Do This In Remembrance of Me

The holidays are upon us again, and with all the lovely parties, planning, and family events come swirls of memories. I have been thinking a lot about my friend Jody, who passed away last year in Nepal. I am in Tahoe again, staying with Jody's friends Bill and Teresa, and skiing the slopes of Squaw that she loved. For me, this place and these people will always bring Jody's spirit to life, and it is so nice to feel her presence here. Jody had many wonderful qualities for which she should be remembered, her love of people and animals, her generous spirit, her sense of adventure, her creativity, and one of the best places to do it is here. I decided that this is the year that I will learn to ski properly. There is a cabin to go to every weekend, new boots, new skis. As I point ski tips down the mountain, I'm sending much love Jody's way. Hopefully, before the end of the season, I'll make her proud.

This is one of my favorite songs about missing someone, sung by one of the a capella groups from Stanford.

French Idyll

In November, I had the privilege of attending my friends Ally and Alexis' wedding in France. For me, it was the opening act on a week-long business trip to the UK, and what a stroke of luck to be able to combine business with pleasure and be present for Ally's wedding.

I left San Francisco on Thursday at midday, and roughly 24 hours and 5 airports later, found myself in Lyon getting picked up by Alexis' mom and her friend Bernard, just in time to make it to the rehearsal dinner on Friday. The wedding was held in Alexis' hometown, which is about halfway between Lyon and Grenoble, France. I had been to Lyon before on a prior trip, but hadn't been out into the countryside, so it was lovely to go skimming along through the fall foliage and pastureland, with snow-capped mountains in the distance, and just soak it all in. We met up with the bride and groom at the church, which is just down the street from Alexis' family home. The church itself was lovely, made of stone with beautiful stained glass. I would call the style French gothic, but that's probably chronologically incorrect. The overall effect was beautiful and timeless. Just the perfect setting for a modern fairytale wedding. After the rehearsal, it was off to a lovely dinner at the local country club, which opened up just for Ally and Alexis' families and those of us few friends who made the trek from the US. Replete with a tasty ham dinner, good wine and conversation, we headed back to Domaine St. Chepy, the chateau that hosted the guests and would be the site for the reception, and hit the hay in preparation for a busy wedding day to come.

The day of the wedding dawned with storm clounds shot through by sun rays. I suppose it would have been more convenient to have had bright sunshine, but the combination of newly-washed greenery, fall colors in the trees, and the sun glinting off raindrops was quite beautiful in its own right. We spent the morning bustling about with preparations, hair-dos and makeup, primping and pressing collars, and taking pictures. It was fun to be a bit player in it all and I hope I earned my keep as Ally's Girl Friday for the day. Ally looked beauteous in a strapless gown with lace overlay. I know that she was stressed getting ready, but it all came together and soon enough we were off to the church for the ceremony.

The wedding itself was beautiful and went off without a hitch. We had to jump a few rain puddles on our way in and out, but the ceremony was lovely, with many friends and family in attendance to celebrate Ally and Alexis wedding. We headed back to Domaine St. Chepy for the cocktail hour and reception. Apparently, in France, not everyone goes to the reception and it's common to invite your broader circle of friends just for cocktails and hors d' oeuvres. There were tasty snacks and plenty of champagne to go around for a couple of hours before the reception started in earnest.

The reception started with a conga line. You have to hand it to the French. They bring the party with them when they come. As Ally and Alexis entered the reception hall, everyone was on their feet, clapping, dancing and yes, conga-ing their backsides off. It was so much fun, and so great to see their marriage begin with such joy. We had a truly lovely dinner, complete with a cheese course of divine fromage. (I decided, when I grow up, I'm going to run away to the French countryside and become a cheese-maker). The wedding cake was a croque en bouche, profiteroles filled with cream, stacked in a tower and spun round with caramelized sugar - delicious. Alexis band played, Ally made a toast in French, and Alexi's mom threw a hip and beat me out in the game of musical chairs for single ladies. We were up dancing and drinking until well after 3am, crowing the night with the pot de chambre, a French wedding tradition where the bride and groom, and wedding guest still standing, are made to drink champagne and party leftovers from a communal bowl. It was a little gross, but most definitely a required right of passage. I headed for bed shortly after and left the wedding party to close the night down. So much fun....

The next day, we all sleepily had coffee and croissants before packing up and heading out. Alexis' mom threw a lunch at her house, so we all gathered there before heading off to the airport. For me, it was off to London and a day of work at our office there, before heading up to Leeds for a site visit. The airport shuffle to get there was impressive, but it was all worthwhile. What a lovely, lovely wedding.

My Favorite Delhi Restaurants - Big & Small

Roomate brunch at the Oberoi

From time to time, people ask me for restaurant recommendations in Delhi and the NCR. Delhi is an amazingly cosmopolitan city and, as a result, the food is fabulous. Here is a list of my favorites. If you find your way to Delhi, be sure to check some of them out. They range from 5-star hotels to roadside stands, but all of them are road-tested by me. Yum! It makes me hungry and nostalgic just thinking about it.

Alex & Austin at Karim's with the Tandoori Raan (leg of lamb)

Re-Entry Is a Little Bumpy Sometimes

For those of you who don't know, I'm baaaack!

I've been home now for almost exactly two weeks. It has been wonderful to see family and friends, to get settled into my house again, cuddle my pets, and enjoy my sunny-but-not-scorching home town. I suppose most things have gone well. I am happy to be back, and at least work-wise, so glad that everything worked out; I was beginning to get desperate. But, on the flip side, I do miss my Indian family, a ton.

I left my old HP laptop with the boys at the house, so Aarif checks in with me daily on gTalk. Manik took his tip money and bought a cell phone, so even he calls me from time to time. Sometimes the modern world is amazingly small, and it's both wonderful and creepy to be able to keep such close contact with them. People from the office ping me occasionally, when they're online late at night, so it's easy to stay in touch that way, and every now and again, I talk on the phone with Devindar.

Everyone has a different reaction when they leave home, and visiting India always makes it's own unique impression. I think most people are eager to leave the chaos and beauty of India, because it's overwhelming to many of us who weren't brought up in that type of culture. For me, it's the opposite. More than anything, since I've been back, I have this nagging fear that I'll lose what I learned in India, my Hindi will slip, my taste for the fiery spices will wane, my ability to understand (somewhat) and integrate into Indian culture will evaporate. I feel, sometimes, as if exiled. I think India somehow helped me develop another sense, an intuition or awareness that I'm desperate to hold on to. Or, perhaps it's the relationships with friends, colleagues...Somehow, I managed to feel that I belonged there, and I miss that. I seem to get particularly nostalgic on Sundays. Yesterday, I was running errands and shopping when I should have been unpacking boxes, and I found myself missing Devindar and having him along with me for the Delhi version of this Sunday ritual. I called him, just to say 'hi' and catch up on all of the news and notes from Gurgaon. The same thing happened last Sunday - maybe it always will.

My first week back at work, I ran into a colleague in the cafe who had also spent over a year in India. She asked me if I was glad to be back to American food and commented that she didn't think she'd had Indian food in the three plus years since she'd been back. While I understand the sentiment, that is not how I feel. Afraid that I might at some point, I went searching for a good Indian grocer and bought a full range of masalas, chili and cumin powder, green cardamom, dosa mix, my favorite Indian cookies "Nice Time", and some plaintain chips. A culinary cultural transfusion, performed right here in Sunnyvale. Now, I just have to use them; wish me luck.

You often hear Indians being nostalgic about their homeland, or pining for tastes and flavors that you can only get in India. That always seemed somewhat odd to me, or over-the-top, because especially in the polyglot Bay Area, we have almost everything. Now, though, I think I understand a little. It's not a rational thing. It's not that you can't get garam masala, or chicken tikka, or even alphonsus mangos. It's not that you won't hear Hindi spoken or meet Indians. It's the fear that you'll forget. Forget the tastes, the flavors, the smells, the history, the chaos, and the embraces of your family and friends. So, my American family will have to forgive me if I'm reluctant to stamp the Indian dust from my shoes, if the most natural response to a question still comes out as "ha," and if Sunday evenings make me a little sad from time to time.

