Two women and a baby!

Its been a full week since I landed in India. Yup its been more than hectic, what with trips to Chennai and Hyderabad (where I am currently), travelling in cars/autos/planes/trains, visiting friends and relatives and what not. It has been hectic, but it has also been fun.

It all started on last sunday when a man dropped off 2 women and a baby to the Cincinnati airport. Here are the various thoughts that went off in my head as the trip progresed -

Cincinnati:

2PM EST: "Wah :((. I don't want to leave you Sri :((. Its been more than 2 years of being together alone, how can I leave without you? Please prepone your tickets na!! :'((."

2:15PM EST: "God, I'm going to even miss this house" (as I locked up the house and looked around for the last time.

3PM EST: "Can't believe that its been 6 months since mom came. Now we are already heading back!"

4PM EST: "Phew! Thank God all the check-in luggage are within 50 pounds. These people should increase the limits, I was hardly able to fit diapers in :-p".

4:30PM EST: "I dunno why I'm crying, its not like we'll be apart forever. But 1.5 months feel like eternity as of now :(."

5:00PM EST: "Security check hassles done. Gate reached. Nothing to do but wait. Can't believe I'm going back to India after 2 years!".

6PM EST: "Breastfeeding discreetly in public is not as difficult as I thought it would be :-D". (Note to breastfeeding mothers everywhere - use a cotton skirt worn on the shoulders as a wrap instead of blankets and the expensive nursing covers, you can't guess how simple it all becomes :-D).

6:30PM EST: "Ok baby's bassinet reserved, mom's seat moved next to mine. Now to board the plane."

7PM EST: "Wish Sri was going with me :(".

On Flight1:

"Bye bye US :(".

"Thank God for friends! If it was not for Chans, I wouldn't have known what to do with a baby on a plane." (Chans told me that breastfeeding while take-off/landing helps with baby's ear-ache and that diapers should be changed ony in the toilets. She gave so many wonderful tips which really helped :) ).

"Ugh, the bassinet is so dirty, let me wipe the whole thing."

"Why do they make these plane toilets so small? How do they expect me, the baby and the diaper bag to fit in there? :-p."

"Oh God, I can't sleep. What if I don't hear the baby in all the noise the plane is making?"

"Does this big screen have to be right in front of me? Its making my eyes ache!"

"Thank God, atleast the baby is sleeping."

"Wish Sri was with me :(".

Paris:

FST - France standard time

8:30AM FST: "Finally Paris. But why is the plane still taxi-ing? Wonder if it'll go straight to another runway and take-off :-p. Or maybe its going to another airport :-p. On second thoughts, maybe it is taking us on a tour of France :-p."

9:30AM FST: "Looks like everything is a marathon in Paris. We caught a train, got up and down escalators, we seem to be walking forever! Where the heck is this Gate E96?"

10AM FST: "What? Another security check? I thought those were only for flights towards US!"

10:05AM FST: "I'll kill that American check-in attendant if I ever find her again! She said I was to collect the 2nd flight boarding pass at the boarding gate in Paris. Now they say I need the pass for the security check! Grrr.."

10:30AM FST: "Security check over. Mom looks totally tired. But we are still walking. Wish Sri was here with us, things would have been much better :(."

11AM FST: "What? No aeroway to the plane? And this is Paris? :-p."

On Flight2:

"The air hostess is so sweet, she got a new bassinet and put down sheets and a pillow for Snuggles. Thanks Dorothy :)."

"I repeat, why do they make these plane toilets so small? How the heck do they expect me, the baby and the diaper bag to fit in there? :-p."

"Man!! This is grand, there is a personalized movie player for each seat! Wish Sri could have seen this :(."

India:

00:40AM IST: "Bangalore, my God!! Feels awesome to be back!"

00:50AMIST: "This mom ufff! She doesn't let me help with the baggage. She is finding it so difficult. Wish Sri was with us :(."

1AM IST: "I can't believe I'm seeing Darsh after 2 years! Feels so good to hug him :))".

1:05AM IST: "Stupid me, the driver sits on the right side here :-p."

1:15AM IST: "What?? The 3 men took Rs.200 to put 2 bags in the taxi?? Same old India, hehehehe :))."

Bharatha Jaya he!

Double posting today, must be a miracle. But saw this video mentioned in a couple of blogs, saw it, got so overwhelmed that I had to post it.

Thanks to YouTube and user emmicity for the video.

I didn't put up any post on Independence day this time. But...

Patriotism is not saying it with a few words..
Patriotism is not singing sogns about the country..
Patriotism is not cribbing about things going wrong..
Patriotism is not "supporting" the troops..

Patriotism is a lingering feeling in the heart..
Patriotism is the love when you think about your country..
Patriotism is the sigh when you hear the national anthem..
Patriotism is the tear you shed when you miss home..

My heart vibrated when I heard the Jana gana mana in the video, my eyes welled up in tears. I miss India so bad that I can taste it. Well, better late than never, hope you had a happy Independence day folks!

From Tirupathi to Hyderabad...

I can't believe its been more than 2 months after landing in US and I still haven't completed writing the posts of the India trip. It doesn't help that these days I just don't feel like writing a post!! I dunno whats wrong with me :(. I have a serious backlog of experiences to be jotted down and here I am being lazy!! Its been more than a month since I last posted. Anyways, now that I have mustered enough courage and strength (:-D) to write a post, I hope I'll be able to post atleast one post per week. Also, this is the last post in the India series.

Time travel to 3 months back :-D. After the house warming ceremony, we had to stay 3 nights in the house. Yup, another ritual. Meanwhile, in the 3 days, I caught up with close friends and finished some of the shopping I had to do, while Sriram roamed some more for things related to the house.

On 14th May 2006, we left for Tirupathi in the noon after about 2 PM. In this case the "we" constituted of Sri, me, both set of parents + Raghu maava (Gayathri aunty couldn't join us because of health problems of my Ammamma) and Veena aunty (Puttanna kakka didn't come due to the children + his work). Again I didn't carry my camera thinking it'll not be allowed in the temple anyways and there'll be no place to keep it then. Well, as usual, I regretted that decision big time :-p.

