Playing catch up

Ok, here's the 411 on whats been up, and why I haven't been posting [since Tyrrell gently reminded me that I need to update!]

Mom, Dad and I took a short trip to Cochin last week, we had to visit my grandfather, drop off a bunch of invitations, visit my VERY pregnant cousin [btw, she delivered today! ma'shaAllah a boy and a girl!], attend an engagement lunch, etc. Kerala in general is a very cool place, but its just REALLY different to Bangalore -- its right by the sea, so of couse by default its absolutely gorgeous! We didn't really get to enjoy it too much since we were inviting most of the time!! But it was a nice short trip, got to visit some cousins, got some good seafood - mmm mm good, and we went over on the train. Trains in India are just cool - some may argue against that, but its just a great experience to travel by train.

Alhamdullilah, we are fortunte to travel by the sleeper class [with bunks, etc], and I'm sure that the general cars aren't quite as fun ... anyhoo, my favorite part of the ride is early in the morning on the way to Cochin -- the train runs throuhg endless fields of rice [I think] bordered by coconut groves, and the tracks run right by little villages and towns that are sometimes in the middle of NOWHERE ... oh wait, I lied - my ABSOLUTE favorite part of the ride are the vendors that walk the corridors yelling "KAAAAPI, CHAAAIIIYAAA" [coffee and tea] from 5am onwards, and I wish that I could express the accent that they yell in. A variation is when they come with breakfast, ["idlivadasambar"] or dinner ["vegmeals-vegmeals-ricedahlthayracharporiyal-vegmeeals-vegmeals"] :) its an experience!

Once we got back, we hit the ground running trying to get the cards out, and I've been hard at work making labels [UGH] for Mo's reception. Trust me, its no picnic! I don't mind doing it, more so because the alternative is actually WRITING them! Alhamdullilah, all is falling into place -- the little jobs are getting done, plans are settling into place ... the ONLY uncertainty right now is the weather. Right now Bangalore weather is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME -- temperature is in the high-60's, constant cool breeze ... the only issue is this insane monsoon rain that we've got goin here. Last week it poured every evening, and got mom and dad completely on edge. Its been a little better this week. Even so, I'm loving it - Bangalore rain is just nice - its cool and refreshing, the other day I was actually cold!

Besides the trip, and running around though, not alot has been going on - we're all just waiting with bated breath for the dulha and dulahan, and for the mehmans to arrive - and I know that time is just gonna fly by once that happens. I guess I've got alot to look forward to - lots of food and family, much fun inshaAllah, and soon after, a whole new start in Pittsburgh. I have to admit I'm terribly nervous about law school, but I suppose everyone is - good news though, I've found a roommate, and inshaAllah a place to live! :-)

My incoherant train of thought is just getting worse by the minute, but its been a long week, so please - forgive the babbling ... signing off with this reading note --- just read Queen Noor's biography, called Leap of Faith -- VERY nice book, and a great perspective on the Middle East.
and ... I'm gone .... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz .....

Monsoons in full force

For the past week, its been raining EVERY evening. At first it was just a short shower or two, and it'd clear up - however, for the last couple of days, its been pouring cats and dogs. Saturday night I went for Jayanti's Engagement party at her fiance Zeeshan's house, and they had planned on using the garden for everyone to hang out, but the rains came down all evening, and through the night. The streets have the trademark monsoon puddles that are oh-so-decieving -- they look like they're just shallow puddles, but there are actually monster potholes lurking around -- it makes driving a royal pain. However, the monsoons DO have alot of charm -- the rains are absolutely gorgeous. We visited Shabbu last night, and she's just moved into her apartment on the 11th floor - it has the most fantastic view of the city. Her living room has a direct view of Chinnaswamy stadium - last night they had the lights on, and the effect on the sky was just AMAZING. The rain clouds were lying low over the city, and were reflecting the bright white light from the stadium, so the entire sky was a pale grey. The cloud cover was so low that from up where we were, it seemed like the clouds were rushing past. Immediately after a shower, there was a light mist over the city -- and from up in the apartment, you could see how all the trees were slihouetted with the mist. It created an awesome picutre --- the dark green of the trees, layered with mist creating different shades of greens, with the brightness of the lights --- ABSOLUTELY breathtaking. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera [SHOOT!]!!! Just one of 'dem things I guess!

