Monday, August 30, 2004
August 30, 2004, Monday
Raksha Bandhan is a festival celebrated today. It's the celebration of the special bond between a brother and a sister. Sisters tie a special band on their brothers' wrist on the day of Rakhi as a mark of affection. Badri's cousin, Kavitha, sent him a card and band, and Charlie's cousin, Anya, sent him a band and we tied them on both. Here in India, cousins are considered brothers/sisters as well. "Raksha" means protection, "bandhan" means bound or binding.
And with that, I'll send off my update for August. I hope you're all managing to keep cool!
Friday, August 27, 2004
Went to orientation at the Canadian International School, Maya's new school where she'll be going to "junior kindergarten" from 8:30-2:30 daily. She'll miss her friend Manasvi from Kangaroo Kids (the playschool she was going to in our neighborhood from 8:45-11:15 am every day), but she knows quite a few kids at the new school, so we think she'll do fine.
Today was Varamahalakshmi, an annual festival (pooja) celebrated in South India. Pooja means worship to the gods of the Hindu religion in the form of prayer, offerings, and sacrifices. Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity, wealth, and purity. It is said that this pooja started when an old, poor and troubled woman was visited by Goddess Lakshmi in her dreams. She told the woman to fast and pray and that prosperity would come to her and her family. When she did as she was told, her wishes came true.
There is a woman who comes by daily to visit our guard, Mr. Bheg, and driver Mohan. Her name is Ratnama, and she always gives a smile and says namaste. Lately she has been designing kolam (or rangoli) in front of our gate. Kolam is an ancient Hindu religious floor art. It's done with rice flour and sometimes color and petals are also added. The designs can be simple, or, for example during festivals like Varamahalakshmi, they can be very intricate shapes and designs. Today she did an incredibly ornate design with white as well as other colors, plus petals in the middle.
August 21, 2004
Took Molly for a few immunizations today: hepatitis A, oral polio vaccine (she already had the injectable in the states, but evidently the OPV gives her more coverage here in India), and BCG (against tuberculosis). Charlie was due for the OPV and BCG, but I skipped him since he's had a cold for the last few days. Poor little guy. But he's a trooper. Doesn't let it keep him down. He's sitting up on his own now (but we still sit behind him just in case!).
Speaking of troopers, Molly did great for her shots. Barely cried for any of them. I felt guilty that this is the only outing I can remember taking with her solo (other than occasional strolls around the neighborhood), so I took her to Woodlands (a hotel/restaurant chain--also in Delhi and Madras) for an ice cream, just the two of us. Went to Malliya Hospital for the BCG shot, and that cost 60 rupees (just a little over $1), and then to our pediatrician for the OPV and Hep A, where I was charged 1100 Rs ($24!) for a consultation and the two immunizations.
Badri returns home tonight from a two day business trip for campus recruiting. He went to Delhi this time, and to his old alma mater, IIT Kanpur (Indian Institute of Technology). He hadn't been on campus for 19 years and I guess it was a real trip for him. I'm looking forward to more details.
This week I met Joan, a very interesting woman from Scotland. I met her at playgroup and then at the weekly 10am-12noon meeting at the Leela Palace (where Overseas Women's Club meets). Her daughter and son-in-law are here (along with their three sons) in India for a couple years to teach at the Canadian School (where Maya will be shifting to next week). Joan is a very colorful character. Told me about her years in the wilderness of Uganda, where her husband was posted as a geographer (she's also a geographer by profession). She and her husband made it out of Uganda before Idi Amin seized power, and she told me about colleagues of her husbands who had to leave the country in a hurry with nothing but a suitcase.
When they started having kids they moved back to Scotland and then to Canada, and I thought it was interesting how she gradually got back into "extracurricular activities" as her family was growing. In the evenings she began taking art classes, and little by little branched out into jewelry making and then organizing art shows. One of the key points was that she started doing something interesting to her that wasn't a money making proposition, and then over time, it became a profitable hobby she loved.
