We want Praschant. . .!

a Prashant parade
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To be added to the list of reasons I love India: Indian Idol.

Coming to India I was hoping to get to be here during at least one festival. Well - who needs festivals when you have the Indian Idol finale? One of the semi-finalists grew up in Darjeeling so the city is crazy for him. The night of the final show (before a week of voting) was full of school children parading down the streets and people cheering and chanting far into the night. It is basically mass hysteria - I have no idea what will happen if he wins - or worse - if he loses. I’ll try to keep you updated.

red panda
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Otherwise I love Darjeeling. It is easy to find ones way around and it isn’t too crowded. We ate pizza and I experienced my first Indian movie theatre. It was amazing! Tickets only cost 50 rupees (about $1.25) and the snack bar had nachos, caramel corn, and samosas. We saw Ratatouille (in English) I lover every second of it!

We also went to the zoo. They have red pandas - which were the highlight, that and the wildcats were very vocal - it was fun to hear the tigers and leopards roar.