Phases

When I look back at my blog posts, I realize that I went through a few phases this summer.

The first week or so of posts, I was in what I’d like to call the “honeymoon phase”. Reading those posts, it’s as if India could do no wrong. The dirty streets had character, all of the food was exquisite, and the heat was a welcome change from CoMo’s miserable weather.

After that honeymoon period, though, I went into a “settle-into-routine phase” where I went to work, ate at various hotels, watched movies, and occasionally battled the rogue monkey or bug.

Now, I think I’m in the “FINAL COUNTDOWN phase”. These past couple of weeks, everything I do has turned into a countdown until my flight home.

T-minus 1 workday and 1 weekend until I leave.

Don’t get me wrong – I'm really not homesick. But I think I might be slightly America-sick; I’m ready to get back to the fast internet and steady hot water supply (and readily available processed, hormone-filled dairy products!)

But it’s hard to believe how quickly this summer has gone by.

-July 28th

Eurasia (aka Italy)

Today, we went to Eurasia, a restaurant that serves European food. (For the record, though, when Indians think of European cuisine, they’re actually thinking of Italian cuisine. Sorry shepard’s pie and baguettes and Nutella and ajvar; you’re all not actually European. So this restaurant should have really been called Italy. Or maybe Itasia?)

Anyway, the point is we went to a restaurant that serves food made with tons of cheese and marinara sauce. YES!

When we go to restaurants, the task of ordering food and talking to the waiters falls largely on me – mainly because they don’t really know what the items on the menu are – and my uncle will eat just about anything anyway – but also because my grandmother has mini heart attacks when she sees the price list, and she inevitably spends the rest of the meal telling us how she could make the exact same thing for less than 20 rupees.

Anyway, after much deliberation, we finally ordered a spring onion soup, a pizza with capsicum, corn, tomatoes, and onions, and a plate of vegetable lasagna.

The soup was okay; it was basically a broth with chopped onions. (And the ‘croutons’ were literally slices of fresh bread. I don’t think they quite understand what croutons are, haha.) The lasagna was also pretty good. The pasta was cooked al dente, the sauce was unremarkable but not bad, and the vegetables, while odd – think green beans, carrots, and capsicum – were good.

The pizza was incredible.

The crust was paper thin and flaky, the cheese was melty, the vegetables were fresh, and the pizza sauce had a kick of Indian masala. Hands down the best pizza I’ve eaten in quite some time.

My grandmother, on the other hand, thought they’d just slapped a few vegetables and lots of cheese onto a crispy chapatti. She proceeded to spend the rest of the meal telling us that she would make proper pizza with a thick base, lots of Kissan tomato sauce, heaps of vegetables and barely any cheese – good for health! (I think she’s missed the point of pizza, haha)

Anyway, Eurasia was good. Again, I could definitely make this food ten times better and ten times cheaper (snaps, I’m starting to sound like my grandmother) but the pizza was definitely worth the entire experience.

T-minus 4 days until I can eat real Italian food! (And by real, I mean American.)

-July 27th

Kalanatha, or the Man who Drives the Auto

By the end of this summer, I will have spent over 100 hours sitting in an Autorickshaw. (Wow, that’s a lot of time. That’s like two and a half weeks of work. It’s probably also the pollution-equivalent of smoking ten packs of cigarettes and rolling my hair in the dirt for a solid hour. Gross.)

But after 10 weeks of sitting in an Auto, I am an Auto pro; if the Auto jerks around, I don’t move at all. I know exactly where to sit so I don’t get wet when it rains. My hair doesn’t blow all over the place, and my back doesn’t get too sore after sitting on that seat with the strangely reclined back. (Though after an entire summer of sitting in this Auto, I probably have permanent knots in my back, haha)

And lucky for me, my Auto driver, Kalanatha, is an absolute beast.

First of all, his Auto is green. It stands out and is a bright color, but it’s not like those obnoxious light blue or tan Autos you see every once in a while. What’s more, his green Auto doesn’t make that annoying “rat-a-tat-tat” sound every time he tries to move forward, and it doesn’t spew large clouds of black smoke every where it goes.

To top it all off, Kalanatha has practically pimped out his ride. A few weeks into the summer, he installed a pane of clear plastic on one side of the Auto – so it’s not entirely open anymore. And about a week ago, he bought a large piece of nylon-tarp-stuff that he velcro’s to the entrance of the Auto whenever it rains. His Auto also has its fair share of decals.

In the morning, I share the Auto with Seema, a lady who works near MG Road. Seema’s not actually from Bangalore; she doesn’t speak Kannada. This leads to some very interesting mornings; on more than one occasion, we’ve turned to each other with absolute confusion in our eyes because we have no idea what Kalanatha is laughing about.

But between her Hindi/English and my English/broken-Kannada and Kalanatha’s Kannada-with-a-crazy-accent-because-he-has-a-cleft-palette, I think we’ve managed to get by.

Even though Kalanatha has an accent, he is an absolute chatter-box.

I think I know his entire life story. (Plus the life stories of his ten siblings, two of whom live in the US. And just about everything that his two children have done this summer, from scribbling on the walls to not eating idlis in the morning.) At practically every light, someone leans into our Auto to ask him for directions. And he always has an answer. If there’s no one to give directions to – and he’s not telling me some story about his family – he leans over and strikes a conversation with a fellow Auto driver.

He’s incredibly friendly, and he’s such a hard worker. Come rain or shine, he’s always there, on the dot, to take me to work or pick me up.

Yesterday, Kalanatha was very clearly sick in the morning. I asked him if he’d be able to come pick me up in the afternoon; he said not to worry. Come 3:30, he was sitting there, even though he’d clearly deteriorated. But no worries! He just pulled over to a pharmacy on the way home, popped some pills, and kept driving.

Today, a cow was partially blocking the road as we went home. No worries! Kalanatha just reached out and slapped the cow until it moved out of the way.

We see cows, goats, donkeys, camels, bulls, and all sorts of people on the way home, but absolutely nothing fazes this man. He drives straight through potholes; there’s a stretch of road that is so bumpy and inclined, I feel like I’m sitting sideways. But he just pushes through. At stop lights, he always weaves through the cars and motorbikes to get to the front. He races with cars and motorbikes, and he’s cut off lorries and busses quite a few times.

So even though I’ve spent a rather significant chunk of this summer sitting in an Autorickshaw, it’s been incredibly fun. And I have Kalanatha to thank for that. Because of those 100 hours, he’s spent at least 75% of it pointing out sights around Bangalore or telling me about his family or discussing what he ate for lunch or laughing about how he almost took a wrong turn. (The other 25% is spent blowing his horn. I swear that man loves the sound of his horn. He pushes it every time he crosses an intersection, every time he slows down or speeds up, and every time someone cuts him off – which is when you’re really only supposed to use it, right? And sometimes when there’s absolutely no one around, just for the fun of it, I think, he blows it in different rhythms, like he’s making music.)

But T-minus 6 Auto rides until I come home!

-July 26th

India: 1, Sangita: 0

Indian houses have lots of character.