My plan had been to first take yoga (for my sanity and general well-being) and I'm doing that three times a week. Then I was going to tackle Hindi classes, and then do some volunteer work. I think I'm going to skip the Hindi and go straight for looking for an organization whose work appeals to me. As much as I love languages, I think the volunteering will be more satisfying. I'll just pick up a little Hindi and Tamil as I go along, both from the people working with us and from yoga class (ek, doe, teen, char--1, 2, 3, 4). Really bad--I can't often figure out which is the Hindi and which is the Tamil.
Tonight as I was getting the kids ready for bed (Dhanalaxmi's was in the kitchen squaring things away), Molly was the first one to melt and crash (as usual). Her latest favorite book is "I can do it, too!" Charlie then needed to be fed, so I figured I'd nurse him while reading Maya her bedtime book. Wrong. For the first time, Charlie decided he wasn't going to nurse while I was doing ANYthing else. So I had to ask Maya to wait on my bed and look at books while I switched over to Charlie's room. Talk about a trooper--with two siblings, Maya's learned to be very patient about not getting what she wants exactly when she wants it. It was perfect timing when Badri called from the Delhi airport right after I put Charlie into bed and Maya and I were snuggling for a read. Now I'm going to go catch some ZZZZZs. You never know when Charlie will need a midnight or 2 am feed.
Oh, one last thing. Today Venkatesh, our gardener and night guard, together with Mohan, our driver, brought 50 bricks home and climbed up to the eaves overhanging the girls' bedroom to build a makeshift wall to keep out the pigeons. Every morning at 6:15 (like clockwork!) those birds would make the biggest racket!! When Venkatesh crawled in he found a couple little pigeon eggs (about half the size of chicken eggs). The girls were so excited to see them. They insisted on holding them. Reluctantly I agreed, but then it turns out they didn't even break in Molly's hands.
August 18, 2004
Went to a playgroup in Koramangala yesterday with the kids. Traffic was horrendous . We thought it would take 20 minutes and it took 45 minutes. Koramangala is growing very quickly, as are many neighborhoods of Bangalore. The traffic far exceeds the roads. Evidently the choked traffic is the rule, rather than the exception. Playgroup was at an English woman's place at the top floor of one of the Acropolis towers. It's a huge apartment complex where mostly expats (foreigners) live. Badri actually looked at it, but decided against it for a few reasons--Koramangala actually has more mosquitos than our neighborhood (Indiranagar), and he wanted to live in a house near a park. I think he really chose well.
The interior designer who set up our house came over yesterday. She'll re-sell some of the furniture that she'd bought, since now that our sea shipment has come in we have TOO much stuff.
Dhanalaxmi started working for us on Monday. She's a 20 year old young woman who is very sweet. The kids have already taken to her. She sleeps in the girls' room. This morning Molly woke up at 5:30 and said, "Nandini, Nandini, wake up, wake up!" (She confuses Danalaxmi with Nandini, who is the housecleaner's daughter--both very sweet, beautiful young women). Dhana or Laxmi (as she likes to be called) is very tall and thin. I told her she looks like a dancer and sure enough, she dances. She wears salwar kameez, and Maya is asking to wear hers more often. She really likes Dhana, and calls her Aca (big sister).
Badri felt very strongly that we should have a helper stay overnight so that we could go for walks in the evening or go out. Celina, the nanny, works very long hours and has a lot to handle when I go for yoga or do other things, so Dhanalaxmi is a good helper for her.
August 9, 2004
Okay, we did it today. Put Charlie in the nursery. Let's see how much exercise I get tonight running back and forth between his room and ours. He napped very well in there this afternoon. Maybe that's a good sign!
Had Maya's friend, Aventi, over for a playdate today. Aventi turned 5 recently and we went to her birthday party at the local Indiranagar Club on Saturday. Very nice party. Very much like parties in the states, with fun games for the kids like a scavenger hunt. Yummy homemade chocolate cake decorated with homemade miniature playground equipment made out of paper--swings, slide, merry-go-round. All the children who attended were given a planting pot with seeds as their take away gift.
At the park this afternoon I met another mom who asked if we've been camcording Molly's walk. She has a little wiggle that I guess others find as adorable as we do.
