Last day in Miraj

Gave a small presentation with a fabulous powerpoint slideshow at the Wanless Hospital College of Nursing. It went off without a hitch once we got through the rough patches. It only started 30 minutes late and the audience was very hastily pulled together and very polite, given the last minute arrangements. There was a small snafu with communication which is quite common for me here in India, and the program was never advertised. So at the last minute we dragged together some willing and not-so-willing nursing students who were under the steady thumb of the lady- Mrs. -nurse- in- charge- hai. After the program, Nandakishore and I walked downtown twice to get a little steel mortar and pestal engraved for Timothy and the new hospice and new med room yet to be built and organized. We had to go twice because the electricity was out on the first trip. "load-sharing" they call it around here. So we passed this lovely Hanuman temple twice and turns out Saturday is Hanuman day around here and I got some valuable info about Mr. Hanuman from Nandakishore, including the small detail that ladies are not supposed to enter the Hanuman temple because Hanuman never married and did not hang out with ladies so it is considered improper, but in Miraj, ladies go to the temple anyway. Also, when Indian men marry, they are supposed to pay homage to Hanuman on their way to the wedding, kind of a batchelor devotion en-route to losing their batchelorhood. As we walked by the temple, I asked Nandakishore if he wanted to stop and pray there; he said "no" he already did. I missed it because I was looking at the temple on my left and Nandu was walking on my right. Apparently his devotional moment was brief.