And by character, I mean cockroaches. (And I happen to be staying in a house that has 40 years of character. Lucky me.)

I’m not a fan of cockroaches. (Let’s be honest, I’m not a fan of creepy-crawlies at all.)And this entire city seems to be full of them. (Creepy-crawlies, not just cockroaches. Unfortunately.)

I really really hate ants – Sidenote: people make fun of me when I tell them I’m most frightened by ants. But come on! They’re like mutant bugs. And you know that if ants were any larger, they would have the strength and the numbers to take over the world. Oh my goodness, imagine if ants were the size of cockroaches. I think I’d just move to a sterilized hospital – but you can’t really escape the ants here. I’ve kinda-sorta gotten used to them. Lizards are also everywhere, but since they eat the mosquitoes, I can tolerate them. Cockroaches, on the other hand, have no purpose besides crawling around and being gross and creepy.

My very first day in India, I battled a cockroach.

I was extremely tired after my flight, so once I finally reached home, I put my bags upstairs and immediately took a nap. I woke up to the sight of a large cockroach creeping across my bright yellow handbag.

I screamed. (And after about ten minutes of sitting there in stalemate, I finally plucked up the courage to grab things around the bed and throw them at my purse until the cockroach went away.)

 I have since become braver.

Or at least smarter.

Now, before I enter a room, I turn the light on and wait for 15 seconds – the perfect amount of time to let all the bugs scuttle away, but not so long as to make people question your sanity. (Although, on more than one occasion, I have been asked why I was waiting in a doorway.)

This tactic has worked rather well, and I went almost four weeks without seeing a cockroach. Until I went to get my shoes this morning and saw a cockroach the size of my fist, sitting there next to the rows of shoes.

My illusion of this being a cockroach-free house has been completely shattered. And now I can’t decide whether or not I would actually prefer to see them. Because at least when I see the cockroach, I know exactly where it is. Otherwise, it could be hiding anywhere!

Indian homes not only have cockroaches. They have their share of water-related catastrophes as well.

I have mastered the three minute shower – because that’s how long you can guarantee there will be hot water – so I thought I was impervious to water mishaps.

But today, as I was lathering up the shampoo in my hair, the water stopped coming from the showerhead altogether. I had to stand there for about thirty minutes, holding a little mug up to the showerhead as icy water trickled down. (Rest assured, I finally got about three mugs of water and was able to at least rinse the soap and shampoo away. So I’m not still a soapy, sudsy mess.)

You win, incredibly old Indian house. You win.

T-minus 6 days until I can take a two-hour long shower without having to worry about the (hot) water supply!

-July 25th

On Packing

I started packing today. And unfortunately, my enthusiasm for packing has not magically multiplied since I last packed up my dorm room.

In a little over three hours, I managed to dump everything out of my suitcase onto the bed. And then I watched about 500 Youtube videos and organized part of my iTunes library.

In my defense, I did eventually pack 4 books, 2 granola bars, 2 shirts, a pair of socks, 3 sets of bangles and a case of earrings and necklaces. I also packed two pairs of leggings, a pair of pajamas, and a box of cereal.

I also found a shirt I never wore, a book I never read, three pieces of chocolate I never ate and a pouch of school supplies I never used.

What a fantastically productive packing session!

-July 24th

Another Happy Birthday

Today is my grandmother’s birthday. (It’s also Daniel Racliffe’s birthday. Clearly, my HP obsession does not seem to be dying down.)

My grandmother turned 66. According to my grandmother, however, this birthday means that she has completed 66 years and is now “67 running.” (I quite like that logic. Because doesn’t that mean I’m technically 21-running? Anyway, between messed up birth certificates and these crazy ways of counting birthdays, I don’t think anyone here knows how old they actually are.)

We decided to go to the Bangalore Club for a celebration buffet-lunch style.

The food was great. But even though it was a buffet lunch, I was served half of the food-items; the service industry here really puts an emphasis on the service. I went up to the buffet line to get a plate of food, and after serving a few curries on my plate, I was told to sit down. A waiter then came and started bringing plates of parathas and rice and other dishes.

I thought the point of a buffet was that you didn’t need waitstaff?

Anyway, the food was delicious. And beetween the chocolate mousse and corn-spinach au gratin, the pudina vegetables and parathas and paneer curry, the different pulavs and curd rice, I am extremely full. But this eating-huge-meals-for-birthday-parties-and-wedding-receptions-every-single-week business, while extremely tasty, is definitely not doing wonders to my health.

-July 23rd

Strike!

There’s a city-wide auto strike today, so I can’t go in to work. So… yeah. Let the lazing around commence, and T-minus 5 work days until I’m back!

-July 22nd

Lord's

Today, the national Indian cricket team begins a month-long tour in England with a series of test matches at Lord’s stadium.

In my very humble opinion, India has the best test cricket team in the world. (England does come in a very close second) so this is going to be an incredibly exciting week in cricket.

This is the 100^th test match between India and England. This is also the 2000^th test match held at Lord’s. (Probably the most iconic cricket stadium in the world. When people say cricket, you automatically think Lord’s. It’s like the Wimbledon of cricket.)

Hitting a century at Lord’s is a big deal.  And it’s an honor that has eluded Sachin Tendulkar for decades. (If he gets it, it’ll be his hundredth century. I’m not superstitious – at least not to the extent that most Indians are – but snaps, these numbers are all falling together.)

I really really really hope Sachin gets his century. (I also hope Dravid hits his Lords-century. (Poor chap debuted at Lord’s. And he got out at 95.)

To sum it all up, this test could be huge. It has the potential to join the ranks of some truly iconic games – games that change Indian cricket. It’s been entirely sold out for weeks, and I am so excited I am in a country that actually televises cricket. I’m leaving in the middle of the second test, but I’m glad I can watch even a part of this series.

Anyway, for the next few days, don’t bother Skyping, because I’m going to be glued to the TV. #Cricketfever.

-July 21st

Update: :(

Chinese Food

I have found the best Hot and Sour Soup in Bangalore. (I realize that’s a pretty weighty statement, considering how many Chinese restaurants there are in this town. But seriously. Best. Soup. Ever.)

Today, we went to the Canton Bar, a Chinese restaurant that has been around for decades. The food was amazing; it all tasted really Chinese-y – none of that Indian-Masala-Chinese business – and the portions were huge. Afterwards, we hit a Lassi Stand for cones of chocolate ice cream.

Because I have barely over a week left here, we’ve planned out our last meals rather carefully. Now that I’ve finally experienced the Canton Bar, I only have a few places to try last.

10 days. 5 restaurants.

Olehdoit.

-July 20th

The Headshake

About a month ago, it was brought to my attention that my mannerisms had become extremely Indian. Rather self conscious, I tried to stop.

But I don’t think I have.

My face is a lot more expressive as I speak. I twist my hands around, like I’m dancing or something. I shake my head back and forth when I’m saying yes. And when I’m saying no.

(I swear there’s a difference in the head shakes. In fact, I bet that’s how Indians weed out the real Indians from the fake Indians – if you can spot the difference, congratulations. You can pay for the Indian citizen ticket.)

