January 2009 Update from Bangalore
Christmas Holidays from School
Kids having a fun time with two weeks off. Mostly playdates with school friends and neighbors. Occasional swims at the Park Hotel, although we have to make sure it's a sunny day, because you can't count on it being heated with the dip in the economy. Went to Jelly Beans in Koramangala once a week. This is a great place with a fully padded floor, that also has tumbling equipment, trampoline, balance beam, and climbing rope. The main teacher, Jennifer, also practices yoga, basketball, field hockey, bowling, volleyball, tennis, and other activities that help develop hand/eye coordination. Molly and Charlie love it and never want to miss it.
Visited Canadian Debra's cat Maru. Debra and Scott went to Canada for a few weeks and were a little worried leaving the cat for so long. Had Bruno, Alla's black lab, over a couple times for a walk and a visit.
We had Charlie's buddy Shyam over with his parents Brinda and Eric. They went to Tirupati, a temple town, a couple months ago, and Eric and Shyam came back with their heads shaven. Soon after that, I asked Charlie if he wanted to go to Limelite to get a hair cut, and he said, "No, I want to go to Tirupati." Getting your head shaved there is a way of making an offering to the gods.
Pediatric Consultation at the Coffee Shop
Nothing in the way of illness, except Charlie had an inexplicable rash, which Dr. Chinnappa just figured was an allergy. We'd first gone to the dermatologist, Dr. Mukta, at Manipal Hospital. Charlie loves her, thinks she's beautiful, and it helps that I think she's a great doctor. She recommended we see Dr. Chinnappa. I called him, thinking he'd be at Manipal. He'd left the hospital and was at Barista across the street, having a coffee with his daughter Madhavi before going to his Koramangala clinic. He said to come on over and he'd take a look at Charlie. He prescribed Atarax, an antihistamine, for a few days and it cleared up. Meanwhile, I had a coffee and Charlie had a piece of blueberry cheesecake. I'd say that's the kind of doctor's visit any kid could live with!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Maya spent her last day of vacation going to see High School Musical with her friend Pragya and her mom Vandana. I can't believe my kid is watching that! I guess lots of eight year olds are going, but I just never thought it would be mine, and so soon! She loved it!
Picked up 25 kalanchoe plants, a small flowering succulent plant, for take away gifts for Charlie's birthday party tomorrow. He's so excited about gardening. Every day he runs into the house shouting, "Come see the new hibiscus!" when a new one, either yellow, reddish, or white, comes out. When the gardener comes over once a month to check out everything, he watches them like a hawk.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 Charlie's Fifth Birthday
There always turn out to be more kids than we think they'll be. What ever happened to our plans to have the same number of kids at the party as the age the child is turning? So about 14 classmates and seven of their siblings came. He had a grand time.
We went to the bakery, Cake Walk, a few days ago and he chose his cake, a cross between a dragon and a crocodile.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Priya and I went for a walk to Leela, where she had an appointment. Takes only 15-20 minutes to walk there. Had a coffee and ran into Charmaine and Caroline.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Molly was accepted to the Valley School.
Kirsty and I had our weekly playdate. She brought along a cake for Charlie's birthday so he could have another celebration. I'll definitely miss these get-togethers when he family leaves in June.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Janaki Auntie and Babu Uncle came over for a visit and we did our Sunday dosa ritual.
In the evening Badri and I went to a new restaurant at UB City Mall, called Khansama to celebrate Alla's birthday. Mostly Goldman Sachs people. We sat across from a young couple, not Goldman Sachs, who'd both graduated from Aditi, the school Maya goes to. They had only fond memories of the place.
The Aditi graduate filled out a feedback form that is religiously given out at restaurants. Little did she know that what she'd written would come to haunt her--in minutes. The manager and a few other restaurant staff came over to interrogate her regarding what she'd written down, pressing for more details, and arguing the validity of the comment. No wonder people don't like to fill out those forms!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Did my first bit of work in over a month for Aperian Global, although it was only a non-paid Train the Trainer for Working Globally. The economy has dealt a blow to the amount of trainings Aperian is getting.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Today came the official news that Badri's getting laid off. He'd dodged the bullet, as he puts it, so many times. There'd been at least ten layoffs over the last year, and he wondered every time when he'd be a casualty. Well, that day has come. He'd been wanting to do his own start-up for quite some time, and hearing that, for some people, the best thing that ever happened to them was that they got laid off. That way, they were forced to move ahead with the plans that had been percolating, rather than slogging along with a company they were unhappy with.
