The Yellow Chilli next to Pathanjali...

On the recent India trip, we visited Amritsar for two days. It is a family deal now that we do a trip within a trip to go see a place that the four of us have never been to within India. This breaks the monotony of visiting the same relatives on a tight schedule in Chennai and Mumbai and flying back. It also gets us to interact with family in a "non-home" setting in India. 

This time it was Amritsar with my in-laws. As soon as we landed at the airport, the tour guide/ driver took us to the hotel which was 15 minutes from the airport. We checked in and the plan was to go to the Wagah border right away with a quick stop for lunch. 

For some reason, he decided that we should go to an upscale "bar" type place. Why, we dont know.. maybe he had a deal with the place. So we went to "The Yellow Chilli". It had Sanjeev Kapoors face everywhere and the ambience was definitely not a "family restaurant" one, but a couples place to get drunk. We were definitely the only family there and there were no kids in the place.

I amused myself by looking at the Pathanjali "super store" next to the restaurant. I did not know there were stores like this. Over the last year, have become a big fan of Pathanjali shampoos. Rate them highly right along Loccitane! I digress. Pathanjali products are great, but this post is about The Yellow CHilli. 

Once the menu items showed up at our table, we really didn't care what the restaurants customer base was. We were hungry and the food looked and tasted great!

Every item was better than the previous one or so it seemed. Then came the final dessert. This thing was downright divine! The hot/cold combination was amazing.

The video says it all..

We gupled the thing down and were off on a drive to the Wagah border. We also told our driver, "this was good.. but next time.. dhaba ka khana!"

By love, for love, of love..

It takes a lot of courage to jump into a home remodeling project, especially if you have gone through it thrice already over the years. 

We decided last year to remodel and get the girls their own bedrooms. Their bunk bedding days were clearly over. We also wanted an open layout and have a backyard we would spend time in. So we took the plunge and started the project. 

We lived in one part of the house (read two rooms and a bathroom with no kitchen) and managed it with a lot of sacrifice from San, the kids, MIL who visited us. We also had help from our neighbors and friends who understood what we were going through.

I made 9 trips to Asia during the time of this remodel and that did not make it any easier for the family, but we pulled through. 

Every day, we would do "inspection" when I got home from work and take pictures on my iPhone. The family would go to the forbidden side and see what changed during the course of the day!

There were more than 2500 pictures in this sequence. I took a select few and have made a video out of it.. have also included a few random pictures as time markers on things that still happened while all this was going on. . . 

and now that we have a final permit and things are done except for decorating the house... this video got made!

Here is a picture of San "doing the official milk boiling to intiate the new house". Brought back memories of a different time from 11 years ago.. 

I think I am done with remodeling. This is "IT".

Then again, wife and kids laugh at me when I say something like this. 

On the bright side, there will be no more fighting between the ladies for closet space, no more "you took my shampoo" fights when said shampoo is same bottle same brand same size in same bathroom, "you are in my space" fights, etc. etc. 

One can always hope! 

The best part was that we were a happy family in one room. When we all spread out after the house was done, there is more space, but more distance between people. It was a great experience to live in one room for those months! 

Transcending space and time

The first planned event on our India trip was to attend the arangetram of Kavya. I have never been to an arangetram in India, but have attended two dozen or so of these events in the bay area. 

It was a treat to watch Kavya dance. Sat there wondering when this little kid we are so used to seeing got so mature in emoting! The audience in India is more of an untamed beast. The average age of the crowd that attended was a good 20 years older than the audience in the US, which in itself is not a bad thing. They do not have bladder control though and there is a constant stream of people walking in and out of their seats to hit the restroom. 

So here is a tip if you are used to seeing arangetrams in US and you go watch one in India. Get to the front seat! 

We also got to hear a few words from the Legendary Chitra Visweshwaran on art forms that have gone to foreign lands and are kept alive and well. She talked about the challenges kids face both in India and abroad but how the parents abroad give that extra priority to keep things going to get to an arangetram or a stage performance and not give up because of "board exams". 

Thought of recording it, but then switched the camera off and just listened to her talk.

Hearing that I realized that we put our kids through a lot here in the US and they also push themselves hard because of peer pressure. 

Hoping that BB will post pictures or videos of the event in his blog. I am still getting goosebumps going back to that evening. 

Promptly after the performance ended, we ran out to find an auto! Yes, that was a real challenge as autos are not easy to find after 9PM in that area and we had to catch the first flight out in the morning to Mumbai! 

We had to transcend to another space in short time. 

After reaching Mumbai, our plan was to go straight to see San's cousin and her new baby! We had no idea that the supposed 45 minute commute will become a 2 hour plus ordeal! Lunch plan became tea plan and we were exhausted by the time we reached her cousins place. 

Then a cute baby made us forget everything! 

That was again transcending time. They say you can see god in a baby's smile! There may be some truth to it...

After another 2 hour ride in rains and traffic, we made it to the in-laws place by dinner time, and that was day 2!

Mumbai might drain faster after a quick rain but when it comes to traffic, it is a lot worse than Chennai. At least that was our experience. 

Will continue blogging after coming back. . .