August 8, 2004
Took a road trip to Cauvery Fishing Camp today, but never made it all the way there. We drove a few hours over some good road, mostly bad, with steep valleys and streams interspersed with little villages. With the monsoon there's been flooding, so we were told we'd have to park, walk a kilometer, then take a boat to get to the camp. It would have been too much to carry Molly that far (Maya enjoys walking and Charlie's still only 16 lbs.) and, heck, who knows whether it was one kilometer or three, really, so we decided to just pull off to the side of the road and picnic under a tree alongside the Cauvery River. Beautiful river, very fast current, and very high because of all the rain. We could see trees partially submerged that are usually above the water line. A shepherd came by with his flock of goats while we were picnicking, and the girls were in heaven.
It was a great chance to get out of the city and see the beautiful forests of Karnataka, as well as the farmland. On Sunday we saw lots of people working the fields, plowing with buffalo. I couldn't identify one of the crops and Mohan, our driver, told me it's the plant that's used to feed the silk worm. The most outstanding part of the day in my book was driving through the little villages, with roads so narrow you could basically peek into doorways and see people watching television inside their humble mudwalled homes. For the first time I saw these beautiful woven mats which are propped up, with built-in spirals to hold silk worms. The silk worm basically spits silk from its mouth and builds a cocoon on this scaffolding. Silk production plays a major role in the rural economy of India.
August 6, 2004
Had another dinner party, again with Badri's colleagues. Had a mutton (sheep) dish and a chicken kabob, with stuffed bhindi (okra) and gobi Manchuria (cauliflower) for vegetables sides.
Charlie turns 7 months today, and we're really hoping he starts sleeping through the night again soon. We're seriously considering putting him into the nursery, but it's a long haul across the second floor through the playroom to get there for me to go and nurse at night.
August 2, 2004
Today was Badri and my 7th wedding anniversary--thank you to Amma and Appa for the reminder. We celebrated by going out to a place called the 13th floor--basically a place to have drinks and appetizers. Actually, we were planning to go out to dinner, but the wondercook Indira is back with her sidekick Rita, and she'd made such a wonderful few dishes that we thought, "Heck, why go out to eat?"
One of the three families Indira cooks for, friends of ours, are out of town for a few weeks, so she's back with us for the time being. She swoops in at about 10 in the morning and then flies out by 1 pm, with heavenly meals appearing in our fridge and on the countertop.
Sun., August 1, 2004
Today we checked out another brunch spot, the Taj West End. We met up with two friends of ours, Krista and Neal. Like me and Badri, they're an American/Indian couple. They have one daughter, Sita, who is Molly's age. There were lots of great activities for the kids. Maya spent the majority of the time on one of those inflatable slides you see at parties. She climbed up one side with a latticework of canvas footholds, and slid down on the opposite side. There was a nice lawn for Molly to wander around on. Charlie fell asleep on Badri's shoulder after brunch. Both Maya and Molly had tattoos painted on--ladybug and butterfly. I was amazed that Molly sat still long enough to have one painted on her.
Poor little Molly. She got what we think is a spider bite on her hand. I noticed a bite a few days ago, noticed that it was oozing a bit yesterday, and today it was swollen so much that you could hardly make out her little knuckle dimples.
On the way back from the brunch we stopped at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden to wander around. It's a 240 acre park, and the most famous garden in Bangalore. We climbed a long flight of rock steps, because that's one of Molly's favorite activities lately--climbing steps. The rock formations there are believed to be some of the oldest in the India--3000 million years old!
Sat., July 31, 2004
Today we went to Nrityagram, a dance village 30 kilometers (apx. 18 miles) from Bangalore. It was absolutely beautiful, with all the structures made out of local stone. We'd heard it was a good place to go for a picnic and to wander around. It was set up to preserve and popularize the seven Indian classical dance forms. There's an annual dance-music festival held in February to coincide with the arrival of spring.
When we arrived, there were dancers rehearsing and being videotaped. Unfortunately, Molly picked a bad time to have a melt down, so we were given very nasty looks (understandably, I suppose), and hurried off to have our picnic lunch at a distance. We sat in the middle of a sculpture garden to eat. There was also a stage for practicing yoga, with a puja (prayer) room attached. All of this was in the middle of nowhere, one hour and 15 minutes from Bangalore. Just trees all around. It was really nice to get out of the city.
