The Raghavan Family in Bangalore

Monday, May 01, 2006

May 2006 Update from Bangalore

Monday, May 1, 2006

May Day, aka Labor Day. Some businesses closed for the day, like banks and Badri's office. But he had a day trip to Delhi. Last Friday he flew to Mumbai (Bombay) for the day.

First day of Genie Kids for Maya and Molly. Maya's program is called "Discover Me" (10am-1pm) and Molly's is "Fun Tales" (10:30am-1pm). Maya LOVED it and wants to go every day (except Sunday, she said). One of the things I loved about it, that occurred to me as the kids came down the stairs at 1pm, was that all the students and teachers are locals, all Indians.

May 2, 2006

Maya lost another tooth today. She really loves anticipating the surprises that the Tooth Fairy will deliver.

Went over to Daniela's house for a playdate with Charlie. The house was bursting at the seams with people. Most people are on summer break, so kids are out of school and mom's are desperate for something to do to keep busy. Options are not great here in Bangalore. We really love and look forward to playdates. I'll miss them when all the kids are in school. When they're nearby, here in Indiranagar, I'll be able to go with Charlie for an hour when he's out of Neev (will get out at 11am).

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Volunteered at the Overseas Women's Club Pink Elephant sale (fundraiser) held on MG Road. Very hot and sunny day. Thank goodness for sunscreen and Marylouise's extra hats she passed around.

Maya lost another front tooth tonight. Two days in a row, two front teeth gone.

Thursday, May 4, 2006

Had a swim playdate at Marylouise's with Maya only. Left Charlie and Molly behind with Rita because they were being so terribly naughty. How else to describe it?

Maya spent so much time swimming underwater and gulping that she threw up most of breakfast after coming out of the pool. Came home, she slept three hours, and woke up right as rain.

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Barbecue at our place

Had a terrific BBQ at our house today, catered by Shoaib Haroon of The Only Place Restaurant on Museum Road. Seriously delicious marinated steak and chicken skewers, each separately mixed with onions, capsicum (green bell peppers) and tomatoes. Not to forget the marinated prawns. Yum! For the vegetarians we had mushroom kebabs and a vegetable/paneer mince kebab. They set up the grill in the driveway and the buffet table on the lawn. Buffet included green salad, raita (yogurt with onions and other vegetables), mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, peas pulao with an eggplant gravy on the side. The killer dessert was apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

Shoaib Haroon himself came, and really made sure everyone had a great meal. He even brought some very nice filet cuts that we hadn't ordered. Ten families came, with 17 adults and 17 children total. The hit on the drink and snack table was the guava juice/soda water/limes punch. Got that idea from Kirsty, who unfortunately couldn't make it because she was in Australia. Marylouise (U.S.), Malinder and Sam (Australia), Tutu%

The reconstruction begins...
I'd sent out May's update, but as far as I can tell, only a couple of you read it in its original entirety (Hap?Maryjane?) before it disappeared from the blogsite after May 6th's Tutu% (see above). So now I'll try and remember back a few months to what happened in May. Bear with me.

Had a nice turnout at the barbecue. Friends from various places. Tutu and Sangeeta (India), Jessica and David (Sweden), Maria and Mats (Sweden), Jo and Marc (France), Charmaine (U.S.), Anu (India), Dolores (U.S.), Marion and Phil (UK) and lots of their kids.

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Badri's cousin, Nilam, came to visit from Delhi with her daughter Karunya and son Dhruv. The kids all had a wonderful time playing together. There's nothing like having cousins. Maya, Molly, and Charlie were all calling Karunya "acca", meaning "big sister" in Tamil.

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Playgroup way up in Sadashivnagar today, at Nina's. Went with Charlie and had a great time. Nina lives in Rajkumar's neighborhood. He's the famous actor who died last month. She lives so close to his family's home, that when "fans" mobbed his neighborhood and threatened to overrun the gates of the family home, police had to throw teargas and some of the residual gas hit Nina's house. http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20060413/304864.html

Thursday, May 11, 2006

We all went over to Marylouise's to swim today with Hannah and Maura.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Went to Taj West End for swimming and brunch with Kirsty, Andrew, and their kids. The children spent a few minutes eating and most of the time playing on the bouncy castle, getting tattooos done, and their caricatures painted. There was even a booth where you could play with Bay Blades (one thing Maya's into lately), swings, a pool with fish and fishing poles. Really, pretty much like going to a fair or carnival.

