The Austin Zoo

With an upcoming deployment, we have been trying to take as many small vacations together as possible, squeezing them in the cracks of Abhi's somewhat demanding work schedule. We had a nice little family outing around Austin with a visit to the Austin Zoo along with a little sightseeing and plenty of shopping this weekend.

I've been to a good amount of zoos in the States and the Austin Zoo is quite different than your typical zoo. Its actually a non-profit animal sanctuary for rescued and abandoned animals, which I love. Many of the animals had suffered from injuries or abandonment in the past. The Austin Zoo was small in size, but we didn't mind because staying outside in the summer heat for long periods of time isn't really an option for us with little Penelope.

Reaching for her furry friend.

Penelope loved the animals; she wanted to touch everything.

On a funny note, while we were observing the primates a group of about 8 zooworkers ran out with their nets searching for one of their animals that escaped! We're guessing it was a monkey because they were searching high in the trees, and the rest of the monkeys seemed to get riled up in excitement that one of their friends was on the loose.

Cheering on his escaped comrade.

I'm Back! With News.

I have come to my page over and over and over again trying my hardest to pull fancy words out of my you-know-what. Something special to say, a funny topic to comment on, even a good segue from my last posting (almost 2 years ago, living in India!)...but guess what? I've got nothing! SO I will leave it at that-a big two year gap between my last post and now, hoping to fill in for lost time as my writings continue. A TRILLION changes have happened; good, bad, ugly, and brilliantly beautiful-all to bring me to life in the here and now.

My family is facing a deployment- a year's separation between Penelope, Abhi, and myself. If I were writing the story of my own life I would never put this kind of family separation in writing. I would keep the pen far away from the pad, lock it up, throw away that god-awful key and keep my husband close and tight every single minute of my life. BUT, as life would have it-I am not always in control of my path- though it is my choice to make the most of what I am given. And I have learned from experience that God's plans are always better than my own-as cliche as that may sound. Its true! The best things in my life have always come from the plans that I never would have made for myself. My best moments in life were thrown at me, snuck up behind me, blasted in my face, or have shocked me with surprise- these are the life-changers, life-improvers, and strengtheners.

So we will move forward one step at a time, with wobbly legs (just as my sweet baby tries to stand on her own), and though we may fall and tumble from time to time, we still move forward. We roll, crawl, stretch out and scratch our way forward, as watching little Penelope has taught me. In the end we get there, in a better place and in better shape than when we started.

Reality Check: You're (Literally)Running Late

For some reason, Abhi and I are habitually late. It doesn't matter what the occasion- morning, day, or night- now matter how much free time we have beforehand, we will probably be late. I don't know if the universe is conspiring against us or maybe we're just extremely irresponsible with our time? :-P

For the past few months we've had to travel to Delhi and back more times than I can count on my fingers and toes; almost always for some kind of important work. That being said, if you have ever seen an Indian-American couple running like hell, pushing aside old ladies and little children, through the Delhi Metro station, Bus Stands, Railway Stations, outside malls, movie theaters, or any random roads...it was probably Abhi and me. AND you're especially lucky if you've seen this fiasco more than once.

Here's our most recent story of running late (it happened two days ago):
Our train was scheduled to leave the station at 3:15pm, it was now 10am and we had all the time in the world to roam around, relax, and have a little fun in the city. We saw a movie, did some shopping, had lunch, and planned to head towards the railway station an hour before its departure- plenty of time to arrive early, find our platform, grab some snacks for the ride and go- or so we thought.

An hour before our train's departure we get on the Metro train (similar to a Subway train) to head for the railway station, a trip that normally takes 30-40 minutes from were we were. Of all the times we've ridden the Metro, it has never faced any sort of complication, until now. That darn Metro was stopping and pausing for minutes on end between every station. We could see that we were going to be cutting it close and knew that we would have to bolt out of the Metro when we got to our station (sadly, we've had a lot of experience with these types of situations).

As soon as the Metro stopped at our station we squeezed our way through the crowds and took off running through the station, pushing past all kinds of people, up the stairs, out onto the road to the railway station. We locate our train's platform number and take off through the station. We arrive just in time to see that our train has left without us on it. (If you have ever seen the Bollywood movie 'Jab We Met,' it was kind of like we were living that scene where the girl is running after her train).

Darn that train for actually leaving on time!! Doesn't the train conductor know what country he's in...that its OK to be late in India?!?!

Lesson of the Day: If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, you miss your train.

Horniest Citizens Award Goes To...