Aight, I've recieved some critically important feedback, and the concensus has been that long posts do no good, and defeat the purpose of the blog - so, here I shall end. So begins another day of activity -- getting sareee blouse measurements in, getting stuff framed and reframed, stopping by at my old school for a visit, etc.

Potter Mania!!

Got my copy of the JK Rowlings 6th installment of Harry Potter, and am trying to push through it while balancing the bulavaz [invitations]. According to our [Cutchi Memon] traditions, the family hand delivers invitations to elders and immediate family - and being immediately in the immediate family, I am smack dab in the center. Of course mom and dad have a greater obligation, but I've been tagging along so that I can also get some visits out of the way. I've been having frightful flash backs to my paralegal days [eh, not even two months ago!] because I've been making labels for the past three days. Why does it take me three days? Well, first of all because IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to get Avery, or any brand name label, in this country! Yesterday was THE most frustrating day, but Alhamdullilah, it worked out fine - and I'm in the label production business!

Rushing out for more bulavaz - more later ...

Some new bling ...

This is a terrible picture, but check out the bling! Ok ok, not quite REAL bling, but in time that'll come ;) I said I would do it, few believed me ... aaah.

And yes, I've also gotten a little bit of a tan ...

Mumbai [warning: VERY long post]

As mentioned, I headed to Mumbai on Thursday morning. The flight from Bangalore to Mumbai is about an hour and twenty minutes, just enough time for the cabin crew to serve a meal [yes meals are served on EVERY flight!]. Some confusion before I left because I wasn't sure if I would be able to catch a cab at the airport since after the attempted bombing at Ayodhya, there had been calls for nationwide bundh [strikes]. I was slightly concerned because this Ayodhya issue is potentially very volitile, and Mumbai can be a pretty volitile city in these situations. However, all was good - there was no bundh in Mumbai, and Alhamdulllilah, I got from the Airport to Yusra's apartment with few problems.

However, I had a real stud for a cab driver. I had asked him to take me to Bandra [a Mumbai suburb], to Mehboob studios [apparently a landmark]. He nodded his head vigorously, and off we went. He attempted to make some chit chat, trying to figure out if I was a local or not, starting off with, "Garmi bahooth badgaya" [Its gotten really hot], continuinging with, "Char din se baarish nahin padi" [It hasn't rained in 4 days]. So I was like, oh he wants to discuss the monsoon - so I try my darndest to carry on conversation in Mumbai-ite fashion, failing miserably because after my first few words he looked at me like, You have no idea what you're talking about. So I shut up, I learned my lesson. We're getting relatively close to where we need to go, but this hero is taking side streets, etc. that I'm sure were absolutely unneccessary, and finally turns around and says, "Aap ko rastein malum?" [Do you know the way?] And I'm like DUDE - you said you knew where you were goin!, and convince him to ask someone for directions. Of course people think he's an idiot coz he doesn't know where he's going, so I ask him if he knows where Mehboob studios is, to which he replies, "Haan, par zara public sein bhi poochna hain!" [Yes, but you should ask the public for their opinion] sounding very much like a politician -- to which I laughed [not to his face!]. In between he stops for gas, ASKING ME for gas money - I looked at him with an absolutely incredulous look like - are you out of your mind!!! He got me to my destination, alhamdullilah, but totally screwed me over on the deal! First of all the meter read 16.20 [which translates to Rs. 230], he says its 162!!! Which would have made my ride over a thousand bucks! after conveying to him that I wasn't born yesterday, and that I know how to read the meter, he delivers another bollywood line, "aap samajke batao" [you figure it out and tell me] THEN has the audacity to ask me for Rs. 300!!! GRRR. Anyhoo, alls well that ends well.

