Picked a fight w/S. last night because i was crabby after the phone call.  Still in a funky mood tonight and don't feel like talking to anyone.  We ran an errand to the bank and S. looked into investing there.  The manager said he'd come and talk to us tomorrow.  Fine...i don't care.

Spent the rest of the day at home...still "processing"

Ugadi and an outing

I am emotionally spent as i write this.  My thoughts are very distracted, so please excuse my rambling.

Today is Ugadi - the Telugu New Year, and since we are Telugus - it only applies to our state.  So, it's a holiday for everyone here.  Mum and Dad took us on a little outing...to a mall.  It's has six floors: the top is a Pub (probably quite pricey); then a theatre - only hindi and telugu movies; then the food court with a small department store, a hallmark type store and an arcade.  Kids enjoyed "riding" on the broken carousel, the motorbike games. We got a few snacks here - 12% tax - yikes!.  Next floor was the men's: clothes and electronics, then the women's and then the grocery/restaurant floor.

It was a fun excursion, although a bit far - we got lost twice.  Also, this place is quite pricey, like shopping in downtown Chicago vs. small town Missouri.  But it was fun just to look around and we were able to "afford" couple juice boxes for the kids.  Oh...and i got some cinnamon and cardamom at a great price.  Might mean nothing to you, but it's wonderful enough for me to write about it.

Came home around 9:00.  Made a phone call at 9:30...have been in a daze since.  I'm sure you're all wondering what the phone call was about.  It was just one of those supremely unexpected conversations that has left me dumb founded, drained, puzzled, saddened and still processing...  We've all had those, haven't we?

Rs.10 KFC icecream cone - definitely worth it!

We relaxed this morning and went in the evening with mom to get some shopping done.  I know i've talked quite a bit about going shopping, this includes everything from groceries to knick knacks...so everyday we do a little bit of shopping since most things are fresh and used straightaway.  Back in the day (when i was growing up) we didn't have refrigerators, so our meals consisted of what the local vendors would sell.  Any non-veg. was sa special treat and only made when we had company.  A regular meal was rice or chappathi and whatever veggies the vendor had and maybe dhal. Simple but yummy!

By the time we were done, it was pretty late and we'd have to go back and make dinner, so it'd be really late by the time we actually ate.  I saw a Dominoes nearby and suggested we chow there.  The kids were excited and Dad prefers tha to KFC...so we sent the men and the kids ahead while mom and i made one more stop.

I was really looking forward to dinner.  When we caught up with the rest of them, we found that they didn't order dinner after all, just a couple appetizers which they chowed down before we got there.  Men!  Can't depend on them to do anything.  Well, that's not true, but we felt like that when we walked in to the restaurant.  So, I ordered and we had to wait a while to eat...grrrr (i'm not angry, it's just my stomach growling).  Fortunately, the restaurant had a couple tele's on, one playing a cricket game, which was the favored show, and the other had random bits of trivia playing...kind of like when you're in a theatre waiting for the movie to start.  It entertained us long enough and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. 

After that (and my favorite part of the day), we went downstairs and bought icecream cones for everyone at KFC.  They're only Rs.10/piece and yeah, they don't fill the cone part, but for a less than a quarter, we're getting a decent amount of really good icecream, it's not ice milk either.  You can't  beat that.  We might make this a regular thing one warm nights, that and we only have a few more days here, so better make good use of this deal.

Another long day...

The church we visited today was quite far...in the same "suburb" as my "far" aunt. Since Dad was speaking, they invited us all and even sent transportation. *The driver was a lovely fellow - hard to find folks like him these days*

The church met upstairs - women on the left and men on the right. At some point during the service the children were asked to leave for their own thing...we decided to check it out as well. Of course, as soon as the kids saw S. they were mesmerized by him and he created quite a bit of distraction. The teacher asked us if we'd like to speak to the kids, but we declined, not wanting to draw any more attention to ourselves. (I think) since the kids were distracted by S., the teacher decided to engage them in entertaining us with English songs. About 30 kids stood up and sang at least 10 songs for us (with actions) and in the end we taught them a song as well. Once there was some downtime, S. became a celebrity with some of the young boys, peppering him with all kinds of questions, etc. B. also got quite a bit of attention from the girls. I ended up being the papparazzi...and if felt that way too, i could hardly get any clear pics.