Anyway, I shake my head a lot. And I have to eat pickle at every meal.

Even my English has an Indian influence now; I use phrases like ‘first class’ and ‘dickey’ (and ‘pitchy-pitchy’ and ‘gijy-bijy’, but I think that might just be a my-grandma thing) and I ‘haah’ and ‘hoon’ and ‘hoi’ like a pro.

I sure hope people understand me when I come back, haha.

-July 19th

Mantri Mall

Confession: I have now seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II three separate times. And the movie has only been released for four days.

Today, my lab group spent the morning at Mantri Mall, one of India’s largest malls that happens to be about five minutes away from IISc. We watched the morning HP show (3D this time; the glasses were absolutely ridiculous. The intermission was in an even worse spot, and there were huge subtitles on the screen. The theater was filled with lots of Tamil grandmothers and crying babies and college kids playing hooky, and the people next to us were explaining the movie the entire time – and incorrectly at that! If you’re going to sit there talking during the entire movie, at least get your facts straight. Snape is NOT Harry’s father. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll ever have a normal movie-watching experience here… Looks like I’ll just have to watch it again when I get back to the US!)

After the movie ended, we walked around Mantri Mall. The native Bangaloreans were extremely proud of Mantri Mall, and for good reason! The mall was huge – definitely got lost on more than one occasion – and clean, and it had different shops (instead of lumping everything, from the grocery store to the clubs, together) It looked like it came straight from the US; there were Staples and Apple Stores and Smoothie stands. There was even a food court.

AND THE FOOD COURT HAD A TACO BELL!

Unfortunately, I soon discovered that Indian Taco Bell is disgusting. They use nacho cheese instead of normal grated cheese. The refried beans taste like rajma. The hot sauce packets have a masala twang. And the menu had even fewer vegetarian options than TBell at home.

After eating two tacos, I had to eat an ice cream to get that taste out of my mouth. (What an imposition, I know. Making me eat ice cream. Oh, and I had to assemble the ice cream I ordered – like they gave me little shot glasses of ice cream and chocolate sauce and nuts, and I had to pour it all together.)

So in summary, I went to a mall, made an ice cream sundae, got lost, had to ignore crying babies and 3D glasses whose lenses kept popping out as I watched Harry Potter, and ate disgusting tacos (not necessarily in that order.)

One thing is for sure: not going to work/class at IISc is just as fun as not going to class at Tech.

-July 18th

Another Wedding Reception

First of all, shout-out to my dad. Happy Birthday!!!! You’re one step closer to getting that senior citizen discount, haha

To celebrate his birthday, we went to a wedding reception. (Okay, so there is absolutely no correlation there. But whatever. We ate a great dinner, and then we Skyped home to tell them all about the different food items we ate. Actually, I think on any occasion, more than half of our Skype time is spent discussing either what we ate or why my dad’s cucumber plants won’t grow any cucumbers.)

Anyway, a relation of a family we know in the US – and my mother has known since she was a little baby – just got married, so that family came to Bangalore for the wedding reception.

Last night, there was a dinner for close family and friends at my cousin’s house. (Okay, technically, I think our grandfathers are cousins. But I have no idea what that makes us. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I’ve always liked Tanvi, and while everyone else was eating food and congratulating the newlyweds, we spent the night geeking out over different books and watching Harry Potter. I finally found another HP fan here!)

Tonight was the actual wedding reception.

A month ago, I spent a weekend surrounded by relations of my dad. Tonight, I was introduced to a bajillion people who knew my grandfather and mother. I actually don’t know that many people from my mom’s side of the family, so it was nice to see all of them in one place.

It was also nice to eat lots of great, classic South Indian food.

(I’m starting to think I can’t go a blog post without somehow mentioning food. My love-affair with food has reached incredible heights this summer.)

Sidenote: At the reception, I met someone who is going to start her Masters at Tech! What a ridiculously small world this is!

-July 17th

HARRY POTTER! HARRY POTTER! HARRY POTTER!!!!!!

I woke up at 6 am this morning. (Yes, I was that excited. Don’t judge me.)

The movie started at 10 am and was held at the INOX in JP Nagar, which is only about ten minutes away from home, which meant that I had 3.5 hours to kill before we left for the movie. And even then we’d be super early. I didn’t want to go online – because I knew tumblr and Facebook would be filled with HP spoilers – so I ended up listening to the movie soundtrack on repeat while playing game after game of Solitaire.

Anyway, we finally left home, braved the Saturday morning traffic, and reached Bangalore Central by 9:45.

The theater wasn’t even open yet.

There were a few other families in the theater – I later found out they weren’t even here for Harry Potter; they were here for some Hrithik Roshan movie – but I managed to make my way to the front of the line. And I’m very proud to say I was the first one to go through the security machine, up the escalator, through the maze of stantions, through the second set of security machines, past the ladies with the metal-detector wands, and into the theater area. Woohoo!

Sidenote: Is it just me, or is that level of security slightly ridiculous? Even airports don’t make me go through two different security machines. And the ladies who checked my purse were ruthless; they took the batteries out of my camera and phone, and they confiscated my granola bar and cough drops!

Anyway, we finally went through the concession stand, got our drinks and popcorn, and made it to our seats. (After a slight mishap where we walked into the wrong theater and sat there for a solid five minutes until someone came and told us we were in there seats. It’s a good thing they were assigned, or we might have watched the wrong movie!)

So we finally made it to our (correct) seats, and to my surprise, the theater wasn’t even full! There were only two showings of Harry Potter yesterday, which means this was the third possible showing people in this area could go to. And I understand that 10 am on a Saturday morning is pretty early, and this wasn’t even a 3D theater, but where was everybody?! This is Harry Potter we’re talking about. People should be willing to queue for hours for even the chance to watch it.

After sitting through a few PSAs about wearing helmets and following street signs, a couple of advertisements for bleach and face cream, and absolutely no movie previews, the film finally started.

It was incredible.

From the first frame, I was completely sucked in. I was laughing hysterically or crying like a baby; I literally jumped out of my seat on more than one occasion.

And then, right in the middle of the Hogwarts battle, the screen went blank for an intermission.

AN INTERMISSION!!

This is the Hogwarts battle! I don’t care if you need to go to the bathroom or buy another samosa. You do not stop the movie smack dab in the middle of the Hogwarts battle. (I realize that pretty much the entire movie is the battle at Hogwarts. But really. Intermission not necessary.) Funnily enough, during the intermission, the guy sitting next to me asked if I was okay. I think my crazed emotions were starting to worry the people around me.

Anyway, the movie finally restarted, and I was able to watch the rest of the film uninterrupted.

Gosh, it was brilliant.

Sidenote: I was going to also include a review of the movie, but I don’t want to give any spoilers. (Though chances are, by the time I actually post this, you should have seen the movie already.) Anyway, if you want to know my thoughts, I’d be more than happy to ramble for hours and give you a scene-by-scene detailing of what I liked and didn’t like.

Because my opinions on this movie are probably even stronger than my opinions of Indian movie theaters.