We reached the top of Tirumala that night and we stayed in one of the guest houses booked by dad. Well, obviously with our really tight schedule there was no time to climb the hills and hence it was by car. Early next morning we got ready and left for the temple. We first went to the Varahaswamy temple. As the legend goes, the devotees are first supposed to visit this temple and then go to the Venkateshwara temple. We were there pretty early, yet, the line was pretty long. After the darshana, we headed to the Venkateshwara temple which also had a pretty long queue. This despite the fact that we were not going in the normal or the special darshana, but in the Kalayanotsavam line. It was only later that we found out that 500 couples are allowed inside for this "special" seva!! God save God from so many people!! :).

Anyways after hoardes of queues and lots of pushing and pulling, we sat for the Kalayanotsavam. I admit I was a bit disappointed as I thought there will be something for each particular couple to do. We were just made to sit and view the pooja that was happening on a stage. After the marriage rituals were over, we headed for the darshana of Lord Venkateshwara. The lord is indeed impressive, but more impressive is the number of people who come to see Him daily :).

After the darshana, we had prasada and packed up to leave Tirumala. We did stop at Tiruchanoor to see the Padmavathi temple. Satisfied with the way the trip went, we left for Bangalore and were able to make it within the 15th May 2006 night :).

After a day's rest on 16th May 2006 (more like some more visit to friends crammed in the day :-D), we packed up and left Bangalore on a train to Hyderabad on 17th May 2006. This time the we included the both set of parents, Sri and me. Darsh couldn't make it as he had his final semester exams. We reached Hyderabad early morning on 18th May 2006. The new home of my parents-in-law is beautiful. Its an apartment, but is surrounded by trees and is outside the city. The most beautiful thing was that there were some mango trees beside the apartment and you could listen to the Kogile (koyal birds) singing throughout the day. The apartment has 3 rooms and is pretty big. They have gotten lovely wardrobe work done in all the rooms and the cost of everything was a steal deal compared to our apartment in Bangalore :).

The Hyderabad stay sort of became our pitstop - a place to rest for a couple of moments before we left, just because poor Sri fell ill. Maybe due to all the weather change and water changes in the various places. Or maybe staying in US does reduce your immunity :-p. The latter is not really true as I consider myself usually very prone to illness and nothing happened to me :-D. Sri had a pretty bad fever for 3 days. Yup, he did visit the doctor and yup, he did get antibiotics. But his being down meant we couldn't really visit the couple of relatives we have on Sri's dad's side, who all stay in Hyderabad.

But they were all very sportive. Their attitude was that so what if we are not able to visit them, they could visit us :). And so they did :). So we spent the first few days getting visited :-D. Sri did recover after 3 days, but the virus spread to my mom and she went down with fever. Looks like the virus was all around 'cause later my dad fell ill and so did one of Sriram's cousins. But we did manage to squeeze in some shopping and a dinner in between. The heat was pretty bad, but manageable :).

24th May 2006 was Sri's paternal grandparents' tithi. I never had the good fortune of meeting them as they both passed away on the same day many years ago. Hence on that day, my parents-in-law had arranged all the rituals at their home. The rituals were all completed without any hassles. Also, Sri's uncles, aunts and cousins all were there, so it was again nice to meet them. We had a good time catching up :).

25th May 2006 was the last day in Hyderabad. We had to leave by train to Bangalore that evening. Man!! Now thats a story, wait, an adventure :-D. Evening it was raining very heavily. We booked a taxi but the roads got flooded and we got late when we arrived at the railway station. We found out that our train was in Platform 2, but when we reached Platform 1, we saw that the train was already leaving. Sri had gone on ahead, we didn't know where he was. We thought we had missed the train and stopped. That was when the train stopped moving. We started running again with all our luggage (we didn't even have time to book a coolie) and ran on the overhead bridge as fast as we could, but my mom was just recovering from her illness and couldn't run very fast. My parents-in-law somehow managed to get on the now-slowly-starting-to-move-again-train. I dumped my luggage with them and ran back to help mom. But by the time we both reached the train, the movement was comsiderably fast. My mom was totally out of breath and I didn't know what to do. Just when we thought we had missed the train this time, the damn thing stopped again. This time, finally, we were able to get on it.

Later we found out that the first time the train stopped, Sri had pulled the chain and the second time my parents-in-law did. We also found that the train had been stopped a couple of times before us too as many people were running late because of the downpour and the flooding. We did have a tough time getting to our compartment as we had got on to the train on one end and our compartment was way on the other end. The crossing of so many bogies with our heavy luggage was almost like a rigourous trek :-D. Probably it would have been a bit better had my dad been with us. But he had left earlier to Bangalore to be the official cook for Darsh :-D. Anyways, all's well that ends well :-D.

After another 2 days in Bangalore full of last minute shopping and packing, we headed to the airport on 28th May 2006 night to leave to US. I was kind of inconsolable and the poem "Encore" I wrote almost as soon as I reached US was a result of that. It was really painful saying goodbye :(.

Thats it. One month passed and became a handful of memories. Just like a dream which wasn't enough. Which left me longing for more...

The only satisfaction was having both sets of parents almost all the time with us. Well, atleast I had a month and I could go back for a visit in one year. I know of several friends who have been away for years without going back. I always thought I understood their pain, but actually I never did. Until now.




Mom and dad, I only hope I get to see you again soon...

Home Sweet Home :)

It all started before I even met Sri. As I have mentioned before, its one of the biggest coincidences of our lives :). He had booked an apartment before he met me and after he did meet me, it turned out that the apartment he had booked, was almost right behind my parents' place, not even a Km away!! We actually got teased a lot on this. My parents were happy about it, as they thought they can see their daughter regularly after marriage (I thought I could wave out from my balcony to mom as the apartment was visible from her kitchen).

But fate had different plans in 2 ways. One was obviously us moving to US and the second was that several other apartments arose in a matter of months between my parents' house and our apartment. The second one pales in comparison to the first, doesn't it? ;-(. Some things cannot be helped..

