S

Today started out relatively normal.  My dad had a meeting, so i was a bit excited to find i could get on his computer.  By the time we had the kids sorted with their breakfast and other stuff, i was able to get online around 10:30 a.m.  Wouldn't you know it...the power went out at 10:45.  First we thought it was a mistake and would come back on at any minute...it didn't.  Then we thought they were doing their brown out thing a little earlier in the day and the power would be back on by 12:30...it didn't.  Around 1:00, mom went to see what the problem was...turns out, every once in a while, our municipality cuts tree branches by the power lines.  Our power lines are not insulated, and therefore are live wires.  If a tree branch touches it, it'll most likely catch on fire...which will consume the entire tree and most likely the house that "owns" the tree.  Hence the regular pruning of trees.  And while pruning, they turn off the power box that feeds these wires...today was our turn.  I asked mom if the city knew, so that they couldn't combine our brown out with municipal pruning...of course not.  The municipal guys were done around 2:00, but of course that was in time for our city brown out and we continued in the dark heat until 3:00 p.m.- more than 4 hours!!!  In the middle of the day!!!  It was sweltering - even S had a "glow" about him.  On the bright side...we didn't have to pay for this sauna.

Later today, a couple of friends stopped by.  It was nice to spend some time with them...haven't been able to do that since we arrived.  They were kept entertained by the kiddos and J even put on a little "show" for them.  Of course, B couldn't be outdone and tried to be like J, but was later convinced she was cute by just being herself.

My reflections tonight centered around how much i appreciate S.  Since we've been married, i've come to appreciate the hard work that goes into a good marriage.  And i am in awe of couples that have been married for 50 years...i want us to be one of them.  I've also learned that unless both of us consistently work on your marriage, it will not last, no matter how hard one of us tries.  In recent years, i have several friends whose marriages have failed due to several reasons, adultery, abuse, addiction, etc.  Some are fortunate to have married again, others are still looking and hoping, and still others are done with the whole business and worse - they have lost hope.  I can't blame them...i just pray that God will heal their wounds and return the hope of a lifelong love.  

As i dwell on these thoughts, i realize that i don't appreciate my husband enough.  I have a good marriage, in fact, for having just crossed the five year mark - i have a great marriage!  Things i love about S:
He does not let me schlump through my marriage, but encourages me to sort through issues straightaway and not let them fester.  I am the festering sort and i'm glad he doesn't let me do that in our marriage.
He is not a "philanderer" - i never have to worry about that.
He treats me better than i deserve.
He challenges my faith.  He's not afraid or apathetic toward asking hard questions...of himself and of me.  
He still tells me i'm beautiful and isn't too shabby looking himself.
He makes me laugh
He pushes himself into a more meaningful relationship with God, even though the methods might be a little unorthodox. He really seeks to unpack Scripture and make it as applicable to life as possible.
He loves our kids.  No one else loves my kids as much as i do, except him.  They might not be dressed properly, or fed, but they will be safe and loved.  I can't ask for more.


I love you, S

cabbage patch doll

Was woken up early this morning by S..couldn't sleep, too hot.  It's become quite warm within the last week...our fans are on practically all the time, but sometimes it seems we're just circulating the hot air.  Best times are in the early morning...it's just perfectly comfortable around 6:00 a.m.

Anyway, was woken up again a little while later  by B...mosquito bites.  The poor girl...i don't know why these buggers like her so much.  Her arm was peppered with bites and since she's allergic to them, they swell up.  To add something exciting, she got bit on her right eyelid, so that started swelling too.  I rubbed some calamine on her and got her back to sleep.  But i couldn't get back to sleep...it was too stuffy and the air from the fan wasn't getting to me, just the mosquitoes.  Plus, i could hear the sounds of the neighborhood waking up, i.e. maids coming to word and sweeping the "yards".  I knew our maid wasn't far behind, so stayed up in the living room.  Thought i might be able to catch a nap later in the day, but of course, with young kids, that's not going to happen while they're awake. 

B went out on an errand with S and my dad...some mosquitoes found her while she was waiting to get on the scooter.  By this evening, her face looked like a cabbage patch doll.  Both her eyelids are puffy and if you didn't think she had Chinese blood in her before...well, you should see her now.  They've acquired a taste for J as well, so i'm doing damage control there too.  My poor kids...

One of my mom's friends dropped by and when she saw our kids, told us her way of getting rid of mosquitoes.  It was a long shot, but at this point i'm willing to try anything that might give us fewer bites.  So, we tried it about an hour ago and i became almost giddy...it worked!  I must have killed between 20-25 mosquitoes...I haven't felt such a sense of accomplishment since i gave birth to J.  Just kidding, but you know what i mean...it felt good to see the sparks fly and smell the burnt flesh.  Die buggers, die!

There is still at least one mosquito in our room and it's been taunting me ever since i've been typing this.  Too bad it doesn't know that it's going to die shortly and i am going to sleep very peacefully.

PS:  B asked if God is happy when we kill mosquitoes...what would you say?

sunday

Just got back from church...plan for the remainder of the day...REST

Went for a short walk, got some badam (almond) milk - yum!, walked back.  Good day.

Why do i not learn!?

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. 