It was SOOO awesome to see Yusra and her family, have never really hung out with them so this was good opportunity. And Yusra got to show me around Bandra, take me to all the cool places to shop [um, I am not a shopper!] - but I did look at some cool beaded bags, and chappals [which I ended up buying]. More than anything, it was a great experience in practicing my bargaining skills. At one point we brought this dude down from Rs. 675 to like Rs. 150! What a rush!! :-) We ended the afternoon by stopping off at this awesome chaat place - getting some sev puri and bhel puri, AND some fantasmic sugar cane juice!

Headed back to the apartment, grabbed the rest of the family, and headed to Carter Road for some real Mumbai treats. Yusra's mom grew up in Mumbai, and her Nani lived there for over 50 years so they know their stuff! We strolled around near the water, looked for some golas -- similar to snow cones -- when we couldn't find them, we decided to start w/some chaat. Now, the stuff I'm talkin about is the real mumbai chaat -- the stuff off the hawker carts -- yeah dude, we weren't messin around! Anyhoo, we hit up some paani puris, some more sev puri, dahi puri -- strolled about a little more, found the gola guy -- and hit 'em up. Now, they were pretty good, but Saara insisted that the ones at Juhu were better. I didn't have anything to compare them with though ... so all good. We ended w/some super bhutta [corn] roasted with lemon and chilli masala! Couldn't think of a better way to end the evening! Headed back to the apartment and chilled, Aunty's birthday was on Friday so Yusra's cousins came over with flowers and stuff, chilled and chatted -- it was so cool to see Yusra in that family kinda setting, I'm so used to seeing her at school. Not that its a big difference or anything, anyhoo - random observation!

Friday - after a quiet morning at the apartment [aka in India-speak - flat], I headed into the city to reunite with the parents -- mom was in the hotel, dad was out at meetings --- stupid Hutch messed up, and I was without a cell phone grrrr. But all was good - mom and I headed out to the Gateway of India, I had never been -- and it was pretty cool, mom and I did the touristy thing, got some dude to take pics of us standing in front of the Gateway, etc. We were both kinda flabberghasted that it was built in like the 1800's because King George V and QueenMary were visiting. Its a huge, imposing structure -- fantastic architecture, and it draws visitors from all over. Its right in front of the Old Taj Hotel [If I'm not mistaken, one of the first Taj's in the country], which in itself is a gorgeous building - wish I could have gone inside! On the way back to meet dad, we stopped for a couple of minutes at what mom calls a Bombay culinary landmark -- Bademiya's -- which is basically a huge cart, with like five guys manning three or four grills, piled high with chicken and mutton seekh kababs, tikka's etc. aaah, just the aroma is enough to make you go nuts. Since we were heading to dinner soon, we just wanted to pick up a quick snack, so we grabbed a roll to go ... simply amazing. 'nuff said.
Dinner was at Khyber, a mughlai place - their seekh kababs didn't come close to bademiya's, but their reshmi kababs were AWESOME! the usual makhani fare was also on, and some super-duper garlic naans. mm mm good. ending with some kulfi, it was the dinner that was totally unneccessary!!! Crashed at the hotel, mom woke us up at 6.30am [jetlagged!] and we headed out to marine drive for a walk, which was nice -- mumbai is usually SO muggy, but that early the weather was fantastic. very bangalore like, cool, breezy - comfortable.

The day was interesting for a couple of reasons ... one, we walked around Bombay University for a little bit, just checkin out the sights, admring the cool architecture, etc. two, our first REAL stop was a Bandhini [variation of tie-dye] shop that has been around for almost a century. Its in a little tiny road, off another little tiny road, next to one of hte thousands of masajid in Mumbai. We make ourselves comfortable, and the guy [third generation in this business] begins to show mom some black and red bandhini sarees, and in a bit, begins to pull out colors at my request ;) . It was awesome, he explained how the prepare the material, and the process. Apparently it takes ONE YEAR to make a saree, each knot is hand tied, and dyed - tied again, dyed again, depending on how many colors it goes on and on. If you see the intricate designs on the sarees, you'll notice that they're patterns of colored dots that form the design. Each dot [barely a millimeter in diameter] is where the cloth has been tied, there are thousands of dots on each saree. No wonder it takes a year to do!!! The cloth comes tied together, and to open it out, two people must pull the cloth in a specific way in order to undo the ties. The string/thread is so strong that it could give you a really deep gash, and can withstand alot!

