Bangalore is FABULOUS! Spent the weekend there, I love it!! Big city- lots to do/see- but still has that small town feel. And the weather is perfect- think phx in October but with a light drizzle of rain ?

Speaking of doing and seeing- we did and saw a lot. I’ll try to be to the point about it, but eh…you know how that goes.

Part I: The garden city

We arrived on a Friday afternoon- my grandfather (my mother’s uncle) picked us up. He’s a sweet man- thin, tall with a slightly ruffled hair cul-de-sac up top. We all ate lunch together, took in a little kanada T.V, went on a walk through Cole’s park ( a very pretty little park close to their house….there is a large Muslim and Christian population in bangalore so all through our walk we’d come upon these beautiful mosques and churches.) My uncle (mother’s cousin) and his wife came home a few hours later. They are SUCH a lovely couple. That first night was chit chatted away…

The next day we took in the city. Went to Lalbaugh gardens first- there we saw this flower exhibition, it was like a contest to see who’d come up with the most original flower arrangements. Some of the creations were totally amazing! I took lots of pictures, so I’ll be sure to show you guys ?.
After we toured the gardens we headed home for some lunch and shut eye, then woke in time to head out again in the evening. (actually, in between sleep and heading out for the evening vibha and I got our eyebrows threaded in a REAL LIVE INDIAN beauty salon….I wish I could say something random or awesome happened, but no.)
That night we went out to this really upscale bar/restaurant/club…although I have serious doubts as to how clubby that place- it was really REALLY nice. We went because they had a dance floor- and our uncle, being the sweet guy that he is, was like- sadhu and vibhu like to dance, let’s go here.
No dancing happened that night. For one, the place was just too nice to just get up and dance and moreover, the place was barely full. So, despite the DJ’s protestations, we got up and left. By this time though it was about 10:30 and apparently every place worth going would close by 11. We spent the rest of the night, till about 12 I think, walking around downtown Bangalore, chatting, laughing about what some people were wearing…and about what some people were NOT wearing.
We came home exhausted and hungry but in the BEST of moods- ate, played cards and talked till late night then finally got to sleep…only to wake after 4 hours to leave for Mysore.

To be continued…

Thought for the day:

Eating- India's natonal pastime


Vocab for the day:

tiffin- a meal(anyone whos says it's just a snack is fooling themselves): not quite lunch, not quite dinner, but very filling and apparently an essential part of the day.

So today- today for me, tomorrow for you as I am in India and about 12.5 hrs ahead of AZ time- is my sister’s 19th birthday and my parents 24th wedding anniversary. Cool huh ? We’re celebrating vibha’s birthday here in grand south Indian style- my grandmother will wake her at 6 am, soak her from head to toe in oil and then line her feet with manjal (haldhi, turmeric). Then, after we’ve showered we’ll go to the temple, pray- come back and have something sweet.
I think we’re planning on taking her out for lunch with family- my uncle’s parents and my grandmother. Then we’ll come back and in the evening we’re celebrating with thulaj mama’s family- who are SO nice. Really, I can see why Thulaj mama is the way he is, his family is exceptionally loving, caring and giving. They’ve only known us for about 3 days and but I feel as if I’ve known them all my life. And they have the sweetest dog- Nix- who’s like a little teddy bear of love.
So that’s vibha’s birthday, on Friday we’ll continue the celebrations by going to see Harry Potter. For my parents though, sadly- this year I wont be able to do anything, so please call them and wish them or stop by to see them ? they’d love it!

Convo in Nalli-

We come in, a nice attendant (Attendant #1) approaches us: “what would you like to see madam?”
Us (me, vibha and my grandmother): “we’re looking for plain cotton organdy sari material” (notice HOW specific we were)
Attendant #1: “Printed silk sari’s are on the 3rd floor”
Us: “um, no, PLAIN ORGANDY.”
Attendant #1: “oh yes yes, that’s on the 2nd floor…take the elevator up”
….and so up we go, and there we meet Attendant #2.
Attendant #2: “what do you want?”
Us: “plain organdy sari”
Attendant #2: “That’s not on this floor, but how about some nice chiffon saris?”
Us: “what? No, thanks. What floor do we have to go to?”
Attendant #2: “The basement”
….and so down we go, by elevator then by stairs (the basement is the -1 floor~ very confusing if you’re mathematically challenged like I am. In the basement we meet Attendant #3, and of course he can’t help us- not surprising. (“who told you to come here???? No, we carry no such thing, but here, look at these nice men’s suits”; “No, please- where should we go for the organdy?”; “upstairs, 3rd floor”)
At this point my grandmothers is tired, poor thing, and behaving much like juju when he’s suffering from lack of sleep- scolding and snapping at anyone and everyone who’ll listen to her “when we go upstairs, they say go downstairs, when we go downstairs, they say go upstairs…”
So up to the 3rd floor we go- where, surprise surprise, they look at us like we have mustard on our faces and tell us that what we’re looking for is, and always has been, on the 2nd floor.
Poor paati- all three of us looked at each other and just burst out laughing, totally uncontrollably…infact we were laughing so much that all the store attendants started laughing too (prolly at us, rather than with us but whoop dee do).