Kids are actually asleep...but that's cause neither one took an afternoon nap.  J pretty much had a meltdown, he was so tired.  I don't know what's better...for them to stay up and go to bed early, or for them to be cranky for a couple hours...i really don't like meltdowns that are that long.

Our walk today took us through some unchartered territory (to us anyway), where we encountered quite a number of kids.  I can see B and J playing with them if they were a few years older and lived in the same block.  Hopefully, it'll be like that in our neighborhood.  Right now most of the kids are older than them. 

Walk + dogs + not having to worry about having "the talk" = good walk

Another mellow day - no exciting fabric finds.  We finally did get our UPS back.  The guy said he'd be done in a few days...that was more and a week and a half ago.  Oh well, it's back now and installed, but the battery needs charging. 

The topic of discussion at lunch was what defines a "great death" and it had nothing to do with a person's life.  It all started when my father said, "My brother had such a great death!"  It was an unprovoked comment and i'm still not sure where it came from, but that got us talking about great deaths...i.e., painless deaths.  My mom's uncle so far gets the award, he came home from church, after preaching, washed up, sat on his bed, took off his shoes, lay down and was gone.  Now that is one peaceful death...that's the way i'd like to go.  It was a good discussion...although one i'd never thought i'd have.

Well, there is one more "funny" thing.  While we were taking a walk in our little colony, we passed by a house with four dogs, and one of the dogs was in heat.  Talking about them, B says, "yeah, that house had a lot of dogs, a white one and another one with brown spots and there was that one that was trying to get on top of the other...that was kind of funny!  Why was it doing that?"  Hmmm...maybe we should call it a talk about the "dogs and bees"  Thankfully something else came along that distracted her...i am so not ready to have that talk with her just yet, if ever.

The most exciting thing today (for me) was that i found a really nice pair of kurtha bottoms.  I'm into the simple, yet beautiful kind of salwars...i don't like attached baubles, like sequence, beads, etc.  I appreciate a decent pattern and fabric.  I found a bottom that was off white with little gold dots...i quite like it and shall use it as a template henceforth.  Already have my template top and just got my template bottom - now i just have to find fabric that i like and off it goes to the tailor for a whole new wardrobe....yippee.  We have a nice template top for B...but still looking for bottoms that are similar to mine.  Not worried about J, but can't seem to find simple, cotton kurthas for S...the search is on.

Nothing terribly exciting to report today.  We have no other train rides planned.  By next week, we'll be more than halfway past our time here and closer to coming home.  It hit me that we have less than a month left here...how time flies.  Have started thinking about getting everything done that i was hoping to get done and starting to think about packing.  I know i have a ways to go, but if i start thinking now, maybe i'll be ready when the time comes and not procrastinate until the last minute.

I think we're all a little relaxed now that we're home.  Dad even had some time to play with the kids tonight...

Holi pics

"L" mentioned about Holi in the previous post. Riding around town, we saw plenty of folks, mostly kids, but some adults, participating in this festival by throwing and spraying colored powder/water on each other.

Hoping to take photos, I ventured out with "J" in our neighborhood around 6 pm. We were told it was probably too late by then and that most had already finished. I figured I'd look around anyway. I took "J" with me and wandered around our neighborhood. After a while of seeing nothing, I finally did find a group of celebrating youth who agreed to let me take some photos....






I was puzzled by the specks in the above pics...I'm guessing it was the mist of the colored water these folks had been throwing around.






"J" protests that he wants to keep his clothes clean. Can't say I blame him....I also wanted to stay spot-free and just watch the mayhem from the sidelines.


Holi is a Hindu holiday. Most schools and businesses closed today. You can read more about Holi here. After reading it, I still don't fully understand a lot of what it's supposed to commemorate....but I doubt most celebrants do. One of the youths explained to me that Holi was all about celebrating the arrival of spring. That's how local newspapers reported it, too. It wasn't clear just how much of the religious aspects people are mindful of. People appeared to be into Holi mostly for the pure, raucous fun and not really dwelling on the spiritual origins and symbolism behind it. Much like Halloween in the USA, it seems.

Holi

We arrived around 8:00 a.m. - much later than the 6:00 a.m. expected arrival.  We are beat - at least i am. Took a couple hours to get J to sleep last night, he was wide awake and wanting to play.  Not sure i want to do this again, i.e. take a 14+ hour train ride with a toddler.  Ok, i'm pretty sure i don't want to do this again.

The festival of holi was this weekend, it celebrates the arrival of spring and love.  On our way home from the station, i think we counted about 25 street vendors selling holi paraphernalia, in the form of spray guns, balloons and even just powder.  Most of the celebration was already underway, by that time, but would hit it's peak in a few hours.  Traditionally, holi is celebrated only until the afternoon hours....i'm not sure why not in the evening...maybe they need that time to wash up.  S tried to capture a few pics of our neighbors celebrating holi..  By the time we went out, it was mostly over, but i think he was able to get a few folks to pose for him.  

My humble observation: seems that most of the holi celebrat-ers were boys and men and maybe some young girls...i think it's beacause the mom's have to wash all the clothes and know what a chore it can be.

It's good to be home...the train ride wasn't as awful as last time, but still, it's nice to be clean and fed.  We stayed home today and relaxed.  After enduring the humidity of Vizag, the dry heat in Hyderabad is actually refreshing.