Back to the US of A - June 8

          The ten hour flight to Paris actually wasn't too bad. I slept for a good 7 hours since we boarded at 2 in the morning and I was exhausted. I started watching Guzaarish, a Hindi movie with Hrithik and Aishwarya Rai and before I could finish the movie it was time to land. The flight ended up taking only 9.5 hours so we ended up saving a half hour.

 

Flying into Charles de Gaulle... Everything was so green from above

We got off the plane last because of the wheelchair assistance and it was kind of funny to see all the old grandma and grandpas that were also waiting for the wheelchairs. They were all Indian and they kind of looked a little lost and just responded with head nods and the name of the city that they were headed to. They had a special van transporting all the wheelchair individuals to the appropriate terminals. Again we got to skip all the long lines and go straight to the front of the line which was great because I got stuck carrying all the bags. By the time we got the gate we only had about 20 minutes to boarding so I filled out all our customs forms and we were ready to go. The flight from Paris to New York was a lot nicer and I think bigger than our flight from Bangalore to Paris. We had more leg and seat room. For some reason our seats were not together for this flight but one of the flight attendants managed to get someone to switch seats with me. Guzaarish was available on this flight as well so I was happy I got to finish the movie. The movie takes place in Goa and is centered on a request that Hrithik Roshan's character Ethan makes for a mercy killing (euthanasia) because of his medical state. It was a beautiful movie. I was wide awake for this flight so I also watched Hall Pass and Tees Maar Khan. The flight was also shorter than the last one (only 7.5 hours instead of the 9.5).
            It was relief to land in New York and here people talking English in an accent that I am used to. We had to go through customs in New York which is what I wasn't looking forward to but it actually went by relatively quickly. Again the wheelchair was a godsend because the line for non-Residents for my grandma was about two hours long and if I had to wait in that line we would have missed our connecting flight. It took forever to get our luggage but once we got our luggage and had it screened we rechecked it and were good to go. We had to switch terminals for our flight to Pittsburgh and by the time we got to the gate they were boarding and we were the last two passengers on the plane. An hour on this plane and finally home in good ole Pittsburgh.
           My parents were already waiting for us when we got to baggage claim so all that was left was to get our luggage and then we were on our way home :-) 

Last Day in India - June 7

            I didn't think there would be too much to do since I had already packed all of our suitcases the day before but I was worried that everything was overweight so I repacked all the suitcases and took things out and put them into a separate bag that I could carry in my hands hoping that I could check everything in without a problem. My grandma and grandpa from Palani left after breakfast in the morning and right after they left my mom's best friend, Chitra Amma showed up with her niece Dhanu. My grandma had an appointment with an Ayurveda doctor to help with her leg pain. It was basically a very different and unique foot/leg massage. Chitra Amma and I ended up getting foot massages as well and it felt very weird. He used some tools to knead the sole of the foot and then also used them to press on certain "points" on the leg which were painful. I was kind of glad when the massage was over because I didn't really care for it that much but apparently it helps my grandma and she's been doing it every week for the past 5 weeks.
            Geetha akka (she's renting the back room from us) was dog-sitting Julie again today so her son Rahul, Dhanu and I played with the dog for awhile. She's so pretty and adorable.

 

              Geetha Akka and Rahul w/ Julie                    Myself and Rahul  

  

              Julie with a bindi               Rahul loves climbing over the gate

 Dhanu with Julie

            After eating lunch we cleaned up the house a little more and took everything that was in the front hall and put it in the back bedroom so that we could lock that bedroom before leaving. Pretty soon the rooms were bare and we just lounged around waiting for 6pm so that we could pack the car and leave. However, we got a surprise when Suresh Mama and Baby Athai showed up with the kids. We thought they were just going to be meeting us at the airport but they actually came to our house a few hours early so that we could spend some more time together. They brought their two kids, Dhyanesh and Jarshini and also Varshini, Suresh Mama's younger brother's (Yogesh) daughter. They have rhyming names in their family. Varshini is the cutest little kid ever though. Her and Jarshini are only a year apart so they are very close and can cause a lot of trouble whenever they are together. What started out as a relatively quite morning got very noisy and loud by the time we left. My aunt (Selvi athai) and cousin (Siva Shankar) also came over. The family that rents our back room was also home and hanging out with us. It was a nice send-off and a great ending to my trip.

