Earlier today S said that he would like to visit Charminar at night...or dusk, just to see what it looks like at that time of day. Fair enough. (Charminar is in old Hyderabad, we live in Secunderabad - akin to St. Paul and wanting to go to Minneapolis) It takes about an hour to get to Charminar, but it does have some great shopping, so of course, i'm ok with it. Now, how to fit it into the schedule...
We were invited to lunch by one of my parents friends - a pastor and his wife and their four daughters. As we're talking about what time to leave for lunch, Dad mentions that his afternoon/evening is free. So (idiot me) i jump in and announce that since Dad's free, we should all got to Charminar after lunch...and a plot is hatched.
Lunch was excellent...as is custom in more formal relationships, the guests (we) ate first and then the family. Thankfully, the younger kids ate before we did...i'd hate for them to wait. The "parsonage" was behind the church and it was quite small for a family of six. Yet, there didn't seem to be a disgruntled spirit there - they were quite happy...or they seemed happy the couple hours we were with them. (This time back home has been rather introspective for me - pages in my mind that would take years to fill up here.) S was shocked and fascinated that a family of that size could live in a home that small. It wasn't that shocking to me as i've seen homes that are smaller, but looking through his eyes and B's was an experience. It was refreshing to see happy kids who didn't think they were deprived at all, even though, others seeing their "situation" might think they were. They played with B quite a bit...i hope some of their contentment rubbed off on her.
SIDE NOTE: Their mom was married when she was 16 and their dad, 21. She's my age and her eldest daughter is 17 - yikes!
After lunch, we stopped home for a bathroom break and to rest/refresh and then headed out to Charminar. That time of day, we hit rush hour and it was bad. There was not too much daylight left when we got there. First item of business was grabbing some sugarcane juice...yumm-O! It was hot and muggy then, the sugarcane juice was exactly what we needed. Would have been better if it was chilled, but nothing beats fresh sugarcane juice.
Time to shop...we had hardly shopped 15 minutes when it began...
"Can you carry me?"
"I'm hungry"
"Can i have a snack?"
"I want this ____" and then...
"Can we go home?" - this by my dad! Seriously!? Ok, this time, i've really learned my lesson. Do not take my kids...OR MY DAD...shopping. B was doing better than him...maybe he was tired, but it was like having another kid with us. Sheesh! I think we shopped a total of 30 minutes, waited 20+ minutes for a taxi and came home. Next time, we're leaving the kids with my cousin (fingers crossed), my dad by himself and S, myself and mom are going shopping.