Raksha Bandhan is a festival celebrated today. It's the celebration of the special bond between a brother and a sister. Sisters tie a special band on their brothers' wrist on the day of Rakhi as a mark of affection. Badri's cousin, Kavitha, sent him a card and band, and Charlie's cousin, Anya, sent him a band and we tied them on both. Here in India, cousins are considered brothers/sisters as well. "Raksha" means protection, "bandhan" means bound or binding.
And with that, I'll send off my update for August. I hope you're all managing to keep cool!
Friday, August 27, 2004
Went to orientation at the Canadian International School, Maya's new school where she'll be going to "junior kindergarten" from 8:30-2:30 daily. She'll miss her friend Manasvi from Kangaroo Kids (the playschool she was going to in our neighborhood from 8:45-11:15 am every day), but she knows quite a few kids at the new school, so we think she'll do fine.
Today was Varamahalakshmi, an annual festival (pooja) celebrated in South India. Pooja means worship to the gods of the Hindu religion in the form of prayer, offerings, and sacrifices. Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity, wealth, and purity. It is said that this pooja started when an old, poor and troubled woman was visited by Goddess Lakshmi in her dreams. She told the woman to fast and pray and that prosperity would come to her and her family. When she did as she was told, her wishes came true.
There is a woman who comes by daily to visit our guard, Mr. Bheg, and driver Mohan. Her name is Ratnama, and she always gives a smile and says namaste. Lately she has been designing kolam (or rangoli) in front of our gate. Kolam is an ancient Hindu religious floor art. It's done with rice flour and sometimes color and petals are also added. The designs can be simple, or, for example during festivals like Varamahalakshmi, they can be very intricate shapes and designs. Today she did an incredibly ornate design with white as well as other colors, plus petals in the middle.
August 21, 2004
Took Molly for a few immunizations today: hepatitis A, oral polio vaccine (she already had the injectable in the states, but evidently the OPV gives her more coverage here in India), and BCG (against tuberculosis). Charlie was due for the OPV and BCG, but I skipped him since he's had a cold for the last few days. Poor little guy. But he's a trooper. Doesn't let it keep him down. He's sitting up on his own now (but we still sit behind him just in case!).
Speaking of troopers, Molly did great for her shots. Barely cried for any of them. I felt guilty that this is the only outing I can remember taking with her solo (other than occasional strolls around the neighborhood), so I took her to Woodlands (a hotel/restaurant chain--also in Delhi and Madras) for an ice cream, just the two of us. Went to Malliya Hospital for the BCG shot, and that cost 60 rupees (just a little over $1), and then to our pediatrician for the OPV and Hep A, where I was charged 1100 Rs ($24!) for a consultation and the two immunizations.
Badri returns home tonight from a two day business trip for campus recruiting. He went to Delhi this time, and to his old alma mater, IIT Kanpur (Indian Institute of Technology). He hadn't been on campus for 19 years and I guess it was a real trip for him. I'm looking forward to more details.
This week I met Joan, a very interesting woman from Scotland. I met her at playgroup and then at the weekly 10am-12noon meeting at the Leela Palace (where Overseas Women's Club meets). Her daughter and son-in-law are here (along with their three sons) in India for a couple years to teach at the Canadian School (where Maya will be shifting to next week). Joan is a very colorful character. Told me about her years in the wilderness of Uganda, where her husband was posted as a geographer (she's also a geographer by profession). She and her husband made it out of Uganda before Idi Amin seized power, and she told me about colleagues of her husbands who had to leave the country in a hurry with nothing but a suitcase.
When they started having kids they moved back to Scotland and then to Canada, and I thought it was interesting how she gradually got back into "extracurricular activities" as her family was growing. In the evenings she began taking art classes, and little by little branched out into jewelry making and then organizing art shows. One of the key points was that she started doing something interesting to her that wasn't a money making proposition, and then over time, it became a profitable hobby she loved.
My plan had been to first take yoga (for my sanity and general well-being) and I'm doing that three times a week. Then I was going to tackle Hindi classes, and then do some volunteer work. I think I'm going to skip the Hindi and go straight for looking for an organization whose work appeals to me. As much as I love languages, I think the volunteering will be more satisfying. I'll just pick up a little Hindi and Tamil as I go along, both from the people working with us and from yoga class (ek, doe, teen, char--1, 2, 3, 4). Really bad--I can't often figure out which is the Hindi and which is the Tamil.
