If there is one thing that I LOVE about living in India, it is the food. It is no surprise, as we knew when we moved here that it would be better. Now, Willy and I have become increasingly worried about what we are going to do when we return home, because it is THAT good… and Indian food at home is not. It’s not that we have bad Indian food in Ottawa, it just doesn’t measure up now that we know how great it can be. So I have been devoting much time to making the foods that we like taste more authentic when I cook them. I see a difference already, and hope to have some dishes nailed by the time that we move home. In the meantime, we still order out often enough.
One of our favourite places to eat is the restaurant within our community. It is close, fast, and makes the best dal tadka that I have ever tasted. It is where we turned when we were cheating on our cook, who we call when we have the munchies at night, and is often the first meal that we offer to our guests. An introduction to all the greatness that they will experience in India.
In late December we noticed that the menu had changed at the restaurant. It had been large and unwieldy, so we viewed this is a good thing for the restaurant. A good thing until we noticed that all of our favourites had been wiped off. Willy voiced our concern and was reassured that it was a work in progress, and that they would still make our orders for us. Reassured, he and Uncle D placed the order and included one of the new dishes, a curry they had never heard of.
Our food arrived and we dug in. We were all a little confused by the appearance of the new curry, but Willy, Uncle D and their Mum gave it a try. Then there was silence. A brief silence. They all started talking at once…
“It’s gross.” “It’s like they added fruit to cream of mushroom soup.” “What is the spice in this? There IS no spice in this” “Is this a mistake?” “How can they have this on the menu?”
From what we could determine (and I never tried the dish after that), the creamy white sauce hid cauliflower, maraschino cherries, green beans, apple, corn, pineapple, and peas. We believe that it must be the Indian version of jellied salad.
I am sure that someone will be horribly offended by this, but this dish horribly offended all of us, especially those that tried it!
When Uncle Carpet was here to visit us last weeka few weeks ago in early December, we didn’t really have much planned. He was our first guest, and we weren’t sure of what he wanted, so we didn’t make assumptions. All we really planned was to eat a lot of great food, and let him decide the rest. Turned out that he wanted a mix of down time and some exploring. He and I hung around Bangalore when Willy and the lils were away at work/school, but after a few days of that, we decided we needed to see more. A day trip seemed to fit the bill, so we started planning.
We’d heard that Mysore was doable in a day, and lined things up to go. Our driver let us know that it should take 3-3.5 hours from our place, and with that in mind, we set off early. Unfortunately the traffic also started off early that Friday, and we were slow leaving the city because of it. Then Goose got carsick for the first time ever, about 90 minutes into the trip, and that slowed us down some too. When we finally got main on the road to Mysore, we’d been in the car for two and a half hours, and had travelled just under fifty kilometres!! The last ninety-five kilometres flew by after that, and we arrived after four and a half hours.
We had a bite to eat, and hit the zoo. It was the perfect zoo for the lils. Lots of shade, and all of their favourite animals to see! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! There were also many snakes, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, and other creatures to amuse. Most amusing for the adults were the signs, which showed many bad fence hoppers being gored on maimed, and then arrested for breaking the rules! The biggest attraction at the zoo seemed to be the lils, who were literally mobbed every time they stopped moving. We were lucky to have Uncle Carpet, who was equally unique, given that he is a giant, so he deflected some of the spotlight. By allowing the lils to hide behind him.
Zoo highlights
Following the zoo, we headed to Mysore palace, the only other sight that we had on our list of “must see” places while we were there. It too, did not disappoint. We were too late in the day to actually get into the palace, but the majestic grounds themselves were worth the trip. Wonderfully ornate gates, sculptures, beautiful temples, and the massive and beautiful palace itself.
We wandered around for as long as they would let us, and then headed on the long road home. I know we missed much of what Mysore has to offer, and that we will be going back. This time we’ll go for a few days, tour around some more and actually go in the palace.
We were lucky enough to have an extended weekend visit from some friends who live in Singapore this weekend. I’ve known Lala for a long time, we’ve worked together, lived together, travelled together, but mostly laughed together. She is one of my closest friends, and I have missed her since she moved from Ottawa about five years ago. I have planned on visiting her since she moved, but the lil people have made that tricky, so I have had to make due with her annual-ish visits home. Now that we are only a four hour flight apart, I knew that it was a matter of time before we saw each other.