The apartment building got completed slowly, somewhat behind schedule because of court cases (as usual if there is land, there are always people who claim it as theirs :-p). But we still thought the registration would get done soon. Since we were here, dad got the responsibility and he had to dash around for it. But all his efforts were in vain, as the formalities never really did get completed until we actually landed there. So one of the first things was to get the registration done (the other was the visa in Delhi). Well, that completed, all that was left to do was the Gruhapravesha or the house warming ceremony. This is how the buiding looks from outside (the reason for the shabbiness of the photo is because it is taken from the plan, and not the real photo. There is no way to take a proper photo from outside because of the surrounding buildings):




The gruhapravesha was planned way before we landed in India. Hence most of the formalities of engaging a Poojari, adige bhattaru (cook) and the chairs/tables etc was taken care of by, who else :-p, my mom and dad. But to our credit, we did take care of the last minute cleaning of the house, getting some lights/fans for the house ('cause it was very hot) and making the final arrangements before the pooja.

10th May 2006:

The first of the poojas started on 10th May evening. It absolutely coincided with the electricity going poof and the start of the first few drops of rain. The pooja was no problem but the cook did have some problems as the rain kind of fell on the place they had the pendal put, despite the fact that it was in basement. Moreover there were no lights in the basement. Thanks to dad and Puttanna kakka (my chikkappa), some of the problems did get solved.

Meanwhile the pooja went on in the first floor which is where we had our house. We didn't have electric lights, but we could manage with the deepas lit for the pooja. So we started off with the sankalpa for the Rakshogna Homa which is done first to ward off evil powers when a shubha kaarya is going on :). The main Pujari was Adigaru who also was the one who conducted our marriage :). There were also about 4-5 colleagues (hehehe) of his who were helping out.







As the poojaris started off the homa, we sat for another pooja called the Vaastu pooja. Vaastu Pooja consists of worship of the Vaastu Devata, the deities directions East, West, North, South, North-East, South-East, North-West & South-West and 49 other deities residing in Vaastu, which bring Health, Wealth, Peace, Prosperity & Happiness.







The rangoli that the one of the poojaris drew is so pretty, isn't it? Pity it lasted only for 2 days..

After the Vaastu pooja, we continued on with the Rakshogna Homa, the holy smoke of which is supposed to spread throughout the home and get rid of anything thats evil. Pollution you say? Well it is. But it is also peace of the mind in another way :).




Smokkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkking eh? ;-). The pooja went on pretty long after which everyone of us had our dinner and retired for the day :).

11th May 2006:

Early morning next day was the actual gruhapravesha :). I wore a saree that my MIL gave me and was ready by about 7 AM!! The gruhapravesha consists of a pooja in front of the main door and later, kicking a tumbler full of rice with the right leg before entering the house (well, not as exciting as it sounds, a tumbler is not a football, nor are you supposed to kick it like one :-p). The fun part is that the lady of the house (thats me, me, me :-D) gets to enter the house first ;-) :-D.







After the gruhapravesha, next we had the haalu-ukso programme. The milk boiling and flowing over ceremony indicates the invitation and arrival of Goddess Lakshmi into the house :).







Meanwhile, there were problems again for the cook as there was no electricity. Dad, mom and Puttanna kakka had to run around to get many things done. People who actually should have been treated royally as VIP guests, ended up getting all the work done. But again, as I repeatedly have been saying, some things cannot be helped and thanks to them, some of the problems did get solved. Well, whats a ride without a few bumps eh? ;-).

To go ahead with the poojas, next came the Gana Homa. My favourite God is Lord Ganesha and it was my wish that this pooja be done. After the gruhapravesha, I changed into a saree given by mom (again a ritual) and sat for the Gana homa.




Next in the pipeline (:-D) was the Sathyanarayana pooja. There is always a feel-good factor associated with this pooja :) and we were glad when everything went off well and got completed on time.




Thats when everyone brought out the goodies ;-). We got pretty gifts from friends and relatives. After a fabulous lunch, everyone headed to their homes. There were a couple of relatives who visited us in the evening, but that was it. I was really happy that a couple of really close friends could make it to the function :). It did rain on the gruhapravesha day too, but it was basically in the evening. But some friends were unable to come in the evening as promised before because of the rain. Par chaltha he :).

And so our house warming ceremony came to an end {sigh}. Hmmmm house warming eh? Does a house really get warmed by just a function, I wonder! Doesn't it require to have human warmth, joys and sorrows to really warm it? We are really lucky, aren't we to have a house there in India while we live far away from it in US? :( :'(.

Whats really ironic is that as soon as we landed here, our lease ended and yup, we shifted to a new house here. With the same UHAUL story as before, we landed in this house, only this time we shifted to an independent house and not an apartment. Also this time, thankfully there was no snow to hinder our move in any way.




Yup, this is our house here in US. I have one room here exclusively as an office and I'm very happy with the house. If I am so happy, then why can't I help but remember the "Home Sweet Home" in India which has become the "Home Away From Home" for us right now? {sigh}....

Udupi Udaan :)

I was sad, I admit it. A perfectly good excuse not to write a post for almost 15 days :-p. Sadly, I can't put off writing a post forever based on that excuse. So its time for the posts of the India trip I promised and yet haven't been delivering. Its ironic as to how sometime ago I wouldn't have ideas for a post and hence couldn't post and now have loads of ideas but cannot post due to time/work constraints :-p. Anyways better get on with it :).

After the fateful Delhi trip that branded the visa on our passports, we were back in Bangalore. But certainly not to stay :-p. The very next day (or to be honest, night), we (Mom, Dad, Darsh, Susheela aunty, Hari uncle, Sri and me) set off to Udupi. The title is wrong, there is no way to fly to Udupi, but the drivers do drive the buses like they are flights. They are fast and the sudden turbulences are fairly common ;-). Thankfully, I had no trouble sleeping in the bus at all due to my jet lag. Only in the morning did I come to know that I had more reasons to be thankful. It seems the bus seats had bedbugs!! No one told those that they are supposed to live only in beds I suppose :-p. Anyways, looked like I didn't have any bites as such. These bedbugs are choosy man ;-).

