Off to Gujarat

We are off to Gujarat tomorrow morning. To the small home town of my family, Madhapur. My Grandfather, mom's dad, has a home there. Along with my dad's sister, and dad's brother. It will be nice to meet up with family while we are there. The good thing is that my mom will be there with us. She can take us around and introduce us to all of the other distant relatives that live there also.

We leave in the morning at 9am. I am not sure if we will have internet access while we are there so my next post may not be until we get back (Sunday).

Before I sign off, I will post some pictures of the garba night that was this past Saturday!!


Mira, Milan and Rohin


















Milan and Shruti (yes, this is THE Shruti)













Me with a new friend that we me - Her name is Jignasa (ironically, she used to live in Atlanta too, this is just like my other friend with the same name)

Catching up

Finally have some time to update the blog.... and the pictures are on the computer. So I will try to fill you in with pictures!

First, here is Mira and Milan's friend - Aditi and Pranav. Aditi is a year older than Mira and she is really sweet. Pranav is a year older than Milan and he is a also a sweet kid but he is teaching Milan some interesting habits!!



Now look at this picture.... read Aditi's shirt!!




Yes, that is her shirt, and some of you may remember seeing Mira wearing the same shirt! I think that they were destined to be friends!! Mira, sadly grew out of her shirt like that and has given it to her cousin! It is just funny to see the same shirt here in Bangalore! Well, actually.... there are more situations like this since there are so many families from the US. At the bus stop, you will see kids with the same shoes - Skechers from back home! T-shirts from target and old navy!! It is really refreshing to see it when it happens!! It brings me back to the days when weekend shopping was incomplete unless I made at least one stop to Target! Oh, how I miss Target!!

Here are some pictures from the Ganesh Puja.





Here are some pictures of Mira and Milan. I think that Mira was the last to get her 'formal' uniform. It was well over a month into the school year before she got it. The first thing... they made a boys uniform instead of a girls. OK, Mira Lina is a boy's name? Really?? Well, it is India, things happen. So they promised a quick turnaround of the uniform.... quick by India standards is not quick for us!! There were other delays.... the uniform was done, but delivered to the wrong grade ( a Fourth grade class) and the teacher just kept it for a week!! Anyways, check out the picture of her in her uniform!!




Here are some pictures of the handsome little guy.



Did anyone notice a difference in the 2 pictures!! Look closely!! Yes, the cute handsome smiles is no more!! It will be years of the awkward toothless-grin transititioning to the buck-teeth phase.... oh.... so sad!! I wonder if the dentist would mind if I super glued it back into his mouth!!

On Friday the kids had an international day at school. Each of the grades represented a different country. Milan grade was Pakistan and India, and Mira's was USA. It was a really nice perform ace. My mom was able to go also. She saw the school and met the teachers. It was really nice.

Oh, and we made a change in Mira's instrument. She was taking Piano. But when I looked at her book it was basic things that she had already learned since she had been taking Piano lessons for almost 2 years. So, we decide to change. It was between 3 choices - Tabla (Indian hand drums), Harmonium (an India keyboard) and the Sitar (an Indian string instrument). What do you think she went for?? Well, she had to clear the decision with my dad, bapa. So she called him and asked him what she should pick. My dad loves musical instruments and he is plays the harmonium almost daily! So, the final choice.....the tabla!! Sorry Mrs. Fisher (her old Piano teacher), we figured that she should take advantage of the opportunity to learn Indian instruments being here in India. She can resume piano once we are back home!!

Tonight our neighborhood is having a garba/raas night (this is an Indian dance night to celebrate the upcoming Diwali Festival). I will post pictures of it soon!!

Hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoying the fall festivities. If anyone makes a trip to the cider mill, have a few donuts and a caramel apple (with nuts of
course for me!). That was one of my favorite fall treats!!

Drivers and Driving....

First, let me start of with an update on the little guy. He is fine, the xray showed some really healthy bones void of breaks or fractures... it is what we suspected but better to be safe, right. So the final diagnosis - a sprain. The treatment - a sling. Today he was off to school with the sling on, it wasn't 5 minutes into the trip to the bus stop that he was itching to take the sling off. I am sure once he was on the bus and he took it off!! We will see if Mira gives the full report!!

