Dear Family and Friends,
Normally I’d be writing this looking onto the wintry street-scape outside our little townhouse in historic Old Town, Alexandria. But actually, I’m looking onto the banana and frangipani trees in the garden of our house in Bangalore, India! Yes, this has been a year of changes.
It started with the birth of our second daughte
r, Elizabeth Louise (her paternal grandmother’s namesake), on Feb. 21. She was a few weeks early and so my intended holiday from work at Gifts in Kind International (a corporate philanthropy charity) was instead spent with a newborn! Tina our first born (now 2.5 yrs. old) continues to be surprisingly sweet to her.
In April we had memorable weekend when Phil’s long-time friends from his Navy days (Dean and Susan Valentine from LA, and Mark and Harriet Riser from CT) were in town with their children, and we continued on to Maryland to invade Michael and Ana Jacobson and children at their Naval Academy mansion in Annapolis. All in all, we must have been 20 people spending the night under one roof!
In May we celebrated Lucy’s christening (Lucy is what we call Elizabeth) at the farm in Connecticut. We were joined by our good friends local to the area, Lucy’s grandfather from the Midwest, my oldest sister Muecke from MI, my parents from Japan, and her godparents (my sister Suse and husband Oscar) who also happened to travel from Japan. The christening was at the little Church on Pendleton Hill where Phil and I got married 4 years ago.
Back in Alexandria, we enjoyed a beautifully warm spring and early summer with lots of barbecues with good friends. I went swimming with the babies and friends on almost a daily basis, when not walking along the river and window-shopping, or going to the community playground in Old Town. Our house this year needed only minimal work – that is, just one huge project: re-bricking the entire front, side, and back of the house. It really does look great now (or so we think)!
.JPG)
In June and July we were in Nebraska and Minnesota to celebrate Phil’s god-daughter’s wedding and ‘July 4th’ respectively. Both were wonderful occasions to experience the MidWest, enjoy family and get to know everyone better.
Then in September, AOL finally decided that they needed Phil in India on a permanent basis. So Phil and I went on a house-hunting trip to Bangalore, while Phil’s parents agreed to extend their annual visit to Alexa
ndria to take care of the babies. We had a wonderful time in Bangalore, looking at tens of houses and finally deciding on house #3 ... isn’t that how it always goes? A week later back in Old Town, we had to get to work getting packers to come, last minute projects organized, finding people to take care of our house, selling the car, etc., and making a quick farewell trip to CT and visit with my parents. We had 3 weeks before hopping on the plane!Impressions of Bangalore, India
Arrival
We arrived in Bangalore, via Munich and a wonderful visit with my brother Cobus, exhausted. And, the babies were freaking out by the Indian custom
of touching/kissing/pinching/holding all babies. Fortunately, a week after our arrival Phil’s parents hopped on over from Singapore to help out. They not only entertained, calmed, and cared for the children, but they managed various furniture-deliverers, carpenters, gas-guys, ca
ble-guys, and refrigerator-demonstration guys who would arrive not at all or all at the same time ….. It was really neat to see Phil’s Mom and Dad speak in Telugu (Mom is originally from Andhra Pradesh, which is the neighboring state to Bangalore and where they speak Telugu), and to see them feel so at home with the people, food, infrastructure, etc. In fact, one of the delivery guys was from Guntur where Mom grew up!Noise and Time
The first four weeks were rough on all of us, but then we began to settle. Tina and Lucy have grown very fond of the house-staff and nanny, and we are all sleeping through the night now, in spite of the howling street dogs, the neighbor’s TV blasting some American car-chase movie, and the firecrackers going off at a wedding celebration nearby, etc.
And while things are still frustratingly complicated or time-consuming, I’ve learned to better manage my expectations and time. For example: if you’re the only one at the check-out counter it’s still going to take at least 10 mins. to buy your 5 items; ask the same question at least 3 times and you might get an accurate answer; don’t depend on any answers being accurate; and “I will come immediately” can be translated in three ways “I will come immediately” or “I will come tomorrow or so” or “I will come next week when you call me again at which point I will tell you that I’ll be there immediately and then show up three days later”. We’re getting the hang of it!
