Renuka, girl wonder!

Tonight Renuka, a girl in my Global Corps group showed us around Dharwad, the town right next to Hubli.
Abby and I ventured onto the bus, and got plenty of stares, however we met a nice man who told us the (wrong) stop to get off of. We had to walk for awhile to finally find Renuka, and the bus stop we were supposed to get off at. The first stop on our adventure was eating pani puri. It’s a snack food, that’s basically a crispy cracker bowl, that they fill with this cold soup. The crispy bowl is bite sized too, so you put the whole thing in your mouth and then bite. It was… interesting. The only bad thing was the liquid was cold, which made me feel like… I probably shouldn’t be eating it. It was pretty good, but after about 3 or 4 we had enough. Then Renuka took us to the main street, where it seemed like everyone in the town was out and about. We wandered in and out of shops and stopped at different stands to look at everything that was being sold. Renuka was so cute, she bought us SO many sweets, and fruits, and then, at the end she bought us cake! And she refused to let us pay for anything. She was so, so, kind. She also took us to her temple, where she worships Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, and showed us her university. This weekend we’re going to have a “slumber” at her house, and hang out and watch Bollywood movies.

Renuka is originally from Mumbai, and she’s going to be at home when we go visit Mumbai, so we’ll have someone else to show us around! She’s a very sweet girl, and was so excited to hang out with us. She loves American culture and was asking us so many questions. Her parents marriage story was really cool to, it goes a little something like this:

Both her parents grew up in Mumbai, and her mom and dad went to the same college together. Her dad because a sailor, and so her mom’s crush increased even more. They were friends and liked to hang out, but then, he left for a few months on a sailing assignment. During this time, it was arranged for her to meet a potential match for marriage. Her mom was dreading the day that this guy was going to come over. She opened the door and it was her sailor crush! Her parents had arranged with his parents for the two of them to get married. Apparently her grandparents were really progressive because her mom and her dad are not only from different states but different castes.

It was a cool story to hear, and we’re going to meet her parents this weekend, so I’m excited to hear more about it. Hearing everyone’s marriage story is really fascinating to me, because it’s either a story about arranged marriage, or some epic love marriage tale.