After a couple of hours with Bandhini-man, we headed back to Marine drive, and stopped at a Gujarati vegetarian place for lunch, and had some super thali's. A thali is basically an all you can eat meal - they give you a large steel plate, and several small steel bowls. A server comes around and fills the bowls with various dahls, vegetables, curries, etc. Accompanied by several varieties of pickles, rice, roti's [bread], AND desert -- this thing is worth it! you get to taste several different dishes, and get a fantastic full meal, um ... a little too full sometimes ;) The servers at this place were so nice, whenever mom and I refused something they'd look at us really upsetand say, but what are you going to eat! Never mind that we had had about three helpings of rice just before the last attempt! I'll say this, Indians will try and feed you until you BURST. So come with an extra appetite!

next we headed to Crawford market, specifically Zaveri Bazaar [Jewelrey market], which is a MAD house. People EVERY where, its like a sea of people just walking around, hawkers knudging each other for a spot, fruit sellers settling on the side of a car to sell their wares, you name it and I saw it in that Bazaar [market]. Crawford Market itself is a glorified Russell Market [more details in future posts], except it charges some very upscale prices. But the range of fruit available is simply amazing ... in addition to staples like Apples, Oranges, Grapes, Banana's, pears, etc - you also get lychees, mangoes, custart apple [AW amazing!], dude - you name it, we got it! This is why I love coming home -- the range of culinary possibilities is just ENDLESS! :)

Our evening ended at the Shanghai Club at the Grand Central Sheraton - Chinese fare, the Chef is an honorary Bangalorean, and is itching to come back :). After dinner, I met up with Puja [she came an hour late in true desi fashion] at the corner coffee shop that was open at midnight, and buzzing with activity. We caught up with each others lives, at least as much as one can catch up with in an hour, over cold coffee and chocolate mousse [a HUGE mistake coz I was STUFFED!]. As every conversation with my Bangalore buddies, we discussed how Bangalore was being overrun by call centers and crazy drivers, and how beautiful old bungalows were being torn down only to have monstrosities take their place -- but we came to the conclusion that no matter how much everyone tries to play off the facade of Bangalore's so much cooler than it was, deep down inside they're still the same, and somwhere in all the dust, honking and unfinished flyovers, Bangalore warmth lives on.

AAAND Now I'm home, although it was a cool couple of days, I got rather sick of Mumbai and AM SO SO SO HAPPY TO BE HOME! Farook Mama and the family came over for a visit -- Ishaan baba was SOOO CUTE as usual! We chatted over samosas and chai, and some fantastic mango icecream [or so I'm told], ended the evening with Ishaan being himself and playing the charmer w/mom, clinging on to her as the rest were leaving!!! With this I shall end, apologies for the abrupt ending, and somewhat messy posting - but its 3.20am, and I'm BEAT! LATER ya'llz!

Hindi Movie Must Sees.

Yes, I am definately taking in all the hindi movies that I can get my hands on. The multiplex is really close to where I live, so its WAY too convenient - and I have a bunch of friends that haven't got anything better to do with their time :-)

Monday I went for Parineeta with Gay, which I had heard from many people that it was a good movie. So, we land up there, I had bought the tickets online - but had to go through a very odd system to actually pick them up - forget vending machines - you have to stand in line - but instead of having a dedicated counter, like a will call booth, you cut in the regular line - shutting up protesters by holding up your reservation number, sticking your nose up while saying "Internet booking boss" Its slightly more convenient than standing in line, but considering that one pays Rs. 10 per ticket as a handling fee, I feel that the convenience is overrated.