She and Bug beat us to the punch, and arrived late on friday night. They were too late to do any catching up, but we made up for that the rest of the weekend. We played cards, goofed around with the lils, ate way to much yummy food, drank gallons of wine, talked about anything and everything, and we laughed. We laughed so much that my belly hurt, and that I snorted some chilies into my lungs. Then I cried and laughed some more. The weekend made me realize how serious we have been since we moved here, and how that is not how we want to be. We need to laugh more, and I think that this weekend has helped to make me see that. It’s not hard when you have props like this:
I took Lala and Bug on a limited tour of Bangalore today, which included a wander down one of the very busy commercial streets. we weren’t really shopping, just soaking in all the chaos and clamor. As I wandered along the street, completely overwhelmed by the people, the noise, and the colours, an older gentleman walked in front of me and put his hand out. Without thinking, I did what I do about a thousand times a day when the lils stick their hands out, because it is jsut reactionary now. I gave him five and kept walking. Then I heard the hysterical laughter from Bug and Lala behind me, and realized what I had done. He wasn’t looking for a high five, he was looking for money. Without realizing that I had done it, I’d high fived a beggar. The look of disgust on his face was pretty fast apparently, and he withdrew his hand before he reached my friends. I was a little shocked at first that I had just done that, but then all I could do was join in their laughter.
My christmas vacation was shittier than your christmas vacation
willy and I have been unbelievably lucky when it comes to vacations. The “worst” weather that we ever had on a trip was when we were in Jamaica in January of 2010 and it rained for a bit and was overcast for a few days. Being the pale people that we are, we were really OK with that. For the most part, we have had record-breakingly fabulous weather. We know that we have been very lucky, and often joke about the “terrible” weather that we get. You know those days, the ones without a cloud in the sky, a cool breeze coming off the water, a nice shady place to lie and watch the world go by.
We decided to go to the beach for the week after Christmas, to see a new part of India, and to have some downtime with the family. we originally looked at going to Goa, but found it to be cost prohibitive, due to the fact that it is a destination spot for many travellers, and the prices greatly increase over the Christmas holidays. One of Willy’s colleagues suggested that Puducherry would also be very nice, so we consulted Grandma and Uncle D, and decided it fit the bill. We found a resort that looked lovely and booked ourselves in.
while we had originally planned on flying, it worked out that it was about the same travel time to drive from Bangalore, and our driver Subbu was willing to take us. We set off on Boxing day for the long drive, and got to see much of the Indian countryside that we would have otherwise missed. While the drive was long and tiring, it was worth it. We were happy to arrive at the resort, and pleased that it delivered on what it promised. Ocean views; lovely open air common spaces; young, but lush gardens; and a calmness and openness that we just don’t get in Bangalore. Our room even had a lovely private pool!
The week got off to a pretty rocky start. Woo was sick, running a high temp for the first two and a days. He was out of sorts and not eating or sleeping well. Goose was doing ok, but sleeping with us, and delivering a higher than expected number of kidney and groin kicks. The resort was very nice, but had some service issues, and the food was less than the spectacular I have come to expect in India. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes in the room the first night. Things we starting to look up as the week progressed. We had a fabulous day in Puducherry, exploring. The weather had cleared up and the sun was shining. The seas were providing wonderful waves that we fun to watch – each more spectacular than the last. Then I caught a tweet on an Indian news service that I follow, mentioning a cyclone that was expected to make landfall near Cuddalore. Cuddalore is a town that was about 10km south of where we were staying. I let Willy, Grandma, and Uncle D know, and started following the news a little more closely.
Thursday was a grey and windy day, and it started raining in the early afternoon. We weren’t sure what to expect, but this picture made it clear that we were in for some nasty weather:
The day just passed. No one at the resort seemed to be worried, and there was no talk of “battening down the hatches” or any such thing. We noted the the seas had become violent, and the hotel closed the beach early.
The lils and I had a very windy supper in the open restaurant before Willy, his mum, and brother went out to dinner and saw Uncle D off on his cross India adventure at the bus station. Willy returned to the room a little after nine and reported that it was windy and rainy, but little had changed over the evening. We packed up and tried to tidy as much as we coould inside and out, moving most of our belongings inside, putting all of our valuables off the ground, and locking the large glass doors to the room and outdoor bathroom as best as we could. We went to bed not knowing what to expect.
I awoke a little after two to the howling wind and periodic banging of the wooden door between the bathroom and pool area. Willy awoke shortly after me, and actually went outside to close the door! I was content to let it bang away, but it bothered him enough to go out in the raging wind and re-latch. We both lay in the dark listening to the storm intensify. The door came open several more times, and each time he ventured back out to latch it. On the second or third trip he reported that the loud noise I had heard while he was outside was part of the bathroom’s roof being ripped off.
Goose woke shortly after three, and was very curious about the noises outside the room. I explained that the big storm was blowing things around, and damaging things. She was at first worried about where her toothbrush might be in the morning, but I assured her that we would find it. Placated, she started to identify the sounds and gave a play-by-play of what was happening right outside the room. “Oh, that was our milk glass breaking”, she calmly whispered, “oops, there goes more of the bathroom roof”. She calmly watched as Willy went outside one more time to secure the latch, and as he and I moved a large wooden cabinet in front of the glass door to the bathroom that was taking the brunt of the wind.