The first day in Udupi i.e 4th May 2006, we spent fooling around. The heat was too much, as expected. But the house was cool and hence we spent time catching up with Gayathri aunty, Raaghu mava and Ammamma (my maternal granny). Evening, we headed to the beach.

To people in Udupi, beach implies the Vadabhandeshwara beach. There is also a beach at Malpe, but that one is stinky, believe me!! The fish stench is so bad that the only way to roam around there is with your nose blocked :-p. So, you are actually grateful if you have a cold when you are around there ;-). The first thing we did at the beach was to run to a churmuri stand. Churmuri is a variant of bhelpuri made specially in South Kanara, but I am not sure its not available elsewhere. After grabbing churmuri with both hands (we held the parents' ones too :-D), we headed towards the water where our parents were sitting and already enjoying thaali munji (I found out just today that they are called toddy palm fruits in English :-D, mainly because toddy is also collected from the same trees). We had a gala time eating, walking in water and snapping snaps :).













Just as we left the beach in a bus (private buses are plenty in Udupi, one goes another comes in the next minute :-D), the heavens opened up and it started pouring!! We had plans of going to to Diana, our favourite restaurant in Udupi, but it was still pouring when we got down at the bus stop. And we didn't even have an umbrella :-p. So we stood there almost an hour until the clouds showed us some pity and stopped throwing water at us. But Diana more than compensated for the rain, what with a delicious feast of bhel puri, cutlets, noodles and icecreams (Diana is famous for bhel,cutlet and dahi vada, but sadly dahi vada had already been gulumd, hehehe I mean consumed, by others by the time we went). We had no problems going back home at all.

Next day, May 5th 2006, we got up early morning, took head baths and headed to the first temple of the theertha-yaathra (:-D) in the Qualis that dad had booked. The Vishnumurthi temple at Aleyuru is a must in all our trips to Udupi as Vishnumurthi is the home-deity (manedevaru) of my parents (mine changed to Venkataramana after marriage). Our next temple of the day was the Anegudde Vinayaka temple of Kumbhashi. Mom had pledged the Akki kadubu seva here and we were able to fulfill the pooja accordingly :). The Akki Kadubu of South Kanara is a kind of idly cooked in containers made of coconut leaves. Its a very tedious process of making these containers. In the seva, about 100 (I think) of the Akki kadubus are made and offered to Lord Ganesha. After the pooja and mahamangalaarathi, we had a tasty lunch with the kadubu :).

Since the pooja and the lunch were over by noon, we decided to visit the Udupi Sri Krishna temple and retire for the day. There are 3 main temples in Udupi, even though we hear usually only about the Krishna temple. These are the Chandreshwara, Anantheshwara and Sri Krishna temple. Chandreshwara and Anantheshawara are Shiva temples (stating the obvious :-D). So we visited all 3, did some amount of shopping (flowers, hermaNe which is a complicated coconut grater for me to get to US) and left.

Later in the evening my little cousin Sanjana and me had a great time plucking Jaam fruit (also called Jambu fruit or Rose apple) from the tree at home. I didn't have a great time when huge red ants fell on to me from the tree I was trying to hit the fruits out of ;-). Nevertheless everyone enjoyed the fruits of my labour :-p. Hehehee :-D.




6th May 2006, early morning we left to Herga Durgaparameshwari temple (some details on the temple are available here), which is the village deity (graamadevathe) for my parents to perform the auspicious Chandika Homa. The rituals starting with the sankalpa and later the homa went very well as we hoped. This is the temple:







The photos of the homa came out a bit dim thanks to not enough light inside the temple + not enough sense to use the camera flash on Darsh's part :-p.

After another delicious lunch (delicious lunches are usually the favourite and constant parts of Udupi and surrounding areas' trip :-D), we headed to the house in Herga (which is my native place) where my dad's cousins and doddamma live. We spent an enjoyable time there. I also grabbed a few of my favourite karande kai (its a sour berry that grows there - didn't find an English name for it anywhere) from the plants and enjoyed their taste after what seems a long time :).

After going home, I took photos of random things and people including one of my Ammamma here:




And that was it for the day :).

7th May 2006 was the last day in Udupi. Err, should I say Dharmasthala 'cause thats where we went to that day. Its about 2.5 hours drive from Udupi to Dharmasthala and thanks to our air-conditioned Qualis, we didn't feel the heat. We reached the Dharmasthala Sri Manjunatha temple only after 12 in the noon, which meant the Mahamangalaaarthi was over. We bought the ticket for the Rudraabhisheka and skipped endless queues through shortcut method thanks to my mom :-D. Mom lived in Dharmasthala with her sister and brother-in-law who were teachers there for quite some time in her childhood. The name "Rama teacher" (my doddamma) (Note that its Rama and not Raama) still wields a power over lots of people there, basically because most of them would have been her students at some point in time ;-). By the way, don't think of using this method next time you are in Dharmasthala, not because its copyrighted in any way, but because this method has to be used with the additional clause of speaking pure Tulu :-D. Otherwise its doomed to failure :-D. Don't worry, I don't know to speak Tulu either, though I can understand it :-D.

Anyways, later we were able to see Lord Manjunatha and do the sankalpa for the abhisheka. We also saw the idol of Ammavru (as Goddess Parvathi is referrred to there) and everything went satisfactorily. Wait, did I forget to mention that we had a delicious lunch there? Hehehe ;-). We set off immediately as we had to catch the bus to Bangalore in the night and we still had some amount of packing to do. But we did stop at a place in between to have some snacks. Me and dad went to have some tender coconut water. As I stood in the crowded junction, in the blistering heat, sipping tender coconut water and listening to my dad and the seller yapping away, I felt peaceful. I felt the way I never ever felt in US. I felt contented. What I felt just cannot be described in words. It was all so natural, oh-so-unrobotic (if there's such a word)...

Later in the night, after packing the goodies (varieties of papads, sandige and brinjals) brought for me by Raaghu Mava and the slurp slurp tasty Appi midi maavinakai uppinakai (Tender mango pickle) made by Gayathri aunty, we waved goodbye to them and to Udupi :). I carried the whole lot with me to US (except brinjals :-D) despite some looks of protest by Sri :-D.