Food
We’re getting used to the food here, that is, Indian for breakfast, lunch and dinner. On a special occasion we might have Western or Chinese food, but that too tastes Indian since all the spices have already penetrated our pots and pans. The restaurant food (Indian) is delicious too, and nothing like the relatively “boring” North Indian food that we are used to from the Taj Mahal and Moti restaurants in the U.S. and Japan. It’s South Indian fare here, and extremely delicious with a huge variety of vegetable curries – using various types of gourd, eggplant, and beans --. The Dhals (lentil stews) are a meal in themselves, and the sheer variety of bread and bread-related snacks is amazing. The vegetables are the best I’ve ever had. Everything is sold “off-the-vine”. Meat is ok as well (though there are only 2 recommended butchers in all of Bangalore). In fact, one of our favorite delivery restaurants (an Indian fast-food chain, no le
ss) does the best roast chicken.Shopping for produce is great fun too. I usually go to the little local street market about 3 blocks from our house, or to the large market downtown with hundreds of vendors. At the large market a guy follows you around carrying your purchases in a basket on his head while quietly suggesting good vegetables to buy – that’s why I ended up with a kilo of red radishes!
Our street and neighborhood
We are having fun around the house too. Earlier this week, for example, the coconut-man came by to pick the fruit from our 3 large coconut trees in the back of the house. Everyone including Tina and Lucy was completely engrossed watching this man climb up the tall trees and drop down four huge baskets full of coconuts. So now I’m stuck with having to drink coconut juice every morning (and I don’t even like the taste!). Tina drinks it dutifully as well …
A day later, as I was returning from the large market, the knife sharpening man was happening by our house. I immediately called for him to stop, ran into the house, and brought out some of our knives including the coconut machete. The guy walks the neighborhoods carrying nothing more than a little table with a large sharpening disc attached to it which he turns by stepping on a foot pedal. Almost at the same time, a man carrying a basket of coriander, mint, and (white) radishes on his head came around, so I turned around from Mr. Knife and bought some mint! And meanwhile, the ironing man who is “parked” right outside our gate was asking whether I had any ironing for him so he could fire up his charcoal-iron!
Tina and Lucy really enjoy our street too, especially the playground one block away. While they certainly love the 1950s metal slides, metal and chain swings, seesaws that forcefully drop to the ground when you get off, and dirt sand-box, the true attraction may be the peanut boy who appears every afternoon selling
perfectly roasted peanuts in tiny little newspaper cones. But they have friends there too, in particular two sisters who play everyday since they don’t go to school and prefer the playground to the construction site where they currently live with their parents (normal lingo: street kids).Normalcy
Things seem more normal now. Ti
na enjoys going to playschool every morning with her snack of chapati or dosa, Lucy eats dhal-water, I no longer fear for my life as I cross the street (though I still run for it) and Phil eats expertly with his fingers!So no sooner did we start to feel comfortable in our new surroundings, did we host a small welcome party for some VVIPs (Very Very Important People, as is said in India) from AOL who were in town. Everyone did their best. The cook beautifully presented the food on banana leaves, the caretaker and driver worked their magic lighting lanterns in the garden and smoking out mosquitoes with some stinky charcoal-based remedy, and the nanny expertly whisked the children away upstairs. Phil and I were left to enjoy the party.
And on that note, we’d like to extend a big welcome to you as well! Bangalore has a few interesting historical sights, many photographic opportunities, and great shopping. Plus there are plenty of historical, cultural, and natural attractions within a few hours drive in more tranquil setting
s. For exa
mple, Kabini is only about 4 hours drive from the City, where elephants (apparently) roam in the wild – we only spotted various monkeys, wild boar, and spotted dear. Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is about 7 hours from Bangalore and featur
es a truly amazing boulder-landscape with ancient temples and ruins. It’
s this strange combination of romantic Jungle Book, plus stark Mad Max / Australian desert, plus highly sophisticated architecture! Beautiful, mesmerizing and truly recommended!So if you have any inclination at all, please let us show you how life on the subcontinent can be like!
Merry Christmas and a very, very Happy New Year!
Love,
Phil and Tiki
Tina and Lucy
P.S. Check out www.bangalore-tiki@blogspot.com for more Bangalore/India adventures. ROAR!!! As Jarrod would say :) .
