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!