India Trips - Most Favorite/ Least Favorite Parts

Hmmm, I got over that after 1st trip in 19xx, since then it was nothing but an expansive nightmare.

Saree shopping, I would have said, I missed. But, Pothy's fulfills that by sending me fully stitched dress just in 10-days! Food, I was always afraid of eating outside food. Books, online books are available, now.

Temple visits, seeing it was a great architectural experience.

Undeniable loneliness - missing living with a house full of relatives under my grandparents! Even if I was in India, I cannot have it anymore, no one lives like that 20+ in a household. Every meal time was, "finding" the spot next to my grandpa! assured me an invisible kireedam.

 

[QUOTE="Amica, post: 3986401, member: 451761"
I don't know about being a good DIL, but I'm a happy DIL, if that counts. DH's extended family are some of my favorite people.

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[/QUOTE]

Very happy for you Amica!! We were skewing the results a bitnow, we make the universe

 

@Rihana

Are these wet bathroom problems and AC/heat come when NRIs visit their parents too?

 

Steamy hot showers are the Amreeki-NRI thing. And then they expect to step out into the AC-comfort. Or... at least a big pedestal fan cooling them off, before they slip into support infra-structure garments. There are two issues in this: the lack of privacy, as well as the lack of AC. There are nephews and nieces who'd want to know why does auntie want to go and hide in private after every shower. And their mummies with huge wet spots at the armpits trying to make up stories for their kids. Not very nice, all around, no matter which direction you look.

The best part about visiting is the venture into the very large stainless steel kitchen utensil shop. It is like going into a house of mirrors in the state fair in Amreeka. You can see your reflection in all the pots and pans - variously twisted up in caricatures. Once, my kid took a picture of reflections of me from several canisters I was looking at. It is interesting to see what new contraptions they had managed to make out of stainless steel. On one visit (not to India, but to a shop in Penang, which is a pretty good facsimilie of what one might get in Ramnad, the Chettinad center of culture) I bought a multi-tiered tandoori oven that one may place on top of a gas-flame in the kitchen. The chicken legs cooked on that were quite good. The brochure explained some manner of convective heating that can produce the high temperatures of an authentic tandoor. But then, the details were so technical, that I couldn't quite get it. It was stored away....after a few uses.... and I am sure I know where it is, if ever someone demanded that I get it back to see daylight again.

 

Favorites - Seeing family, shopping until I'm broke, checking out ancient architecture and cultural events (I'm not religious enough to enjoy temple visits for anything other than the artistic value), Area/city special food.

Least Favorite (or most hated) - Talking to people who ask me if I like India or US better, talking to people who feel the need to bash US to defend India, Talking to people who think I was starving of lack of Indian food while in the US, being forced to eat obscene amount of food (or potentially being rude for not finishing your plate or not taking 2nd round), going to bathrooms (private AND public), wet shoes (what's up with this, I hate letting my shoes/slippers get wet and dirty, unnecessarily), hard to find or access trashcans (keep India beautiful...please), hounding salespeople (especially when they are unhelpful with finding what you want anyway), going on family outings to the TEMPLE (specifically temple hopping - hiring a bus and going to every auspicious and highly recommended temples in weekend)

 

Favorite- Being with my sisters. Laughter, gossip..trying on their beautiful salwar-kameez
Least Favorite- My mom trying to play family politics (mom's drama), neighbors asking everytime- how can I live happliy without speaking Hindi (my husband being "Firangi") and why don't my kids speak fluent Hindi (oh, you should teach them)?

 

Favorite part: meeting parent, brother and his family, hands down!

Also, relishing fresh mangoes & lichis, jamuns and guava (with kala namak) right from our orchard,

enjoying chai with yummy snacks,

watching the sunset from our chat(terrace) while gossiping about friends, relatives,

making positive plans with bro and dad,

going on morning walks with dad and buying vegetables on the way back,

car rides with dad and bike rides with brother

eating paan from roadside stalls/ kiosks)

slow rickshaw rides while eating coal roasted bhutta

watching tv commercials

using lux and liril bar soaps, yassss )

going to the movie theater with the entire family and then having dinner outside afterwards, the list goes on....