The World According to US

The graphic above has been making the rounds with my peers here in India.  While it's mildly insulting, it also reflects some truisms about Americans and their world view.  Certainly, this is how we, and our egos, look from the vantage point of the second and third worlds and their burgeoning markets.  I particularly like the characterization of Canada as "uninhabited."  We discount, criminalize, and marginalize a lot of the world that we either don't understand or don't have time for.  Not that we're alone in this.  My colleague who sent this to me commented that she'd love to do one of these from India's perspective.  I suggested that she just change the labels and have a little fun, since she's very witty.  Her rejoinder was that she'd have to start from scratch because certainly the Indian subcontinent wasn't large enough, relative to the other countries, to reflect the local point of view.

If there's one thing that the past year-and-a-half has taught me, it's not to discount the nooks and crannies and huge-ass continents of the world that I haven't seen.  It doesn't take but one visit to Khajuraho, Amer, Chiang Mai, Darjeeling or Ladakh, to put you in awe of the world's natural wonders and myriad cultures in all their complexity.  I cannot imagine my life now without having seen some of these things, but save for this opportunity to live and work in India, it's very likely that I never would have laid eyes on much of what I've seen.  It's amazing how single decision points can shape you as a person.  I hope that I remember to never stop exploring, and that I instill this wanderlust in my family someday.  We must truly be citizens of the world; no one of us exists in isolation.  The sooner everyone figures this out, the better off we'll be.

Bangkok - A Whole Lotta Wat!

I learned never, ever take Shannon on a late night flight.  Pumpkin needs her beauty sleep and did NOT enjoy the 3 hour flight and choppy sleep we got at the airport and on board the plane.  Fortunately, we arrived at the lovely VIE Hotel and were able to immediately check in, clean up and get some rest.  Which we promptly did, sleeping until 1pm or so.  Shannon swears she tried to wake me multiple times, and it's all my fault, but I argue she was sleep-deprived and under-motivated when it came to getting me out of bed.  In any case, the extra half day I tried to get us by taking the red eye more or less got frittered away in our spacious, ultra-modern, and ultra-cool hotel room.  Anyway.... sometimes you just can't fight these things; in the interest of domestic happiness, we took a much-needed pit stop and had a really yummy Thai lunch.

Kind-of refreshed and ready, we headed out to hit the first of many, many Wats, or Buddhist temples.  Our first stop was Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  This was one of my favorite temples that we saw on our trip.  The Buddha is very impressive and the decorative arts on the temple are amazingly beautiful, but it was these things in combination with what Shannon and I ended up referring to as "temple+party" that really made the place come alive.  For some reason, the courtyard of the Wat was chock-a-block with food stalls, places to make offerings and buy incense, and monks chanting and singing.  Because the trappings of Thai Buddhism are quite ornate, colorful and shiny, the overall effect is one of a carnival.  It was great fun.  A place of worship like that would make you want to come every day.

After bowing to Buddha's mother-of-pearl toes, we made our way to Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn.  Situated on the riverbank, Wat Arun gives you a spectacular view of the city skyline and the traffic on the river...if you're willing to climb the super-steep steps to the top.  I thought of Mom, because all of the temples are covered with ornate mosaic work, some in colored mirrors, some in porcelain flowers and figures - it's a pique assiette paradise!  I took lots of pictures to inspire my favorite mosaic artist.  I almost wished she was there, but not quite...Bangkok might just be the hottest city I've visited to date.  By the time Shans and I climbed to the top of Wat Arun, we were literally watering, and the fun continued throughout our time in Thailand.  I'll definitely go back, but if I do, it will be wintertime.  

Hot and sapped by our brief adventures into the wat-age, Shans and I headed for air conditioning.  Bangkok has a number of huge shopping malls and entertainment complexes where people hang out in air-conditioned bliss.  We discovered MBK, and found our home away from home in Bangkok.  Their food court is huge and operates on this coupon system that makes it pretty easy to get amazing Thai food for super-cheap.  We gorged on green papaya salad, pad thai, and a few new delicacies like hoy tod, mussels cooked in a scrambled egg mixture with chili-garlic sauce...mmmm, mmm, good.  MBK is also knock-off paradise, so Shans and I got our fill of fake Nars, MAC, Ed Hardy and Burberry, as well as some ultra-cool Thai t-shirts for Dad.  And to top it all off....they had Starbuck's!  Does it get any better?

On day two, we headed to the Royal Palace compound and were immediately transported into the set of The King and I.  The temples and palace buildings are amazingly beautiful and shiny.  I don't know how much of the work is original anymore, as the buildings must take almost constant maintenance, but they're still beautiful.  Shannon was most chagrined because there's also a dress code, and somehow neither her capris, nor her cute-little-top made the chastity cut.  Thus, she enjoyed our tour in two extra layers of men's shirt and sarong - not exactly the stylish figure she's used to cutting - double thumbs down from the Shan-doggy.    

Our second stop was the Jim Thompson House museum.  An expat silk magnate who popularized the Thai silk industry, Thompson was also a collector of Thai architectural pieces and household goods.  After his mysterious disappearance in 1967 (foul play suspected), Thompson's house was turned into a museum, to compliment his very popular eponymous silk stores all over Thailand.  The tour of the house and gardens was interesting and a nice respite from the crowded city outside.  After the museum, we walked to MBK to cool off and complete our shopping, before heading back to VIE and hitting the pool + cocktails.  Now perhaps we lack imagination, or perhaps the heat was a legitimate excuse, but Shannon and I were of one mind when it came to evening plans, and room service won out over the hassle, heat and bother of going back out into the city.  We had a very nice meal with a bottle of wine, and hit the sack early, in preparation for our morning departure to Ko Phi Phi, by way of Phuket.

Green Elixir

Green chutney might just be the world's greatest condiment.  Mixed with yoghurt and tamarind sauce, it forms the perfect trifecta for any fried food.  On its own, it compliments just about anything, grilled meat, paratha, paneer, you name it.  The champion of sauces, in all it's glory:

Green Chutney

100 grams fresh Coriander leaves (cilantro)

1 tsp chopped ginger

1 tsp chopped garlic

2 green chilis

1 tsp lemon juice

25 grams of fresh mint

1/2 tsp of cumin seeds

1/2 onion

1/2 tomato

Salt to taste

Mix and grind all ingredients in a food processor or grinder.  If liquid is needed, water or plain yoghurt can be added.  Puree and serve.

At Home in Kolkata

After Darjeeling and Sikkim, Shannon and I headed to Kolkata.  I had been wanting to see India's Eastern-most metropolis, in all it's teeming glory, and it just so happened that one of my friends from work, Debdutta, was going to be home for Bengali New Year, so we decided to make a visit of it.  

Shans and I had had about enough of the B-grade hotel action (of course), so we upgraded to the Oberoi in Kolkata, also because it was on some sort of wicked sale at hotels.com and was only costing $130/nt for all of it's 5-star glory.  Arriving there was a balm to my soul, truly.  Beautiful pool, lovely room, great room service, and fabulously attentive staff.  The Oberoi hotel is one of those places where you can get anything you need, promptly and with style - internet access, courier service for the sarees I bought, an amazing spa.  What more could two girls want?

On our first full day, Debdutta picked us up and took us to the Victoria Memorial.  The building and park are beautiful and they had a nice exhibit (with AC!) that gave the history of the city.

  Afterwards, we headed to the India Museum, only to find it closed the day before the New Year.  Darn it.  We'll just have to shop.

