About 200 cups of chai heavily laced with sugar and full-fat milk, 3 pedicures, 2 courses of Antibiotics, about a dozen Hindi Movies and one thoroughly pampered child getting the attention of 2 sets of grand parents later...I realize that it is almost time to leave for the rainy winters in California . Wait a minute...time just passed me by so fast that I just want to hold on to the next 3 days and savor them...however shuttling between Kothrud and Kondwa just about has me worn down...whoever said it's easy to have parents and in-laws in the same city needs their heads checked :-)
I mostly ate at home...yes this foodie with dreams of checking out the Dorabjees and Oh!Calcutta mostly ended up eating Varan Bhaat and Dalma and Chorchori most days and LOVED IT. I had Desi Chinese about 4 times this trip and it filled a void that no food anywhere else can fill - my American Chopsuey I will miss you when I am back in the US. The highlight of my foodie adventure - eating the pumpkin flower bhaji made from the pumpkin flowers picked from my parent's garden (mind you - they moved into their new house a month back and planted the pumpkin plants with the sole idea of having me eat the pumpkin flower bhaji)
I climbed up Tirupati with a severe case of cough and cold and the weather was cold and rainy and I got drenched about half way through the journey...with my chest feeling like it would burst I completed the scenic albeit very hard climb...only to find out that the couple climbing after us had sighted 2 leopards...I did feel a tinge of regret at not being the one seeing the leopards...however the wonderful darshan and the hot prasad (the pepper ghee rice) made all of that quickly forgotten. Next stop was Bangalore and one thing that I did get from my stopover there was that this was definitely not the City of my Dreams...2 hours to get from the airport to the office...another 1 hour to commute to another site about a kilometer away due to construction and traffic...the weather was beautiful yet the traffic and the lack of infrastructure aggravating. I am unused to the hustle and bustle of India after the quiet of the area I live in and just as I am getting used to the hustle & bustle its time to leave.
The highlights of my shopping - a handi pressure cooker, a dosa tawa and a cute little tadka pan. I have almost a suitcase filled with Natural Remedies for cough, cold, indigestion, building up immunity...(Bhimsen Kapur, Amla Murabba, Herbal Soaps, Chyavan Prash....you get the drift). I also have stocked up on the latest Hindi movies and songs...not much else and yet it feels like so much. I spent a lot of time wondering on where the time passed by and when we will get to see the parents again. K2 was a rock star, adjusting to all the love and adoration like it was his birthright...entertaining people with his conversations, eating his puran poli and varan bhaat and in general adjusting to the changed pace a lot better than his parents -- shows how inflexible age makes you ;-)
Reality is India is still calling yet I am ready to pack my bags and go back to the routine that I call life...and I will take back memories of deep love, aggravating traffic, incessant noise, vibrant colors, unavoidable pollution and the warmth of family....