Anyhoo, Parineeta -- VERY cool movie. The story itself was an adaptation of a Bengali [?] novel, set in the 60's in Calcutta, not your standard love story, EXCELLENT cinematography, and some pretty good acting. I think its worth watching for sure - if nothing else, for the cheesy ending and some really awesome clothes, sets, etc. It was Vidya Balan's debut - and I think she's gonna be BIG soon!!

Today I saw Savkar roumored to be an adaptation of the Godfather, or more controversially, the story of one of India's real life dons [WARNING - there are some pretty violent and gory scenes in this movie]. Anyhoo, again cinemotography was EXCELLENT - the way the film has been shot is just super - its very dramatic, the story itself has some hint of the Godfather, but isn't really ---- Amitabh Bachan was pretty cool, Abishek Bachan was ok. All in all, an entertaining afternoon --- the music was hilarious ... all of the dramatic scenes were accompanied by this booming song thats lyrics were ONE word - Govinda - repeated in varying tones and pitches. By the end of it Madhu, who was sitting next to me, was singing along with it, and we were all laughing hysterically - I'm sure that the other movie watchers really appreciated that!!!

But it was very fun -- there were 9 of us at the movie -- Mallya, Bajaj, her sister, two cousins and a buddy, plus Madhu and Pavi -- all of us completely jobless! For the most part Pavi and I kept asking each other what the last dialogue meant, and then both turned to Madhu to check if our interpretation was right - resulting in us missing the next bit of hte movie, and asking the rest of the group - they generally ignored us :-)

Returned home for lunch, w/the gang close in tow -- we had a very relaxing lunch outside in the garden, chillin in the breeze, chatting. Closed out the day chillin w/Shal, picked up a new cell phone for mom, went to CORNER HOUSE for cake fudge [i.e. brownies, icecream and chocolate fudge!] - although, heads up to all those potential visitors -- Corner House is famous for its "Death by Chocolate" -- you gotta taste it to believe it.


I'm preparing to head to Mumbai tomorrow - to visit Yusra-jaaan, catch my parents, chill for a bit and get back to BLR on Saturday night -- to um, get this party started :-)

Some visits, interesting events ... etc.

Haven't been as good about blogging as I would have liked - but its not really my fault - most of my activities for the past week or so have been really mundane and boring, and I've been terrible about taking pictures. HOWEVER, I will continue to document the life and times of me.

Last Thursday night, we almost made some real plans to take a road trip to Mysore. I should have known better than to get all excited, because it didn't really materialize. However, I wasn't that bummed coz I wasn't really up to it anyway since I was still recovering from my bout with the cold monster the previous weekend [sucks to be sick] - btw, that home remedy did work some wonders ---- a pinch of turmeric powder in warm milk [and sugar] takes the cold away! anyhoo, yeah, so the roadtrip ended up being just a short trip to Banergatta National Park [BNP for simplicity's sake] - which is a short car ride from home.

Allow me to dust off my soap box ... ok, so I went to BNP, and at first was amused. Actually, to some extent I was somewhat impressed that they had improved a fair amount since my last visit - for the most part the animals looked healthy, and well taken care of. My amusement came from things like the collection of "varieties of pigeons" and monkeys. However, I stopped laughing when I went on the safari.

Its common knowledge that there are fewer than 1000 tigers left in India, and BNP is lucky to have 5-7 tigers; maybe more - I wasn't keeping count. We started out looking for some tigers and lions, etc. but when we found them I wasn't at all impressed with the crude manner in which that the safari bus/jeep driver was conducting himself in. To begin with, he paused for an unneccessarily long period of time probably five feet away from a lionness, which is eeirie enough. He provoked a lion by revving the engine repeatedly, stopping the safari vehicle less than ten feet from him, stopped and at the urging of some of the passengers crushed plastic water bottles to attract the lions attention - for a photo op. He really took the cake when he raised the plastic bottle, mocking the lion, making to throw it at him -- this time scaring the lion into jumping back. All of these actions gave the passengers in the safari vehicle full license to make similar noises around other cats as we continued through the course of the safari. Honestly, if this is acceptable behaviour - I'll eat my hat. Ok, I don't have a hat, maybe my chappal?