The rest of this post will be around drivers.... and driving....

So taking you back about a week. My mom arrived on Wednesday, Sept 17, and Thursday our driver Devraj rushes in a panic and tells Vim he has to go home (2-3 hours away back to Mysore) because his dad is sick and not doing well. We knew of his fathers illness when we went to visit his family. OK, we say, go take care of your family. Now my mom was here, and no driver. I quickly talked the 'facilities' guy here are GM that handles all the drivers to hook us up. Things worked out for us, he found us a guy that could cover for what I thought was a week. Anyways, he started on Friday, worked Sat, wanted Sunday off. And he started a new job on Monday (a full time gig with someone else!). OK, back to the drawing board.... Oh, and on Saturday we learned that Devraj's dad passed away so we knew that he was not coming back anytime soon. So, then we got another driver that could cover us for a week - he was a driver for another ISP who was in Korea. OK, this worked out good. He started Monday and he was great. This was going to work out.... for a week anyways!

So now moving to Tuesday, Devraj shows up at the house and says to Vim 'I need to talk to madam'. Vim calls (mind you that my boss is in town) telling me the driver needs to see me. I tell him to wait til I get home. Then I get a text from Vim 'He wants money'. OK, I tell him to come to the office, I had a 1/2 hour break coming up where my boss needed to take a conference call. Devraj shows up and says he wants money. I ask him 'how much', he says 'whatever you want to give'. I knew that this was not going anywhere... I then asked him point blank, tell me how much you want and we can go from there. Now keep in mind drivers/maids don't have much money. They don't have bank accounts, they basically can't get loans or anything so they frequently rely on their employers to help them out from time to time. I felt bad from him so I gave him what he asked for and made a 're-payment' plan. I handed him them money and I said 'how do I know that you wont just take this money and never come back?'. He looked at me with his eyes that looked worn from all the grief and pain that he has been thru, and said, 'don't worry madam, I will be back'. I knew then that his word was good enough for me. He walked away and I went back to my office, the whole walk back I knew that I did the right thing.

Now moving to Wednesday, things take a twist. I was on my way home it was 6:30 almost 7, and things were fine. We were almost home and the driver stopped to turn into the complex. There were pedestrians in the way so we paused slightly before we completed the turned, just then a motorcycle slammed into the back of the car. Talk about panic! He was flat on the ground (not wearing a helmet). I thought he was dead. Some bystanders scooped him up off the road and grabbed his bike and brought that all out of the road. I was gawking out of the window in sheer shock!! My initial instinct was to get out of the car and see if he was ok, I paused and hesitated. The driver went to take care of the situation. About 20 seconds later he hops in the car and starts driving. I was a little concerned.... 'leaving the accident scene'. He said he would take me home and then go back. All the time I kept asking if he was OK? The driver could not answer me, I think he was fearing the response to the same question. So, I get home, still a little shaken up. And the driver goes back to the scene. Anyways, about an hour or so later, still no call from the driver. I called him. He said they took him to the hospital, he is OK. But, we learned that he was drunk and had a bottle of whiskey in his pocket! Hopefully he learned his lesson never to drink and drive!! And I learned that I don't think I want to drive in India!!

BUSY!

Sorry for not posting for a few days....

Things have been BUSY on this end!! Mom is enjoying being here and the kids are loving having here her!! Manjula is learning Guju food!! Yeah!!

I have my Director here visiting India from Michigan. He is here for 3 days so I have been busy in meetings with him all day. It has been good.

On top of all of this.... Milan fell at school yesterday on his elbow. He is not going to school today. He insisted on going to the bus stop to rub into the other kids that he was getting to stay home!!! Vim is taking him to get an x-ray to be sure that everything is OK. But, by the smiles that were on his face when he was saying 'bye' to his friends, I think that everything is OK!

I will post a quick update on the X-ray so you all are not worried! : )

Take care and I will be back to posting in a few days!!

Mom Arrives!!

She made it!! There were a few delays and she arrived 17 hours later than what was planned. She missed her connection from Paris, and as a result was re-routed thru Dubai.