In the evening went out to dinner with Sarah and her friend Laura who's moving back to the U.S. She was here for about a year working with Sarah's husband, Wayne, for a non-governmental organization which works on improving the water supply for communities.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

My friend Maria, from Sweden, came over today to interview me about adoption. She's writing an article for a Swedish magazine, and interviewing people who have experienced the adoption process in the U.S., India, South Africa, Singapore, and Sweden. She and her husband Mats have adopted both their daughters, Astrid and Mimmi. I'm very sad to say that Maria will be leaving India before the end of this year.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Went to a baby shower for Dewi, a Dutch friend, who will be leaving India in a couple months. Had a nice lunch at Taj West End, organized by Charmaine. Some of my favorite Bangalore folks there--Dewi, Marylouise, Marion, Jessica.

Got home just in time to get us all dressed for Celine's daughter's wedding. Celine was our first cook and second nanny, and now works down the street for a friend. She still does occasional night time babysitting for us, and the kids adore her, call her "Celine Auntie". She comes by every couple weeks to visit. Celine is Catholic, so the wedding was held at a Catholic church and the reception in an adjacent function hall. Saw some friends there, as well as two wonderful ladies, Indira and Rita, who used to help us out cooking from time to time. Indira is so sweet--always asks how Amma and Appa are, and how my mother is doing. Everybody was very happy to see the children and how much they've grown.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Maya went to her buddy, Akhil's, birthday party today. They'll really miss each other in June, when he goes off to NAFL (National Academy for Learning).

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Went to Jo and Marc's bon voyage party. After three years in India, they will be moving back to Grenoble, France. We met them when their son, Emeric, and Maya were classmates at the Canadian School in 2004-2005. A very interesting couple, they had also lived in Bolivia before they had children, back in the early 90s. They'd even traveled to the Chapare region http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapare_Province, where I had spent some time in 1990 and 1991 when I was doing a field study in Bolivia.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Flight from Bangalore to Boston

Left Bangalore on British Airways and took a little over nine hours to reach London. In London we met a nice family from India with two children. The seven year old girl was Maya, and she and our Maya became fast friends. I can't remember Maya's five year old brother's name. Speaking with their parents, I found out that they had adopted both Maya and her brother. They also said that once all three of the children are five years and older, travel will get much easier. A happy thought to keep in mind.

From London we reached Boston in about seven hours, arriving at 6:40pm. I have to say, if there's one piece of advice I'd give families traveling with small children, it would be, "Benadryl" (the antihistamine). Many people had recommended I try it when flying long distances, and I used it this trip for the first time. All the kids love flying, but Charlie is a challenge because he refuses to give in to sleep, struggling and fighting exhaustion for hours sometimes. With 3 ml of Benadryl, he said, "I'm not tired, I'm not...zzzzzzzzzzzzzz" and he was out. If Maya had her way, she'd watch videos for 24 hours (as I must say I've done on previous long trips without children), but with the Benadryl, she relaxes enough to go to sleep when it's time.

My sister Mary met us at the airport. It had been nearly three years since I'd seen her, and she'd never met Charlie. We drove over to Mom's house in Methuen, Massachusetts. Mom was so excited to see her little grandchildren. She'd seen them in January 2005 when she came to visit us in Bangalore, but so much change happens in a year and a half with these little guys. Really great to see both Mary and Mom.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Arriving in the evening was perfect. The children went to sleep by 11pm (they'd fallen asleep in the car coming home to Mom's, but woke up as soon as they arrived) and then slept through until morning. It was a pretty easy transition, flying from east to west (flying back to India, on the other hand, was much more difficult: losing ten hours and arriving in Bangalore, exhausted in the a.m. they wanted to sleep all day). Mary came over with her two sons, Max (7) and Alexander (5), and the cousins had a wonderful time together. Mom had the refrigerator and cupboards stocked with our favorite foods, and Mary had brought over lots of toys, including Thomas the Tank Engine and tracks.

The weather was cool and we were all bundled in sweatshirts and long pants.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Drove one hour north up to Kittery, Maine with Mom. Visited our friends Pat and Sonny Graves, who we've known for over 40 years. Mom and Dad became friends with them back in the late 50s when my Dad and Sonny were in the U.S. Navy on the submarine, the Albacore http://www.seacoastonline.com/2003news/08172003/news/45282.htm
http://www.hnsa.org/ships/albacore.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Albacore_(AGSS-569)

There were many a day in the summers of the 1960s when Mom and Pat would load us four and her two children into the cars and go to Fort Foster beach in Kittery Point. In those days my nickname was "seaweed Sarah".