-July 16th

#Mumbaiblasts

Thursday night, around 7:00 pm, three bombs went off around Mumbai. Dozens of people died; many more were injured. Sirens wailed and lights flashed as the Mumbai authorities worked to secure three separate areas and take care of wounded people stranded across the city.

But as horrific as the news was, it was heartwarming to see how people responded. And it was fascinating to see how social media affected the situation. Facebook statuses reflected how many people were worried about India; the hashtag #Mumbaiblasts flooded Twitter.

This is not new; earlier this year, we saw the role the internet – social media, more specifically – can play in communicating globally and unifying populations.

But this time, the internet was not just used to inform. It was used to help. #Mumbaiblasts followed posts offering places to stay. Doctors volunteered their services while young adults gave rides to people stranded around the city. While news stations covered what was actually happening, the citizens of Mumbai used the internet to mobilize and recover.

I’m not going to lie; I normally feel extremely removed from these types of events. While terrorist attacks around the world are horrific and sad, I have never felt in danger. But this time, I was in Bangalore when the attack happened.

I was in the same time zone.

So I guess what I’m trying to say – in this extremely disjointed blog post; normally my thoughts are at least a tad more cohesive – is that I’ve realized I’m not invincible, that this world can be a dangerous place. But we care about each other. And technology has made us accessible, so we can help each other.

Slash, I’m perfectly alright.

Extremely Important Sidenote: HARRY POTTER RELEASED TODAY!!!!! Unfortunately, people don’t do midnight showings here, but I did go to Bangalore Centre and book tickets for the first showing tomorrow. I’M SO EXCITED!!!!!!

New Blog Posts! Huzzah!!

Sorry sorry sorry I’ve taken forever to upload this many posts.

But in my defense, when I first started this blog, I said I’d only last a month. And I did post regularly for a month.

So there.

Sidenote: It has been brought to my attention that quite a few people back home have been reading this blog (which makes sense because I’ve had over 775 different pageviews! Woohoo!!) so shout-out to all the Uncles and Aunties back in CoMo who are reading this! Thanks for the support!

-July 14th

Facebook Acquaintances

In the two months that I’ve been in India, I’ve gotten no fewer than 50 friend requests and two love-poem-messages from completely random strangers (though half of them seem to have Shah Rukh Khan as their profile picture.) Why do Indian boys think that just because we live in the same city, we have something in common?

Okay, so we do have something in common. A city. But that’s it! That doesn’t make you a friend. It doesn’t even make you an acquaintance!

And there’s no way that many people look like SRK.

I’ve had Google+ for a while now, but after my initial adding-friends-to-my-circle binge, I’ve largely ignored it. But maybe I should give it another chance; at least on Google+ I would not get creeped on by random Indian boys. (I’d have to add them to a circle, haha)

-July 13th

Domestic Duties

I stayed at home again today. And though I felt perfectly fine by lunch time (after taking a couple of Tylenol) I wasn’t supposed to spend too much time at the computer or with my work.

To stave off the boredom, I decided to finally take a crack at my crochet project.

A couple of days ago, my grandmother got an incredibly tiny crochet hook and a ball of bright pink thread (yes, thread – not yarn. I will be learning how to crochet with ridiculously thin thread) and taught me how to crochet.

I can make a chain. And I can kind of make a double stitch and single stitch. And a slightly lopsided circle.

After an hour of sitting and squinting at my thread and hook, I managed to make a foot-long chain. (At this rate, I just might be able to make a small dishcloth by the end of the year. Huzzah.)

Needless to say, my interest was quickly waning. (Which is surprising, because I remember a period of time when I thought sewing was incredibly fun. I think I went through a phase where I thought I could make all the clothes I’d ever wear – but after making a skirt and a pair of pants and a really ugly shirt, that ended rather quickly.)

Anyway, I decided to head to the internet for some inspiration. And oh my goodness, there are so many Harry Potter-related crochet patterns!

Motivation found.

Maybe I’ll eventually be able to make something to wear with my cloak. But that’s a pretty big maybe, at the rate I’m going.

-July 12th

Sick :/

Falling sick is no fun; falling sick in India is especially no fun. So whenever we come here, we take great pains to stay as healthy as possible.

Drink only boiled water. (Which means even though I’m in India, I can’t eat Pani Puri. Life can be rather unfair sometimes.)

Peel all fruits and vegetables before eating them.

Actually, try to cook all vegetables before eating them.

Take vitamin supplements and anti-malarial tablets.

And if you feel even the slightest bit dizzy, or if you have a back ache or headache, or if you cough twice or feel just a tad warm, drop everything and go to bed.

So no work for me today; I’m supposed to stay home and sleep, so I don’t legitimately fall sick.

(Which I don’t mind at all. Definitely don’t want a repeat of my Taj Mahal shenanigans.)

-July 11th

T-Minus Three Weeks

It’s hard to believe that by this time, in just 3 short weeks, I’ll be on a plane home.

It’s hard to believe that I have 20 days left in India; that I only have 15 work days left. (Which means only 15 more lunch boxes!)

It’s just as hard to believe that I’ve been here for more than 9 weeks already. It feels like I still have so much I want to do before I leave. (This bucket list consists mainly of restaurants, though.)

Better make these last twenty days count.

-July 10th

Pass the Cheese, Please!

Every time I Skype home, lately, I’ve been telling my parents what I want to eat when I get back to the U.S. For sure, I want a glass of milk (it’s been two months since I’ve had a glass of milk!) and I want a bagel smothered with cream cheese. I also want some watermelon, mashed potatoes and cornbread, and a large piece of funnel cake.

And maybe a grilled cheese sandwich. (Or a panini from Panera Bread Co.)

And definitely some pasta with sun-dried tomato and basil pesto sauce and loads of parmesan cheese.

My mother thinks this is starting to sound more like a last meal than a first meal.

She might be right.

Coming here, I knew I wouldn’t be eating too many dairy products; I knew the milk was absolutely disgusting. But I didn’t think there would literally be no cheese anywhere. And I didn’t think I would miss the cheese and the rather bland, simple taste of American cuisine. (Because I know that after two weeks of being back, I’m going to miss all the wonderful food here. The grass is always greener and the food is always tastier, I guess.)

That doesn’t mean I’m going to turn down the opportunity to try a new restaurant, though, so tonight we made our way to Jalpaan, a relatively new restaurant in 7^th block. The restaurant looked nice enough, but when I opened the menu, much to my surprise, there was a small Italian section.

Okay, so they had three different pastas and a bruschetta knock-off. But still.

I immediately ordered the Pesto Pasta and waited rather impatiently for it to come and for the waiter to serve us.

I took a bite, and I was in heaven.

You know that scene in Ratatouille where the food critic eats the ratatouille that Ratatouille makes? Well, that’s exactly how I felt.

Oh, it was divine! The pasta was so soft, and the sauce was so creamy. I could taste the nutty parmesan and the fresh basil. The cherry tomatoes and broccoli florets and olive slices were only welcome additions to this perfect dish.

Actually, I’m sure the Macaroni Grill makes better pesto pasta. Heck, I could probably make this dish better.