We grabbed a quick Bengali lunch and hit the saree shops looking for something for Shannon.  Poor Debdutta was so patient.  But, we were successful!  Shannon got a beautiful Bengali woven silk saree, turquoise and iridescent violet with an openwork flower design woven in pale gold.  Very pretty. I, on the other hand, chose a tussar silk saree, with a traditional design in vibrant turquoise and red.  Not because I need another saree, oh no.  Because it was on sale :).  Kolkata is also famous for its woven cottons, so Debdutta took us to the weavers' shop that her mom buys all of her cotton sarees from.  These are much more affordable than the silk sarees, running the equivalent of $12 to $25 USD.  I bought a few for mom to use as yardage, and 2 for me to maybe someday wear.  They are so beautiful.  I have to admit that all of the patterns and colors bring out a very greedy side of me.  Just the experience of being in the shop and unwrapping all of these unassuming little bundles only to find amazing, bold prints inside, was pretty spectacular.  Shannon and Debdutta got bored long before I did, but lucky for me they're good friends and very patient.  Hot, steamy and tuckered out from our day of shopping, we retreated to "the Obs" and let Debdutta finally go home.  We are indebted in so many ways for the tour guide services and the company.

The following day was the Bengali New Year.  Debdutta's parents were kind enough to invite Shannon and I over for lunch and to meet the family.  Debdutta picked us up at midday and wisked us off to her house, which lies on a street carrying the family name.  Debdutta's father is very involved in state politics, having once been a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Bengal.  Now, he organizes for his party and helps select the candidates that will run for major positions in the government.  Thus, it was a rare occasion for him to be home to meet us.  

It was lovely to meet Debdutta's family.  Her mom made us an amazing lunch: aloo poshto - potatoes in poppyseed curry, huge prawns, fish, Bengali dal - which is sweeter than North-Indian dal, mishti doi - yoghurt sweetened with brown sugar, and rasgullah for dessert.  Needless to say, it was amazing.  Since we were the guests and the youngsters, we ate first, and then chit-chatted in Debdutta's room until her parents finished their lunch.  Bengali New Year is an auspicious day to buy gold for Bengali's, so after lunch, we went with Debdutta to look for some gold jhumki, bell-shaped, traditional gold earrings.  We found some beautiful ones that Debdutta went back and got with her mom later in the day.  Too much fun.  After saying goodbye and many, many thanks to Debdutta, Shans and I headed back to the Oberoi to pack up and hit the spa.  Our flight to Bangkok was at 2am, so we dithered around at the Oberoi for massages and dinner, before heading to the airport around 11.  Bye bye Hindustan, hello Thailand!

There IS Butter in Butter Chicken

Murg Makhani.  I think of it as the heartstone of Northern Indian cuisine.  If you're non-veg, of course.  I couldn't leave India without having Abdul show me how to make it.  I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate it at home, but I'll make a valiant effort.

****

Butter Chicken

for 3 people

Marinade:

150 grams of curd (plain yogurt)

Red chili powder

Haldi powder (tumeric)

Garam masala powder

Dhania powder (coriander)

Chat masala

1 tsp Mustard oil 

Salt to taste

1 T Ginger garlic paste

Hang the curt to filter out the water and add all of the spices and other ingredients.  Mix 200 grams boneless chicken into the marinade and hold in the refridgerator for 2 hours.  Heat oven to 200 C and bake the chicken for 30 minutes.  Cut chicken into pieces.

Gravy:

First step: Onion puree

• 3 Onions
  

Cut the onion into thin slices and fry until brown.  Puree using a food processor.

Second step: Tomato puree (with kaju broken and magaj)

• 5 tomatoes
  
• 2 tsp broken cashew nut
  
• 1 tsp magaj (musk melon seeds)
  

Puree the tomato, cashews, and magaj.  I've seen Abdul mix these ingredients in a blender either before or after cooking them.  Also, the musk melon seeds are not required, according to Abdul and Preeti.  However, if you use all cashews, they tend to be a little sweet.  Since the nuts function as a thickening agent, you can use an alternate, less sweet nut.  We were thinking that pine nuts or sunflower seeds might work.

Third Step: Assemble & Cook Gravy

• 1 T ginger garlic paste
  
• 1 T refined oil
  
• 1 T butter
• 100 grams milk
  
• Cream for garnish
  
• All Indian spices
  
• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• Fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

Take a pan and add oil.  Add 2 cardamom pods, 2 cloves, and 2 bay leaves.  Add garlic ginger paste and sautee until brown.  Add mixture from Step 2 (tomato puree).  Sautee for 10 minutes.  Add 'all Indian spices' and the brown onion puree and cook well for 5 minutes.  Add the milk and butter, chicken pieces, and salt to tast.  Garnish with cream and fresh coriander leaves and serve.

Up Toward Mountains Higher

Princess Shannon has returned to India.  I (sorta accidentally) decided to give her a taste of life as I know it for the first part of her trip.  Darjeeling and Sikkim were two of the few places on my A list that I hadn't been to yet, so I roped Shannon into tagging along.  In discussing these plans with my colleagues in Hyderabad, I miraculously acquired another 5 people: Gina, plus Kate and Angela; Anup, plus his friend Apu.  It made for a nice-sized group to go and explore the wonders of India's northeastern provinces, and it definitely gave Shans a taste of what life as an expat has been like.

We flew to Badogra, which is the closest airport to both Darjeeling and Sikkim, and met up with a driver to take us up into the mountains.  As per the Indian norm, it was not without problems.  First our hotel was taken over by some visiting dignitary, so at the last minute, we were notified we'd be staying somewhere else.  Then, once we got there, our driver somehow managed to be standing outside this very tiny airport for the better part of an hour and still miss the crowd of 5 occidentals and 2 NRIs clustered at the entrance.  My expectation of and tolerance for these road bumps has increased mightily over the past year and a half.  I think, in many ways, this is a gift of patience that India has given me.  Forever more, I will roll with the punches just a little bit better, plan alternatives just a little more thoroughly, and know when I should insist that much more firmly.

Darjeeling was our first stop.  Perched at the top of a series of very windy roads into the mountain, it offers mist-covered views of the tea plantations and unbelievably beautiful glimpses of the Himalayan peaks, especially Kanchenjunga.  The ride up the mountain, though a little windy for those in the group who were on their first Indian road trip, was fairly uneventful.  We climbed through the lowlands, up into the tree line, passing temples and prayer flags hung through the trees, eventually driving alongside the famous toy train as it chugged its way up the mountain.  Amongst all of this peace and beauty, Shannon took a moment to wave at some kids by the side of the road.  Normally, this type of gesture is greeted with smiles and shy waves back, but this time, oh no....  One of the little boys, probably about 7 or 8 years old, stepped into the road behind our car and proceeded to thrust his hips at Shannon, miming that he was stroking himself.  Oh yeah, a little Darjeeling porn on our way up the mountain....super funny.  We all about died laughing.  Even the Indians amongst us said they'd never seen a kid do that in India.  See the beauty that Western cultures bring to the Eastern world?

While I don't think that the Viceroy Hotel should have been the same price as our original booking at the Elgin, it was completely serviceable.  Clean, neat, very helpful staff and a great location on the main mall.  In Northern India, the proximity to Tibet means you'll find at least two things in all of these Himalayan towns - monks and momos.  For our first dinner in Darjeeling, we decided to go in search of the latter and had an amazing meal of momos and thukpa at Kunga Restaurant, a Tibetan joint on the main road in Darjeeling.  We then wandered into town for the cheapest drinks ever at a local bar.  A weekend away in one of India's hill stations forces you to slow down a bit, enjoy the company of those you're with, appreciate nature and the much-cooler air, soak of the spirituality of its holy places, and just do everything at a much more leisurely pace.  It is good for the soul.

For our second day in Darjeeling, we headed out to see the sights and eventually to search for the local speciality - tea, of course!  We visited the Japanese peace stupa for some impromptu drumming practice and gorgeous views of both the stupa and the mountains in the distance. Darjeeling, like Leh has a heavy Tibetan influence, so we were able to visit one of the local monasteries; Shannon worked on spinning the prayer wheels and Anup got down with the people, the monk people, that is.  We then moved on to the Darjeeling Zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - highlights were the whomping leopard sex, which I heard but missed seeing, and the sherpa practicum going on in the courtyard at the Institute, which I also managed to just miss, being absorbed in all of the tales of men lost to Everest over the years.  Gina assures me that both the sex and the sherpas were spectacular.  

