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