 

 

  I had so much fun with these two: (Varshini on the top left, Jarshini on the top right) 

 

Playing in the park across the street

 

Little troublemakers

My grandma with Dhanu and Chitra Amma

Our send off gang

 

   Siva Shankar (bigger troublemaker) and I      Suresh Mama with his girls

 

Their family

 

                Grandma and Selvi Athai                 Varshini, Jarshini, Grandma, 

                                                                      Selvi Athai, Dhyanesh & Dhanu

              We dropped Chitra Amma and Dhanu off on our way to the airport and Suresh Mama and his family came to the airport to send us off. We had about 40 minutes to kill and boy did the girls have fun climbing all over me. I didn't have a problem checking in all the luggage in Coimbatore but Bangalore was a pain. I had requested wheelchair assistance for grandma so she didn't have to walk everywhere which was extremely helpful. We got to bypass all the lines and got to be the first ones to board.

 

The two had fun using me as a play toy

              Our flight from Coimbatore to Bangalore was only an hour long but we had a four hour layover in Bangalore before our flight to Paris at 2am. Additionally I had to get all of our luggage and recheck everything at the Air France counter. This is usually where they are very strict about the weight limits. And lo and behold all but one of the suitcases were over the allotted 23 kg by 1 kg. Only 1 kg but the counter lady wouldn't let it pass.  This meant taking things out and trying to cram it into my carry on suitcase which was overweight to begin with but oh well. I spent the next half hour taking random things out to try and get the weight down which was tricky because all the heavy stuff was grocery items that had to be checked and couldn't be in my carry on. Somehow I managed to get everything packed so that they all weighed only 23 kg. They ticket counter lady asked me if I had any carry-on suitcases and I told her I didn't just so she wouldn't make me weigh those as well which would not have gone well. We made it through immigration and security without any problems and were about to board the flight to Paris when one of the airline attendants saw our carry on luggage and made us check one of them in which I didn't really care about since they didn't charge us anything. One less suitcase for me to carry. After that, it was smooth sailing. Ten hour flight ahead of us.....

Return to the Eye Hospital - June 6

                I wasn't really looking forward to going back to the eye hospital today but we got there early (7 am) and we were told to go directly to the clinic and I made sure that we paid for the procedure before going inside so that they couldn't delay it even more. It wasn't too crowded when we got there so we were reasonably quickly compared to last time. They put some drops in my grandma's eye and told her that the doctor wouldn't be in for another hour and that we should go and eat breakfast. But as soon as we got back from eating they took my grandma back for treatment. I wasn't allowed to go back there while the laser treatment was going on but I was smart and brought a book with me so I was set. Thankfully, we were able to finish everything and leave the hospital by 9:30.
            My mom wanted us to pick up a few more things at the grocery store so we stopped by the store again on the way home. I was getting kind of nervous with all the stuff that was left to pack and I hope that everything is good to go tomorrow because right now all of our luggage is exactly at the right weight limit. Hopefully the machine at the airport will knock off a pound or two but that is highly unlikely. I'm taking an extra bag with me so that if suitcases are overweight I can remove a few items and put them in the bag. But as of right now, everything is packed and ready to go for tomorrow.
           My grandma and grandpa from Palani arrived this evening and will leave tomorrow after sending us off I think? It's always fun with my grandma from Palani. She likes to joke around and it's always entertaining talking to her. She also likes to take frequent naps and will basically just lie down and fall asleep wherever she is sitting. Everyone's had dinner and getting ready for bed.
           We'll be Pittsburgh bound in less than 24 hours. Can't believe that we're actually leaving tomorrow. Back to the real world at the end of the week.

Family Visits continue.....- June 5

             Since we are leaving on Tuesday more family has been stopping by everyday. Today my aunt and uncle from Coimbatore stopped by. My uncle dropped off my aunt and his son, Dhyanesh and had to go to his brothers house a few hours away to pick up his daughter who was spending some time there. Dhyanesh was excited that he got to spend the day here without his younger sister because she tends to be the center of attention and wants everything done her way. Dhyanesh's birthday had been the day before and I had brought  a lot of stuff for both him and his sister so we spent some time going over all his gifts. He just turned 11 and I bought him the first 3 Harry Potter books. (I actually bought all 7 but I couldn't fit them all in my suitcase). He was excited to start reading them. I hope he likes them because I was 11 when I started reading them. I also brought an mp3 player for both of them and we set everything up and put some music on it so that Dhyanesh could see how it works. And then the two of us watched movies all afternoon. His mom, my aunt also joined us to watch Maapilai and Dhyanesh and I watched Ayaan afterwards. They were both semi-decent movies. They left sometime in the evening because they had to go to an event somewhere but I think they're coming to the airport to send us off on Tuesday. 

