OK OK, I know I got one up earlier, but that I am still wayyyyy behind.

So sorry everyone!

It is raining on and off so I think I’m going to try and write as much as possible, hopefully getting us nearly caught up.

Alright, SO, I woke up this morning feeling so so relaxed. I think the night in was fantastic. Natasha and I had a wonderful conversation spurned by her question as to the presidential election and how Trump was elected.

We started, should I say I started, getting into the various aspects of society, wealth disparity, the difficulty in securing gainful employment, and the sociocultural moment of celebrity and excess that led to his election. She had some wonderful questions and answers to my questions as we also discussed aspects of Indian culture as well.

I got up and did the morning routine. The night before, Natasha said we would head out to breakfast at around 9:15AM. There was this other dosa place she wanted to take me to.

New dosa place? Let’s go.

Natasha woke up a littttle late, but we were out the door by 9:40AM.

She told me that this place wasn’t far so we could walk. “Perfect” I thought. After driving around so much the previous two days, it was nice to be able to do a little footwork.

As we walked I got some water, because y’all know how I do. Also the weather was so pleasantly cool in Bangaluru, especially in comparison to Chennai.

As we walked Natasha showed me where she, her mother, and her grandmother all used to live when everyone stayed in the city. She pointed out the porch area where all the pups would run around.

As we approached Taaza Thindi, it was PACKED. Natasha said it was normal that it is like this, but that the line moves quickly. The menu on the right hand wall was short and to the point. You want idli? They got it. You want dosa? They got it. You want some vadai, sure. You want some other dishes. Nah.

We got in line, and I told Natasha that I’d like 2 plain dosas, 1 vadai, and 1 idli. We moved down the assembly line of production and got our idlis and vadais. The dosa line was a bit longer, but we waited it out and got those too.

So it is really luck of the draw when it comes to finding seating. There are these benches that run along the sides of the space. Fortunately someone was getting up so we were able to snag those seats.

MY GOODNESS these dosas were soo good. Natasha also had a really good point, in that these dosas were the appropriate size and not so big like those at MTR. We inhaled our food and got into the coffee line. The coffee came pre-sweetened, so I didn’t need to add any sugar.

We wrapped up food, and did not feel overstuffed or full. We felt quite great!

So then, the plan of the day was seeing all the family. The day before I spoke to my cousin Sheshadri and he suggested that I come to his place to spend some time with him and his family after breakfast, then make my way to my cousin Babu’s place to see his family and my aunt, and then make my way to dinner that my cousin Rani had planned for the evening in which people from alllll over Banaluru would come and eat.

ALSO, I had mentioned to Natasha that back when I would visit her grandmother/my aunt in their old house, they had these neighbors that I would always play with, Ashish and Deepak. Natasha said she was able to get a hold of Ashish and that he would be free for us to stop by after breakfast. So amazing!

So our first stop was Ashish’s place. We got there, and I had no idea what he was going to look like! Last time I saw him I was 10, and we were nothing but children. We greeted each other with a hug and walked in and sat down. We chatted a bit before I asked him about the layout of the street and his/my aunt’s house. I thought that my aunt’s house was more central in the street, not right next to the intersection. Also, upon looking at their old house from the street, it seemed so different. There was this whole open space on the second floor that I did not remember/know was there? And then there was this whole terraced off back portion that I also do not remember.

We walked back in after a short conversation deconstructing the construction across the street and got to chatting. I was able to meet his parents, who both remembered me! WOW, I thought, that is incredible, especially as they keep up with us vis-à-vis my aunt. They knew all about Saroja and her family, as well as my parents. So touching.

So then Ashish and I got to talking. MAN. We have so much in common! So Ashish is a physics teacher and is hoping to accept a position in Dubai in the coming weeks. He had studied at Purdue for his masters in engineering, and after a back and forth with his cousin, decided that a career as a teacher would best suit his desire to talk a lot about science.

We spoke at length about teaching and pedagogy, and our experiences in the classroom. It seemed as though we also had similar teaching personalities and classroom management techniques. We dug into the situation in the US both politically and educationally, how politics function in India, and how schools are situated within both of these contexts. He had an interesting observation when he said that in India it is all about science and math, thus pushing him towards engineering. It was only in his second year of his masters that he saw what his career would entail and he decided that it was not for him.

We also have an affinity for traveling! Imagine that. Ashish spent some time in Micronesia doing volunteer work, and has skipped around all over the world, his last trip being Myanmar (I took mental notes, perhaps on the itinerary for next year).

All the while this was going on, Natasha was playing with Ashish’s nephew, two years old. We sipped on some tea and by that time it was my time to go. Such a lovely time seeing and catching up with Ashish.

For this next stop I would be going solo, and I hopped into an Uber auto rickshaw to head to my cousin Sheshadri’s place. Got out of the vehicle and made my way into his apartment building, which was slightly confusing because I had no idea what I was looking for. After a minute or so, and maybe asking someone, I figured it out and made my way upstairs.