After our animal adventures, we spent a significant amount of time and joke material trying to find this restaurant called the "Hot Stimulating Cafe," which apparently exists, but we definitely could not find.  In the meantime, we headed out to the tea plantations and the Tibetan Refugee Center.  I think many of us, being native or imported Californians, were thinking that tea plantations would follow the wine-tasting model, but au contrare.  We definitely got an up-close-and-personal view of the tea bushes, which look rather like boxwood, but there was no 'tasting room' to be had.  The refugee center wasn't as spectacular as the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, but we managed to amuse ourselves watching the little kids play, and Anup even found a pick-up game of basketball - again, one with the people.  We hit The Elgin, where we were supposed to be staying, for high tea and had a very nice respite, along with our first taste of true Darjeeling tea.  Inspired, we headed back to the main road in Darjeeling to Nathmull's, and spent the better part of an hour sniffing and sampling white, black and green teas.  Apparently, one doesn't go to the tea, but rather has the tea brought to one. . . ah hah.

We hit the hay pretty early that night; matter of fact, Shannon didn't even rally for dinner.  At 4:30am, we were headed for Tiger Hill to catch the sun rising over the Himalayas.  There was much discussion as to whether the whole party would make it out at that ungodly hour or not, but we did.  Out, and all the way up to the top of the hill. . . . the very foggy, prayer-flag-swathed, and overcrowded hill.  As a native of Aptos, the fog made me feel right at home, but it wasn't so good for seeing the mountain range.  Our conversation went something like this:

Apu: Look! There's the mountain range

(all of us squint in the direction he's pointing)

Anup: Dude, those are just clouds.

Apu: Triangular clouds?

Me: Well, maybe I see the mountains. . . maybe. . . Yeah, I think I do!

Apu: (to Anup) See?!

Me: . . . Or maybe I don't. . . ?

And so on, and so forth. . . .

In the end, even with photo-enhancing software, I got nothing, not even triangular clouds.  I finally resorted to buying photos that were being sold from mornings where you could actually see the mountains.  And, of course, the day before was much better, supposedly.  But, hey - who can complain too much about an early-morning chai call with good company?  We would have been bummed if we hadn't tried.  After breakfast back at the Viceroy, our little party had to break up as Gina, Kate, and Angela headed back down the mountain and home to Hyderabad, and Apu, Anup, Shannon and I continued on to Sikkim.

The drive to Sikkim was beautiful.  I have come to love the Himalayan foothills for all of their fog and greenery, and for the degree to which they feel like home.  We saw a tourism poster for Sikkim that said "the Switzerland of the East," and that's a pretty fair description.  Steep mountains with stepped fields cascade into gorges filled with tumbling rapids.  In the lowlands, it is hot; up higher, it is misty and cool.  All of the architecture is steeply vertical, made to shed the elements.  Shannon and I only had a very brief day 24 hours or so in Sikkim, but it was still enough to get a taste of this lovely Indian state.  Highlights include:

• Getting a passport stamp, even though this is still India (?!)
• The hotel hook-up from Apu's friend, that ended up being a definitely B-grade option
• Gambling in Sikkim's first-ever casino for Shannon's birthday (and losing...wahhhh!)
• The human traffic lights (seriously?)
• The boys and their 'over-under' madness and preferring to sleep on the loveseat rather than together
• The beautiful pedestrian mall in front of our hotel that my friend William's dad helped to design
• Buying Dad a Nepali hat in the market, and taking a picture of how to wear it
• Visiting Rumtek monastery
• Shannon almost wetting herself on the way down the mountain - when will that girl learn that in India, it is unwise to drink multiple liters of water on road trips?

And then we're back in Badogra, and headed off to Kolkata!

Channeling Rosa Parks in Hampi

At the end of March, I went to Hyderabad for work and decided to make another attempt at going to Hampi (the last time, it was flooded).  Gina agreed to go with me, so on Friday night, we hopped an overnight train and headed south.  We had second-class AC sleeper tickets, so the berths were pretty nice and there was a very nice older Muslim couple who traveled with us and were very sweet.  They thankfully helped us tell the porter to wake us up in Hospet, so that we didn't keep going onward with the train.  This boiled down to us getting woken up and hustled out onto the platform at about 5:15am, but still, better than the alternative.  We caught a rickshaw and headed into the town of Hampi, still at dark o'clock.  Although he asked us which side of the river we were staying on, the rickshaw driver elected not to drop us there.  Apparently, it was easier to put us on the more populated side, but that was a pretty big bummer for us as we arrived a little before 6am and the ferry to our hotel didn't start running until 7.  Even though it was early for the restaurants too, we decided to go and wait at The Mango Tree until they opened.  We woke up the whole place once we got there; about ten people who work at the restaurant were sleeping on cots and mats in the courtyard.  They were very generous in welcoming us in and making us chai while they got the restaurant up and running.  I consequently loved the place.  Chai and hot breakfast before you're even supposed to be open - that is the way to my heart.

After breakfast, it was late enough to go back to the ferry and catch a ride across the river.  The river itself doesn't look big enough to require a boat, but it just barely is - especially with luggage.  We wound our way up the bank and through the sugarcane fields to our hotel, only to find out that they didn't have the AC room that we booked.  Since only one or two hotels in all of Hampi have AC, I was willing to compromise on a room with a fan and a non-working AC unit, and the hope that the manager would lower the rate to non-AC for us.  We got cleaned up, dumped our stuff and headed back across the river to see the temples in town.

Have I mentioned yet that Hampi was hot?  Like really, very, very, hot.  Like watering-all-the-time hot.  Consequently, our tour of the ruins was a bit laborious.  We spent most of the afternoon going to two of the three main temple groups in town.  We had a very nice vegetarian buffet lunch at one of the state tourist hotels and wrapped up our sightseeing about 3pm.  At this point, we started to get a glimmer of an idea.  First, it was hotter than schmuck.  Second, we had seen all of the most-famous monuments and weren't sure if there was much more worth seeing.  Third, if we took a night bus or train on Saturday night, we'd be back in Hyderabad in time for Sunday brunch with Jen on her last day, and a massage at Tangerine.  Hmmmm.....

I'm sure it's no surprise that we elected to go for an overnight AC bus to get home faster.  We were able to get the last two AC reserved seats, and so thought we were all set to head home.  I really should have known better, I mean really.  Traveling in India pretty much defines Murphy's Law on a regular basis, but I still make the mistake sometimes of expecting something different.  When we got back to our hotel we checked out and offered to pay the AC rate for the room.  Not only did they refuse to lower the rate, they also refused to acknowledge that there ever were posted AC rates, even though there was a defunct air conditioner in our room.  In the end, I didn't have time to argue.  I reversed the charges, after way too long on hold with both Make My Trip and Capital One, and we went on our merry way.  We hit Mango Tree up for one last meal, and then headed into town to catch our bus.

And this is where the fun really begins.... In hindsight, we decided what happened was that they overbooked the AC section of the bus and basically picked on the two foreigners as the most likely to be easy to screw over.  In any case, we go to get on the bus and the guy trys to walk us into the non-AC section of the bus.  We protest.  He insists we have non-AC tickets.  By comparing prices with a few other folks, we become sure that we paid for AC reserved.  Gina sits down in the AC section and refuses to move (go Gina!).  I contemplate getting off the bus to call the travel agent, as the man insists I should.  Gina says no dice - they might leave without us.  So, we sit down and refuse to move, Rosa Parks-style.  The two bus dudes yell at us a bunch and then try to 'refund' the difference in the ticket price so that we'll move.  We say 'no way' offer that to one of the other passengers and see if they take it.  Sure enough, they don't even bother because nobody would.  Then they try to get us to move to a full sleeper bus, supposedly Hyderabad bound as well.  Gina says, bad idea, who knows where it's really going.  So we refuse to budge again.  Bottom line - it worked.  At least to get us as far as Hyderabad.  We didn't sleep all that well - I kept thinking we'd get thrown off the bus at some point and the "AC" was intermittent.  But, we got to Hyderabad.  We ended up being the last ones on the bus, so rather than doing the last stop in Hi-Tech City like they were supposed to, they pulled off at a random intersection and told us to get off the bus and take an auto rickshaw.  In the melee that ensued, I left my Blackberry on the bus, so between all of the irritation and the lost equipment, I think the lying, thieving bus wallahs got the better of us.  After a half dozen aborted auto rickshaw negotiations, we finally got one to drop us across the street from the company apartments at Jayabheri.  Whew.