But this bowl of pasta couldn’t have come at a better time. After two months of living here, it was wonderful to eat something that didn’t have that Indian masala flavor. And now that I’ve devoured a bowl of this pasta, I think I can last for another month without pasta and cheese.

(But Mom and Dad, I still want that glass of milk and bagel when my plane lands. And maybe the watermelon.)

-July 9th

Bollywood Bonanza!

My uncle has been in a Bollywood funk lately. For the past week, he’s been bringing Bollywood movies home in place of his usual random Hollywood barely-known-but-has-one-good-actor-like-Ewan-McGregor film.

So far, we’ve seen Stanley Ka Dabba (absolutely amazing,) Patiala House (absolutely dreadful,) Band Baaja Bhaarat (hilarious,) Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (really, really good,) Anjaana Anjaani (not so good,) Dabangg and Ready (which star Salman Khan. Enough said?)

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Bollywood movie.

It’s definitely been a while since I’ve seen this many Bollywood movies.

And I’ve missed them.

I’ve missed the cheesy-clichéd endings. I’ve missed the colorful song-and-dance numbers. I’ve missed all the cute clothes and the incredibly tacky jewelry. I’ve missed the token Punjabi uncle during the Bhangra song and the crazy parents that always seem to follow the protagonist around. I’ve missed Shah Rukh Khan’s epic stance during slow songs and his make-my-whole-face-tremble-and-quiver-while-I’m-crying shtick.

Lucky for me, it doesn’t look like my uncle will stop bringing Bollywood movies home anytime soon, so if you ever need some movie recommendations, ask me!

-July 8th

POTTERMANIA!!!

When Pottermore finally launched, I spent more than a few hours entering various email addresses in the hopes of securing a Beta invite by the end of the month. (I may or may not have created new email accounts just so I could enter them into Pottermore.)

Yesterday was the official press conference for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. I’ve read three different transcripts of the session, and I’ve read just about every HP-related article on the BBC, the Telegraph, and the Guardian – not to mention all the American papers.

Today was the London world premiere. I’ve watched all 4+ hours of the streaming and clicked through all 94562483920374 images. I think I’ve seen every single picture of every single actor, director, producer, or technician even remotely involved with the series.

Tom Felton was looking especially gorgeous.

These past few weeks, I’ve read every single book (twice) and watched all the movies. I’ve listened to hundreds of podcasts, and I’ve visited Mugglenet so often, it’s on my most-visited list on Google Chrome. I’m always humming the soundtracks, and more often than not, I have a huge grin on my face because I’ve found something Harry Potter-related on the internet.

My Harry Potter fanaticism has reached unparalleled heights.

In just a week, the last movie will finally release. I’ll finally have some closure. But I feel like I’m going to explode and implode – simultaneously – if I have to wait any longer.

My uncle thinks I’ve gone crazy.

My grandmother thinks I’ve fallen sick.

-July 7th

It's Raining, It's Pouring: Part Five-Hundred-and-Seventy-Two

It’s raining again.

And again, the city has come to a complete halt.

As much as Bangalore has industrialized, for all its industries and businesses, life is still completely dependent on the weather.

The normally bustling street outside is silent. And instead of going out to eat, or surfing the web, or watching a movie, we’re just sitting in the living room.

At least it will cool down now.

-July 6th

The Food Adventures Continue

Or really, just the Chinese food adventures have continued. Today, I went with my uncle to the Noble House, a new Chinese and Thai hotel at 4^th block. The wonton soup was okay, the pad thai and the vegetables in garlic sauce were fairly good, and the vegetable spring rolls were amazing.

I feel like I’ve eaten so much Indian Chinese food these past few weeks, I could be a professional food critic. (Time to switch out of the Fluid Dynamics classes into the Journalism classes?)

Anyway, Noble House was good. But I really enjoyed spending the evening with my Uncle. Getting the opportunity to live with my uncle and grandmother this summer has been amazing. I’ve learned so much about their likes and dislikes, their quirks and idiosyncrasies, and I’ve especially gotten to know my uncle.

He has the strangest sense of humor; he can eat for hours on end. He thinks he dances as well as Michael Jackson – he doesn’t – and he has very strong opinions about mango varieties. He’s perfectly happy just sitting there, doing absolutely nothing – unless it’s miserably hot. He’s watched just about every relatively good movie Hollywood has ever produced. And he knows where to get the best sandwiches, the best egg puffs, and the best Gobi Manchurian.

He also knows of enough Chinese hotels that we could probably eat out every single day for the last four weeks that I’m here.

Bring. It. On.

-July 5th 

Goodbye

My mother left for the U.S. today; it was strange. At airports, I’m usually the one leaving; this time, I was the one staying behind. Spending this past month with my mother has been absolutely amazing, and it made her leaving much harder than any goodbye I’ve ever had to give.

However sad I was that my vacation with my mother was over, I could tell my grandmother was ten times more upset.

I’ve visited India and left India many times, but I’ve never given much thought to what my grandmother did after we left. Now I know. It was really sad watching my grandmother walk around the house, choking back tears. She seemed to deflate the instant we dropped my mother off, and she didn’t feel like doing anything once we came back home.

But then she realized that I was there – that I would be there for another four weeks – and she immediately made her way to the kitchen to make some soup.

Snaps, her soup is good.

Sidenote: Shout out to America! Happy 4^th!

-July 4th

Weekend Musings

I think everyone in India is a morning person. Case in point: I woke up at 7 am on a Saturday morning. Thirty minutes later, we had company.

The McDonald’s next to our house was supposed to open on the 1^st, and I was supposed to go yesterday with Aditya to try it out. But in true Indian fashion, the opening has been delayed, and my Saturday was Mickey-D’s-free.

At 7:30 this morning, however, Aditya dropped by; on his 24^th birthday, we chatted and ate idlis-and-sambhar.

It’s crazy how small this world really is; what are the chances that close family friends might also be neighbors in India? The Kannada community in CoMo is small and tight-knit, and we have a lot in common. But it’s strange to think about the overlap in our Indian heritage – beyond sharing the same mother-tongue – because I normally operate with my American-life completely separated from my Indian one.

Regardless, it was great to be able to hang out with Aditya – something I haven’t done in ages.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Ramanashree, a gated community in South Bangalore, for a plot-owners meeting and luncheon. My parents own a site there, and my mother decided we might as well go see how it was. (Someone may or may not have built a shack on that lot. Weird. But I really don’t know why my parents have land in Bangalore in the first place. So, yeah. No big deal, I guess.)

Anyway.

The plot-owners meeting was the most inefficient meeting I have ever seen (which is saying something, because I have experienced quite a few inefficient meetings at Georgia Tech.) They spent more than thirty minutes arguing before passing a resolution stating that they would not condone any misuse of office.

Which really should be common sense.

At least the food was good. But after sitting through an hour of pointless banter, I definitely earned that lunch.

-July 3rd

Nostalgia

Today, I spent the day with my mother’s childhood friends, Nalini, Geetha, and Sunita. We went to the Bangalore Central (the one in 9^th block, not the one with a grocery store and a club at the top) to eat at a Rajasthani restaurant.