Sheshadri and I embraced and I sat down. We began chatting, as he asked me about the previous portions of my trip, where I had been, and where I planned on going next. Soon two of his three daughters emerged, and they were so kindenough to listen to my ramblings about graduate school and experiences in various portions of the labor segment in the US.

So, literally, after about an hour of me talking, I was able to find out about them! Deeptha is Seshadri’s eldest daughter, and she is a lawyer, but does not practice litigating. Also she is getting married on 29 August so She works for a company working on contract law, and has a crazycommute of 1.5 hours to work (remember Bangaluru traffic is crazy). Also, this is where I found out that the work day in India begins at around 10AM and ends at around 8PM. So people get home relatively late and, consequently, have a little bit of time in the morning to recuperate.

Seshadri’s two daughters, Aishwarya (Aishu) and Soundarya (Sonu), are twins(!) and both study architecture. They told me that when they were younger they would take each other’s place in class and even change clothes at home and run back outside to fool their neighbors. Their family room has all of these intricate models all over the place for various projects to fit specific instructions for assignments. One of them had to be built on an inclining plane, and the other was a school design. These projects were amazing, and I found out that she earned a B, and I was like ummmm what more could you do for the A? I mean this model was fantastic.

By then it was time for lunch! We sat down, and I had messed up the seating order but they were cool with it. We had some deliciousrice and rasam, okra vegetable, dal, and yogurt. Oh that’s another thing. Yogurt in India is SO. GOOD.

Ok ok so Sheshadri had brought out the photo album earlier, but given my ramblings and the need to eat I couldn’t document any of them. We then brought them back out and I got some PHOTOS from 1987!

By this time it was around 3:45PM and I needed to leave to go to my cousin Babu’s place to see him, his two children, his wife, and my aunt, Jaya Periamma. We took one photo of everyone, and then we were off.

Sheshadri dropped at the street across from Babu’s complex. We hugged and I knew that I would be seeing him later in the evening at dinner. Ok, so crossing the street in India is a bit…scary. Fortunately it was pretty trafficked up so I was able to easily skirt between cars and make it across the street.

Babu came and met me, and he looked just as I remembered him. We made our way back to his building which had a fantastic pool, and up the elevator, and into the home. I met Periamma and we hugged. She had fallen a bit ago and she doesn’t necessarily feel very comfortable in her ability to be mobile.

We all sat down and continued chatting about similar themes of the day: what I’ve been up to, where I’ve been and where I’m going. Fortunately I was well versed in keeping it concise at this point I could quickly breeze through it, allowing me to ask them how they are doing and permit us to talk about all types of things. We talked about Trump (another similar theme) and reminisced about old times.

We enjoyed some lovely tea with fresh cloves (amazing!) and some biscuits. Time quickly passed and Babu had to step out quickly before we could make our way to the dinner, slated for 7PM. Babu got back and we left for dinner.

Traffic was insane. We sat at a traffic light for 10 minutes. It never ‘greened’ for us. I mean we even tried to go a different way to get there to avoid major traffic. Because it was Saturday everyone and their mother decided to head out on the town. It took about 75 minutes to get to the restaurant, and everyone was waiting for us!

BUT WOW! It was so touching to see so many people congregated, and waiting, for me so that we could all spend some time together and eat. Moving around from left to right are Tarun, Pavithra, Aishu, Sonu, Seshadri, Anagha, Chitra, Balaji, Sharad, myself, Rani, Babu, and Gauri.

For dinner we ordered what is called a thali. It means you get all the food. They give you little dishes of each item and place whatever type of starch you want in the middle. Rani told me to avoid a couple of the dishes because they contained water, and you know I had to order that curd (yogurt) on the side.

I thought that it was only one serving, but they kept coming back with food! Needless to say your man filled himself with all of this food and love from family. I made my way around certain parts of the table and got a chance to talk with everyone. I was even talking football with Rani’s son Tarun. He’s been told he can’t play football for 8 weeks and he has to do PT exercises to get everything right in his knee.

After eating all of the food with some gulab jamun (little pastries shaped as small balls and soaked in syrup) as the dessert, it was time to say goodbye. We stepped outside, chatted for a bit longer, and gave hugs as we all said goodbye.

Shesahdri took myself, Sharad, and Aishu/Sonnu home. On the ride we continued our conversations, and his daughter’s asked me why I decided to deactivate my social media accounts, as they too are potentially thinking of doing the same.

We arrived back in the light drizzle to Natasha’s place at around 10:30PM. I couldn’t express enough thanks as I crossed the street and made my way inside.

Natasha took an off day and didn’t do any studying – rest days are important. We started chatting for a bit but I started falling asleep! I was so engaged all day and speaking with everyone so intently that I exhausted myself…plus food. Natasha was very kind and suggested that I sleep, and off to dream land I went, so full of love and appreciative for everyone who came out and all of my experiences on the trip thus far. Simply an amazingly fantastic day.