Of cell phones (mobiles) and the whole culture shift

Growing up I remember that we did not get our landline phone until around 1991/92. It was a really big deal for us, we could now keep in touch with the outside world, our friends could call us up and chat with us and we would not feel completely cut off from the rest of the world. We, however, did not feel that we had missed much. This is my 3^rd trip to India in 10 years. I was here in 1998, 2000 and then now in 2007. The trips in ’98 and 2000 did not have much of an impact by way of if/how India had changed. In ’98 our primary goal was to bury my mother-in-law’s ashes, in 2000 my brother was getting married, both trips did not entail much travel time. Also, I think I was too muddled…being newly married and such in ’98 and a new mother in 2000. Diya was only 4 months old in 2000!

Before we got here we had heard a lot about how much India had changed. I don’t think any amount of warnings could have prepared us for the number of changes that India has seen in a mere 7 years since our last visit. I was more taken aback by the cell phone culture than anything else. As soon as we landed in Delhi we went out shopping for a little bit. On the way back I saw a cart puller pulling a load of chopped wood, resting an elbow on that load of wood and carrying on a merry conversation on the cell. Picture a rickshaw (a three wheeled contraption that is used to transport people) only this one is adjusted to carry large loads. You would think that he was on his bed carrying on this convo! Understand that this person maybe makes a100 dollars a month IF that!

Then once we got to Kanpur my brother told me another mobile story. He stopped at a place to get some cheap (really cheap) not more than a cent worth of toys. Well this “place” was a man who was carrying the toys in a basket on his head. Anyway, so my brother started talking to him and said how he works for a mobile company, that the toys better be good, etc. Anyway, no sooner had my brother said this than the man pulled out a mobile from his bedraggled clothing and told my brother to make sure he got his number and told him about the toys! This man probably makes 10 dollars a month, maybe slightly more.

I have seen so many changes in Kanpur itself. People have a lot of liquid cash and the advent of cable has somehow necessitated that we emulate the west in every which way we can. Now we have malls and it’s become a big thing to just go to the mall and walk around, pretty much like it’s in the States. I don’t know, for me it’s just very different.

Congestion in Kanpur is at an all time high. I don’t remember it being this bad 7 years ago. The weather forecast also says it’s going to be a smoky day. Can you imagine? The smog is terrible, but people don’t seem to notice. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all bad! The food still tastes really good, and I realize how much I just miss everything about my city. I truly don’t care about all of the above, I just miss India so much. I am already getting so depressed thinking about going back to the States and going back to that same humdrum life. I truly don’t want to sound ungrateful, America is now my home…but regardless of anything, my roots and everything about me is all Indian!

Zoo

My brother had the wkend off so we decided to go to the Kanpur zoo. This zoo used to have the reputation of being the largest zoo in Asia at one time. Now, however, you can see how and why it no longer holds that reputation. This zoo has an expanse of several hundred square meters, but it is not being maintained as well as it should be. There is one lone elephant and it's shackled. I was thinking that had I never gone to America, I would have never known the difference about how animals need to be treated/kept. Now I know the difference so it is really difficult to watch how they treat animals here.
We got to see a lot of animals really up close and personally. All my brother had to do was bribe the caretaker and we could go all the way inside, very close to the cages of lions, tigers and bears. It was really scary being that close. In India a lot of work can be accomplished with a little palm-greasing.
Because of the expanse of the zoo, we had decided to take the car inside. It was basically a very relaxed and measured trip, we only went to a few selected areas. I am trying to upload some pics but blogger is being a pain.
The kids had a great time at the zoo. We then went to a place called Tadka (which means tempering in english) for lunch. This place is located within a mall. The food was to die for! We had some naans, tandoori chicken, chicken biryani and seekh kababs! Umm! the taste is still fresh on my tongue, and this tandoori stuff was the REAL tandoori. Oh man! If I could only bottle some of this taste and take it with me. After lunch, Rinku had to go pick up ma so she could go for a Christmas dinner hosted by her school. After he dropped her off he came back to pick us up from Rinky's parents' house where he'd dropped us off previously. After that we went out for another bout of shopping. This retail therapy is really good! I have now spent a LOT of money and we've been here about 10 days!! We have a couple more cities to visit...oooh la la!! Can't wait for some more therapy!

Timeline

So we've been here a week now, we got here around 9 last friday! So here's the breakdown of what's happened:

12/7: Arrival in Kanpur, dinner and off to bed...slept wonderfully through the night.

12/8: Rinky's birthday, dinner with her family, Atul falls ill (loosies, etc.)

12/9: off to Allahabad to meet my grandfather, my kids got a chance to meet their great-grandfather. I felt really proud to have been able to do that. Then we went over to the cemetery to see the kids' grandmother's grave site (Atul's mom's), it was a very sobering moment for us only to be broken by Avi's question: "Where is my grave?"