** END OF SOAP BOX NARRATION

Saturday night I was invited to the Mallya house [eh hem, not the UB group - the Mallya's of Langford Town] for dinner - and my what a spread! Its always a treat at their house ... this time dinner was Mangalorean style chicken curry and some sort of very crispy rice thing [similar to a dosa], crispy chicken, a pasta bake, aaaaaah should I go on? Desert, however, TOOK THE CAKE! I don't remember what it was called, but it was a pineapple cake, with caramel and nuts and cream, and i don't know what else -- but it was DIVINEE!!! We watched Venus beat Lindsey [AARH THAT SUCKED!], chilled for a bit w/aunty and uncle, caught up on all the news ... chilled w/Bajaj for a bit --- it was just like the old days, we chatted and sat in the breezy living room, eating aunty's magnificent desert!

After dinner I headed to Bajaj's house, coz we needed to catch up and I had this great plan to get up butt early to take pictures in Cubbon Park [didn't materialize, sadly] -- hangin out with Bajaj is always cool. Bajaj and I go WAAAAAY back -- and she is probably one of the COOLEST people that I know - mainly because she's a photographer, but ALSO coz she's COOL! :-) Seriously though, Bajaj basically spent two and a half years studying photography at the Light and Life Academy in Ooty - and has some absolutely FANTASTIC pieces to her name. Just check out her website, it is SOOOO AWESOME! [Yes, I am working on expanding my vocabulary -- until that actually happens, you'll have to deal w/words like AWESOME, COOL and RAD]. Right now she's working on an amazing project - documenting Bangalore, a compilation that is schedule to come out later this year. I can't wait.

To pull this post together, my apologies for random rants and raves ... I'll end in direct response to the purpose of this blog [read at the top of the page!] --- how much of a yankee am I? Well, I do say things like dude [adapted to yaar in India ;)], insist on converting things to dollars every now and again, complain about the crazy traffic ---- however, I have also refrained from eating a cheese burger for almost a month now[ma' dc-peeps have a true understanding of my love of cheeseburgers!], stuck to my seedy joints like punnuswamy's and sukhsagar for replenishment, have been floating on air after some fantastic south indian coffee [aaah heaven], and continue to enjoy Bangalore at its best. So yankee? who me? Eh, the yank's on a break ... check back later!

Headlines from Bangalore

After surviving for two weeks without a newspaper, I now have THREE to choose from daily. I don't really think that I need three newspapers, but I guess thats what my parents subscription is. I'm strongly considering making the extra effort to wake up early, grab a cuppa and lay out on the balcony reading my morning news paper - picking up on the news around the world. There's just something about reading a newspaper that you just can't get when you're reading the news online.

Anyhoo, also wanted to share some of today's headlines -- to get an idea of whats important to Indian readers. [btw, the Times of India is the World's largest selling English newspaper - beating out both USA Today and the WSJ - with only 60 million English speakers in the country, compared to 200 million in the US - its quite an achievement, don't you think?]

"Water Rises, Gujrat Reels" - Monsoons hit Gujrat hard, people were wading through 5 ft of water on the roads, 400 people were stranded on a train for 30 hours when the tracks were flooded.

"Bangalore Crying out for Infrastructure" - Thank GOD someone else noticed! The Finance Minister made special mention of the pitiful conditions in the city, the Chief Minister of the state of Karnataka [a real ghooghoo!] makes his case for the central government funding 50% of the cost. Of which, I'm sure 90% will go into his pocket, or some other big-wig - speaking of which - check out the next one.

"We Should have been #1, not #4" -- Cricket rankings? No, the list of Indian states with the most corruption - Karnataka ranks #4.

Interesting - no mention of the upcoming G8 summit, Live8 concert/walk, O'Connor's resignation. Would like to see what, if anything, the Indian press say about O'Connor, and the G8 summit. hm, thank to Lord for BBC.