After lunch, we visited with my aunt for a little while, before heading back home. We left the house this morning just after 9:00 a.m. and got back around 6:00 p.m. - it's been a long day. The kids are dirty and cranky, hopefully they'll sleep well tonight.

Sleeping in...

I can't believe it...S slept until past noon.  We were all so tired after this week, so the first opportunity we got, i.e. today. We slept in and woke up at various times.  I woke up at 9:30, J was next at 11:00 and both S and B had to be woken up for lunch just after noon.  I'm glad they got their rest...tomorrow is going to be a long day.

We did a little more shopping this afternoon...well, mom and I did.  We only have two weeks left...better start cracking.  The thing about shopping here is there is no one stop shop, you have different items in different places.  Ex: groceries, different kids of fabrics, steel wares, etc.  There is no super Wal-Mart here.  Plus, it takes us about an hour to get to all the good stores and in this heat, we can maybe go to a couple stores/day.  It's quite a process.  All that to say...yikes! only two weeks.

Another dinner invite.  The food was delish!  The corn and coconut was one of my favorites and the grape and pomegranate salad.  Man!  Gonna have to duplicate that sometime.  The kids were wiped by the time we came home.  J fell asleep on the way, but woke up once we got in the house...this kid and his power naps...took a little while to get him back to sleep.  

Mozzie death count today - about 20

Seen at the exhibition...

A month ago (how time flies!), our family attended a Hyderabadi exhibition (i.e. fair). Only now have I collected pix from that event and arranged them for this post....however, I figured if I back-posted it to the date it happened, it would likely not get viewed by our faithful readers (all five of you!), so here they are, a month later....



Rows and rows of colorful outfits


Bangles galore!


Kids munching on "kurkure" (sort of an Indian cheeto)


Auditioning for the "laughing house"!


A small train motoring through the crowds


Enjoying same train ourselves


Train ride -- view from above (watch your feet!)


Fountains!


"J" meeting new people


Yet another color-filled booth


Happy kid!


Yummy rooftop dinner


Another view of exhibition from same rooftop


The "faces of America" beckon exhibition attendees to sample their produce! (click above pic for larger pic).

And yes....know that even American corn is "100% Vegetarian"! :-D

Holy Cows!

As most folks familiar with India know, buffaloes, cows, bulls, oxen, and every imaginable bovine creature meander all around, showing up in unexpected places.  Like past our in-laws' house, as Dad and "J" witnessed (click pic below for larger pic)...

Note the brownish-red fence at the far left.  My in-laws and their neighbors had to put them up to keep these animals from grazing on their garden plants.  Pest-control of the sort seldom seen in the U.S.

A looooooooooong, but accomplished day

Today started off quite early...we woke up around 6:00 a.m. and got the children up too and were off to the park.  Park hours are 5:30 - 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 - 8:00 p.m.  This is really the best time for us to come, it's much cooler at this time of day and there's far less of a crowd.  The kids had the playground all to themselves and loved it!  After they played a bit, we took a couple laps around the park...S loved the feel of the dew wet grass under his feet and so did B and J.

We got home by 8:00 a.m., just in time for breakfast and dad to get to the office.  I thought i could keep the kids up to 11:00 a.m. and then put them down for their naps.  But J didn't go to bed the previous night (morning) till after 2:00 a.m. and B after midnight, so they had less than 6 hours of sleep.  That and the running around the park...they didn't make it past 9:15 a.m.

The plan was that we'd tire them out so they'd sleep really long and then mom and I could go out shopping.  But they went down so early, we didn't get a chance to get our act together before they woke up.  And since Murphy has never been wrong...they starting waking up just as we were walking out the door.  We did manage to escape, but heard later that J woke up shortly after we left, but B went back to bed and woke up just before we came back.  We were only gone 3 hours: 2 hours for the commute and 1 for shopping.  Not the best deal!  Anyway, shopping rocked...1 hour is NOT enough, we'll have to go back again.  It's hard to believe that we have a little over two weeks left...time has raced by!  How did that happen?!