Needless to say, everyone was happy when she made it home!! The kids kept saying 'nana', 'nana', and trying to tell her things! Their eyes lit up when they saw her (hers did too!)! I was happy to see here. Even Manjula was happy to meet my mom.

The first full day was yesterday (Thursday), she was adjusting to jet-lag coupled with the 17-hour delay!! Today, she is doing better. One of the tasks that we had for my mom was to teach Manjula how to make Gujarati food. So, everyone had their list of things for my mom to teach her..... the first items they made together - Gujarati Dal, Green Beans shak (mira's favorite), and most importantly - Roti!! Don't get me wrong, Manjula's food is great. But it definitely has the 'south Indian' flair. And her Roti's.... well lets just say I can make better Roti's than her. And many of you very well know, my roti skills are not exercised very often. Anyways, Manjula would make rotis that are very large, and always very chewy. For us, we recognized that they were not 'the best' but hey, they were made, and ready so we ate them. My mom had tried Manjula's Roti's the first day she arrived. The first thing that my mom said - she did not put oil when making the dough - she pin-pointed the problem!! It is all of her roti experience! Anyways, yesterday, my mom taught her how to make them and ohhhhhh myyyyyy god! They were scrumptious!! Soft, melt in your mouth, rotis!! Hopefully Manjula can replicate when she is on her own!! Who knew there was such an art to making rotis???

Anyways, enough about the rotis..... This weekend we will be hanging out with my mom. It will be nice!!

Oh.... got to add something here. So, most of you asked 'what is the work attire at GM'. Well for men it is simple and similar to back at home. However, the ladies almost all of them where Indian suits (chudi-dhar, or salwar kameez). So, the big question is... what does Dev wear? Right? My usual work attire back at home is slacks, blouses/sweaters and sometimes blazers. Pretty standard. Well since being here, I did not think that I should change. So I continued on my usual path. Well, this past Tuesday GM India was celebrating the 100th year anniversary. As part of the celebration they had all different activities going on. One activity, they asked the entire organization to dress is ethnic clothing. OK... so this was my big chance.... I could cross the line and wear Indian.... should I? shouldn't I? Oh, such a dilemma.... What do you think that I did? ......... Yep, I did it.... I wore Indian!! And, I think that I will do it again..... It was pretty darn comfortable. I just could not get the 'odhni or scarf' to behave. Here all the ladies just gracefully let it drape over their shoulders without any pins holding it in place. I felt like I was fiddling with this thing all day!! Maybe the more I wear them, the better I will get at it!! I will keep you posted!!

Thats all for now!!

Interesting Observations

Can one of the computer tech-ies help us out on this one. Our Internet is temperamental. It sometimes works, and other times does not.... OK, we can write it off as 'this is India', and accept it. The interesting thing is that in most cases when the Internet is down, the vonage still works. Hmm, vonage works off Internet, and it is functional, but the Internet is not working. Is this something that can be explained???

Switching subjects.... I have to write about Milan again. For the last few weeks there is this little girl that come up to me at the bus stop and asks 'where's Milan'. He is usually lagging behind with his buddies. As soon as Milan makes his way, this little girl's eyes light up and she says a big hello to him. Now, I did not think anything of it, initially. However, this past weekend, we were at the neighborhood Ganesh parade, well this little girl kept asking about Milan and whenever she spotted him, her eyes lit up!! I noticed it... it was very obvious. I mentioned it to Vim and he noticed it too. I think that this little girl has a crush on Milan. The good thing... she is a nice Indian girl, she comes from a good family and most importantly - she is Gujarati!! Should we just arrange the marriage now?? We are in India after all... the land of arranged marriages!! : )

