day sixteen: germans and piercings and life.

i'm sorry for a bit of a pause. much has been going on but i haven't had a second to just sit down and pen it all down. so we're going to go a bit back in time. bear with me. oh please, don't pout. it is worth it, i guarantee.

last friday, we spent the day doing different random things. the following day there were some errands to run and then rheea, gapush and i were leaving for our trip to the hills so friday was kind of a bit of a random day. the day prior to going out of town always is a bit of a strange day isn't it? i think so.

in the building that rheea and arun live in, there are also maids that work for the building itself. these tiny aunties sweep the carports and stairways and etc etc. the day before, we saw one of them precariously perched on top of a two story high sheet of asbestos, cleaning off the bird crap. rheea spoke to her, asking her to come down, telling her that this wasn't safe but the woman proceeded to tell her that this was part of her job responsibilities and she had no choice. she asked rheea to speak to the building manager on her behalf. so later that evening, rheea wrote a firm, strongly worded but tactful letter to the manager. we are walking down this friday afternoon and, again, a woman on the asbestos cleaning.

here's the thing: it is not impossible or even improbable that one of these women could fall through... in fact, it is likely. and instead of taking precautions to cherish human life, the manager of this building has them perch on these flats, risking their well-beings... to clean off bird shit and stray feathers? seriously? it's appalling.

so rheea and arun immediately sought out the building manager and talked to him about how this was unacceptable. he said he had placed an order for long brooms and ladders but in the meantime, what could he do? they looked at him and said, in the meantime, that area isn't cleaned. please instruct her to come down and tell all of the maids they are not to be climbing up there from now on. he complied after a bit.

i have been easily adjustable about most things here in india, it is simply my way, but this is something that i cannot understand. coming from a lower class doesn't make your life any less precious.  ever.

we went to thulp in koramangala for lunch. they serve legit BEEF burgers. and the burgers are actually really delish. like super, seriously. they serve a bunch of other things too and the three of us had a nice lunch, chatting with this random german dude who sat with us. he was super interesting. he's lived in bangalore for 22 years now. he met his french wife here in bangalore and they have both lived here for quite some time. he was very smart and full of jokes, teasing, and opinions on the changes taking place in this urbanizing city.

afterwards, we went to commercial street where rheea and i both got piercings. i got my nose pierced and she got a third hole on her left ear. it was quick and, for the most part, very painless. arun is AWFUL with needles, even just watching, but managed himself quite well.

we went for coffee and tea at matteo, this snazzy coffee place near the jeweler's.

after some private (and by private, i mean please respect that not all things you are privy to know, dear reader) news, we spent the rest of the evening with family, at home.

break: holiday while on holiday.

rheea, gapush and i are heading out of the city for a few days to stretch our legs in the silence of coonoor, one of the hill stations in tamil nadu. i am looking forward to walks in the tea plantations, afternoons reading, and enjoying time with yobo and getting to know gapush.

so please, excuse me, for i will be taking a few days off. but when i return, i will blog to YOUR heart's content.

day fifteen: driver has a tough day.

thursday, i woke up sick. well, that's not true. i went to bed sick and was sick all through the night. oh that paneer. seriously, dairy, man; kills me. absolutely murders me. so after an entire night dealing with that, i finally fell asleep some and then woke up dehydrated and woozy.

i took a shower and rheea made me eat some toast with honey and drink lots of water. afterwards, we went and ran errands. the driver came because we had loads of places to go in a rather short amount of time. we headed to koramangla to pick up rheea's dress for the second day of the wedding [it needed some alteration] and the readers for bww's [bangalore writers' workshop, if you don't recall] upcoming workshops.

after those errands, we ran off to fabindia which is this superawesome store that has all kinds of ethnic stuff: linens, clothing, beauty stuff, furniture, etc etc etc. i got some more kurtas for myself and picked up a couple of gifts to bring back home. rheea and i also got these really beautiful silk floral printed harem pants.

the driver barely speaks hindi or english and rheea doesn't speak tamil so conversations between the two are rather amusing for me. this day the conversation circled around the driver's "mrs. and mrs." he has two wives and speaks about it all very normally. they all live together and he has kids with both and they all sound to be very content and etc. it's really very interesting and kind of amusing to me. anyways, he was telling us that there's "very problems" and "fighting fighting" with one of the mrs. and then with the other one his mother-in-law is coming so that's a source of tension too. poor driver, dealing with one woman is a feat, being accountable to two is just downright painful sometimes, i'm sure. hahaha.