In the evening, I went to a SIETAR sponsored workshop at Alliance Francaise, called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). It's a new tool many people are raving about, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the presenter. According to Wikipedia, NLP is "a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and emotional behaviour." Critics argue that the central claims of NLP are unjustified.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
As the U.S. gets ready to inaugurate Barack Obama, another big B sets off on a new road--his long awaited start-up adventure. Badri will officially bid goodbye to Fair Isaac on January 23. He had his good bye party last night at the Fair Isaac guest house five minutes down our road, on 7th Cross.
This is something he's been looking forward to for quite a long time, and I think he's ripe for it.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
This morning Badri and I went opposite directions: he to Valley School in the south of Bangalore, and I to Mallya Aditi International School in the north. Molly has admission to Valley, and we're still working on Aditi, so that all three kids can be in the same school. Unfortunately, Valley requires that you pay the whole year's admission up front as soon as you're confirmed. So, we went ahead and paid, as we did to Shishu Griha two years ago for Maya. As they say, a bird in hand is better than two in the bush.
Met up with Jessica and Priya for lunch at Sunny's today. Two more dear friends who are also leaving India--in April! Jessica's husband David was laid off from his clothes designing company, and was very much the same as Badri--quite restless with his job situation. And Kush, Priya's husband, is at the end of his India contract with Accenture. Priya will head back to Chicago, and Jessica to Sweden. This will be the first time Jessica will have lived in her--as they call it here--native place in about ten years, because before India, David was doing his design work in Milan.
As we were having lunch, Charmaine and her husband John and mother-in-law came in. They are leaving India tonight for New York, where John has been transferred by his company, Praxair. Lots of movement, mostly out of, India. Someone recently asked me whether India's been hit by the recession yet, and I would say most definitely. The cost of goods and services has gone up over the last five years, but earnings are leveling off. The fat days are over. The bubble has burst. However you want to put it. And the heyday of the expat is definitely over--few companies seem to be bringing expats over, and more and more are being sent home early. It's just too expensive to pay the luxury tax that comes with them--rent, tuition, car, driver. And many companies also paid "hardship allowance", sometimes a fixed amount, and other times a fraction of the salary.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Celebrating the Inauguration of President Barack Obama
Badri and I went over to Priya and Kush's to watch the inauguration of President Obama. Quite an exciting time. And the next day we went to the Chancery Pavilion hotel for the Democrats Abroad Inauguration Party. I'm guessing about 200 people were there, celebrating a new administration that we hope will bring change to the U.S. Everyone realizes that there are such incredibly high expectations set for this new president, and probably unrealistic. Only time will tell whether there will be substantive change.
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009
Molly stayed home today with fever, cough, stuffy nose--it's going around town and was only a matter of time before one of the kids came down with it. We had a good day--reading, watching a movie.
Amma and Appa's 50th Wedding Celebration
Friday, Jan. 22, 2009
Went to Maya's school, Aditi, to see her class presentation which was the culmination of their studies on the South Indian states. The girls, dressed beautifully in pahvadi, jewelry, and jasmine in the hair, greeted the guests at the door with steel plates filled with flowers. Coloms were painted on the floor and there were musicians playing. We took our seats on the floor with the others. I'll include lots of photos on this post.
Maya and her friend Devaka were the miserly old couple who couldn't decide what to do with a third laddoo (sweet) after they've had one each. The skit was based on a book of folk tales by Sudha Murty. Oddly enough, it was one of the tales told when Maya, Molly, and I went to see Magic Drum at Ranga Shankara in September last year.
January 21, 2009
Unbelievable, but I got in touch with Allied Movers to find out the price to ship things from Calif. to Mass., and from Calif. to India--and it's the same amount for both!! I later found out that, in the end, it wouldn't be the same cost because we'd be charged Indian import duties. Those import duties are only waived within the first year you arrive.
January 23, 2009
Today was Badri's last official day at Fair Isaac. Also, the final day to pay Valley School, where Molly has been given a seat in standard 1 for the academic year starting June 2009.