 

Me and Dhyanesh

     My grandma summoned my other aunt to our house. Basically whenever my grandma needs something she'll call my aunt who lives one street over to come help her. She came with my two cousins (the ones I went to see the movie with) and the older one and I basically tortured the younger one for the entire visit. The younger one (15) is a trouble maker and totally deserved to be tickled and tortured. 

 

My aunt (Selvi Athai), my grandma, and Raja Bharathi (the older one)  

The trouble maker (Siva Shankar)

I couldn't sleep at 9pm after they left so I watched Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang on Star before going to sleep. 

More family visits and Shopping part 7? - June 4

              I feel like I'm falling behind on updating the blog but things aren't that exciting now that the project part of my trip is over. I basically have different family members coming and visiting. Everyone wants to say hi and bye since my grandma is also coming back with me and will be gone for six months. It seemed like everyone had the same idea in mind yesterday because everyone that was visiting showed up around the same time. First my aunt and uncle from Pollachi came. Then my mom's friend called and said that she was going to stop by since she was in the area. And then before she showed up my other aunt and cousin also arrived. Only my aunt and uncle from Pollachi stayed all day since they were heading to a wedding at night.

            The family that is renting the room from us behind our house was dog-sitting today and the puppy was adorable! Her name is Julie and she was the most playful dog ever.

 

             In the afternoon I went back into town with my next door neighbor, Amutha akka and her niece, Nandhini. We decided to take the bus into town since it's a straight shot and boy did we have an interesting ride. Apparently a guy had decided to get drunk in the middle of the afternoon and get on the bus. He had already paid for his ticket and I don't know exactly what he did, I think he said something to someone's kid but next thing I knew he got slapped by the kid's father. The guy apparently kept saying something and he got slapped a few more times. It was quiet for awhile but then he must have done something because the father kicked him. The driver even stopped the bus to see if they could fix the problem but the guy wouldn't stop and all the men in the back of the bus were getting involved. (The women sit in the front of the bus and the men sit in the back of the bus). The drunk guy wouldn't get off the bus either so everyone had to put up with him until we got to the end of the bus ride. A very interesting ride into town.
             Amutha akka wanted to get a sari for her wedding anniversary and we ended up getting six. Apparently scarves here are referred to as "sallways" and not scarves which is why I was having such a hard time finding them but I now knew what to ask for.  And finally I found scarves! They didn't have too many and the prices are somewhat comparable to prices in the US which was surprising. I think I would have had better luck looking for scarves in Madras or Bombay. After shopping we stopped at a hotel to grab some dinner. We got a bus back home as well but it was so crowded you could barely move an inch. There were three seats per row and two women took up almost all of the three seats and made it very uncomfortable to sit for an hour. It was late and drizzling by the time we got to Sulur but all three of us were glad to be out of the bus and home.

Trip to the Eye Hospital and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - June 3

I got woken up way too early today because my grandma wanted to go get her eyes checked and since people don't really do appointments here you have to get up as early as possible and get to the hospital before everyone else so you can be seen in a reasonable time. Reasonable meaning two-three hours. The hospital opens at 7am and we were there at 7am. When we got to the check-in area there wasn't a single person in line so I thought that we would get seen soon. Yeah right. We checked in and waited and waited and waited and all these people that got called after us were being called in but not us. Finally my grandma got frustrated and went and asked the check in ladies why her name wasn't being called and they told her that since she had been a patient for the past 15 years her file was old and being kept downstairs in the basement and they hadn't gone to get it yet. Really? She had just been to see the doctor a week before and there was no one in line behind us when we checked in so they should have gotten the file immediately but nope. We waited for a half hour and then another half hour after my grandma went and talked (maybe argued a little) to the ladies.
Tally: 1/2 hour wasted

Finally, her name gets called and we get taken to do an initial check up by one of the nurses. Then the nurse takes us to see the retina specialist. We sit there for another half hour and another nurse comes in and takes us to another room because they had put us there by mistake. My grandma had to see the glaucoma doctor first.
Tally: 1 hour wasted total