The restaurant, Raajadhani – http://www.rajdhani.co.in/ – was amazing. A man came around with a gold pitcher to wash our hands, and he was closely followed by a stream of men with jugs of delicious Rajasthani food. Three different types of rotis, bowls of dahi vada, handfuls of pakoras and samosas and other snacks, piles of various vegetables, and scoops of kichidi, pulauv, and curd-rice later, I was incredibly full. It was definitely one of the best meals I’ve eaten this summer.

And that’s saying something.

(Browsing through the rest of the mall was also fun, but the price tags gave me mini-heart-attacks. Why can’t there be an H&M here?)

I liked walking around the mall and eating tons of food; I loved seeing my mom with her friends. Joking around, gossiping about random girls, waxing eloquently about the good ol’ days, and bursting into fits of giggles, my mother and her friends reminded me of the fun I have with my friends. It was as if my mother was twenty years younger, simply hanging out with her college-buddies.

All I can say is my mother can never tell me to keep it down, or to stop gossiping about random people, when I’m with my friends, because she is ten times worse.

-July 2nd

Procrastination At It's Worst. Or Finest?

I think I am now two weeks behind on blog posts. And it’s July. (Which means that all these posts that were supposed to be for June will now fall under the ‘July’ archive. Ugh. Why do I procrastinate like this??)

I think I am going to finally take the time to post these articles. Partly because I feel guilty about procrastinating for no good reason, partly because quite a few people have been hounding me to update, and mainly because I like watching my ‘Page Views’ statistics grow.

-July 1st

UPDATE: Clearly this didn’t happen. Whoops.

Tour Guide Talents

Today, my mother came with me to IISc. I gave her the grand tour, showed her the ropes, and have come to a few conclusions:

1

1.   I’m not the only one who thinks campus is incredibly beautiful.
2. The restaurant on campus is delicious.
3. The crazy monkeys are never there when you want to show someone. They only seem to arrive when you’re eating particularly good rice.
4. I could make quite a good tour guide.

We came in the morning by Auto – my mother was subject to all of Kalanatha’s stories; namely the life stories of his ten siblings and all of their children – and since no one was in the AE department in the morning, we decided to walk around campus.

We circled campus as I pointed out various buildings (like a boss) and after showing her the trees and the dirt pathways and all the different canteens, we decided to spend the rest of the morning at the library.

My previous – and only – experience with this library was not the best, but this visit proved worse. I had to leave my bag with the security man (after convincing him to at least let me keep my laptop) and my mother was only allowed to sit in a specific chair in the front lobby while I had to go inside to the tables. When I came back out for lunch, my mother told me that she was reprimanded for stretching her legs. Apparently, after sitting in a chair in the lobby for a couple of hours, you’re not allowed to roll your ankles because you might offend a professor.

Right.

After this bizarre library experience, we made our way to the campus restaurant, Nesara. (The name of the restaurant was quite the debate because the ‘esara’ part was in English while the N was a fancy, stylized “ನ”. I still maintain that it looks like it should read ‘Sesara’.)

We eventually made our way back to the AE Department, I showed my mother the infamous toilet, and she met my supervising professor. (She was a little taken aback when she was asked to remove her shoes before entering his office. Looks like she’s been in the US for too long…) Kalanatha came not long afterwards, and we headed back home.

Just another day in the life.

When we came back home, we decided to try out a new restaurant, the Kandi Tree. Unfortunately it started drizzling, and we had to decide whether or not we would brave the drizzle in order to go to 4^th block for a thali meal.

I thought I was the queen of indecisiveness. (Rebecca Black’s conundrum of ‘which seat shall I take’ is a very legitimate concern, in my opinion.) But my grandmother takes it to a whole new level. I think I walked up and down the stairs more than 7 times as she changed our plans.

One minute we’re going, the next we’re not, because my uncle’s hearing aid might get ruined. Then we’re still going, because my uncle doesn’t mind covering it with his hand. Then we’re not going because I might get a cold. Then we decide to go, because we might run out of time to eat there.

But actually, we’re not going, because walking in the rain is “pitchy-pitchy”.

Just as we were about to go, it started raining heavily, finally making our decision for us.

Someday, maybe we’ll decide whether or not to eat at a hotel in less than five minutes. But I highly doubt it.

-June 30th

Shopping Shenanigans: Part II

Since there hasn’t really been anyone at work for the past couple of days, I decided to stay home today. I slept in, I went shopping, I checked facebook, and pretty much did a whole bunch of nothing.

Woohoo!

But spending a couple of hours shopping at 4^th block (gotta get my bi-yearly dose of Calypso DVDs and Sapna Bookhouse books, haha) was just as tiring as spending a day at work. Navigating the streets – stepping around dogs and piles of gross-stuff and gaping holes in the ground takes inhuman concentration while the patience required for sorting through stacks of unorganized movies is unreal.

But I think I’ve got all my shopping – and souvenir shopping – finished. Although, knowing me, I’ll probably find something new to buy next weekend.

-June 29th

Chung-Wah!!

Today, again, the room was locked when I arrived at IISc. Luckily, Man-from-the-lab-next-door (I have realized that I am terrible with names. Or maybe just Indian names.) was there, and he convinced me to set up camp in his office. I spent the next few hours trying to do work while really spending my entire time answering questions about life in the U.S.

I go to Georgia Tech. Yes, I’ve spent my entire life in the U.S. But yes, I’ve visited India before. No, I haven’t been to that coffee stand, but I’m sure it’s delicious.

The man seemed most surprised, however, when I told him that I didn’t have a bike on campus. I told him that since I brought lunch from home most of the time, I didn’t really need to get around campus too much. And besides, I like to walk. But he wouldn’t have any of it. He disappeared for a few minutes and came back with the smug smile of satisfaction and one of his female post-docs. He then handed me a key, telling me it would unlock a female bike outside. (He was particularly proud of the fact that he found a female bike.)

Since I was now expected to go out and use this bike, I decided I might was well explore the campus a bit more. After a very relaxing bike ride, I decided I might as well visit the restaurant for a bowl of soup. (Dear lord, I eat so much food now. I don’t know how I’ll be able to sustain myself once I get back to Tech.) I zoomed to the restaurant, parked my bike, and ordered a bowl of soup – which took a surprising amount of time. For some reason, the waiter could not figure out why I would only want a bowl of soup and no rice or rotis. (Looks like native-Indians are still bigger foodies than I am.)

There’s a relief.

When the waiter came by with the soup and the bill, I pulled out my wallet. There was a twenty-dollar bill mixed in with the rupees, and the waiter immediately saw it.

Waiter: America?

Me: … This is American currency, yes.

Waiter: Dollars?

Me: Right.

Waiter: How much?

Me: Twenty.

Waiter: Rupees?

Me: About 900.

Waiter: 900?!

Me: … *Nod*

Waiter: You America?

Me: I am from America, yes.

The conversation continued for another few minutes, until he was called away to another table. But for the remainder of my lunch, he continued to hover around my table with a huge grin, asking if I needed anything else and making sure that I was really from America.

What a strange man.