We did get the material, finally- so I suppose all’s well that ends well.

Went to the beach today- I haven’t been to see the ocean since my last visit to India…5 yrs back. It was SUCH fun; Vibha, my grandmother and I went. We spent the evening walking along the shore, reading, talking, giggling at what people were wearing…you would not believe how short shorts can be here. Speaking of clothing- so many of the women at the beach get in to the water fully clothed…that is in a chiffon salwar. And if any of you have ever seen a chiffon salwar wet it leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Baap re bap.

yestterday was juju’s birthday- my kuti pa is 3 yrs old! I miss him so much- I actually sang “happy birthday” to his picture….TWICE.
OK, so I’m crazy. Not like you people didn’t know that already

Bombay. Mumbai. Call it whatever you want, the city’s damn fun. And incredibly diverse- interspersed amongst the millions of Indian faces are dots of virtually every conceivable ethnicity. This city amazes me- it’s not very large space-wise, yet it sustains (taking into account the mind boggling number of people and add to that India’s run of the mill urban wildlife) an unbelievable amount of life. And, be it day or night, Bombay NEVER sleeps. Ok, so I won’t bore you to tears with the intricate
details of everything I saw/did there- even if I did yammer on and on, truth be told, there aren’t words enough to describe how amazing this country is- instead I’ll try to summarize as best I can. In a nutshell- we did everything, and still didn’t experience even a fraction of what this city has to offer.

Journey begins in the train- takes about some 15 hours or so to get to Bombay from Madras, takes even longer when the conductor keeps stalling the bloody train (oh yes, it can be done). But we eventually got there.
I woke up everyday to a hot cup of chocolate or tea (made with whole milk, mind you) with something yummy to accompany it. Spent the days shopping or sightseeing- went all over Bombay! Saw the various university/college campuses, the monumental buildings, tried my hand at bargaining. I found it easier just to bargain myself, English accent and all, rather than have my aunts and uncles mediate- takes entirely too much time and, lost in the confusion of it all, I’ll still end up paying too much. We spent one day in Hiranandani, which is absolutely beautiful ~ very British architecture wise. Spent the day trekking around there and the night in an arcade where thank god there were cute guys… not to offend anyone but by this time I had spent about 4 days in Bombay and was sorely disappointed. Another day we went off to suburbia- Kalyan….kind of a sleepy little town a short train ride away from metro-Bombay. I loved it there- the air there was the cleanest I’d seen anywhere near Bombay and the atmosphere was equally as refreshing. My uncle’s apartment building was surrounded by very low income dwellings- a few shades better than “slums’. From the vantage point of their apartment we could see all these homes below us and beyond them to the countryside. As sun was about to set, this local band started their daily practice- they’re a drum troupe, and unbelievably good! I loved it, perhaps one of the best times I’ve had Bombay- dancing in the apartment to that music.
For our last day in Bombay proper, we went clubbing- well, it didn’t start that way. We went to a bar and it was crazy boring. There was a DJ but I suppose it didn’t occur to anyone in there to dance….that is, till I came along ;) after about 20~ 30 mins of sitting around, doing nothing- vibha and I had had enough. So we got up, dragged our uncle (he’s 22…ya, he’s our uncle, that’s a tale for another blog) with us and got our dance on. Soon tons of other people joined us, so we weren’t the only yutz’s dancing in the middle of a bar. I met these Swedish guys that night- actually 3 were Swedish and one was british…all were incredibly nice and pretty good dancers. These guys were crazy! In the middle of the dance floor all of then would start singing REALLY loudly…in Punjabi. One of them asked if I’d go to Goa with them, dead seriously, with in 10 mins of meeting. We had a great time that night, but none of us thought to introduce ourselves and I didn’t say good bye…so if fate has it that you guys read this blog: thanks for leo’s :)
And I looked hot that night. I know because I was told, I was actually taken aback at how bold some of the guys here can be. (“This isn’t a come on, BUT….”) See Ed, some Indian guys do have balls…unfortunately though, the ones that do are all ugly ;)
Am I forgetting anything else? Oh ya and one night we almost got arrested.

Ahh…that’s enough writing for today- and, yes, that was the abridged version.

Good night.