Ok so we go see the glaucoma doctor after waiting for another 15 minutes and he does his thing which doesn't take too long. Put drops in your eyes blah blah blah. And finally get a follow up from your retina specialist since you're going abroad. Great. Have to go back there and wait. So back to the retina waiting room and get this we wait for a half hour for one of the nurses to come and put drops in my grandma's eyes. And then she tells us that the doctor won't be able to see us for another hour so why don't we go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. >:-| Apparently that was the advice given to everyone at the hospital but we went and got something to eat.
Tally: 2 hours wasted total

All right, time to go back tot he retina specialist. My grandma knows one of the nurses and asked her to get us called quickly because we had been waiting for so long and the nurse said that she would try her best. We got called after about 20 minutes which I guess isn't too shabby but this doctor said that my grandma would need to have her eyes scanned. Fine. Whatever. I just didn't want to wait any longer but nope. Back into the waiting room we go. Wait for another 30 minutes and her name finally gets called. Ready for scan? Nope. I need to go pay the bill first. Couldn't they have given the bill to me as soon as we finished seeing the doctor? Whatever, I pay the bill since there isn't a line and come back and we are told to wait again. Come on. Wtf is going on. At this point I just want to be done but we can't leave so we sit back down and wait again for another 25 minutes to get her name called and she goes into to have the scan. Once the scan is over we have to wait for another 30 minutes for the doctor to call us in to give us the results.
Tally: 3 hours wasted total

Apparently the doctor wants her to have laser treatment in one of her eyes because it is weak and we have to do this before we leave for the States. Great. Another trip back to this hospital and go through this all over again. After talking to this doctor we have to have a "counseling" sessions where someone basically recaps everything the doctor has said. For that we waited for another 15 minutes. We also set up an "appointment" not really a guaranteed time slot for a laser treatment monday morning. We'll see on Monday how fast we can get everything done. But anyway by the time we left the hospital it was 11:30am. Four and a half hours and we spent maybe 30 minutes total with the two doctors. Very efficient.
Tally: 4 total hours wasted

I was so glad to be out of that hospital and on the way back home. Quick detour to a grocery store and then back home. Had to get the insurance policy for my grandma settled so a guy from the agency came and got all the paperwork filled out and voila that was done in 10 minutes. Then we went over to my aunt's (the one that has been taking me shopping) for lunch and ended up spending the rest of the day there. She has two sons, 17 and 15 and basically the 15 year old and I bickered and fought with each other the entire time we were there . My other aunt and uncle that were going to visit from Pollachi called and said that they would come tomorrow morning instead so the three of us decided that we wanted to go see the new Pirates so off we went later in the evening. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I thought this Pirates was "ok". It was pointless in 3D and the glasses were more of a nuisance. The music was phenomenal but the story line and the overall movie wasn't that great but Johnny Depp makes it worthwhile. Raja Bharathi ended up falling asleep in the cushy seats for the first half of the movie and didn't wake up even when the camera flashed.

He had a nice cushy nap

         He managed to stay awake for the second half of the movie but it definitely was not the best Pirates movie. I think all of us liked the first one the best. By the time we got back I was exhausted and just went back home. All in all it was a good end to the day. 

KFC and Shopping Part 6- June 2nd

There hasn't been much excitement since coming back from Gujarat so my aunt, cousin and I went into town today for a little bit of shopping. Anatalia had asked me to pick up a small piece of silver jewelry. People also asked me about getting them scarves but for some reason I haven't been able to find them here. I know they have them in Bombay but I'll keep looking until I leave. I think I have the name wrong for what they are called here. I went back to the store that I had bought all those earrings from before (first shopping trip) to get more earrings. The earrings I bought would easily sell for $10 back in the US but here it's soooo much cheaper and I like to wear jewelry that matches my clothes. 

 

 One of the pair of earrings I got and the hair clips on the side (loved the colors)

Silver chain/pendant for Anatalia

       We also stopped in a department store to pick up some elephant statues for Maria.

so pretty...

     After shopping my cousin Raja Bharathi and I managed to convince my aunt to take us to KFC. I was curious to see what a KFC here in India would be like and basically it's a lot cleaner (surprisingly) and there is a spicy option for pretty much everything. 