But the hot-and-sour soup I had was wonderful, and the bike ride back to the office was delightful, so I soon forgot about my crazy-waiter-come-stalker.

After I came back home, we started part four of the great Bangalore-tour-of-relatives by visiting my mother’s cousin. Actually, their fathers are cousins, so I guess that means they’re second cousins. Or maybe cousins-twice-removed? Someday, I’ll learn how to identify all of my relatives. Maybe.

Anyway, between the food I had for breakfast and lunch, the extra food I had for lunch, and the food I had at these people’s houses, I was quite full. But we decided to go to Chung-Wah’s anyway. (I can never seem to resist the lure of Indian-Chinese food.)

Now, I’ve eaten so much, I feel sick.

But oh, it all tasted so good…

-June 28th

Gone

Last Friday was the last day for the other three interns working with me. They had school and the GRE and life to get back to in July. So today was extremely quiet in the lab.

When I arrived, there was absolutely no one there; twenty minutes later, one person came. He left after an hour.

With no one to talk to, and not much to do, I spent my day watching episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

I’d forgotten how funny that show is. I also didn’t realize how much fun I had with the other interns until they were gone.

-June 27th

The Great Family Tour

Since our entire family lives in India, whenever we actually come here for a vacation, we spend all our time visiting them. Summer becomes, then, a mad dash to meet and catch up with as many people as possible – definitely not my idea of a lazy, relaxing vacation.

This summer, since I’m working, I haven’t really been going out to meet people; now that my mother is here, however, the family visits have started. And now that she has just a week left in India, the family visits have reached a frantic pace.

Don’t get me wrong – I love meeting these people. And a lot can happen in two years, so conversations are never stilted. But visiting house after house, on the same day, eating the same snack foods and answering the same questions over and over again can get tiring.

No, I really don’t want anything to drink. Thank you, but really, I’m not hungry. Yes, I still go to Georgia Tech; I have 2 years left. Yes, I’m pretty far from home, but I’m having a great time.

(For the record, if I turn down food, it really is because I’m full, and not because I don’t think it will taste good. There are very few foods that I don’t like eating. )

Luckily, we knocked off quite a few families today.

-June 26th 

A Happy Birthday Party

Today was Meghna and Aditya’s grandfather’s 80^th birthday celebration. Their entire family came together to celebrate; the grandchildren put on a marvelous show with singing and dancing and piano playing while other family members gave speeches about the man’s life and “happy birthday”. And of course, no celebration is truly complete without Srinath Uncle indulging in a bit of karaoke fun. After the program, there was a wonderful Woody’s lunch.

All in all, I had a marvelous time – except for the fact that my shoe broke. That’s right, the sole of my shoe came completely off after I stepped out of the rickshaw at Woodlands Hotel.  Dressed up in a bright gold salvar, with tons of bangles and jewelry and my hair done up, I probably looked ridiculous flapping around with a faulty shoe.

Eventually, I took to hopping around, taking huge steps with only one of my feet so the sole wouldn’t flap under itself. I was able to ignore it for most of the program and lunch, but it definitely made finding a rickshaw to come back not so fun.

Maybe I really should invest in some chappals. However dirty they may get, they never seem to fall apart like this.

-June 25th

Presentatons

While I operate on Indian Standard Time rather frequently, I don’t quite like it when other people run on IST.

Today, the entire lab had to watch a master student’s presentation. This presentation was supposed to start at 1:30. It didn’t start until 2:45. Sitting around in a room for an hour was definitely not what I planned on doing for the day, and I started to worry that things wouldn’t be over by 3:30 – the time I normally leave.

By 2:45, however, the lady who was giving the presentation finally arrived (yes, the person who was supposed to give the presentation showed up an hour late. This takes IST to a whole new level.) She set up her computer and began speaking.

My fear of not being able to leave on time was quickly assuaged – that woman spoke ridiculously quickly! She stood facing the screen, with her back to us, as she rattled off the words on her powerpoint at warp speed. Her voice was incredibly high – I think dolphins may have been able to hear her. And she sounded like she would burst into tears at minute.

I have no idea what she was talking about; between her high pitched voice and extremely heavy accent and insanely rapid speech, it took all my effort to understand even half of what she was saying. But about 5 minutes into her presentation, the lady finally paused to take a breath.

That pause was all the other students needed to start asking questions.

Why didn’t she use this method or that equation? Why did she set that parameter or this one? The assumptions of her experiment were wrong. The modeling method was inefficient. The coding language could be easier. The results could be obtained faster.

It’s no wonder the lady tried to finish as quickly as possible; this peanut gallery was ruthless.

And so, while the lady finished her presentation in about 15 minutes, the other master students and professors spent almost an hour tearing her work apart. Luckily, by 4:00, my autodriver called me, asking if I still need a ride, and I was able to escape the madness.

Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to giving my own presentation.

-June 24th

Food Everywhere!

It’s official: the buffet has hit Indian weddings.

Tomorrow is the actual wedding of a good family friend’s daughter, but tonight, they held the reception. (Apparently it is becoming very common to hold wedding receptions for people before they are actually married – which is a great idea if you’re planning on pulling a Runaway Bride, because then you get all your presents first, haha)

Anyway, the wedding reception turned out to be quite fun! The flowers and decorations in the hall were gorgeous, and the Srinath’s had finally arrived in Bangalore, so I had someone to talk to. Eventually, we made our way through the line, wished the happy pseudo-couple well, and then headed downstairs to the dinner area.

The room was decorated with various edible arrangements; there were tons of fruit flowers and a Tabla made out of squash and a huge alligator made out of bittergourd. (I never really know if I’m calling these vegetables by their proper English names, but just know that it all looked really cool.)

The dinner was even better than the decorations.

Instead of the traditional banana-leaf feast, the caterers had set the room up in a buffet style. There were stalls around the room with different food items. Between a soup station, a chaat station, a North Indian station and a South Indian station, a fruit station and a dessert station, the amount of food was overwhelming.

Not so overwhelmed that I didn’t visit all the stations, of course. As much as I am a fan of banana-leaf fare, I could definitely get used to this buffet style meal.

-June 23rd

Plugged In

It’s weird being back in Bangalore. I already miss my cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. I miss the hussle and bussle, everyone talking and joking and eating.

Normally, whenever I come to India, I completely forget about life back in the United States. It’s as if I’ve become a different person, someone who doesn’t stress about school or the future or anything. This summer, however, I’ve been checking my email every day. I still have work to do for SCPC or AIESEC or something else. Between the blog posts I have to write for Tech and the extracurricular projects, I can scarcely forget that I’m only here for a summer internship.

But when I went to Puttur, I didn’t have my computer. I didn’t have my planner or my wallet or even my ipod.

I unplugged and I de-stressed.

And after one day – one day filled with meetings and conference calls and working on timelines and budgets and applications and blogposts, not to mention my actual research – I already miss it.

-June 22nd

Kukke Subramanya

A few weeks ago, my grandmother had a dream. She dreamt that a huge snake was crawling up her arm, and the next day, apparently, the servant-lady found a snake while she was washing the dishes.

