bangles

Nizams

Hyderabad is full of them! everywhere you look there is a stall or shop selling bangles – I bought a bunch of them and prob got robbed blind but i had just gone to the Mecca Masjid so figured that karma was on my side.

This was the first mosque I’ve gone to in India and I happened to walk in right when the namaz (prayer) was being recited so decided to join in. The place can hold 3 hundred thousand people at capacity but today there were only about a couple hundred – but I think every single one of them was staring at me because they could tell I didn’t know what I was doing. When it was over, three guys, one of whom was about 6 ft tall and 250 pounds started walking right towards me – I was sure there were going to start freaking out and start questioning me so I tried to avoid them as I made my way towards the exit, but no luck – the big guy stopped right between me and the exit, stuck his big, fat hand out towards me, and in Urdu I could barely understand, asked me for a donation to help keep the place clean! man, my heart was beating a mile a minute – I gave him a couple bucks and headed straight out for the bazaars..