Brunch at Novotel and a massage at Tangerine did a lot to soothe my jangled nerves.  I had another saga trying to get my flight changed because for some odd reason, Kingfisher decided not to take any international credit cards, save Amex, that day.  I actually had to call my daddy and borrow his credit card for a fifteen dollar charge, if you can believe it.  However, in the end it all worked out and we got home safe and sound and were mildly soothed by our relaxing Sunday afternoon.

The sum-up on Hampi:  Don't go in anything that approximates a Spring or Summer month - Winter is where it's at.  Take the train both ways.  No lying, cheating, bus wallahs.  The ruins are beautiful, but they're fairly weathered.  Unless you really, really love hippi backpacker towns, you might want to spend your India travel time elsewhere.  I'm glad I went; I would have wondered otherwise.  And, Gina is a great travel buddy - I never would have channeled Rosa Parks on my own without her.

Cookin' With Abdul

Before I came to India, my biggest exposure to Indian food had been going to Indian buffet with Marilyn and Nader.  Since most of these buffet's don't really spend time on labeling the food accurately, nine times out of ten, I had no idea what I was eating.  Consequently, my entire experience of Indian food was a nameless but tasty assault on the senses, limited to the Walnut Creek and Concord Indian diaspora.  Adjusting to the onslaught of spices was surprisingly easy, with occasional re-sets of the palate at Sunday brunch.  I've come to love the food and I know I would miss it terribly and be crushed if I could replicate some of the dishes.  Consequently, I've asked Abdul, our cook, to teach me to make some of my favorites.  He loves an audience and has been very generous in sharing both his kitchen and his recipes.  Here's the first in what I hope will be a series -- Baigan Bharta, or as Aarif likes to call it "Megan Bharta."

****

Baigan Bharta

for 5 people

500 gm baigan (eggplant)

1 T chopped garlic

1 chopped onion

1 chopped in tomato

1 chopped green chili

1 T garlic-ginger paste (see separate instructions)

100 gm chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

100 gm curd (plain yogurt)

vegetable oil

"All Indian spices" = garam masala powder, tumeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, cumin powder, dry Fenugreek leaves, whole cumin

Salt to taste

Cut the eggplant in half and fry until cooked well, then blanch the skin, [peel] and finely chop the meat.  As an alternate to frying the eggplant, you can also cook or roast the eggplant in the oven, and then to proceed to peel and chop. Mix the plain yogurt into the chopped eggplant and set aside.

Take a pan and add 1 teaspoon whole cumin, chopped garlic, chopped green chili.  Sautee mixture in oil until brown.  Add the onion and sautee until brown.  Add ginger-garlic paste, sautee 2 minutes and add chopped tomato.  Cook well for 5 minutes and add the eggplant mixture.  Add all Indian spices [approximately 1/2 tsp each] and garnish with fresh chopped coriander.  Sautee 15 minutes until cooked very well.  

Notes:

This mixture can sit for some time after it's prepared.  I've seen Abdul strain it through a fine sieve to drain off excess oil before he serves it.  Although he doesn't mention it in the recipe, Abdul usually adds the same amount of salt as the other spices, so ~1/2 tsp.  This is generally a side dish, served with fresh chapati or roti.

****

Garlic Ginger Paste

200 gm fresh ginger

200 gm fresh garlic

Peel the ginger and garlic and cut both into small pieces.  Add a little bit of water and blend in a grinder or food processor.  The end result should be a thick paste, which can be kept in a covered dish in the refrigerator.  

Rishikesh, Part Deaux - Some things are even better the second time

I am woefully behind now (officially) on my blog.  Please bear with me as I update, because the last 6 weeks have been fraught with travel...and, the stories are good, so it should be worth the wait, I hope!

. . .

After Holi, we planned a trip to Rishikesh as the Q1 expats' swan song in India.  For me and Austin, it was the second go 'round, but for the others, it was all new.  I am SO glad that we signed on for the do-over.  We ended up with a good-sized group, nine of us, with guest appearances by Anupam from Hyderabad and Arjun, our visa-seeking roommate.  Austin did a fabulous job of planning (of course) and booked us with a really great rafting company, called DNA.  They took us on a 36km run down the Ganges with both Class IV and Class III rapids.  It was super fun.  The company was fantastic, the rapids were challenging, but we didn't flip the boat and everyone had a great time.  Mission accomplished.  And... I got a repeat on my beloved "burrotos" and "quesandillas" at the Ganga Guest House restaurant.  True Bliss - quasi-Mexican food in India is not to be taken lightly; it must be savored and appreciated, which is exactly what we did.  On Sunday, on our way home, half of us stopped in Haridwar to see the Hindu temples and part of the nightly puja ceremony.  The temples were extravagant - beautiful and a little terrifying, with lots of bloody dioramas and gorgeous mosaics.  The puja, even the little we saw of it, was pretty tremendous too.  Thousands of the faithful, bathing in the Ganges, leaf boats full of flowers, incense and candles to be floated on the river, and a hundred different ceremonies being conducted at once.  Just another quiet evening in Haridwar.

This is one of the few trips in India that I've done twice, but that's because it's well worth it.  I love the cold water and warm sun in Rishikesh.  The rapids are so much fun.  This time, the water was aqua-blue since the snow hadn't yet started to melt, and doing the longer rafting run was awesome.  I loved seeing the ceremony in Haridwar as well; it feels like a privilege to be able to participate in someone else's faith so directly and without any qualification.  And, there were lots of funny stories this time too... you have to love road trips - constant stand-up fodder, truly:  Gina declaring me the best bed-buddy ever (mainly because I sleep like a log) and the subsequent torrent of naughty jokes from both Gina and Anupam; Devindar stopping at 2am on a bridge over the Ganges and handing me a 2 rupee coin to toss into the river and "pray for a good husband, and quick;" finding beers in a dry town and having drinks with our guides, Eddie and Buphi; the mysterious monkey-chasing incident that left Devindar with three chipped teeth and a lead foot all the way home; and Sherry leaving her t-shirt and bra in the car, only to be returned by the very sheepish drivers weeks later, and with many giggles.  Ahh, India.

And, I must end with a shout-out to the Travel Dream Team - my roommates and colleagues are some of the best co-adventurers a girl could ask for.  Any time you have a trip planned and need another, give me a shout.

Holi Warriors

March 11th was a holiday for those of us in Delhi, to celebrate the Hindu festival of colors, Holi.  Holi goes on for a day or two - even the weekend before, Devindar and I got water-balooned in old Delhi, and you'd see people here and there smeared with vibrant colors.  But, the big to-do was the morning of the 11th.  This year, there were more expats and friends around, so we had a little mixer at Essel, with all of the staff and us participating.  Smearing your friends and family with colors is a form of well-wishing for the upcoming year; supposedly the colors were once ayurvedic powders, meant to foster good health.  Everyone at Essel was well and truly in the mood.  Devindar got me good with the colors, or gulal, the night before when he dropped me off, and then in the morning, everyone was up and at 'em fairly early, smearing each other with the colored powder.  We took the party outside and it quickly became a water fight, complete with squirt guns, buckets, and a hose.  It was a blast!  So much fun.  The whole neighborhood was out and about and having a good time.  It made me realize that there are just some underlying truisms to human celebrations worldwide.  The Holi party we had resonated strongly with the egg dyeing, water fights and egg tosses held on Montgomery and Mackh lawns over the past 30 or more years.  It's spring, and Muslims, Christians, and Hindus alike are celebrating the themes of renewal, growth and the end of winter.  We topped our morning off with homemade samosas from Abdul, very special lassis, and a good long nap.  I had no complaints...ah, spring!