I must add though that I was almost in tears as I said goodbye to Ammamma. She's already too old and she looked very weak to me. I really do hope I get to see her again :(.

And so ended the second phase of our India trip. Still to come are the Gruhapravesha, the Tirupathi and Hyderabad trips. Don't go anywhere ;-).

Encore :(

Encore


Just one more day, I wished I could be there
When the visit to loved ones was at its end
Why does the heart always long for an encore
Of if not a day, if not an hour, only a second?

Just one more embrace, I wished I could have,
Maybe then the open wound would not hurt as much.
Why does the heart always long for an encore
Of if not an embrace, if not a hug, only a touch?

Just one more visual, my eyes wished to see,
As I walked far and further away with forced limps.
Why does the heart always long for an encore
Of if not a visual, if not a view, only a glimpse?

Just one more tear drop fell without any compulsion,
Sadness engulfed me and my heart felt oh so sore.
Pain is one thing the heart certainly doesn't long for
Nevertheless for tears, its encore, encore and encore..

P.S. For those who did not guess from the tone of the poem, yes, I am back in US and right now, not very happy about it...

Listening to: "Hume tumse pyar kitna" by Kishore Kumar

"Suna Gum Judai Ka Uthate Hai Log
Jaane Zindagi Kaise Bitate Hai Log
Din Bhi Yaha To Lage Baras Ke Samaan
Hume Intezar Kitna Yeh Hum Nahi Jaante
Magar Jee Nahi Sakte Tumhare Bina"

Ek Delhi ko dekha tho aisa laga :-D

Yup, this is part 2 of my original "Ek Chennai ko dekha tho aisa laga..." post. Its been more than an year since I went for a visa stamping to Chennai. This is sort of a rehash of the same, only this time I went to Delhi for my L1 work permit and Sri for his H1.

It all started a long time ago, (well, not that long :-p), when we decided that we'll get our visas stamped in India rather than going out to Mexico or Canada. Which was why our trip got delayed again, again and again :-p. Finally, when Sri shifted his job and got his work permit transferred, we decided that we had to visit India and that was when we had to have our visas stamped. One good thing was that as an Indian citizen resident in US, we had the advantage of going to any of the 4 US consulates in India. We looked for appointments, but sadly, the earliest available was May 2nd 2006 in the New Delhi consulate. So, very obviously, the whole trip to India was planned such that we could finish the stamping as a first priority :).

And so, just after a day of landing in good, old, beloved Bangalore (:-D), we were off on a flight (again!!!) to Delhi on 1st May 2006 noon. God!! I had been on so many flights recently that I dreamt of flights and airports whenever I slept :-p. Anyways, this time we took a Sahara flight and yup, they served us lunch again :-D, though thankfuly, it was oil-free this time :).

Delhi airport was a rude shock! Its literally like an air-conditioned railway station. Bad stench, flies, stained seats, yuck!! I am not comparing it to international airports but Bangalore airport is oh-so-much-better man :). But I guess things should improve with the airport privatization. The heat outside was very bad (above 46 degree celcius!!!), but somehow we did manage to crawl into a pre-paid taxi and ride on to our hotel in SouthEx, which is very near to the US embassy in Delhi.

The infamous jet lag prevailed in both of us, so we were flat as soon as we reached the hotel room. By the time we got up, it was time for dinner already. We went out and roamed quite a bit, finding no restaurants whatsoever except a MacDonalds. Look at our luck :-p. But the US MacDonalds doesn't have a Veggie burger which we finally ended up having for dinner. Wonder whether they'll ever try to market it in US..

On the D-day, we both got ready early (were looking very smart in suits :-D), had breakfast at the hotel and left for the embassy at about 8:30 AM itself, though the appointment was at 9:45 AM. We reached the embassy at about 9 AM and I was wondering whether they would allow us inside (as in Chennai last year, they had allowed me only 15 min before the actual appointment time). But here they did. After showing our appointment print-outs and first round of security checks, we stood in the non-immigrant queue. The heat was still bearable, thankfully, as the sun was still low in the sky.

We both had a single appointment, so went to the first counter together. The first counter has Indians who do a preliminary check of your documents. Sri was wearing his sun glasses and was rudely remonstrated by the guy in the counter!! Wearing sun glasses was not right as they cannot see the comparison between the photo and the real person, but the guy could have been polite :-p. Well, nevertheless we were polite and smiled and apologized :-p. He also asked us to enter local addresses and proceed. And so the first hurdle was crossed :-D.

Next we faced another round of security checks and were let in into the room where we would be taking our visa interview together. But before the actual interview, we did have to give our index fingerprints which is a standard procedure. We had no trouble at all in the same and later were guided to the visa interview queue.

There were very less number of people in front of us and hence in no time, one of the consulate officers called us. Again her name I know not, so I will refer to her as Ms. American :). The conversation that ensued is as follows:

Ms. American: Hello
Us both: Hi, Good morning!
Ms. American: One of your petition is for H1 and another for L1 is it?
Us both: Yes.
Ms. American: {refering to me} Yours is the L1 right?
Me: Yes.
Ms. American: So what kind of work are you doing in US?
Me: The same as I was doing here in India. {I provide a brief description of my work}. Also, since my husband was posted in US, I got an option of working there.
Ms. American: {refering to Sri} And what do you do sir?
Sri: {States his role}.
Ms. American: And what does that mean?
Sri: {Gives a brief description of his role and duties associated}.
Ms. American: {refering to me} I see here that you went to US on a H4. So did you get a job there?
Me: No, I was already on job here and went to us on H4. Later my L1 work permit was processed and I got my L1. Until I got my permit, I was on leave which was for about 1.5 months. (This was an expected question and I had the leave papers also ready, but she didn't ask for those :-D).
Ms. American: {refering to Sri} Was your visa refused anytime? Maybe once?
Sri: No, but I was asked some extra documents, maybe payslips one time. But it was a long time back {grins}.
Ms. American: Not that long back {smiles}. {Refers to me} You have had only one visa stamped?
Me: Yes.
Ms. American: {refering to Sri} Where did you get your Masters degree?
Sri: In Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi.
Ms. American: Where are you staying in US currently?
Us both: Lexington, Kentucky.
Ms. American: Ok everything looks alright. I am going to keep all these. All the best to both of you in your careers {smiles}.
Us both: Thanks and good bye {smile}.