Went out to lunch at the Weathervane in Kittery, Maine, my favorite seafood restaurant and the best place in the world to get fried clams. It was the summer of 1976 when I worked there, at the very first Weathervane restaurant. There are now 17 W'vane restaurants throughout New England and New York.

After having lunch we drove out to Kittery Point. Went climbing around Fort McClary http://www.geocities.com/Fort_McClary/photos4.html and Molly used a pit toilet for the first time. Very exciting for her, really.

Then we drove up Pepperell Road to see Dad's old place. Lo and behold, the lilacs were in bloom. I had thought we were going to miss the blooming season. I knocked on the door to see if anybody was home, but there was no answer. I looked in to see two very large dog beds in the living room. Always a big dog lover, that would have made Dad happy. When he died in 2000, we sold the house, and the new owner is renting it out.

I plucked a few lilacs from the bushes behind the house, and opened the doors of the van to show the kids the field. "These are the Christmas trees that your grandfather planted ten years ago," I told them. He had a Christmas tree farm for years there in Kittery Point. Every year he'd sell trees to locals, many of whom we'd gone to school with decades before. He kept a stash of candy canes in the garage to hand out to children. Some families came early in the winter season to put a tag on the tree they wanted, then would come a week or two before Christmas to cut the tree down themselves, or ask Dad to cut it for them. Throughout the year he'd be busy pruning the trees and preparing the ground for planting more. Dad told me once that Zajechowski means "protector of the trees" or "keeper of the forest." He was certainly that.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Went to Mary's house to play and have pizza for dinner. The kids were happy the whole time--the novelty of a home with someone else's toys! Plus, a beautiful big grassy backyard with a swingset to play on. As if that's not enough, Mary keeps an amazing array of sweets (Charlie was referring to her popsicle stash 2+ months after the visit).

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Mary and I left the children in the able hands of their fathers and we headed for greener pastures one hour north--Portsmouth, New Hampshire, our favorite old stomping grounds. Went to a couple shoe stores (Choozy Shooz and Footnotes)--the only two places I ever buy myself shoes in the U.S. Not cheap, but indestructible.

Went to the Old Ferry Landing for a margarita and clams and scallops on the deck overlooking the tug boats. Perfect weather. We've been going to the Landing with friends for the last 20 years http://www.portsmouthnh.com/dining/ferrylanding1.html Mary and I had a great time catching up with news. She's stayed in touch with people in the area, and fills me in on old friends of mine from time to time.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

My brother Ski and his wife, Elena, had us all over for a lobster bake--complete with corn on the cob, lobster, and steamers. They have a beautiful home in York, Maine, a little over an hour north from Mom's in Methuen, Massachusetts. The weather was warming up a bit, so Uncle Ski hooked up the sprinkler (or splinter, as Charlie likes to call it) and the kids all ran through it getting soaked. No one had bathing suits, but Mary--always prepared--had extra clothes in her car so the wettest--Maya--was able to ride home comfortably in her cousin's clothes.

From Ski and Elena's we headed over to the Wiggly Bridge, a favorite stop for the kids. http://www.seacoastnh.com/Travel/Scenic_Walks/Wiggly_Bridge_and_Steedman_Woods/
After crossing the Wiggly Bridge, you come to the clam flats, where Uncle Ski showed Maya how to clam, and where he himself was interviewed only a couple months ago in the freezing weather. http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/yorkweekly/03082006/arts/91580.htm

Monday, May 29, 2006

Spent the day in Holden, Massachusetts at Susan and Chris Durham's, Mary's mother- and father-in-law. They have a 200 acre farm with an 1800s house. The children were most impressed with the pond where they swam and caught frogs and salamanders. Like yesterday, the weather was unbeatable, and we sat by the pond for hours in lawn chairs watching the kids have a heavenly time. I even dove in towards the end of our visit to cool off and swim across the pond. The children felt so at home that Molly even took a nap in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Mom was a gem and offered to watch the kids while Badri and I headed to Cambridge, about 30-40 minutes from Methuen. Walked around Central and Harvard Squares where we spent a lot of time when we were dating so many eons ago (10 years!!). Had coffee at the 1369 Cafe in Central Square. Later went to the Plough and Stars Pub between Central and Harvard Square, having pints of IPA and Smithwick's, accompanied by decadent french fries.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Went to Cambridge with the kids. Did a little toy shopping at the Cambridgeside Galleria then went for a boatride on the Charles River. Had some great views of Boston. Boy, was it great to come back to New England. It was a long time coming, and although there are many good things to be said for San Diego, I think my heart belongs in the northeast of the U.S.