12/10: Jet-lag has kicked our butts and the trip to alld. did not help much. We are completely out of sorts

12/11: Go to do some major shopping and loving every minute of it...atul still sick, get a script over the phone (that's how it's done here, you don't need a script in hand or a drs. order to the pharmacist to get prescription medication) and one dose of the medication makes him feel better

12/12: More shopping, measurements, etc., as you can see not much was done by way of sight-seeing, but we've eaten out some and enjoyed it but Atul seems to have suffered as a result

12/13: Atul now coming down with a cold, what's so ironic about the whole thing is that most of the medication that we traveled with was for the kids because I was so worried about them falling ill, I did not take into consideration that we could too. That night I rubbed some vicks on Atul's feet and made him wear socks, in the mean time we went to bed, all of a sudden at around 2 in the morning I hear a shuffle of feet and see a big head being helped by another big head...Avi was being rushed to the bathroom because he was sick to his stomach...had to puke. Which he did. Twice. Then we brought him to the bed and then I prayed that whatever was affecting him be given to me so my baby would not suffer....guess how quickly that prayer was answered? Almost immediately. Avi slept peacefully, while I was running back and forth to the bathroom. Oh it was not pretty! Anyway, so the day dawned and I basically surmised that since we're used to eating earlier and I guess our bodies are still adjusting, the result was upset stomachs!

All's well right now! Hopefully the rest of the report will be more pleasant!

Finally here after 37+ hours...

So we're here finally after the said number of hours! The flight hours were only about 6-7 hours, both from philly and Heathrow, but it was the wait on the strip both times that killed us. Our flight from Philly was scheduled to take off at 10.00 PM. We, ofcourse, had reached the airport at 4! We had 6 hours to kill BEFORE the flight. Somehow that was accomplished, got to board the plane at around 9:45, then we were informed that we couldn't take off until we were de-iced, since it was such a ridiculously cold night. We had 10 planes ahead of us at that time. The kids had been so excited about the whole flying and eating dinner and watching their own TVs, poor kids fell asleep because of the wait. Finally after about 3 hours on the strip, we took off around 1:00 AM. Dinner was served an hour into the flight. Kids could not be roused.
The only good thing about the wait on the strip was that our layover hours in LHR were reduced from 5 (hours) to a little over 2! Anyway, now we're at Heathrow, dog tired and everything, trying to keep the kids entertained enough so they wouldn't go berserk. We boarded the plane for the next leg of the journey. Hoping and praying that this leg would not be THAT bad. Oh boy! Did we have some wait in store! This time a passenger got so sick that they had to be taken off the plane and ofcourse, with all the security in place, all their luggage had to be taken off too! And this passenger had apparently boarded from PHL, so their luggage was probably stashed away all the way in the back...so that was taken care of, then we had to wait for a connecting flight that was coming from Vancouver with about 60 some passengers. Ofcourse, we could not take off without that many passengers! This was getting to be so incredibly gruesome. The only good thing about this wait was that the entertainment system was turned on so the kids could keep themselves entertained.
We got to eat dinner (kids too!) Technically it was lunch because our flight was originally supposed to leave at 3, it was now 5:30 before we were in the air and then another hour wait before food would be served, hence lunch was dinner! They started serving from the back so all the non-veg meals were gone by the time they reached us, we were promised non-veg for dinner, which was never served (I think, we slept through!)
So we finally reached Delhi at around 7, about 2 hours late. Now comes the wait for the luggage. We traveled with 8 suitcases! Yes, we like to travel light! Remember when I said we had checked in at 4 at PHL? Guess we were one of the first few people to check-in, so guess where our luggage was? ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK!! Well, at least we got all 8 pieces intact. My brothers and mother were there to receive us...it was one of the most wonderful moments of my life!!

Now it's no longer Mr. Avi

The work that he does in school is now being signed as Dr. Avi. Why? I don't know and neither does he. He, however, does know the acronym and uses it with a period! Also, his teacher told me how he would not participate in the class dance party. She said he stood there like one would in their high school picture, arms folded across the chest, resting against the bookshelf, legs crossed and almost like he was mentally shaking his head at his classmates going, "are you sure you want to participate in THAT?" So when we were walking home I asked him why he did not dance, I thought I heard something like "too cool", so I said what? again "too cool", I said what's too cool. He goes "I am." So now what do you say to that?
That same morning when we were getting dressed for school I told him to knock on the bathroom door and tell papa to hurry up. This is what transpired:
Avi (lowered his voice): Papa, Papa, This is your wife talking, come out, the kids need to use the bathroom.
He then realized I usually don't call their father papa when I talk to him, so he banged on the door and goes Atul, Atul...