That was it!! Phew!! She didn't ask for any of the other documents that Sri had painfully put together. And we were out by 9:45 AM :-D. We both were grinning and gave hi-fives as we came out :). Went back to the hotel and called up both sets of parents to inform them the news :). Since our flight to Bangalore was after 8 PM in the night, Sri wanted to go sight-seeing. I wasn't really into it due to the heat. Also, since I didn't foresee the sight-seeing aspect, I had left the camera behind in Bangalore :(. After cribbing for sometime about the sad-no-camera situation, I finally agreed to go. We booked an air-conditioned Indica and checked out of the hotel.

Our first stop was the India Gate. It had been more than 8 years since I visited Delhi and I was stuck by how beautiful the monument is and how vast the grounds surrounding it are. Despite the fact that it was a Tuesday, the crowd thronged the place. The sun was terribly hot, yet we stayed there for sometime, roaming around the monument and reading some of the names of the soldiers who died in wars. Later we returned to the cool car to see the Rastrapathi bhavan, the Lok and Rajya Sabhas and the Parliament. Again, I chided myself for not bringing the camera along :(. Meanwhile, I was surprised at the similarity of the Government buildings of India and US. In Washington, the Washington monument is surrounded by the Official buildings, whereas in Delhi the India Gate is in the centre :). Wonder who copied who :-D.

It had already crossed noon and hence we headed towards AP bhavan to have a delicious Andhra style lunch. After lunch, we stopped at Paalika bazaar as I wanted to buy a marble masher, which has a bowl and a mashing rod and is useful for mashing elaichis etc. We didn't find what I wanted, but we did end up picking up some gifts for Sri's colleagues from the Cottage Emporium. Next we went to Jantar Mantar. The structures there are amazing and it seems one of them can measure the time, the accuracy being within half a second!! I wanted to know more but the information provided next to the structures just wasn't enough. Anyways, thank God, there's the internet :-p. I was able to satisfy some of my curiosity later through the Delhi Tourism website.

Next on the agenda was to see if our visa-stamped passports were available at a place mentioned in the US Consulate website. If they are available, you can collect them there itself for Rs. 50 each and avoid the hassles of courier services. Since we were leaving for Udupi almost immediately, we wanted to collect them. But sadly the passports hadn't yet arrived there in the shipping office at Nehru place and we were told that they will be available the next day, which was of no use to us. We were disappointed, but hey, we tried :-p. Since Nehru place is also the home to the famous Bahai Lotus temple, that became our next tourist destination.

One thing I forgot to mention was that, the previous day when we were about to land in Delhi, we were able to see the Lotus temple from the flight :). I remembered the temple as this very peaceful, beautiful place I had visited last time. The temple is still as beautiful but somehow the peace and quiet is gone. Despite being warned many times to be quiet and not make any noise inside the temple and to control their children, people were making some amount of noise which made the temple visit not quite nice. The crowd was also too big, maybe due to the summer vacation for the children. Some things and feelings cannot be helped, I guess..

Lastly we visited the Qutub Minar. I really wished for the umpteenth time that the Minar was open to public for climbing and that I could climb it, but the government has had to restrict the access to avoid further deterioration. We enjoyed the sights of the surrounding ruins and the Iron pillar. Just as we were about to leave, a sand storm hit the area. My God!! Dust everywhere, in eyes and in hair :-p. Its terrible when you are standing somewhere and are stuck because you just can't see anything and hence cannot move. Thankfully in matter of minutes (which actually seemed like an hour :-p), the winds subsided and we were able to return to the car. Heat and dust is an amazing combination. You should really try it sometime :-p.

That was Delhi for us. We left for the airport immediately and had to wait for a couple of hours for our Air Deccan flight in the sad (again) airport. It was the time for our jet lag to set in and so we both slept in the plane without even a single blink. By the time we reached Bangalore, it was about 11 PM and that was it.

The only thing we missed is the Taj Mahal. Agra is about 2.5 hours from Delhi and there was no way we could have seen it as we had not planned for it. It would have been our first visit together there, but, well, there's always another time. Had it been this time, I'd have regretted it my whole life that I didn't have a camera with me ;-). Looks like all the things are well-planned by someone way above us ;-) :-D.

I'll be back!!

Hey wait!! I'm not going away. I'm not taking a break from blogging (though I dunno what you'd call not posting for 15 days :-p). I know I haven't posted for a while and that was because of a lack of ideas. For once the talkative me was stuck on what to post. Moreover the fact that I was busy and couldn't take time of about 2 hours for blogging on a workday also helped the cause a bit ;-). The main problem was anyways that I didn't know what the heck to blog about...

I thought I'll blog on my daily routine of working from home which I've gotten used in about 10 months now. But it sounded too boring. Make breakfast -> Say tata to Sri as he leaves for work -> Eat breakfast -> Check mails -> Go for my regular workout -> Check mails some more (after all what other work is there for a s/w engineer ;-) :-D) -> Take my bath -> Start work -> Have lunch -> Continue work until Sri lands home. Not much to write. Maybe I'll think of making it interesting and will blog in detail someday (Do I hear a set of "Oh No"s? :-D).

I also thought of posting a poem. Have a vague idea in my mind for a poem. Its very nice, but you can't really push it. Poems have to flow from thoughts and vague formats are just not sufficient. Especially when you are blocked for a post, the ideas just don't want to come! Don't you pity poor me? :(.

I saw Rang De Basanthi last weekend and thought of posting about it. Even told a friend that I'll probably post about it. But there are gazillions of Rang De Basanthi reviews already on the gazillions of blogs :(. There's nothing I have to say that those don't already talk about :(. But yeah, I do want to say it was fun sitting in the theatre and watching it. For a small town like Lexington, the theatre was house-full and we had students shouting, whistling and cheering. At one point, it felt like I was back in a theatre in India :). Also another point is that my faith in Aamir is back. After Mangal Pandey, I must admit I was apprehensive. But Rang De Basanthi just shows why I have been a fan of his since Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, since 1988 :). I have never shifted loyalties for 18 years (!!) :). I have heard some reviewers saying he's too old for this kind of a role etc, but there's nobody else who could have played it this good. Dil Chahtha He, though a story of 3 friends ended up being an Aamir movie. But Rang De Basanthi is no way an Aamir movie. The way he shares the screen with so many new actors is amazing to say the least and the new young actors have lived up to it :). Ok thats it, no more about RDB ;-).

