Coorg Trip

Golden temple - Banglore

Nisragadama Cauvery

Gazers...

Its been a while..

Galibore Fishing camp..

www.junglelodges.com

Tree in front of my home

Enlightened

DH's ##th Birthday @ Bandipur National Park

DH (Dear Husband) & Chotu share the month of Bday. This trip was an eye candy for them.

Chotu's Question of the week?

My nails are growing so fast! why can't I see them grow?

Stressed? .... ;)

Second Holi in India

Chotus 6th Bday - McDonalds, City Center HYD

The Boss of the house

“I am the boss of the house and I have my wife’s permission to say so..” was the slogan in our house at Two Town Police station for long which my Grandfather never appreciated. He did not get the joke.

Recently while trying to convince Prasu to get a dog home Chotu gets into an argument with his dad..

Chotu: Nanna, can we get a dog?

Nanna: No Kanna I am allergic to dogs..

Chotu: Nanna! You are not the boss of the house you know.

Nanna: How do you know?

Chotu: because you did not win the ring contest.

Nanna: Which ring contest?

Chotu: You know the one in your marriage..

Nanna: Marriage…

Chotu: Yeah! Mommy won the ring contest twice so she gets to be the boss…

Nanna: < has no clue .. where this is coming from>

One day while watching a Telugu movie saw this ring contest in a wedding setting (where they throw a ring in a pot and let the bride & groom find it) and kids asked what are they doing? I did not feel like explaining how these small games are part of the Hindu weddings to get the bride & groom get to know each other and get intimate who were strangers a day before marriage. So, I explained they throw the ring into the pot three times and whoever wins will be the boss of the house.

Chotu: Mom, who won in your contest?

Mom!: Ofcourse! Me kanna I won two times .

This happened two months ago and Chotu mixed these two things and questioned Nanna of getting a dog home.

First Holi

Spring...

...not in Hyderabad, just on my canvas.

One among ?.....

When I see Americans, my face lights up in a smile and they pass by without noticing. Being so long in a foreign land unknowingly you grow into the culture. I am used to the greats and smiles in the hallways, walkways, malls, restaurants etc., I miss that culture here. Unconsciously, when I see Americans at work, strangely I feel like I am one among them. I only realize when they just pass by and not even notice me, because I am one among here. I am slowly realizing I look Indian and feel more like American inside. Probably it will take time to settle down the mixed feelings.

Taree Zameen Par

Fantastic movie! Vin, Chotu and myself rushed to this movie Sunday morning show after breakfast. I was in tears couple of times in the movie. Vin wanted to know in which scenes I was crying. I could not remember but the whole movie was taken so sensitively that I enjoyed every minute of it. I realized how much we influence our kids even though the movie emphasizes dyslexic kids. I think we (current education) put a barrier to kids’ free thinking. The movie depicted so well how kids day dream and how the routine education curbs this kind of imaginative thinking. Hats off to Aamir Khan for such a wonderful movie and sensitive direction. Vin wants to watch it again, I might get him a DVD once released with English subtitle and he might cry too, if he really understood the dialogues.

Up Close and Sonu

Last week we were at Sonu Nigam’s concert. Man! That guy has awesome voice. He has nice sense of humor that kept the audience engaging throughout. It must take lot of hard work and energy to put up that kind of show. My friend and I had to get through the dancing crowds to get close as 10 feet to believe it was real live show while DH and my friend’s husband were comfortable in their seats forty feet away. I lost my voice cheering and shouting. It was awesome experiance!

Why are they black?

Was Chotu’s question!

There is an Urdu University close to my parents place. We saw groups of black dresses suddenly and Chotu was surprised.

Chotu: Are those black people? Why are they dressed in black?
Me: They are Muslim ladies who are covered in “Bhurkhas”
Chotu: Oh! Why do they need “Bhurkhas”?
Me: They cannot show their face to outside people other than their family.
Chotu: Why? Because they are black!
Me: No, these women are one of the most beautiful women in the world.
Chotu: Why can’t other people see them then?
Me: That is their Custom / Religion
Chotu: What does that mean?
Me: (((I give up, uff this kid never stops))) That is their belief, that is how they need to do it.

Questions died down once we were past the “Bhurkhas”.

RTI itch

Return to India has been with us since last three to four years. Finally we did it. DH (dear hubby) and I have accepted jobs in Hyderabad, India, moved our stuff and bought one way tickets to Hyderabad. We are here now in Hyderabad, India. It is still not hitting me. Of course I landed yesterday. For me the decision was easy, I just had to say yes to an email to land where I am now. For DH it was a major decision, so he had to talk to tons of people to get different points of view. Vin (my oldest) was very sad to leave his friends back in Redmond and his life that he started in Washington and move to a different continent. Chotu, apart from repeating what Vin said he had no real issues. He is a real Bindas (Take it easy kind). My sissy was sad to see me go but my brother was happy; he is planning to return back in two years. My parents are excited. My mom is excited and is ready to give me advise and take control. My MIL was against our move, but she realized that it did not affect our decision. She thinks we will not be able to adjust here. Climate wise this is the best season to move. For now we have personnel taking care of us (stay, transportation, diet). Every five minutes you will hear “Saar, Madam” to boost your egos. Whatever is ahead of us, I don’t care, all I know is I am having a ball alreadyJ. Chotus quest about Burkhas (veil) is coming up next.