Molly and Charlie had school off today so we could all go to Maya's school to see the culminating performance for the South India unit they'd been working on for months. The girls were all beautifully dressed in pavadi with jasmine in their hair, greeting everyone at the door with their steel plates and flowers.
Two musicians were playing tabla and harmonium, traditional South Indian instruments. The states represented were Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala. Most guests were aseated on the floor, behind the beautiful koloms that had been drawn with rice paste. The students performed kalaripayattu, a martial art form of Kerala, bharatanatyam,
After the performance, went to Marylouise's for lunch. She knew we were heading to the train station from Aditi, so invited us there so we didn't have to go all the way back to Indiranagar. As always, she put on an amazing spread.
We took the 4:30pm train from Bangalore to Chennai for Amma and Appa's 50th anniversary celebration. The Shatabdi Express takes five hours and travels a maximum of 130km/hr (78mph), and we're fed pretty much non-stop the whole way. We've decided it's THE best way for the Raghavan kids to travel, so I intend to research all the overnight trains we can take from Bangalore for vacations in the future. The kids meet people, draw, read, and of course we bring other snackie foods in case the prepared food is too spicy.
Took a cab from the Chennai train station to the Woodlands Hotel, where Amma and Appa, Usha Chitti and others were staying.
On the next day, Saturday, we had the big lunch celebration with about 50 people. Amma and Appa seemed very happy and it was all videotaped for posterity. Badri and his brothers Ravi and Rajiv were there, along with their wives Malani and Renu, and son Apu and daughter Anya. Maya sang a song in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayam. Charlie sang the new Neev song called "I'm a Little Star".
On Sunday we traveled to the crocodile park outside Chennai, on the way to Mamalapuram. Thousands of Indiana and African crocodiles and alligators. Several of the species there are bred in captivity. There's also a snake farm where anti-venom is made. This park was definitely a hightlight for the kids.
All of us, including Amma and Appa and Usha chitti, took the train back to Bangalore on Monday.
In Bangalore, the three of them had a pedicure at Woodlands and an ayurvedic massage at Ayush.
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009
I guess all the excitement was too much for Charlie. He was off school Wed. and Thurs. with fever and vomiting.
Had a conference call with Aperian Global. No trainings for me and other consultants in the first quarter of 2009 with the economy as it is.
In the evening, I went to Olive Beach with Priya. We met Debra, Alla, and a few others there.
Friday, Jan. 30, 2009
Maya had her first inter-school track meet. It was hosted by Head Start in Koramangala. Maya qualified to compete for her class in the long jump. It was a lot of fun watching the competition with Kitty and a few other moms. Our favorite pediatrician Jagdish Chinnappa kicked off the day.
Got a ride home with Kitty and her boys Prithvi and Sager, stopping at Baskin Robbins on the way for a celebratory ice cream.
In the evening, Badri and I went to Brinda and Charles for Charles' birthday.
Sat., Jan. 31, 2009
In the evening we went to Ivan's wedding. Ivan is our nanny Rita's son who the kids have really grown to like in the last few years. We actually only made it to the wedding reception, because Charlie was tuckered out and we got to the church late. I saw the groom at the altar and asked Maya if that was Ivan. She said, "I don't think Ivan's bald." Badri asked around and found out that there was another wedding going on at the moment, and Ivan's had finished.
Since we were late for the church, but early for the reception, we stopped by a Barista in the neighborhood. There we ran into Faye, an Englishwoman Badri and I randomly run into all over Bangalore. We've seen her at the shops in front of Orange Peel, at the Park Hotel, at Alla's birthday party at one of the UB City Mall restaurants, and other places I can't recall at the moment. I'd first met her when I interviewed at CWS a couple years ago, then other times along with our Canadian friend Debra Lewisky.
Of course, we arrived at the reception hall early. When things actually got started it was a great time. Rita's niece is a wedding planner and did a terrific job coordinating music, dances including children, and introductions. Kirsty's nanny Geraldine was there, as well as our cook Jayama and our former cook Patricia.
One different aspect of wedding receptions here is that the couples go up on stage and all the guests wait in line to congratulate them and get photographed together with the newlyweds.
Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009
Amma, Appa, and Usha chitti took the train back to Chennai, and the five of us went to celebrate Nico's 5th birthday at Innovative Film City