Hmm again I thought I'll post a few pictures and write a post on the few favourite things I love about and around my apartment. But its been cloudy the whole week and I haven't even been able to take the pictures. Just how bad, can my bad luck get? ;-). After all these explanations (more like excuses) if you still haven't felt pity for me, then what can I say? Well, all I can say is that I'm sorry :(. But am posting now, amn't I? What are you cribbing about? :-p.

Finally coming to the title of the post, the "I'll be back!!" stands for I'll be back in India in the month of May for the whole month of May :-D. This finally is the post I've been waiting for :-D. Our tickets have finally arrived yesterday. We'll be leaving US on April 28th and reaching India by Apr 30th and we'll be leaving India on May 29th :). I know its still a few months away, but for a person who has waited to go back to India from Nov 2005, whats a mere couple of more months. Now I can't wait for the wait to finish :).

But it certainly won't be a vacation. We both need to get our Visas stamped. Have a whole lot of trips planned. Have our gruhapravesha planned. We need to spend some time with our both set of parents. A lot to do in a short while :(. Previously, we thought we might be going only for 3 weeks, but somehow things have worked out and we are getting an extra week. I guess this is the truth for an Indian living outside the country. You look forward so much to going back to India, but the reality will be that it will be for a short time. But atleast, you get that short time {sighs}. Once you get back, the waiting starts all over again :(.

Right now, I'm so looking forward to it. It'll be exactly an year since I came here. So I'll be celebrating my anniversary of coming to US in India, see the irony :-D. Oh God, I've so much to do, hopefully everything will go fine and as planned :). There's still so much of shopping to do and what not to buy. So much to plan and think about. So many tick marks :-D. Have I done this? Tick. Have I done that? Tick. Oh my God, I haven't done that. No tick ;-). Phew!!

Meanwhile, your faithful reporter Deepthi will keep updating the progress whenever she can. For now, over and out! :-D.

Two sides to a pendulum..

It always has to do it. Swing from one side to another. Once it reaches one side, it probably feels I'm not happy here and I want to be at the other side. Off it goes. The other side reached, it feels no I want to go back. Its never ending. Life's like that! There always has to be a side we want to reach to be happy. Once we reach there, we have some other thing bothering us...

This weekend is my parents-in-law's new house gruha pravesha in Hyderabad. Had we been in India, we'd have already planned our leaves and maybe even would have already been in Hyderabad by this time. Oh the celebration it would have been. The hungama, the confusion about simple things, which saree to wear, the things to help out in, the shifting, it would have been marvellous. As a first big function from Sriram's side, I'd have treated my parents like guests, hurrying here and there and what not! Not that it won't be a great function without us there, its just that I'd have oh-so-much loved to be there..

I obviously feel sad for myself. As a newly married couple, we'd have still been subjected to some teasing. But that's not what I'm gonna miss. All of Sriram's side of relatives are a bunch of fun. I enjoy being with them and thats what I am going to miss. Very badly. I am going to miss each and everything..

I feel sad for Sri. It probably bothers him more that he's not with his parents at this time, but the poor guy has to be brave for my sake. He not only has to deal with missing the function but with me too, as I keep making a fuss that he made me miss my first big function after marriage. Its not true ofcourse. Its just the circumstances. But I have to have somebody at who I can point my finger :(. And bechaara Sri gets it. Honestly, had it been my parents' gruha pravesha, I'd have been uncontrollable . So I do know what Sri must be going through. Poor guy :(.

I feel sad for Amma (Sri's mother). When she told us about the gruha pravesha, I still remember her hopeful voice asking her son whether they'll come back for the function. And I remember the disappointment in her voice when her son replied in a negative way. My mom told me that amma was even telling her that maybe her son and daughter-in-law will land in Hyderabad unannounced and surprise them. I feel extremely sad for the woman who hopes that her son will surprise her when she knows that he won't. Amma, I'm really sorry :(.

I feel sad for daddy (Sri's father), who yesterday, told us that he's deeply disappointed that we are not gonna be there. I've never seen or heard him speak like that. He even said to Sri, "Your Amma cries and controls her emotions, but you know I'm not like that. But I want to let you know that I'm disappointed". But daddy, you know what? We both are lots and lots more disappointed than all of you. Because we are here alone...

I feel sad for my mom and dad who will be on the train to Hyderabad now. It must feel really bad to be attending their daughter's main function, when she's not going to be there. Not that they mind it, they really want to attend. But I wish I was there to boss over them ;-). Sigh!! :((

But among all these, I also know that we have our own gruhapravesha scheduled sometime early next year, when we'll be going back to India. Obviously we have to be there ;-). Then I'll enjoy the same hungaama, same confusions and the company of both sides of relatives. This is the reassurance we both give each other. Thats gonna be some function :). I am smiling already thinking about it :).

We are going to be out of town this weekend, just because I told Sri I won't be able to bear it if I'm at home and am continously thinking about it. Maybe, he wants to getaway too. We are going to Pittsburgh to visit the earliest and the biggest Indian temple in US. Yup, my next post will surely be on that.

Amma and daddy, congratulations on your new home and hope the home will see many happy times, with all of us together. Hope you have a great function and everything goes great and just right :).

Ha Ha Happy Independence day :-p

Simply put, I hate it! I hate it when somebody sends me mails saying "Happy Independence Day"! Does that make me unpatriotic? Am I being disloyal to my country if I say I hate being reminded that its one year more and we haven't done anything at all for the improvement of the country? I know I'm pointing one finger towards all of the other Indians and 4 of the other fingers are pointing towards me...