The Blessed Event

After much anticipation and planning, Taru's wedding weekend was finally here. This is the first Indian wedding that I feel I've truly seen from it's beginnings to the beautiful end. I observed the early stages of courtship, the engagement, the buying of the trousseau, the logistics and in-laws, and wedding gifts... all of it culminating in festivities the weekend of February 28th.

Carla and Sherry flew up from Hyderabad for the occasion, and Neeta needed a ride, so all four of us girls piled into the Optra with Devindar and headed for Rohtak on Friday afternoon. The first event was the sangeet, which is part mehndi party and part bachelorette. We got to Taru's house just before the start time, and ended up staying there to get ready. The house was packed with family and friends, including all of my Nehas, Divya, Saloni, Neharika, and many more. It was really fun to primp and prep and have tea together, while Taru bummed around in her grubs, shedding mehndi flakes in her wake. We danced and had our mehndi done, and then belatedly realized we couldn't eat with the henna drying on our hands. So the boys fed us our dinner - can you believe it? Gender roles are so complex in India. On the one hand, you may have fewer freedoms; on the other, you're treated by those who know you with a gentleness that is disarming.

Tuckered out by our ladies' evening (plus a few boys, of course), we headed back to the Faculty Club where Taru's family had reserved us rooms, and sacked out. In the morning, we had a breakfast of radish parathas and headed back to Taru's house for the Tel ceremony, where Taru's uncles came to formally present gifts to her mother, and her female relatives performed ritual blessings with chutney, herbs, tumeric and yogurt. After Taru was blessed and washed, the four of us girls excused ourselves as additional guests began to trickle in for the wedding. We headed to the main market to pick up last-minute doo-dads for the wedding - bindis for me and Neeta, jhumkas (bell-shaped earrings) to go with my lehenga, a jewelry set to top off Carla's outfit, and earrings all around. Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the Faculty Club and get ready for the wedding. Neeta and I arrived to no hot water, so we were delayed even beyond the normal Mackh timeline. We were supposed to be at the wedding at 8pm, and I eventually rolled in about 9:30pm. But, it was ok, because the groom didn't arrive until about 11pm, so the whole evening went off at a leisurely pace.

Taru looked like a princess in her lehenga, all red, gold, and rhinestone loveliness. Everyone from work was duded up to the nines and looked amazing in their party wear. I was much more petted than I deserved for my lehenga, which I've decided is not much better at hiding the chubs than a sari - perhaps worse. But, it does stay in place a lot better. After greeting the bride, we waited for the baraat (groom's party) to arrive, had chaat and took lots of pictures. The baraat arrived in style, with fireworks, a Punjabi band, and lots of drunken dancing. Karun was escorted to the stage and Taru came to meet him in all her glory. There shortly followed what I like to call attack-garlanding, as both Taru and Karun collared each other with garlands of jasmine and carnations. Then there were pictures...lots and lots of pictures. With the bharat arriving after 11 and the subsequent picture-fest, the actual wedding ceremony did not get underway until one or two am. We sat in chairs around the stage and listened to the pundit reciting the ritual prayers, sipping coffee and munching jalebes. The party didn't wind down, nor did Taru and Karun get dinner, until about 3:30am (nuts!). Everyone headed home tired and replete with wedding happiness.

I so enjoyed this wedding. It was wonderful to see Taru and Karun begin their lives together, and to see all of the hopes and worries come to happy conclusion. Taru's family treated us with incredible hospitality, and it was so much fun to spend time with all the folks on my team outside of work - I am going to miss them all terribly.

Kidnapped! or Valentine's Day at Devindar's

Still recovering from the parental invasion, I didn't get much planned for Valentine's Day.  I made a half-hearted attempt to organize my usual single-ladies dinner, but the early return of Taru's Prince Charming, plus general apathy from the rest of the crew, left me with not much planned.

As per the usual Saturday routine, Devindar and I set out for a solid day of puttering.  There was a big craft mela (fair) on, so we went and explored that.  I got some lovely patchwork pillows and a funky backpack which I love.  We bartered over a traditional painting of Radha Krishna, made holy by a layer of cow dung beneath the paint.  I couldn't quite get the artist down to a price that was reasonable, but I ended up buying it after all, a few weeks later - holy cow.  

Now, I don't know if it was just serendipity, or if Devindar was just trying to save me from a solitary Valentine's Day, but he ended up inviting me over to his house for his niece, Pari's birthday party.  I was definitely not at my best and tried to beg off, but he insisted he was kidnapping me and taking me home for the party.  Although it was a little awkward, Devindar's family couldn't have been more lovely to me.  Dinner was exceptional, and I was able to meet Manju, Devindar's wife, and Shubham, his son, as well as his brother, Ajit, sister-in-law, Pinky, and their daughter, the birthday girl - Pari.  Being a guest in an Indian home is to be overwhelmed with welcome.  I'm still not comfortable with being the 'honorable guest,' but I was honored, indeed.

The Golden Triange - a lopsided version

After my jaunt to Hyderabad and a successful foray into the Punjab for the parents, we reunited and headed for the mother of all Indian tourist attractions, the Taj Mahal.  We wrassled a bit with a flat tire on the way, but were soon headed for Agra to see Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, Agra Fort, and the Taj.  As always, I loved Sikandra with it's rosy palate of red sandstone with marble inlays.  I know it's sacrilege, but I prefer it to the Taj's pearly whites any day.  Besides being beautiful, it's far less crowded and more peaceful with its lovely deer park and faintly crumbling gateways.

Agra fort was a pleasant surprise, more imposing than its Delhi cousin and in far better shape.  It was a beautiful day to wander through the sandstone halls, explore Shah Jahan's marble prison, and gaze upon the Taj from afar.  We did the whole fort in less than an hour, but it was still wonderful to see.

And now, on to the Taj.... It is beautiful, of course. And crowded. And, like most things in India, subjects you to a bit of sensory overload.  First warm sandstone and then cool marble beneath your feet.  Tracing the lilies etched in relieve around the mausoleum. Seeking seams in the seamless piedra dura, and marveling at the love and what must have been obsession, that inspired the building.  Finally, watching birds wheel in the fading light above white minarets, and the sinking sun turning dust motes rosy over the Yamuna.

We had a lovely dinner and headed on to Gwalior.  It makes for a long day, but I've come to believe that Agra doesn't merit an overnight.  Our hotel in Gwalior was lovely - Usha Kiran Palace.  Part of the ruling family's estate, it still sits next to the ancestral family home and the Scindia Palace museum.  We had a good sleep in and a lovely breakfast buffet the next morning before rambling about the museum for a few hours and checking out Gwalior Fort in all it's blue-tiled loveliness.  The Usha Kiran treated us well.  Rooms were palacial and the spa was wonderful.  Mom and Dad and I all had massages, which were great, and then we followed it up with a belated birthday dinner for me at the hotel.  The staff were so sweet - they whipped up an impromptu birthday cake and sang to me.  Just lovely - the Taj experience is not to be beaten in the hotel world.

The following day, we headed for Jaipur, by way of Fatepur Sikri.  Although the abandoned city is beautiful, it has the most persistent hawkers and touts of anywhere I've been in India.  Dad and Paul each succumbed to the wares available, but on the whole I think they enjoyed themselves.  After a four-hour drive to Jaipur, we had a nice dinner at Niro's and checked in to the Narain Niwas Palace, which I love.  In the morning, we headed for Amer to see the palace.  This is the first time that I've been there early enough to catch the elephants - apparently, they're not allowed to do more than a handful of trips each day, so once all the laps are done, there are no more elephants to be had.  The elephants carry you from the courtyard at the bottom of the hill, up to the palace gates - I've never had a more regal ride, and I think Mom, Dad, Paul and Mary loved it.  So worth going early.  After Amer, we had to go to the obligatory rug shop with our "free" guide.  Paul and Mary got a very nice rug, which should have made his day, but I have the strong sense he felt he had still lost out on some commission in the long haul.  Devindar and I dropped the 'rents at City Palace and went fabric shopping for Mom, as well as buying my long-sought Ganesh t-shirt.  Then, it was back in the car to head to Delhi, so that Mom and Dad could catch their flight out that night.  