Then Goose whispered the four words that you don’t want to hear at four in the morning as a cyclone rages overhead, “I need to pee“. Our bathroom was outside and getting hit, so that wasn’t an option. Willy again went out into the storm to get a sand bucket for her to use as a commode, and she settled back to bed, this time asking to sleep between us. She wasn’t scared, just wanted to cuddle. She and Willy drifted off to sleep around five, in the eerie calm as the eye of the storm passed over us. It began to rage on again and I tried to remain calm, but each bang made me jump and tense, certain that the wind was going to blow one of the doors in. This fear intensified when the wind blew some roofing material against the main door. It was a rubber mat that had large metal fasteners attached to it. They banged against the glass loudly and often. I nearly jumped out of my skin each time.
Woo slept blissfully though all of this chaos and noise. He woke around 6:45, later than normal, and ran to the door find out what was going on out there. I leapt out of bed and moved him to the couch. we sat and watched out a window that was sheltered from the wind. He had many questions about the storm, which I answered as best as I could. I continued to watch out the main door, and happened to be watching as the gazebo by our pool collapsed. This brought a rash of new questions, most of which centered on the safety of the lounge chairs under the gazebo, chairs that he had spent many hours playing happily on.
During all of this time we were worried about Willy’s mum, who was in an ocean facing room by herself. We didn’t want to call her on the off chance that she was blissfully unaware, and weren’t able to venture to her room, then finally lost power and thought it was moot. We were pleased and surprised when she called and let us know that she was fine. Her door had blown in pre-dawn, and she had called hotel staff who came and brought her to a safe place. She agreed to check in with us regularly, but was safe and dry.
The morning dragged on slowly. We munched on all the emergency snacks that I was carrying with me, and waited for the storm to slowly weaken. Willy made several trips out and about and reported pretty severe damage to the hotel. We reached Subbu, who had managed to drive to the main road, but could not drive the final 2.5km to where we were. The road to the resort was littered with downed powerlines, trees, branches, and other debris. He was lucky enough to have made it to us at all, given that the car that had been parked beside his overnight was crushed in the storm! We waited and watched, were served some lunch, and finally received word that the road was now passable. We called for Subbu, grabbed our bags, adopted two stranded folks, and headed out. I took a few minutes before we left to take a couple of snaps:
The glass doors to the room
Gazebo down
Mess in the lobby
Pile up
Front lawn
Roof damage
There are more pictures at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxHRi8D
As we drove down the road, we were shocked by the damage. They had cleared a path that was no wider that the minivan we were driving. There were trees and branches that had fallen across the road every foot or so. Many houses were badly damaged, or outright destroyed. Entire plantations of new and mature trees were flattened. The damage continued as we moved north into Puducherry. As we approached the waterfront we had to drive down streets that were under more than a foot of water. We finally had to stop and let our passengers out a bit short of their alternate accomodation, as the roads were no longer safe to pass. The damage continued far inland on the drive home, as did the rain. The road was slow, but we didn’t mind. We were so glad to be safe, dry, and going home.
Short video shot driving out of Puducherry
The resort we were staying at took a direct hit. Cyclone Thane was classified as a very severe cyclone, the second highest rating. According to reports, it was the equivalent of a strong category two/weak category three hurricane. Current reports identify that 42 people were killed in Puducherry and Cuddalore, and that over 20,000 people are homeless. The damage is shocking, and I can only hope that there will be some sort of relief efforts, and will gladly contribute to whatever I find. We left feeling very lucky to have escaped unscathed. This despite the fact that the hotel was largely unprepared, and did nothing to warn any guests of the storms potential for damage. We are very concerned, as many people were left in a very vulnerable position. We plan to write to their corporate offices to express our feelings.
Grandma and I are going to Kerala next week, so we joked about whether the west coast of India is prone to cyclones. It turns out that the Arabian Sea does get cyclones, so I tried to see the forecast:
See those two white dots to the south west of India? Oy.
It took approximately two months for me to get my mobile activated here. A lot of this was me, not being organized enough to figure out what I needed to do, but there were a number of steps and hoops that we had to go through. The first of these was to get it tweaked so that I could use my Canadian phone here, then to actually get hooked up to a plan.
The most frustrating of this was the “address verification”, where they call on the mobile to arrange a time to come to the house to verify that we lived there. They called a few times, but I either missed the call, or did not understand the person on the other end, as they did not speak english. It took much back and forth between Willy and the provider and the phone getting disconnected once before we had resolution. It is now activated, and for the most part works when we want it*.
I have very few contacts in my phone, just Willy, our driver and the few friends I have made here. I don’t get that many calls, and there is much text and voice spam here, so I generally ignore numbers that I don’t know. Occasionally Willy will tell me that we are expecting a delivery, or that someone will be calling. On those days, I answer everything.