All of 363 days in a normal year, nobody thinks about it. Nobody even bothers standing up to the national anthem (yup, me too) or nobody salutes at the national flag. On 2 days, suddenly, our so-called patriotism emerges from deep within our hearts and you see the tri-colour flags fluttering everywhere from house tops to car antennas. If this is not a show-off, what is? Oh its republic day, oh its Independence day, we say. But do we ever think about what we have accomplished in more than 55 years of independence? I know many of us do think about it, I have seen some really good thoughts in some blogs.. Our greatest achievements to-date are a huge population explosion, all-round corruption and more quality-of-life degradation. Am I also responsible in some way for this? Yup, sure I am. But I am not sure how to rectify it. No Indian does and that is the problem.

There have been other countries who have got their independence much later and are so much better compared to us. Take South Africa for example. The country has shown a lot of progress. Why? What's the difference? Sometimes I feel, we should have let the British rule us for about 50 more years. We should have waited until they introduced monorails, improved the roads and the communication channels. We should have schemed and taken our independence after achieving a really better India. Sure, we'd have been looted of probably each and every one of our natural resources, but we'd really have a very-clean looking country ;-) Other times I feel, I ought to take a gun and shoot each and every one of these politicians who only think of themselves and their profits than doing something for the country. I am sure many of us would have felt the same. But politics is a disease. You manage to kill one cell and there are two more generated with immediate effect.

So don't the other countries have any problems at all? Thats not true. Corruption is everywhere, politics is as nasty as it can get and India still isn't the highest population-wise (a measure we may correct very soon ;-) ). Then what the heck is my crib about? Just call it a post from a frustrated Indian who wants her country to be the best of all the countries in the world. But do I want my India to be an US? NO, thank you very much :) I am happy with my India as it is. Mass of contradictions, amn't I?

One of my fellow bloggers Gaya also has something to say about independence in her usual style here. As I commented for her post, about 10 points mentioned in her article apply to me. Does that make me a good Indian? Well I don't know. All I know is that I hate it when I get "Happy Independence Day" mails...

Ek Chennai ko dekha tho aisa laga...

The heat hit me on the face as soon as I was out of my 2nd AC Compartment. Didn't need any more proof at all that I was in Chennai ;-) I haven't been to Chennai for years. I don't even remember when I went last. This 1-day trip was not a vacation but was due to the fact that I need a visa to join my Sri and the only way to get it was to attack the US consulate in Chennai ;-)

The first thing I noticed about the city was obviously the heat. But the heat I'm used to, as a native of Udupi. The sun there I feel is hotter :-D But the weather sure was sultry. The other thing which I noticed (had to!!) and which bothered me was the smell. The smell was definitely not the like-able sort, but it wasn't the I-have-to-hold-my-nose kind either. This smell lingered in most of the roads there. Most of the roads were unclean too, but I guess that's a standard thing everywhere in India. No point in complaining about that :-D The thing that stuck me the most was the lack of bright faces. The crowds of people everywhere looked tired, most of them looked like the why-are-we-alive kinds, or I'm-too-bogged-down-by-work kinds. Cheerfulness of any kind was totally missing. I don't know whether it was due to the middle-of-the week syndrome :) What I liked though was the transport - the buses though old and were the surely-will-get-flooded-if-it-rains type, were open and airy. The autos though, were like hoards of cockroaches crawling everywhere. They didn't have any meter and the drivers seemed to ask crazy amounts to travel a single Km :-p What I loved were the tender coconuts, had 3 in only 1 day!!! It was basically to avoid dehydration :) We (me and dad) had lunch and dinner in Sharavana Bhavan. The food was good but the prices seemed atrocious :-p Ok the people in Chennai have money after all, even though they don't look like it :-p (Now I'm being nasty :-D)

At one point of time, I suddenly felt very sad. I was walking along one of the roads, when I remembered the Dec-27th Tsunami disaster. Wonder if there was a visitor like me who was walking on the road and was swept away before he/she realized what was happening. I know death has to happen but sometimes life's too cruel. There were kids playing along the beach that fateful day who drowned. And they wouldn't even have learnt what's life all about. Hmm I wonder whether that's good in one way...

Ok now the U.S consulate. Felt totally like a prison from outside as well as inside :( There were guards standing all over the place as if we are just waiting to attack the Americans inside :-p I went there to basically get H4 dependent visa stamped (will be writing in detail about the whole thing in my next post). After security and pre-verify formalities, I was sent into a bank-locker kind of a building. I say bank locker because the doors were all heavy, iron doors which I had to struggle to push/pull! There were 11-12 counter with Americans interviewing all sorts of Indians from all sorts of places. There were lots of people waiting for their turn and I joined them. Fortunately/Unfortunately (later turned out to be fortunate ;-) ) I was the first person to be called into a counter. The guy there (I don't even know his name, so from now on he'll be referred to as Mr. American) checked out my papers and took the fingerprints of my left and right index fingers. I was afraid they'd object to my working status and the first question was exactly that!

Mr. American: "How long have you been working in ............?"
Me: One and a half years.
Mr. American: And what will you be doing in U.S?
Me: Nothing as of now
(Immediately I wished I hadn't said "as of now" :-p)
Mr. American {raises his eyebrows}: And you are looking forward to that?
Me: Yeah, am really looking forward to a break!!
and I grin.
Mr. American {smiles}: Ok Your visa will be stamped. Please pay up the DD in counter 1.

That was it!!! He didn't ask me anything about my marriage, nothing about Sri and where he's staying, didn't see my marriage photos/certificate, didn't ask for a No-objection letter I had painfully taken from my work-place, didn't ask for anything extra like photos et cetera. With all due respect to Mr. American, I have to exclaim "Crazy Americans!!!" :-p Anyways I was grinning ear-to-ear by the time I was out of there :-D Didn't even mind the sweat drenching my clothes (though there was no sun)!! Chennai looked brighter all of a sudden ;-)

But hey Bangalore is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better man! When I landed here today morning, I noticed all the little things I had probably been ignoring for years. The roads are definitely cleaner and definitely no smell :-D The weather is cool and lovely. The people are more enthusiastic, active and cheerful! Love Bangalore :)

Sad that I may not be here after 2 weeks :(