It's amazing how quickly two weeks can go.  It was a tremendous amount of planning, but so great to have my family here.  I wish Mom had liked it better, but I think she was only so open to India from the beginning, and getting sick didn't improve things much.  Dad seemed to really like playing shutterbug and geeking out on the history - I really need to take him to Europe.  He would go nuts over Italy, in particular.  Paul and Mary, the veteran travelers among us, seemed to have had a great time.  And I was supremely grateful to have them along to referee the three musketeers.

It's all in a cave - Ellora & Ajanta

So, post saving problems, here's my complete re-write of this post.  You'll forgive me if I'm not as enthused about it the second time around....

We arrived in Aurangabad on Monday evening and headed for our hotel, Lemon Tree.  I was pretty jazzed that I'd found a place that was within Paul's $60/night budget and seemed like it would be nice.  When we got there, I was even more pleasantly surprised.  The hotel was brand new and had just opened a few months before.  We had big, lovely rooms, complete with all of the amenities, a great restaurant, and very friendly staff.  They even left a towel elephant, complete with flower decorations, on my bed each morning.

After a good night's sleep, we rallied fairly early for the 3 hour drive to Ajanta to see the cave temples.  Once we'd passed the tourist village crucible and made it through the bus line, all was good.  We clambered up a long set of stairs and into the valley where the caves are carved from the cliff walls.  Paul rode in in style, maharaja style, that is - on the backs of some very determined chair porters.  Many co-workers had told me that the Ajanta caves were beyond repair and no longer worth seeing, but that is definitely not the case.  Given how old they are, an amazing amount of the original paint is still extant.  In any case, it was well worth it to see the grandeur of the stone chamers and to feel the polished stone of the sanctuaries beneath your feet.  We puttered around the caves for a few hours and headed back to Aurangabad for a thali dinner.  Mom, Dad and Mary weren't too sure about it; Paul claimed he liked it.  In either case, their reactions made me realize how much my palate has changed over the past year.  

On our second and final day in Aurangabad, which was my birthday, we headed outside of town to Ellora, home to Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples.  The temples range from very roughly hewn alcoves of rock, to triple-layered temples carved deep into the rock face - just amazing.  There was a Buddhist tour group chanting in one of the caves as we passed through; I caught a bit of it on video:

After Ellora, we went exploring in the Mughal fort nearby.  The battlements are some of the most elaborate that I've seen, comprising multiple gates, bridges and a moat.  The grounds aren't in very good repair, but it's still possible to see how impressive the fort must once have been, with it's towering minaret and layers of defenses.  

Finally, just before leaving, we headed to the 'mini Taj,' or Bibi Ka Maqbara.  Built for Aurangzeb's wife at her death, it's a 2/3 scale model of the actual Taj Mahal.  There were several big school groups there and we were quickly rivaling the mini Taj for their attention.  I've never been in so many school pictures in a single day!  Tuckered out by our stardom and cave-hopping, we headed for the airport to catch the evening flight out - Mom, Dad, Paul and Mary back to Delhi and Amritsar; me to Hyderabad for a conference.  Phase one of the Parental Invasion - completed!

And so it begins...In the backwaters of Alleppey

Paul and Mary, Mom and Dad,  arrived in India on January 30th and 31st, respectively.  After much planning and plotting on my part, we were about to embark on what I fondly referred to as the "parental invasion."

Since Paul and Mary are fairly seasoned third world travelers, I didn't pull any punches on getting them acclimated to India post-haste.  For their first day, and while we were waiting for Mom and Dad to arrive from San Fancisco, Devindar took them into Old Delhi, to see Lal Quila and the Jama Masjid.  He also innovated on my program a bit and took them to see Akshardham, a Hindu temple in North Delhi that even I haven't made my way to yet.  Paul and Mary arrived back at the guest house tuckered out, but already madly in love with India - just the way we wanted it. 

That night, I did another 1am airport run with Devindar and picked up Mom and Dad from the airport.  After a few hours of sleep, I sent them back out on the town with Devindar, this time to see Humayun's Tomb and Qutub Minar, and to make a run to Aggarwal Lassiwalla - yum!  For dinner that night, most of my team met us for dinner at Pind Balluchi and we introduced the 'Rents to punjabi cuisine.  It was so much fun to have my two worlds converge a bit.  I've some to love all of the personalities on my team; they are unfailingly supportive, generous and interested in you as a person.  Mom, Dad, Paul and Mary fit right in and had a blast.

On Saturday morning, we rallied fairly early to head for Cochin, Kerala. Despite the best of intentions, our flight was delayed (of course) and we arrived in Fort Cochin pretty late in the day, with not much time to sightsee.  While I think we short-changed it a bit, I still feel as though we got a taste of Fort Cochin and Keralan culture.  We attended a kathakali dance performance and had a lovely dinner in Fort Cochin, before heading home to put the jet-lagged crew to bed.

Sunday saw the dawn of a lovely day - bright and sunny.  We drove out to Kumarakom to meet our houseboat and were on board by midday.  It was fun to finally meet Kence, from EcoTours Kerala - he's quite the character and many Googlers have had their negotiating adventures with him.  But, the man runs a good houseboat.  The crew took great care of us and made amazing meals throughout our overnight cruise.  

I think a cruise through the backwaters is a cure for all ills.  There is nothing to do but lean back and watch the water lilies and rice paddies flow by.  Life around you all seems idyllic, though I'm sure it's not completely so.  I found myself thinking how great it would be to buy a bungalow by the canal and forget about the outside world for a while - a la Gaugin in the South Pacific.  A girl can dream, right?

Paul and Mary were in their element and loving every minute.  I think Dad too, was pretty swept away by the place.  We listened to good music, ate the wonderful food and generally let the world go by.  Mom, unfortunately, was nursing Delhi belly in silence, so it took me a while to get her properly medicated and cheerful.  But, a boat cruise was probably about the best place we could have been, with nothing to do but relax and hang out.

We returned to Fort Cochin midday on Monday, had a nice lunch and headed out on a flight to Aurangabad and the next leg of our trip - the caves at Ellora and Ajanta.

Brahmin Blue and Golden Lace

A few weeks ago, I planned a trip to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, along with four friends from work - Jen, Carla, Jon, and Sherry.  It was a little crazy planning this junket, along with Mom, Dad, Paul & Mary's trip the upcoming week, but it was well worth it.  I have been meaning to get to these two last bastions of Rajasthan, and just hadn't gotten around to making the journey.

We set off on Friday evening - Sleeper Class from Delhi to Jodhpur.  I was freaked out that the train ride wouldn't be comfortable, since Sleeper Class is the least expensive ticket you can get for an overnight berth.  Even though the rest of the group had been in India less than a month, they rolled with it, and it all worked out just fine in the end.  Our biggest challenge was sleeping through the stereophonic snoring from the husband and wife pair who were our berth-mates.  Add to the list of Sleeper Class essentials - earplugs and a beanie.

Jodhpur is a quiet little town, just busy enough to be considered bustling, but not so big and chaotic that it exhausts you in the first five minutes.  It's known as the Blue City, for the homes in the old quarter which are painted a frosty, cornflower blue, known as "brahmin blue" for the high-caste intellectual families that used to occupy that part of the city.  The skyline is dominated by Mehranghar Fort, which boasts the only audio tour I've seen in India.  We also visited the Jaswant Thada, which was the family cenotaph of the maharaja.  Most Hindus consider these cremation sites both sacred and dirty, but they are unrelentingly beautiful.  The white marble, with arching blue sky and puffy white clouds overhead, makes quite the vista. On the way into the fort, there are red sati marks, handprints of the maharaja's widows as they left the palace for the last time to throw themselves on their husband's funeral pyre.  I cannot imagine the amount of commitment and devotion that would have enabled women to do that.  It makes me angry and deeply respectful at the same time.