I was surprised how neat and clean everything was

       We got everything to go and came back to my aunt's house because she had already made lunch for all of us and she wanted us to eat the rice she had spent all morning making. Also my other cousin Siva Shankar was waiting at home and apparently he loves KFC so we brought some back for him as well. Rest of the day was spent lounging around and watching movies at my aunt's house and then coming back and doing the same thing over at my grandmas. I did manage to pack another suitcase :-O and both suitcases are currently underweight which is awesome! 

Lounging around - June 1st

      Today was the first day that I actually got some rest. My stomach was still somewhat upset but I really didn't have much to do today so it wasn't horrible. I was on a bread diet all day long. Didn't have much except water and pieces of bread. A typical Indian meal right? During the middle of the day though my grandma got a call from one of my uncles saying that he finally managed to get the "inheritance" certificate for my grandfather. It only took five months after his passing to get a piece of paper so that we could get everything switched over to my grandmother's name. This involved a trip to the bank which meant I got to drive my grandma on my grandpa's scooter :-D Usually I don't drive on the main road because of the traffic but the traffic wasn't so bad and I didn't have any problems. I wish I could get my own scooter but the weather in Pittsburgh is not very conducive to scooters.
     Our errands at the bank took about two hours and after that we didn't really have anything else to do. I read a book, surfed the net, listened to music, and ate dinner aka slices of bread. My grandma has been on my case about packing so I packed one suitcase which took all of twenty minutes and then decided to watch some soaps on Sun TV and then go to bed.

Exciting day right? 

Visiting my Grandfather and Back to Sulur (Once Again) - May 31

           Woke up after a somewhat nice 8 hour "nap" to get ready, hurry up and eat you have to go into town with your uncle, what's taking you so long, come on you need to go. Not so nice. But we were only going into town to buy this special peanut candy that my dad and I like a lot. Don't know what the rush was about but once I showered and ate breakfast my uncle and I went back to the same place we went yesterday to get some peanut candy and my grandmother a sari. I didn't know that we were buying her a sari and wasn't sure what type of material to buy so we decided to call my grandmother to ask her what kind she would like but she told us to not buy her a sari and hung up on me. Well my uncle was adamant so we bought something that we thought was nice but as soon as we got back my cousin and grandma were like this isn't right go back and get a different one. Seriously? Was not too happy with having to go back to get another one but we decided to wait and go to the store on the way to see my grandpa. We left a few hours afterwards and headed to my aunt's (dad's second older sister) house in Vedasandur for lunch. 

  

With Kavin and Rithani      

   With my cousin, Kavin and her husband(my uncle)

    By the time we got to my aunt's house it was crazy hot outside and there was no wind which made it even worse. We were sitting in the shade under a tree in front of my aunt's house for the entire visit but I was uncomfortably hot. My cousin's son Manish (pics are in a previous post) wasn't feeling well and seeing him was really sad because the doctor had him on an all liquid diet for three days and he looked so sad. My grandma and I had also brought him all these sweets and cookies because we didn't know and he looked so disappointed that he couldn't eat anything for a few days. My grandfather was also staying with my aunt because he had recently had an eye operation so my aunt and uncle were looking after him. This trip was mainly so that I could see my grandfather and say bye to him since I wouldn't be seeing him before I leave next week.

              It's hits me sometimes that my sister and I are not as close to our family members because we only see them once every few years and even when we are in India we don't really spend that much time with them that they basically are strangers even though we are blood related. I mean I have a huge family here but I barely even know 5% of the people. We end up missing out on a lot living so far away and also growing up in completely different cultures. Usually we only come every four to five years but I've been here three times in the past year and it's been nice to see everyone. It's also nice because the little kids remember who I am and aren't as shy and apprehensive about talking and playing with me.  

          Anyway, I digress.....we spent a few hours at my aunt's house after lunch before heading back to Sulur. We ended up stopping by another uncle's farm on the way back because his mom and dad (another grandma and grandpa) wanted to see me. This is the uncle who took me to see the movie and his wife is the one that has been taking me shopping everywhere. Don't ask me exactly how we are related because I can't tell you but we are related somehow. We only stopped in for about ten minutes because it was getting late and the driver had to drive all the way back to Vedasandur after dropping us off. We got home and I pretty much crashed soon after. For some reason I haven't been feeling that well the past few days and I hadn't caught up on my sleep from leaving Gujarat which was making things worse. Getting climbed on and kicked my a 7 year old all day didn't help much either but hopefully I'll feel better in a few days. We have to start packing soon and I would hate to be sick while traveling next week.