Sai Baba Guru

We have some friends who are big Sai Baba followers and we found out that he was in town ... so we decided to make the 3-hour trek to go see him. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures once we got there, but it was an interesting experience! We got there and entered the auditorium-like place and thousands of people were already seated cross-legged on the floor... women and men divided. We got great seats right in front since our friends have a special status. The music started and everyone started chanting and clapping along as we waited for Sai Baba to arrive. He eventually came... but because of his old age (83) and hip injury he can't really walk, so he was escorted in a car through the place and since mama and I were seated really close we got to see him an arm's length away. He didn't give a speech or talk at all. He just came in ... went into a separate room where he had arranged to "interview" a few followers and when it was all finished he got back into his car and slowly left again. Mama was a little excited because she got to see the actress Goldie Han (who walked right in front of us and sat 4 people to our left!) Coooooooooool... My first celebrity sighting :)
This is our dear friend Nandini.

Sai Baba built a lot of infrastructure for the people of his hometown.. namely a hospital free for all, schools, etc.
This is a building for one of the schools ... obviously for music :)
Some children wanting money... we gave them some biscuits and they apparently weren't pleased one bit.