In India, I've made it a part of my daily routine to read the English newspaper (I make my attempts at the Hindi newspaper when I have extra-EXTRA time on my hands). Thanks to Times of India I've really come to enjoy a writer by the name of Jug Suraiya and his articles in the Ideas section of the paper. He doesn't have articles published daily, but when his articles do run they are often about current events or situations in modern-day India. From thought provoking to straight out funny, his articles are interesting and well-written.

My favorite article so far is what I would call a perfect explanation of Indian traffic, at least from a foreigner's point of view. I once had the idea to make a recording of the sounds of Indian traffic but when I replayed it in my camera it was nothing but constant loud, overbearing noise. The kind of noise that literally makes your ears hurt and the hair on your arms stand on end.

The following is Jug Suraiya's article, 'Horny India.' Enjoy.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/horny-india

And I have to add this comment given by another reader:
When I learned to drive almost 50 years ago, one of the advices given to me by my instructor was "hamesha haarn bajana--- bhulna nahi". I did not question why, because he was my guru!
Which translated means, "Always blow the horn--do not forget!"

Kavad Yatra

If you were in Northern India right now, you would see an unusual amount of orange color in the streets. Men (and some women and children) crowd roads and highways annually to fulfill a type of pilgrimage dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva.

Not properly a pilgrimage but more of a journey (Kavad meaning the tent-like structure that is carried, Yatra meaning journey), hundreds of thousands of saffron-wearing devotees make the journey from their respective home cities to Northern India's holy cities of Rishikesh and Haridwar. The trek begins every year on the first day of sawan (monsoon) and lasts for about two weeks (this year's is July 16th-29th).

During the journey people carry kavads, elaborately decorated structures made of bamboo, many of which look like tents because they are so large in size. The kavad should not touch the ground at any point during the journey. Once the traveler has reached the Ganges river, he or she fills jugs with the river's water and places them at each end of the kavad, making it much heavier that it already was. Then the journey begins back to each person's respective home temple dedicated to Shiva. Some travel in groups, others alone.

Some devotees travel by train, bus, motorcycle, or bike, but most of them travel by foot, some also without shoes!

The most interesting part of this Yatra, for me, is that these travelers happen to be passing right through the city I live in! I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing...maybe just more of an interesting thing. Along the journey there are many checkpoint areas where travelers can rest and find something to eat or drink provided by various temples. Many of these checkpoints are in our city. The not-so-awesome part about being a 'checkpoint' city is that many of our roads are blocked now so that the travelers can do their traveling in peace, making for very congested streets nowadays. Also, I constantly hear a voice on a loudspeaker directing traffic and travelers. Day and night, day and night.

Abhi and I went around the city trying to get some good footage of the orange-ness, here's what we got:

 butt shot!

a pretty big kavad 

This is a drive-by of one of the rest areas in our city.

Its Official, I'm A Resident of India

After much trial and tribulation, I now hold an official document claiming my residency in India. No, this doesn't mean citizenship and no, this doesn't mean that I'm staying longer than planned. This only means that I can stay as long as I want in this country (or at least until my 5 year visa expires) without any hassle and hullabaloo from the Indian government.

You see, India's foreign tourist policy says that you can only stay in the country for a maximum of 6 months before they boot you out, and you can't return for another 2 months. This presented a teeny bit of a problem for Abhi and me, seeing that we won't be going home until my 6 month period has passed.

We've done a lot of traveling and jumped through many-a-proverbial-hoop to get my Indian 'T' (Tourist) visa changed to 'X' (Marriage) visa. This was all so that I could then qualify for Residency in India, register with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) and thus, stay with my hubby as long as necessary here in the Land of Indians. Got it? If you're a little confused, none of this really matters anyway, all you need to do is congratulate me on my new Indian residency status! :)

Just Because Its A Gate, Doesn't Make It The Entrance

Abhinav and I just returned from what seemed like a loooong trip to Delhi (more on this next time). So for now here's a picture (or two). India Gate, dedicated to India's soldiers who died in WWI and the Afghan Wars.

Story Of A Janky Bus Ride

Janky : (adjective) inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and dilapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people. adjective used to describe a person, place or thing which is questionable, wrong, strange, broken down, undesirable, and/or just some thing you can't think of another word for. --definition courtesy of urban dictionary

It had been a long night and day of travel and work. Delhi is known for its extreme heat in summers and we had witnessed exactly that. We arrived in Delhi by train in the early morning and spent the whole day traveling around the city trying to get my Visa situation taken care of. Abhinav and I were both exhausted, hot, and dirty; it was time to go home. At the ISBT (Inter-State Bus Terminal) in Delhi we searched for a bus that could take us home. There were two buses going our direction and neither of them looked comfortable or clean, but the A.C. bus wasn't arriving for another hour-and-a-half. Figuring it was better to just take an old dirty bus now, rather than wait around for a better one (it was getting late and Abhi had to be at work in the morning), we boarded what would be the most awkward and miserable bus ride ever.