We toured the local sites in Jodhpur and had a great stay at Pal Haveli, before saddling up for the 5 hour drive to Jaisalmer on Sunday.  Our objective was to arrive in time to catch a camel ride and see the sunset over the Sam desert, which, thanks to our driver Mr. Singh, we did.  We saddled up on five camels with a set of really unlikely names, ranging from Michael Jackson (mine) to Bubbles.  Just at the fringes of the desert, the dunes we clambered over were not extensive, but they were beautiful.  There were quite a few Indian tourists clumped together on the highest dunes to watch the sun settle into a dull orange glow below the horizon, which always makes me feel better; it's far worse when we arrive somewhere that's crawling with Americans or European - not because they're so horrible, but because it always makes me feel like I suffer from a stunning lack of originality.  In any case, we celebrated the sunset with a camel race back to camp, which brings new meaning to the phrase "slap-happy" but was really fun, regardless.

Back in Jaisalmer, we had a nice dinner at our hotel, Nachana Haveli, and were treated to a Rajasthani puppet show by a man with a 6 meter moustache, which he kept wrapped around his ears, believe it or not...cool or creepy - you be the judge.    We hit the hay early, tired out from lots of drive time and our camel-safari shenanigans.  The haveli was lovely - nicely restored with quaint, stone-block rooms and canopied beds, and a lovely fountain in the courtyard.  Sometimes hertiage hotels are a mixed blessing, but this one was pretty much all blessings and a great place to stay outside of the fort area.

On Monday, we got up as early as we could (nine-ish) and headed to Jaisalmer Fort and to see some of  the famous havelis in town.  After unrelenting red sandstone in Delhi, Agra and much of Rajasthan, Jaisalmer presents a complete shift in palette.  The lovely rich red is replaced with a crystalline golden stone that makes the whole place look as though it were someone's sandcastle.  The buildings and temples within the fort walls are some of the most intricately carved work that I've seen in India.  We were fortunate to have a local Brahmin man as our guide and, being a resident of the fort himself, he gave us a great overview of the various cultures and religions that are still housed within the walls.  After exploring the fort, we allowed ourselves to be lured by his sales pitch and went with him to his shop to buy some authentic Rajasthani patchwork.  I'm sure we taken, somewhat, but I don't think we got taken too badly.  And, it was a fun experience in any case.  It's amazing to see modern businesses housed within these buildings that are hundreds of years old.  

We topped off our visit to Jaisalmer with a stop at the only government-approved bhang shop.  Carla's friend from Hyderabad asked her to pick up four "liquor-filled" cookies -- imagine her surprise when I told her that the cookies were herbal in nature!  But, with the cookies and an authorization certificate in hand, we were soon on our way back to Jodhpur to grab dinner and catch our train back to Delhi.  By this time, we were sure that we were Sleeper Class pros.  Besides, how could we do much worse than the stereophonic snoring from the outward bound journey?  Oh ho ho... but you should never underestimate India's ability to top itself.  Our train ride back went fine and everyone made it, and everone even slept.  However, we were serenaded by the most robust chorus of snoreers that I can only call it a cacphony.  They were in our compartment, to either side and down the car from us.   A great lesson in mind over matter and a really funny way to end a great trip to Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.  My one regret is that we didn't get to see the Jain temples that are just off the driving route between Jaisalmer and Jodhpur.  It was on the program, but got lost somewhere between the mad dash to the camels and the mad dash back to the train.  Oh well - I have to leave some of the low hanging fruit, or what will I see the next time I come back?

The Wedding Wrap

Marriage season has begun, and let's just say that I am going to have to get a lot better at wrapping a sari.  Veni, one of the girls on my team, and her fiancee, Suhel tied the knot last Sunday, to much fanfare, photo-taking, and bell-ringing.  Theirs was the first in a pretty busy wedding season for my team.  We have no less than four couples getting married this month and next.  My Indian-couture-related stress has skyrocketed, but it is so much fun to be included in these family events.  I am honored, truly.

My maiden sari voyage was ruled a qualified success by the ladies.  I apparently need to work on my pleats some an the tightness of the wrap, but not too bad for a foreigner on a first outing.  In typical Mackh fashion, I was running horribly late, and so only had time for 2 false starts before I had to pin it all up and just go with it.  Sari's are surprisingly comfortable and warm.  I have a lot of work to do before I make it look as elegant as it should, but I'm motivated to try, for sure.

Veni was a beautiful bride in a traditional lehenga and Punjabi wedding trim.  We stayed through the first few hours of ceremonies and dinner, but the actual formalities did not occur until the wee hours of the morning.  This type of wedding is more a marathon than a sprint, and not for the faint-hearted.   Veni and Suhel seemed to take it all in stride, which I'm sure bodes well for the future.  It was an honor to be included - "Shadee mubharak ho!"

Missing Jody

One of the saddest things about the holidays for me, was that I found out one of my colleagues and roommates, Jody Stiely, passed away a few days after Christmas.  Our expat family is a small one, and I have been so blessed in the amazing people who I've had the opportunity to live with and travel with over the past year.  Even among them, Jody was a bright light.

Bubbly, adventurous, full of ideas, energy, and creativity, Jody had a way of filling the space around her with excitement and fun.  At the same time, she was incredibly intuitive and thoughtful, and always looked out for her buddies, in every sense.  I simply cannot believe that someone so alive is now gone. I know I, and many others who loved her, will carry a piece of her with us forever and we'll be the better for it.

We tromped through the warren of old Delhi to buy stones for a jeweler friend and nosh on chicken Noorjahani at Karim's.  We picked out pillows in Lagpat Nagar that we loved, and Danny hated, of course.  We tried on sarees and salwar suits and strings of pearls.  We clambered over the kamasutra-carved temples of Khajuraho, and wended our way through the palace and cenotaphs at Orchha.  Jody saved all of her food on the train and in restaurants and embarrassed the heck out of me by passing it out to whomever she thought needed it, both because we stuck out like a sore thumb and because I knew she was right. She patted cows and cuddled puppies, and hugged people that maybe she shouldn't have, but again, she was probably right.  I was looking forward to so many more adventures with Jody, that I can't help but feel bereft.  My heart goes out to her family and friends, to Danny, her boyfriend, and to those of you who missed out on meeting her.

Jody, wherever this greatest adventure takes you, I wish you peace and am sending my love.

Home, And Back, And Home, And Back for the Holidays

So, I've been a pretty sorry blogger for the most part of fourth quarter.  Life has been crazy at work as we have been implementing several new projects, and I am supporting one of my colleague's team while she is out on maternity leave.  I love it, but I have definitely reached critical mass this quarter, which has made for minimal time to blog.

I was home for Thanksgiving, traveling via Chicago to our Ann Arbor office to work for a few days, and then heading out to California for Thanksgiving week at home, before coming back to India.  Then, it was three weeks of hustle and bustle to finish the quarter and Christmas shopping in India, before hopping a plane on the 23rd to make it home for Christmas.

It was wonderful to see family and friends, though it is phenomenal how fast two weeks goes by.  I spent New Year's up at Tahoe with Lauren, Shannon, and Sheena and had a great time snow plowing down the mountain for a few days.  Now I'm back in Hindustan and missing everyone, at the same time I'm happy to be what now feels like "home."  

Some fleeting observations and things I discovered in the back and forth... forgive me if it's drivel:

• Starbuck's and a Cinnabon within 30 minutes of landing mean America to me
• I've been away too long when Meredith has grown so much that she looks like Grace to me (sorry Pete and Ann!)... Between that and banging her head on the ceiling when she was a baby, I think I've blown my honorary auntie status for life!
• Marilyn is a beautiful pregnant person and I can't wait to meet the baby boy who will have arrived by the time I get home
• Niels might just about be the cutest thing in the whole wide world, but why should I be surprised, when I love his parents so much?
• Life has moved on in the year I've been gone, but not as much as one might think
• ...And I'm reminded, once again, to "count my blessings..."