Tonight as I was getting the kids ready for bed (Dhanalaxmi's was in the kitchen squaring things away), Molly was the first one to melt and crash (as usual). Her latest favorite book is "I can do it, too!" Charlie then needed to be fed, so I figured I'd nurse him while reading Maya her bedtime book. Wrong. For the first time, Charlie decided he wasn't going to nurse while I was doing ANYthing else. So I had to ask Maya to wait on my bed and look at books while I switched over to Charlie's room. Talk about a trooper--with two siblings, Maya's learned to be very patient about not getting what she wants exactly when she wants it. It was perfect timing when Badri called from the Delhi airport right after I put Charlie into bed and Maya and I were snuggling for a read. Now I'm going to go catch some ZZZZZs. You never know when Charlie will need a midnight or 2 am feed.
Oh, one last thing. Today Venkatesh, our gardener and night guard, together with Mohan, our driver, brought 50 bricks home and climbed up to the eaves overhanging the girls' bedroom to build a makeshift wall to keep out the pigeons. Every morning at 6:15 (like clockwork!) those birds would make the biggest racket!! When Venkatesh crawled in he found a couple little pigeon eggs (about half the size of chicken eggs). The girls were so excited to see them. They insisted on holding them. Reluctantly I agreed, but then it turns out they didn't even break in Molly's hands.
August 18, 2004
Went to a playgroup in Koramangala yesterday with the kids. Traffic was horrendous . We thought it would take 20 minutes and it took 45 minutes. Koramangala is growing very quickly, as are many neighborhoods of Bangalore. The traffic far exceeds the roads. Evidently the choked traffic is the rule, rather than the exception. Playgroup was at an English woman's place at the top floor of one of the Acropolis towers. It's a huge apartment complex where mostly expats (foreigners) live. Badri actually looked at it, but decided against it for a few reasons--Koramangala actually has more mosquitos than our neighborhood (Indiranagar), and he wanted to live in a house near a park. I think he really chose well.
The interior designer who set up our house came over yesterday. She'll re-sell some of the furniture that she'd bought, since now that our sea shipment has come in we have TOO much stuff.
Dhanalaxmi started working for us on Monday. She's a 20 year old young woman who is very sweet. The kids have already taken to her. She sleeps in the girls' room. This morning Molly woke up at 5:30 and said, "Nandini, Nandini, wake up, wake up!" (She confuses Danalaxmi with Nandini, who is the housecleaner's daughter--both very sweet, beautiful young women). Dhana or Laxmi (as she likes to be called) is very tall and thin. I told her she looks like a dancer and sure enough, she dances. She wears salwar kameez, and Maya is asking to wear hers more often. She really likes Dhana, and calls her Aca (big sister).
Badri felt very strongly that we should have a helper stay overnight so that we could go for walks in the evening or go out. Celina, the nanny, works very long hours and has a lot to handle when I go for yoga or do other things, so Dhanalaxmi is a good helper for her.
August 9, 2004
Okay, we did it today. Put Charlie in the nursery. Let's see how much exercise I get tonight running back and forth between his room and ours. He napped very well in there this afternoon. Maybe that's a good sign!
Had Maya's friend, Aventi, over for a playdate today. Aventi turned 5 recently and we went to her birthday party at the local Indiranagar Club on Saturday. Very nice party. Very much like parties in the states, with fun games for the kids like a scavenger hunt. Yummy homemade chocolate cake decorated with homemade miniature playground equipment made out of paper--swings, slide, merry-go-round. All the children who attended were given a planting pot with seeds as their take away gift.
At the park this afternoon I met another mom who asked if we've been camcording Molly's walk. She has a little wiggle that I guess others find as adorable as we do.