We took our seats in an empty row near the back and the bus left shortly after that, around 7pm-just in time for rush hour traffic. For starters, the man sitting across from us decided he wanted to smoke and lit up his cigarette. Now honestly, who smokes on a crowded bus? Have a little respects for others, why don't ya. Abhinav kindly asked the man not to smoke and he put it out right then. No problem there. About five minutes later that same man decided, 'well, if I can't smoke I might as well drink,' and we watched as he very sneakily poured liquor into a chai cup and downed it. Still not a big deal, as long as he kept to himself, right? Its just that drinking in public is very taboo here, you rarely ever see it, so to see the man drinking on the bus was a little uncomforting.

After a while a group of rowdy and obnoxious young guys got on the bus and sat right in front of us. After nearly 24 hours of straight traveling, the last thing we really wanted was to deal with this group of annoying wannabe thugs, so we just sat quietly and minded our own business, hoping they would do the same.

Being a foreigner in India can attract a lot of stares and strange looks from people, especially being married to an Indian. Usually I don't mind it but sometimes people just don't know when to look away. Its like they don't understand that social que of when someone catches you looking at them, you stop looking. These guys sitting in front of us were exactly that type. One of them would literally do a full 180 degree turn and STARE at me, and not just one time but multiple times. I don't like to cause a fuss but he was making both Abhinav and me really uncomfortable. I could feel Abhinav's anger bubbling and after a while he had had enough; time for a confrontation. Abhi tapped the guy on the shoulder and asked him what his problem was, why he kept turning around, and suggested that he keep his eyes forward for the rest of the bus ride. The guy turned around and faced the front but him and his friends were only more excited that they had gotten Abhinav riled up.

Later on one of the guys in front of us turned around to ask us if he could smoke, to which an already annoyed Abhinav replied 'most definitely not.' This caused another little confrontation but eventually the guy relented and put away his matches.

We sat for a while as the bus rolled along (very slowly), our heads bobbing- not awake but not asleep- when suddenly I smelled something peculiar. Weed. I asked Abhi, 'do you smell that?' 'Yeah, they're smoking marijuana.' By this time other people at the front of the bus had already been smoking cigarettes without the conductor saying anything so I guess that meant a free-for-all to anyone who wanted to smoke. For our guys it meant a go-ahead on the pot. Not wanting any more arguments, all we could do now was fully open our windows, sit quietly, and hope that the bus driver would put the pedal to the meta and get us home asap. These guys decided to light up twice before we made it home. Who knows, I might have gotten a little high from the second-hand smoke (is that possible?)...or maybe I was just really tired.

We reached our city around 12:30am (the same time as the A.C. bus that left nearly 2 hours after us) and jumped off that bus as fast as we could. It had never felt so good to be home.

How About a Honeymoon?

In a typical Western marriage the couple is married and immediately, or more realistically the next day, they are off to some tropical getaway for their honeymoon. Well first of all, I don't know of any tropical getaway near to us, so that was out of the question. Secondly, with the different marriage events and family visitors over the course of the week and even after our marriage, we knew it wouldn't be possible to get away immediately and would be staying home until all the guests returned home and all marriage events were fully finished.

Regardless, both Abhinav and I wanted to get out and go somewhere to celebrate our new lives together. We planned a visit to Delhi to stay with Abhi's uncle and family for 2 days, and after that Abhinav and I headed to Agra to see the famous Taj Mahal. While in Delhi we enjoyed the company of Abhinav's uncle, aunt and two younger cousins. They took us around to some different sites and different foods, I even got the chance to drive his uncle's car with the steering wheel on the right side and stick shift on the left :).

The Taj Mahal was absolutely beautiful and gigantic, something worth seeing despite waiting in line almost two hours to see it. Besides Taj Mahal, we saw Agra Fort, roamed the city for leather shops (Agra is also known for leather and petha(Sweet Pumpkin)).

Our return home was a long journey of ten hours on the train, and unfortunately I became really sick with some kind of stomach bug and fever and the next day I was in the doctor's office. I guess I've learned not to eat outside food, especially while traveling. But not to worry, now all is well. :)

 Entrance to Purana Qila (Old Fort) in Delhi.

 Group photo in Delhi 

 Entrance to Taj Mahal.

 Seeing the Taj Mahal through the gate entrance.

 TAJ MAHAL....WOOOWW.

 Side-view of Agra Fort.

 Coffee to-go while roaming the city :).

Ten hours on a train is enough time to make me read the a newspaper in Hindi to stay occupied.