We were invited to dinner by some friends who've known my dad for about 40 years, now those are old friends.  The meal was excellent, as expected, and the mozzies had a pretty decent dinner as well.  Their compound is beautiful with foliage, but it also lends itself to loads of mozzies.  They did not spare an inch of open flesh...poor kids and us.  When we got home we did our usual mozzie killing exercise...it took a couple hours, but we killed almost 30 mosquitoes!  All were asleep, but S and I and, man! i am thankful that we got so many...here's to a good night's sleep...

Masala KFC

We were hoping to get up early yesterday to go to the park, but that didn't happen..  Most of the day we just stayed at home and chilled.  Did try calling up folks through skype in the morning...but the connection was a bit scratchy...still a connection, so no complaints.

The day was spent as most days are spent hanging out, although we tried to keep B from an afternoon nap, so she's sleep early, in order to get up early for the park.  While waiting for J to sleep, B wanted me to read her "The Chronicles of Narnia" - so we started on the "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" as she already recognized the characters.  I was actually quite surprised that she paid attention to the story even though it wasn't a picture book.  My little girl is growing up *sniff sniff*

So, we wanted to go out for dinner and decided to take our neighbors (good friends also) out as well.  My mom make the deal, but only after she had agreed to the plan, did we find out that due to a prior engagement, they weren't free until 9:30 p.m., which is when we'd all head out for dinner!  We didn't think the kids could make it that long, but with junk food, anyone  can.  

Our friends called and said they'd be ready to go at 9...so off to KFC we headed.  This was our old neighborhood - i'd lived here back in 96, before my parents built their home.  I'd walk this road everyday to work and it was just a little main road.  Now it's bustling and there's a KFC, Subway and Dominoes right where i walked every day.  I guess i'm glad it wasn't there when i lived here...

Once at KFC, and the main reason for this post, was the metal detector we had to go through...at a fast food.  I was so shocked...seriously, is this a terrorist threat.  Later when S and i were discussing it, he reminded me of the bomb blast at a German bakery in Pune.  To think we have to be worried to grab a bucked of fried chicken.  B and J had much fun going back and forth through the detector, which i didn't mind too much, since there were very few customers - what did i expect at 9:30 p.m.  It was really weird to eat with a metal detector a few feet from us and of course KFC just isn't KFC anywhere else.  They just didn't have the colonel's recipe.

We were out of there by 10:30 p.m. and thought they were waiting for us to leave.  While we were backing out, S wondered out loud when their closing time was and jokingly i replied, "whenever the last customer leaves."  At that exact moment, we saw another car pull out, a man get out and walk right into an unlocked and lit KFC - at 10:30 at night!  Wow - they really are open late.  I wonder if they would have closed earlier if we weren't around...

"farmer's market"

We checked out a farmer's market today.  I'd seen it on my way home last week and thought it looked huge, so wanted to check it out.  Yeah, it was huge...i don't think we made it to the end before we had to leave.  I would love for something like this to be in Seattle...fresh veggies for cheap prices.  The farmer's markets stateside are so expensive, it's just cheaper to go to the big chain grocery stores.  On Monday, my mom got the equivalent of 10 cents/lb. for tomatoes.  Can  you beat that?!  Best i can do is have a veggie garden of my own.  Maybe i'll get on that this year, now that they're going to charge for having a pea-patch.  

The farmers market gave me ideas for gifts...so even though i didn't buy anything this time around, my head is full of ideas.  Next time i need to get there before it gets dark.  

Also on the way there, my uncle showed us a park with a playground.  Some of the "playgrounds" around us are really pathetic, so when they suggested this as a place for the kids to play, i was very skeptical.  This place is awesome and very well maintained and it's open from 5:30 - 9:00 a.m.  Who goes at 5:30 in the morning - well, we're planning to check it out at 6:00 - when it's cool outside.  Once it's 10:00 a.m. here, it starts to get quite hot and you really don't feel like going out at all.

Besides, if we go out early, we might be able to get the kids good and tired for a long nap, when we can go out shopping...and then they'll even go to bed a little early.  Hmmm...sounds like a plan.