It was one of those days when I got a call from someone who only said “hello”, repeatedly. I assumed that it was a dead spot in the house and he could not hear me, so I answered again when he called later. He still just said hello multiple times. He reached me a third time, and I tried to get more information out of him. I asked if he wanted to speak to me or Willy, if he was coming for work on the villa, if he was calling because our landlord asked him to. This time, he responded to me in what I believed was Hindi. I tried to explain that it was a wrong number several ways and hung up.
He called several more times that day, but I ignored the calls. Then I got this:
I ignored it. He still calls a couple of times a day, I still ignore him.
*Data plans are silly cheap here, and when you are in the right spot, the connection can be lightening fast. Finding that right spot can be difficult tho, especially when you are on the move. You get what you pay for, right?
For us, Christmas in India was not a tonne unlike Christmas in Canada. We were awakened by an excited Woo, early in the morning, but not too early. We raced downstairs to open stockings and presents, happy that Santa came. The opening was a marathon, lasting well over two hours. We ate crepes for breakfast, played outside, napped and played some more. Then the feast. For new friends and family, a good time was had by all.
While were decidedly western in out approach to the day, there were a few things that marked it as new and different from our Canadian Christmases. There was no cold or snow. When we played outside, we did so in shorts. While no traditional Indian food was consumed, we ordered in non-veg portion of the dinner, a roast beast, with a side of turkey. It was hot! Sunny and hot. By far the warmest Christmas I have ever experienced.
Christmas is clearly marked here, in an obvious way. Other than in commercial areas, it is also very clearly not a big deal. We did the best to make it a big deal in our house!
Here is a peek at our day:
7:00am Stockings!
8:00 I swear I don’t know how that in got there
9:00 The aftermath
10:00 New Scooter
11:00 Practicing on roller blades
12:00 Not *quite* a thali
1:00 It was a very lego Christmas
2:00 Prep work for risotto, trying not to dirty extra bowls
This was going to be my wordless wednesday post for this week, but our internet was down for much of the last few days, so I wasn’t able to upload the pictures. It’s late, so I added a few words!
We were invited over to a colleague of Willy’s for an absolutely delicious lunch on Sunday, and had a pleasant time visiting. The lils were very entertained by many of the toys and gadgets that they found in the house, one of which was a beautiful old harmonium. A harmonium is a piano that produces sound when air is moved through a series of reeds. This particular harmonium was a small version, like the precursor to the portable keyboard, with a side of accordion mixed in. The reeds are pumped by hand, as is typical of Indian harmoniums.
I only wish that I had taken some pictures of the carving detail on the cover!
While things are certainly starting to settle in to a routine on some levels, we still have a ways to go on others. The lils are doing well for the most part, but they miss home a lot and need a lot more attention than they have historically wanted. This is an adjustment for me too and more often then not, if the attention isn’t there, they let me know LOUDLY. Their behaviour has an ebb and flow to it, good for a while, then bad. The good is filled with calm and happy fun, the bad is generally filled with fights, not listening, time out pile-ups, and acting out everywhere and anywhere.
I know this is to be expected, but I hoped we would have settled to their normal selves by now. They haven’t, so we continue to search for ways to make things smoother for them. I have done a tonne of casual observation of their interactions with people, and have noted a trend that is really starting to bug me. I first noticed it with our driver and maid. If the lils were misbehaving around them, things like messing up the bed right after it was made, or climbing over the seats to get to the back of the car, my attempts to get them to stop were consistently met with “it’s okay, it’s okay”. I thought at first that it was because they love and are amused by the lils and also because they didn’t want me to be upset. While I wasn’t really upset with the lils, I didn’t want this kind of behaviour to become the norm.
Then I started noticing it elsewhere. When we were shopping and they were monkeying around in the stores, all the sales people would tell me “it’s okay”. If they were yelling in placed they shouldn’t, people would tell me “it’s okay”, if they were making messes where they shouldn’t, “it’s okay”. It is starting to drive me a little batty.
They hear this, and now I have become the bossy mom that they don’t need to listen to, apparently. It keeps getting worse. We were in a music class recently when Woo wouldn’t share an instrument that was being passed around to all the children. It is something that he has at home in Ottawa, and he realized it wasn’t here when he saw it. I tried to explain that he could get it back after all in the class had a chance, but he dug his heels in and started to get very upset. The teacher came over and started to tell me that it was okay, so I calmly looked at her and said, “actually, it’s NOT okay”. She thought about it, agreed with me, and asked that he pass the instrument on.
Woo did pass it on, and I felt a little vindicated. I wish there were more people who reacted like the five-year-old sitting beside Woo. When he started to get upset and refuse to pass the instrument on, she looked at him and said “that’s not very good sharing”. She was right.
