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January 30  - February 2, 1999

After fighting off infection and celebrating Mike Schloff's 30th birthday, Jeff and Mike returned to Madras. Because Mike was very interested in buying some Indian instruments for his collection, we had done some reading and discovered that India's center for musical instrument development was in Madras. The Lonely Planet told us the center was open on Saturday from 9-1; so we got up early Saturday morning and headed out. When we arrived we were told it was closed until Monday. We spent the remainder of the day looking at various handicraft shops for carpets, sculptures and knickknacks. On Sunday, after meeting up with Josh and Rochelle, who had left us in our sickened state in Bangalore and went to the city of Mahabalapuram, we went to try to see the highly promoted India vs. Pakistan cricket match. These two archrivals hadn't played a match in over 10 years, and finding a ticket was "not possible." It was like we were standing outside Joe Robbie stadium asking fathers with children for their tickets to the Superbowl, (which coincidentally, was going to be played later that day). During our quest for tickets Josh decided he was "finis" with looking, and was going to continue his quest for carpet. An hour later we decided we were also "finis." We spent the next several hours in a rickshaw, going from store to temple to market that all turned out to be closed because it was Sunday. The day would have been a complete failure had we not gotten to see the Great Bombay Circus that evening, which almost was a failure itself, when we were nearly ejected for taking flash photography.

The Great Bombay Circus was held in a tent made for 10,000 people, but in India that means 20,000 plus standing room. It all started with a taxi ride that got us within one-half kilometer of the event. At that point, the cab came to a dead stop due to the people, cars, and vendors packing the street leading to the tent. In India there is no such thing as crowd control; so, if someone decided they wanted to drive a busload of people to the front door of the tent they could, and they did - honking the whole time even while stopped for several hours. Once we bought our gold circle tickets, ice cream cones, popcorn, and Pepsi's, we sat and waited for India's version of the Greatest Show on Earth! The performers were mostly semi-trained young girls wearing padded leotards and outfits. In India skinny means poor, which is why Waldman is said to have 'the body of a king' by many of the locals! Often the acts were performed on rusty old equipment. The animals seemed weary and dejected; they even paraded a hippopotamus around the ring leading him with a bushel of lettuce. Some of the highlights were: 2 motorcycles in a metal spherical cage, contortionists, balancing acts, and, best of all, the assembling of the safety net for the finale - trapeze act. Groups of 12 men gathered around each corner of the net and heaved all at once to place a wooden pole underneath the thick rope for support. Of course, just as they had done during the final scenes of every movie we saw in India, three quarters of the crowd got up and left while the trapeze stars were still flying through the air! We were sure the safety net would be knocked to the ground by the throngs of exiting families. The three hour circus was very entertaining, and worth every rupee of our 45 rupee ticket fee - 1 U.S. dollar!

Monday, our last day in Madras, was the day we had set aside for purchasing Indian souvenirs. We got up early, went to the Musical Development Center, saw many beautiful instruments, but found no one who could answer any questions regarding quality or tell us where we could buy instruments- specifically sitars. We were forced to consult our touring bible the Lonely Planet, and that led us to AE Darwood and Sons. After several hours of looking, playing and negotiating, Mike wound up purchasing two sitars, one Veena (bass sitar), one harmonium (a sitting accordion), and a dugla drum. Even Jeff, caught up in the musical excitement, has two beautifully hand carved wooden sitars on a boat heading for St. Paul (bet you didn't know that it was a port town). While Mike, Jeff and Rochelle were waxing musically, Josh returned for the third time to the carpet shop, ready to close his deal. In a fit of "Carpet Diem" (seize the rug) Josh has 5 hand-knotted wool and silk carpets following the sitars on their way to Minnesota. While Josh was ironing out the carpet details, Jeff browsed the shop, and wound up purchasing a 3 foot hand carved cedar wood statue of Ganesh, the elephant headed Hindu god of good fortune and wisdom. As if that wasn't enough, we then went to a C.D. store, and purchased 15 compact discs ranging from Ravi Shankar to devotional chanting. Even Rochelle, who didn't buy any sitars, rugs, c.d.'s, or Ganesh's, wound up dropping some coin. She had to buy a plane ticket leaving Madras the next day. We would have been sad to see her head off to Sri Lanka, but we will be rejoining her in Thailand.

At 5:30 am Tuesday morning we got on a train, and began the long journey out of India. It would be forty hours north to the city of Lucknow.