Another thing that is worthy to discuss.... does anyone know what a finger bowl is?? Think about it for a minute. I was first tipped off on the finger bowl when I came to India last time (12 years ago) and thought that it was a novel idea. So the finger bowl is something that you get at a restaurant at the end of meal to clean your fingers. This bowl is filled with warm water and a lime. This is perfect for cleaning out all of the 'Indian food' from your fingers. It is great! So now, the kids are loving the finger bowl concept. Many times we use the finger bowl and bribery. "if you don't finish you meal, you won't get the bowl", it works like a charm. As soon as they clear you plate the finger bowl is not far behind. Usually vim or I are first to finish, hence first to get the bowl. The kids are then motivated to finish up so they too can get their bowl!! It works great. Now the locals use the bowls for just their fingers, usually just the Right hand, and they are done in 20 seconds. Our family is a bit different. We are both hands in, and full hands, not just the fingers. We are swirling our hands, squeezing the lime, and enjoying the warm water. We usually are playing in the water until the water gets cold, or the waiter comes to take them away!! After they bowls are gone we all take a minute to smell our fingers and enjoy the lemony-fresh scent!! Milan usually makes all of us smell his hands! We are probably making a spectacle of ourselves with our finger bowl process!!! But, that is OK, the end result is clean plates from the kids and clean fingers too!! Bring on the finger bowls!!

General Update

So, I thought that it was interesting to share the exact words around why our globe was taken. So here are the 'details':

'As you must be aware, the Kashmir issue is a highly sensitive one and it is under dispute. The world map and globe belonging to Ms Devyani, shows Kashmir in Pakistan. This type of maps or globe is not available in India, and is totally banned for anyone bringing it from abroad. This was reason being for the map and globe to be confiscated by customs.

Kindly note, customs will not return the map and the globe, and if at all they intend to give back they will erase out the disputed section in the map.

For better understanding of our import law, please find attached a 2 page sheet containing the latest import rules. If you review the rules, it clearly forbids bringing in political undesirable literature.'

Are you buying that?? Really? I am still blown away, and there is nothing that can be done. I asked if I could have it back so that I can ship it back home. NOPE, no can do! Oh well!

This weekend was really nice. We stayed close to home and hung out. On Friday we had some friends over for Pizza, Dominos. It was great. On Saturday we went into town to do some shopping, on the way back we had a late lunch at a Kabob Place. It was GREAT!! The food was awesome. They have these veggie kabobs with corn and paneer (it is all minced together) with the right kick of spice. Oh, my mouth is watering. They also serve these great lamb kabobs. These give my cousin Harry's kabobs some fierce competition.

Sunday was just hanging out at home. The kids enjoyed this. Mira started the day with a bit of a tummy ache so we decided to just lay low. In the afternoon she was feeling better and guess what we did.... we decided to dip into our sea shipment stash. We dug out some cake mix and decided to make cupcakes. Now, if you have been reading the blog.... the first thing that would come to mind.... 'did you get an oven'? Right??? Nope, still no oven.... but we have a neighbor around the corner with an oven. It worked out perfect. A few differences from back at home - had to convert the temp from F to C. And the oven is a bit smaller than back at home... only one tray at a time! The 24 cupcakes were quickly disbursed thru the neighborhood. Mira was off delivering to all of her friends. We were left with only 6 for us. I only got one.... but it was good!!!

Oh.... another thing.... so remember the boasting I was doing about the 'in home massage', well I may have jinxed matters. For 2 weeks now she has stiffed us.... well not just us, but my neighbor too. Ritu says that she is normally really regular and never misses a week. Hopefully she gets back into the groove. Ritu did talk to her and she was really sick so that is why she did not show. Hopefully this week she will be back!

This weekend was nice and low key so we were able to catch up with family over the phone!! It was so nice to catch up and hear the voices. Gotta love the Vonage!!

I will post some pictures from an activity that they had yesterday (Sunday) in our neigborhood. It was a culmination of the Ganesh Puja that was 10 days ago. So the tradition is that on the 10th day, the Ganesh to which you do the puja is taken on a parade to a body of water and dunked in. So all weekend we were seeing HUGE Ganesh status on trailer carts with a huge parade of people dancing as they were 'moving' the Ganesh. In the neighborhood we did a mini-parade down the streets and we put the Ganesh in the water fountains. It was really nice to see. The best part, it was raining thru most of it, we were soaked... but it added to the fun. It was great for us and the kids to see these Hindu Traditions.

Hope you all had a good weekend. We are getting ready for our first house guest! My mom comes Wednesday Morning!! Yeah!!