Clearly, this was a sign.

And so, my grandmother made sure we were able to fit in a visit to the Kukke Subramanyam temple while we were in Puttur, and we found ourselves up at 5 am on a Tuesday morning to make a trip to this famous temple.

The huge archways and intricate paintings and sculptures were impressive; the incredibly long lines and the ladies rolling around on the floor (??) not so much. Still, I enjoyed walking around, watching various poojas and eating Prasad, so when my grandmother suggested we walk to the old temple, I said why not.

Why not? Because you have to walk barefoot for twenty minutes through hot gravel roads.

Definitely not a fun experience. And after seeing the old temple, the walk back was especially unpleasant.

When we finally got back to the car – after navigating through hordes of people and cars and cows – and when we were finally settled in, my mother noticed that her purse was halfway open. Frantically, we started searching through, trying to figure out what was missing.

The wallet was there. The jewelry was there. The granola bars were there and the keys were there. The chapstick, the compact, and the glasses were all accounted for.

But the toilet paper was missing.

A half-used roll of toilet paper.

Toilet paper?! I know I treat toilet paper like it’s gold here in India, but I highly doubt anyone else has any use for toilet paper. Hardly a hot commodity. I wonder what the theif thought when he realized what he’d grabbed.

Actually, I wonder if he knew what it was.

Serves him right, stealing people’s things at a temple.

-June 21st

Wedding Reflections

Indian weddings are elaborate affairs; they can last up to a week and involve many ceremonies, traditions, and rituals. Thousands of people don their finest silk saris and their most dazzling pieces of gold jewelry to celebrate the joining of two families.

I’ve attended Indian weddings in the US, but those weddings were abridged, spark-notes versions, with only the essential ceremonies, like exchanging garlands, taking seven steps, walking around a fire, and the toe-ring ceremony. This wedding had poojas and rituals I’d never heard of: looking at constellations, playing board games, and getting fanned and fed chocolates. But it was interesting to learn about the nuances of a Hindu wedding and to learn about the symbolism behind seemingly random traditions.

But more than learning about my culture and heritage, I appreciated the opportunity to meet so many people. There is never a dull moment when there are thousands of people to talk to, and I have really enjoyed getting to know so many members of my extended family.

Today, the groom’s side of the family had the chance to show their party-throwing skills. And they definitely put on a good show. In the morning, we had to go to his house for a pooja (and I saw a peacock in the field on the way there!) but once we returned to the hall, they arranged for a singer to keep us entertained. So while Preethi Akka and her husband were off doing something or the other, the rest of us watched a little girl give a singing concert. The time passed quickly, and soon it was time for the family to give gifts and act as witnesses to the marriage, one of the last major parts in the wedding ceremony.

After the fires were out and the blessings were given, it was time to eat. And since the groom’s side was in charge, I was able to sit down and really enjoy the food. So my mother and I sat hunched over our banana leaves as men ran up and down, plopping food in front of us. There were dozens of vegetables, plenty of rice, and an unbelievable array of sweets. Forty five minutes later, after licking the last bits of the rice with rasam and sambhar and melara, the final pieces of pulauv and vegetables and happlas and vadas and snacks, the last hints of mango rasaya and jalebi and holige, I was finally finished.

As the sun beat down, we got up and made our way to the trenches to wash our hands and then sit down somewhere. I was tired; I was unbelievably full.

And I was unbelievably happy.

Between staying up late and getting up early the next day so as not to miss the auspicious time for a ceremony, I haven’t had much sleep for the past few days. But I have had an absolute blast. Watching my cousin get married, I’ve learned so much about my heritage. I’ve dressed up in beautiful silks and ornate gold, I’ve feasted on dozens of courses of mouthwatering food, I’ve practiced my Kannada and caught up with cousins and aunts and uncles that I haven’t seen for years.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the later portions of this wedding – I do have to get back to Bangalore and my work – but I am really glad I had the chance to be a part of even a piece of the festivities.

-June 20th

A Toast

Here’s to an incredible wedding.

Here’s to the over 1200 people who attended the wedding, and here’s to being related to at least 70% of those people.  (After my cousin and her husband were actually married, I suppose I was related to everyone there. For the record, tracing family trees with random people to find common ancestors is a surprisingly fun game.)

Here’s to feeding those thousand people for a week, to starting a buffet line – with a menu! – and handing out the happalas, to standing and wondering if that line will ever end while sneaking milk treats (kind of like ices?) to beat the heat.

(For those of you who don’t know, the buffet is a new trend; meals at these events are traditionally done a la banana leaf. Come meal time, chairs are quickly stacked away and long mats are rolled across the floor. Banana leaves are arranged in rows as people sit down to eat. (For the record, sitting down cross-legged while wearing a sari is a lot harder than it looks.) Once everyone is seated, men carrying large vats of rice and curries and vegetables start running up and down the rows, dumping mounds of food on everyone’s banana leaves. For the next forty-five minutes, people hunch over their leaf, eating as quickly as possible, pausing only to ask for more food – or to try stopping the servers from putting more food on their plate. Late at night, after the majority of the guests have gone home, the family members spend hours chopping buckets of cucumbers and squashes and vegetables-whose-English-names-I-don’t-know in order to prepare for the next day.)

Here’s to playing “Howsee-Howsee” a game kind of like BINGO but really not at all like BINGO. Here’s to sitting with my baby cousins and my uncles and aunts alike trying to poke holes through a piece of paper as a man with a big moustache yelled out numbers  like “sweet sixteen” and “retirement-age sixty”.

Here’s to spending so much time with my extended family, to talking and laughing and learning about their lives and dreams – so I might possibly live without any contact for another two years.

And here’s to my grandmother, who practiced sitting in a wheelchair for months, so she could last the entire day and watch her grandchild get married. So she could talk to all of her family – her sons and daughters and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren – without getting tired. She’s probably the cutest grandmother on the planet.

And most importantly, here’s to Preethi Akka and her new husband. May their lives together be as wonderful as this wedding has been.

-June 19th

Lessons Learned

After traveling for over eight hours and finally reaching Puttur, I have learned a few things:

1. Puttur is hella far away from Bangalore
2. Even if it’s a toll road, the road will be in bad condition.
3. Old men have no qualms when it comes to crossing the middle of the road regardless of whether or not said road is, in fact, a highway.
4. Houses on the side of the highway tend to be painted bright colors like teal and neon green and pink.
5. Sometimes people randomly cut down trees on the side of the road.
6. Traffic can come to a standstill even in the middle of the mountains.
7. Some people like to drive their cars the wrong way on one-way highways.
8. Truck drivers drive at approximately 10 kilometers per hour.
9. Truck drivers also like to bathe under waterfalls at the side of the road. Awkward.
10. The Ghats are gorgeous.
11. The food at roadside hotels is absolutely terrible.
12. But ordering ice cream is generally a safe bet.
13. The air conditioning in Indian vehicles is woefully inadequate.
14. I may or may not get slight motion sickness after being cooped in a car all day long.
15. Spending even one night with my cousins is totally worth the most miserable car ride..

-June 18th

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