HP Trip – Day 5

We reached Delhi early morning and took an Auto to NJ’s place. It was Sravana Sukravaram, so Sai and NJ did pooja very diligently. I was never into poojas since my child hood, was forced into such rituals by mom and after marriage, DH never encouraged/discouraged such things so lost touch with rituals. Felt very good to see someone believe in them sincerely. We had nice homemade cooked lunch and went on a Lajpath Nagar shopping spree. There is a small bangle shop about 10X12 sqft store called JhunJhunwala chudiya or something similar that carried awesome bangles. We hysterically bought stuff that we had to borrow bags from NJ and stuff it in. My OCD kicked in when we were stuck in Delhi Friday evening traffic and we have an hour to reach airport on time. Finally we reached airport on time (lil earlier than needed) and reached Hyderabad and home around midnight. Thanks to Vissu who gave us ride. We showed off our videos and pictures to everyone (whoever asked and the ones who never bothered to ask).

HP Trip – Day 4

Kalatop and Kajjar wildlife sanctuary was our main foucs for the day. As I have signs of OCD, I was nervous that our car might breakdown somewhere in the jungle and we will not be able to catch our train back to Delhi. That did not happen but Sai and Kemo were rehearsing that in the midst jungle some bad boys will come and hijack me and how the journalists will interview Kemo and Sai. They had a big kick out of the day dream story and all this conversation was in Hindi. The driver was listening to this entire story and at the end of their imagination, I said in Telugu “if the driver is already on that mission what would you guys really do?” K was so worried, his face went pale and I couldn’t stop laughing. Back to the Kalatop – it was a scenic route and only one vehicle can travel at a time in that path. I was totally lost in transition. We have seen pahadi ladkis (excuse my hinglish) who are so beautiful just as shown in Shammi Kapoor’s filmis. These girls are in the middle of nowhere in the hills cutting grass for their goats and herding cows- such a simple yet complex life. After the sightseeing we headed back to Chakkibank to catch our train back to Rajdhani. We are three hours early than the scheduled time credit goes to my OCD. We had to go and talk to the station master to get the waiting room unlocked and started our rummy game. We had dinner that we got to-go from the famous “Sharma Dhaba” in Dalhousie after boarding the train. We are ready to go home after a fun exhausting four day trip.

HP Trip – Day 3

We engaged a taxi for the whole day. The driver’s name is Manoj, must be in his teens. Very enthusiastic about his job and very very respectful. I think it comes with the culture. We headed to Dharamsala and Mcleodgunj –the headquarters of His Holiness Dalia Lama ji. The travel was awesome- narrow roads from one hill to another, from one town to another. On the way we saw many Bhuddist monks. The scene was just as it was shown in “Discovery Channel” – Beautiful colors, warm weather, Blue Mountains a sense of peace within and out. Maybe I am just romanticizing a bit, but we could feel it. We stopped at the famous Dal Lake only to be disappointed to find a pond. We visited the Buddhist temple. Unlike other temples, this temple was different. There were no people rushing you from behind to move on, choclates; biscuits; tea; bread being offered as prasad to the deity and disciples arguing with their teachers (part of Buddhism). We ate delicious lunch in the temple premises restaurant. Saw Richard Gear's photo with the owner of the restaurant. Spinned all the prayer wheels. On our way back we did more shopping. I stopped at a flute place to buy a flute for DH. The owner played the flutes to show me the various sizes and bases. I bought a wide base sound flute made out of bamboo from Nepal to DH. The flute shop owner is from Nepal (one of my ToVisit place), mentioned that he would return back to Nepal during winter and comeback in the summer with more goods. His family would make the flutes and his friend who visited India for the first time is the artist who etched Sri Krishna on the flute. Both gentlemen are pretty accomplished artists with humble nature. I could not withstand or come to terms with the simplicity. I could not hide my pretense. It silently bothered me of all the money, materials and food we waste and not worthy of. On our way back we stopped at an old church. Since we covered pretty much everything, we decided to move on to Dalhousie that evening. Manoj arranged for another Taxi that can drive us to Dalhousie. Before we left to Dalhousie we toured the norling Institute and their students working on varous arts. Shyam was our chauffer for the evening. It was very dangerous route, 8 –feet ghat road with road slides along the way. Reached Dalhousie at 10:00PM and Shyam had to head back to Dharamsala. We prayed for his safety. Finished our dinner and slept like a log.