a bit.

Once I finish it, I will still have another hour or two ahead of me to attempt to straighten it out a bit. By then, we will be several hours into tomorrow. Worse yet, I will have to get up in just a couple of hours to drive Margie into Anchorage so that she can spend the rest of the week babysitting Lynxton.

I don't want to do that. And I don't want to rush through the remainder of the text. By now, regular readers have become accustomed to this kind of thing from me, anyway. So, to make certain I do get a real post up before this day ends, the Indian Air Force has come to my rescue.

Here is one of their planes, flying over me as I take a walk.

I don't even know what kind of plane it is. I could probably get on Google and find out, but by the time I do it will likely be tomorrow and then I would not have succeeded at getting an India post up today.

So, with a little help from the Indian Air Force, I now begin my India series without actually beginning it.

I should have the real post up at a decent time Tuesday.

I would proof read, but if I do, I won't get this up until tomorrow.

So here goes - I post now, while there is still a minute left in the day.

Series index:

India series, part 1: With a little help from the Indian Air Force, I begin my India series without actually beginning it
Return to India, Part 2: Pain beneath the fan, a sprawling tree, monkey on a string; those I would soon join on a train ride; the garland
Return to India, Part 3: My Facebook friend, Ramz, her mischievous brother, her nationally recognized achiever mom, her dad at the wheel
India series, Part 4: When you overtake an elephant on the highway, be sure to pass on the right; birthday remembrance; In Wasilla, pass "oversize" on the left
Return to India, Part 5: I wander the cold, empty, streets of Bangalore
Return to India, Part 6: A cow, blessed and safe; Suji takes me to lunch, then goes out with Bhanu to do some wedding shopping
Return to India, Part 7-A: A three-snack outing as mother and daughter shop for Suji's wedding
Return to India, Part 7-B: On the painted holiday of the final full moon of winter, Sujitha and Kruthika go back to get a necklace
A spacer only - the Buddha and the glamour poster ad
Return to India, Part 8: henna, to highlight her beauty and deepen the love between bride and groom; a moment on the way to the train
Return to India, Part 9: A prayer and a blessing for Suji; we head for the train; three calls to Manu
Time for another spacer - the green man who showed up at the railroad station
Return to India, Part 10: The train to Pune, part 2: Sujitha by the window as a thin thread of her India flows by
Return to India, Part 11: On the train, part 3: Ganesh Ravi - Photographer: how we discovered his hidden talent
Return to India, Part 12: On the train, part 4: After dark
Return to India, Part 13: train ride, part 5: we click and clatter into Pune, take a perilous walk and step into a world beyond imagination
Return to India, Part 14: The groom his wedding suit; me in mine
Return to India, Part 15: A function to mark the final night Sujitha would spend with her family before the wedding
Return to India, Part 16: Inside the Biradar house: portrait of an elder woman - portrait of a young girl
Return to India, Part 17: We dine in the home of the groom's parents, then join in the Puja of Kalasha
Return to India, Part 18: Slideshow: Sujitha and Manoj at the wedding hall - Engagement and Haldi Night
Return to India, Part 19: The wedding band, in the visual style of Sgt. Pepper's (10 image slide show)
Return to India, Part 20: The groom rides a white horse to the temple, there is dancing in the street; Sujitha and Manoj are wed
Return to India, Part 21 - Benediction: Sujitha takes me to the sacred waters; fish dine - a crow flies

Comments

[cuppajava]

Bill,

Thank you for your earnestness in beginning the India series on the schedule that best works for you in accordance with your various personal commitments and your own high production standards. We are here WHENEVER you are ready to post about your India adventures.

[Shubhankar]

Received an alert from Google a week back when you mentioned Indian Air Force on your blog. Wonderful photographs. But then again, you *are* a photographer. Nevertheless, your photographs capture emotions beautifully. Lovely.

The aircraft you photographed is an An-32 transport aircraft flown by the Indian Air Force

[Logbook - Wasilla - Beyond]

cuppajava - I'm glad for your patience. Sometimes, I think it must take quite a bit to stick with my post, given the constant flucuation between what I think and write that I am going to do and then actually do.

[Logbook - Wasilla - Beyond]

Subhankar - it's a good surprise to find a comment from you. Thanks for the ID on the plane. Someday, you must share some of your knowledge and experience in the land of your birth with me.