Least favorite part:

when everyone thinks you live such a relaxed and stress free life

That you don't cook and eat pizza every day

when everyone checks you out suspiciously and thinks you look beautiful and young because you eat expensive fruits all day and use expensive and rare cosmetics.
And of course, saying goodbyes to my family.


Omg, I need to go to India now...soon!!

 

Favortites: the gulmohurs, peepal, banyan, ashoka trees, the vegetation in general, summer rain, the droves of kids (many on their way to school, sadly), the cheep-cheep of the striped squirrel, caw-caw of the crows and most of all, annoying my koyal neighbors with my rendition of their whistles, driving them crazy.

Least favorite: dengue, chikungunya and other insistent guests of their ilk.

 

Aah, just this morning after I had a melt-down this morning about not being able to go to India this summer and roundly abusing my company's vacation policy and America bashing (yes, I did bash the good US), this thread pops up!! @Rihana , you read minds... don't you?

The excitement builds up the moment I confirm my credit card purchase that it is me that is purchasing the ticket (I am not sure why my credit card company always thinks someone is committing fraud using my credit card when I book India tickets) and the countdown begins with an announcement on facebook that I will be home-bound in x months/days. It builds up further with friends and extended family asking how many days and we should meet etc. etc. I usually take the day before I am about to leave off as well, to finish packing/shopping and I must say that day is the peak of my excitement to be going home. As much as I hate the long leg from SF to wherever, I am usually in very good spirits because the plane is heading in the direction I like. The second shorter leg, I am almost delirious with joy and the moment we land... I have this huge grin on my face. The crowd, the frenzy and the expectant faces of people waiting outside the airport are all a treat to watch. I am never in a hurry to reach home once I land. I like to just take it all in... we finally manage to locate our taxi driver and we do a customary stop at my in-laws', since it in the way, for a cup of coffee before heading over to my parents. If my husband is accompanying us, he usually gets off at his house and the kids and I head over to my place. My FIL usually services his Scooty about a week before I am scheduled to go to India and drops it off at my place.

Now for the favorite - I grew up in this place called Mylapore (and I think no country or even any other area in Chennai can match the magic of Mylapore) and my first morning starts at 6.30 AM with a scooty ride to this little eatery called Gomathy's where I ask for pongal/vadai/idli parcel for breakfast. Just ambience with Vishnu Sahasranamam playing in the background and other mamas eating in assures me that it is going to be a good day. And so it starts with 3 weeks to a month of visiting relatives/ going back and forth between in-laws and my house/ discovering new restaurants, shopping and just going on evening walks with my mom to the Mada Streets (the streets surrounding the temple at Mylapore) to buy vegetables/groceries etc, checking out stuff and finally zeroing in on what I am going to handover for golu for that year and making sure I have enough space in my luggage to carry enough of whatever I choose to buy. Engaging our friendly auto-wallah (whom my kids fondly call as *hisname* mama) to go around giving my pressure cookers for fixing (like a loose handle, broken safety valve/ripped gasket etc.) and of course, zipping around with my scooty everywhere while my mom/mil watches my kids! My most favorite part is when I go to the Kapalishwarar temple. I am not super-religious or anything, but just going to the Kapali temple, it feels like I pour out and exhaust all my prayers for the entire duration until my next India trip to the deities there. The morning before my last day in India, my family knows to leave me alone. I usually take my scooty out early morning and cruise the streets around Mylapore for a couple hours, get pictures as the day dawns with the temple opening, the flower vendors opening shop and then the other stores slowly getting ready to tackle the day. I usually sit at the temple for an hour or 2 just people-watching. It is the most peaceful I feel with my life/the universe/everything. I do not let anyone accompany me at this time and everyone in my family knows this. So no one even attempts to go with me!!

Least Favorite - The goodbye. I am usually bawling at the airport, in the plane and it doesn't go away until we are safely at an altitude where I know absolutely I can't jump out of the plane to run back to my favorite Mylapore. I am pretty grumpy. My kids' American accent begins to grate on my nerves and my husband's easy adjustment to flying back to the US (if he is with us) annoys me. Once back to the US, it takes me a good month or 2 before I get used again to the routine of work/home/driving kids around to classes etc. etc., until the next India trip!!