The Weather....

I have to say that over the last 2 days.... the weather here in Bangalore has surprised me!!

For over the last 6 months, the weather has been consistent.... SUNNY.... EVERY DAY!!! No Rain, No overcast-grey days!!! Honestly!!!

Yesterday was the first day in a really long time that it was overcast and grey the whole day!! It was a little breezy, almost felt like it was going to rain, but it did not!! I have to admit, it took me by surprise!!

Again today... overcast.....

I don't mind it.... especially since we had so many consistent days of gorgeous weather.... and most importantly, we were spared from the brutal winter that was experience back at home.

The typical weather patterns here anticipate the onset of the monsoon season in May/June time frame! Something to look forward too.....

Mira Making a Rotlo

For those of you from India, you will be able to relate to this post... sorry, it probably does not translate well for the rest of you....

Back in our home town village in Gujarat, called Madhapur, one of the comfort foods that we would eat is Bajra-na-rolta. Essentially it is a thick buckwheat pita bread - loosely translated.

Anyways, when my dads sister and brother were visiting, we had rotla for dinner one day. Mira was getting into the action making the rotla!!

Yummmmm.... it makes my mouth water thinking about it!!

How Many People???

How many people can you fit into a car?? Look at this picture!!

The car is driving on the road.... with the doors open!!! And there are people sitting on top!! This is definitely something that you would not see on the roads back at home!!

Pictures from the Wedding

Entrance to the wedding hall

All the flowers were Real!!  So beautiful!!

The lunch area after the wedding

The mandap...  all the flowers were real here too!!

At the reception in BLR

The lights hanging from the trees looked so magical

Bea

The dining area

Beautiful lights hanging down

Huge flower baskets hanging from trees

The baskets were at least 5 ft in Diameter

Here are some pictures from the wedding in Hyderbad and the reception in Bangalore.

All the wedding events were at 5 star Hotels here in India. That give you an idea of the 'attention to detail' that went into the wedding.

All of the flower garlands that decorated the mandap were real.... they were beautiful... it had jasmine and lotus flowers.

Everything was gorgeous!!

The reception in Bangalore was breathtaking as well. The reception was outdoors in the 'grounds' of the Taj hotel. The grounds had huge trees from which huge flower pieces were hung. In addition, there were lights hanging from the trees. It was absolutely amazing...

The pictures of the reception are at end the end of the slide show... they don't really capture the full effect, but you can see a glimpse of what I was talking about.

Indus Aquatics Meet

Off for the big swim meet!

Ready to go!!

Look who has the lead!!

Milan gets a medal!!

Mira is ready to go!!

And she is off!

See her in Lane 2

And a great finish!!

Written by Vim


“Aquatics Meet on the 4th March 2009 (Prep 2 – Grade 3). These will be full day events for the grades involved. If you plan to attend, please be seated by 9.15 am at the swimming pool and do come prepared for the heat. A reminder that winners are calculated according to their speed. Heats and finals are combined – all children swim and their individual times are recorded. The 3 fastest times are the medallists – just like in the Olympics!”…….

Yes…another day of competition at Indus. The heats involved 25m and 16m races for all the grades, in Freestyle, Breast-Stroke and Back-Stroke. Its was 38°C, sunny clear skies and the atmosphere was filled with so much excitement it did feel like a scene from the swimming meets in the Olympics.

How did M&M do? Milan was up first to race in his year. He did AWESOME for a Prep II kid who only a year ago before coming to India learned to swim and was just barely gaining confidence in the pool, swam the race to 3rd place for 16m. A Bronze medal victory.

Mira, in several heats managed 4th for all 3 styles of swim even though she won, an event her timing we just off. I was still very proud of her achievement. She so dearly wanted a medal as brother had won one. So with dad’s encouragement (OK from the days of soccer at Rochester Hills which many of you know) she also gained confidence and swam the 4x25m girls relay to 3rd place. A Bronze medal victory.

Both kids did very well, in a tough field of great swimmers. Some of the children really showed there potential and I have to say were all amazing. There were glimpse’s of Michael Phelps in our friends son Andrew Patnode Grade 2 and our Swedish neighbour Konstan Grade 3 – both of whom were ‘barge pole’ clear winners in all heats – they swept the medals board in their respective grades as well as the Trophies for best swimmers. I do have to give a BIG CLAP to those kids who did not win and those who came in last, they did there very best they were also winners at this event and best of all they all came out of the pool with smiles in their faces. That’s what its’ about enjoying the moment not winning all the time.

Communication (phones)

So, just to give you an idea on the phones that we have in the house....

Vim's Cell, Dev's Cell, Spare Cell (my parents are using it now), Vonage phone, and the 'land-line'. Of course in between all the working phones there is Milan's non-working cell phone. If you recall, Milan used to take his 'fake' phone and have real conversations.

Well, those one-side-fake conversations have diminished. Now he is moving on to 'real' communication!! Since we have all these 'phones' in the house, he wanted in on the action.

No, he did not get his own working cell phone.... he has figured out how to use the 'land-line' phone. The best part, the land-line phone is connected to all the houses in the complex. So basically, you type a 4 digit extension, and you can talk to anyone in the complex. The best part - the extension is the same as the house number.... it makes it easy for those of us that are exceeding memory capacity!!

Anyways, now Milan calls his buddy Sajan everyday (often several times a day). He will have a general conversation (boys stuff). Every so often you will hear 'sweeeeet' and 'awesome'. It is pretty funny to listen too!!! So much for the 'fake phone'..... he has moved on to the real thing!!

By the way..... 8 months down...... hard to believe. It was a year ago that things were official about the move. So much has happened in just one year!! wow!!

Hyderbad

Trip to Hyderabad was good!!!

We attended the wedding which was really nice. With the family being from Michigan, there was a pretty large crowd that travelled for the wedding from Michigan. It was nice to see the familiar faces!! I will post some pictures soon.

Hyderabad was a nice city.... very typical Indian town, densely populated, and slightly run down (at least the areas that we saw). We were able to make a shopping trip on Sunday. Hyderabad is known for jewelry, especially pearls.... say no more!! I was able to get some new jewels for myself!! It was fun shopping!!

The kids survived just fine at home with my dad! Not that we were worried... OK, maybe some of us were worried (my mom!!)!!

Now we are looking forward to the trip at the end of the month....