August 8, 2004
Took a road trip to Cauvery Fishing Camp today, but never made it all the way there. We drove a few hours over some good road, mostly bad, with steep valleys and streams interspersed with little villages. With the monsoon there's been flooding, so we were told we'd have to park, walk a kilometer, then take a boat to get to the camp. It would have been too much to carry Molly that far (Maya enjoys walking and Charlie's still only 16 lbs.) and, heck, who knows whether it was one kilometer or three, really, so we decided to just pull off to the side of the road and picnic under a tree alongside the Cauvery River. Beautiful river, very fast current, and very high because of all the rain. We could see trees partially submerged that are usually above the water line. A shepherd came by with his flock of goats while we were picnicking, and the girls were in heaven.
It was a great chance to get out of the city and see the beautiful forests of Karnataka, as well as the farmland. On Sunday we saw lots of people working the fields, plowing with buffalo. I couldn't identify one of the crops and Mohan, our driver, told me it's the plant that's used to feed the silk worm. The most outstanding part of the day in my book was driving through the little villages, with roads so narrow you could basically peek into doorways and see people watching television inside their humble mudwalled homes. For the first time I saw these beautiful woven mats which are propped up, with built-in spirals to hold silk worms. The silk worm basically spits silk from its mouth and builds a cocoon on this scaffolding. Silk production plays a major role in the rural economy of India.
August 6, 2004
Had another dinner party, again with Badri's colleagues. Had a mutton (sheep) dish and a chicken kabob, with stuffed bhindi (okra) and gobi Manchuria (cauliflower) for vegetables sides.
Charlie turns 7 months today, and we're really hoping he starts sleeping through the night again soon. We're seriously considering putting him into the nursery, but it's a long haul across the second floor through the playroom to get there for me to go and nurse at night.
August 2, 2004
Today was Badri and my 7th wedding anniversary--thank you to Amma and Appa for the reminder. We celebrated by going out to a place called the 13th floor--basically a place to have drinks and appetizers. Actually, we were planning to go out to dinner, but the wondercook Indira is back with her sidekick Rita, and she'd made such a wonderful few dishes that we thought, "Heck, why go out to eat?"
One of the three families Indira cooks for, friends of ours, are out of town for a few weeks, so she's back with us for the time being. She swoops in at about 10 in the morning and then flies out by 1 pm, with heavenly meals appearing in our fridge and on the countertop.
Sun., August 1, 2004
Today we checked out another brunch spot, the Taj West End. We met up with two friends of ours, Krista and Neal. Like me and Badri, they're an American/Indian couple. They have one daughter, Sita, who is Molly's age. There were lots of great activities for the kids. Maya spent the majority of the time on one of those inflatable slides you see at parties. She climbed up one side with a latticework of canvas footholds, and slid down on the opposite side. There was a nice lawn for Molly to wander around on. Charlie fell asleep on Badri's shoulder after brunch. Both Maya and Molly had tattoos painted on--ladybug and butterfly. I was amazed that Molly sat still long enough to have one painted on her.
Poor little Molly. She got what we think is a spider bite on her hand. I noticed a bite a few days ago, noticed that it was oozing a bit yesterday, and today it was swollen so much that you could hardly make out her little knuckle dimples.
On the way back from the brunch we stopped at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden to wander around. It's a 240 acre park, and the most famous garden in Bangalore. We climbed a long flight of rock steps, because that's one of Molly's favorite activities lately--climbing steps. The rock formations there are believed to be some of the oldest in the India--3000 million years old!
Sat., July 31, 2004
Today we went to Nrityagram, a dance village 30 kilometers (apx. 18 miles) from Bangalore. It was absolutely beautiful, with all the structures made out of local stone. We'd heard it was a good place to go for a picnic and to wander around. It was set up to preserve and popularize the seven Indian classical dance forms. There's an annual dance-music festival held in February to coincide with the arrival of spring.
When we arrived, there were dancers rehearsing and being videotaped. Unfortunately, Molly picked a bad time to have a melt down, so we were given very nasty looks (understandably, I suppose), and hurried off to have our picnic lunch at a distance. We sat in the middle of a sculpture garden to eat. There was also a stage for practicing yoga, with a puja (prayer) room attached. All of this was in the middle of nowhere, one hour and 15 minutes from Bangalore. Just trees all around. It was really nice to get out of the city.
# posted by Kelly @ 9:45 PM 