rheea had a meeting in indira nagar at 6 so we headed there and had a couple beers at jimi's before the meeting. jimi's has this drink they call red bird which pretty much is the most astonishingly amazing drink ever. it is beer with tomato juice. i know this sounds disgusting but i will tell you, it is fantastic. like FANTASTIC. like i don't want to drink my beer any other way now. i mean, i will, but i don't want to. hahaha.

after that, we went to the meeting. i think in some ways going to this business meeting shed some light on how some business mentality works in much of india. there seemed to be such a focus on what other companies had done or were doing and how to replicate that because it was "right". very interesting.

rheea and i grabbed dinner at spaghetti kitchen, this italian place on 100 feet road. it actually was very legitimately italian which was surprising and delicious. our server was the most adorable, sweetest little man named imran. by the end of dinner, rheea and i both developed a bit of a crush on him. really we just wanted to bring him home, put him on the couch, and feed him while listening to him talk and watching him smile. so adorable.

when we left, our driver was a little more agitated than usual when we were driving home. in fact, it seemed like the whole of bangalore was a bit more agitated on the road. i mean, let's be fair, traffic and driving in india is retardedface already but there is a fluidity and flow to the chaos that actually makes perfect sense most times. this night though, something felt off. and this feeling manifested itself fully when our driver ended up tapping a scooter who tapped the scooter in front of it and both of the scooters ended up knocking over. the men on the scooters came over to the car and were gruffly yelling curses in hindi at the driver and the driver [whose name i really must ask rheea because referring to him as the driver is really ridiculous] was spewing curses in tamil at them. anyhow, our driver ended up just speeding away, annoyed, and then driving a bit more precariously than even before all the way home. the man had a rough day.

we brought dinner home for arun and hung around the living room chatting with molly a bit. she is flying home to the states today [friday] for a month.

day fourteen: the puppy edition.

there are two little souls that have really been making my time here umpteen times more homey and i've been a rather ungrateful character by not paying due homage to their presence.

if you know me well, you know i have an extreme case of puppyitis. i may have mentioned this before on here, i do not know; but, i do know that this is a very true fact.

nimbuu is so much like pablo, my puppy... just less cuddly and like four times his size, haha. and thambee is just as dopey and puppytastic as maggie, my mom's cream labrador at home. i must confess that i miss many people at home... especially my family and my closest friends. there definitely is a very sweet soft spot that only maggie and especially pablo fill; so you can imagine how special it is to have these two rascals here to somewhat alleviate that. they are wonderfully precious and i love them so.

nimbuu sleeps with me at night. she is much more demanding in the morning than pablo. i have trained pablo to stay in bed until i want to get up and this girl over here is just not having it. thambee lets me carry him like a big floppy baby. arun works them out by having them run on the treadmill; it's pretty adorable.

other than that, today, wednesday, was a slow day. arun and rheea were both not feeling well. we worked out and hung around the house for the most part. it was good.

we watched this movie, dhobi ghat, that came out in 2010 with aamir khan. seriously, this movie is amazing. like beautiful and wonderful and amazing and great. it's on netflix with subtitles. watch it. seriously, watch it. i know i'm behind on the dhobi ghat craze but i feel like many of american readers will be just as lacking as i, so to you all, WATCH THIS. seriously. it's just a really well done, well shot, well written independent hindi film. not bollywood. trust me on this one. it's very good. and if you're an artist like us, it will inspire and motivate you and your work. plus, there is so much social commentary on classism and etc that is subtly and not so subtly being addressed in the film. obviously, i am a fan.

after the movie, we went to rheea's grandma's house for dinner with her grandma, mom, rohit and molly. auntie made a feast and it was all sooo delicious. the only unfortunate part was that i accidentally mistook paneer (cheese) for tofu and am now in the midst of a really awful awful stomach episode at the moment. score one point for lactose intolerant. yes.

it is time to take my upset stomach and head to bed. before that, to give you one look at the pups who pull at my heart and are waiting for me at home...

my princess maggie and my babyboy pabs.

news: surprise update!

i was in the kitchen making some food when arun walked in and said, "hey this is yours". he passed me a couple of sheets of paper.

"what is it?"

i looked at the small print on the pages and found that...

MY FLIGHT WAS ABLE TO BE PUSHED BACK! instead of leaving june 28th, now i am leaving july 5th! which means several things:

one. i get to celebrate pd and carlos' wedding with them and everyone [june 29 and 30]. supersmiles on that front.
two. i don't have to say gbye to rheea in two weeks. superrelief on that front.
three. the beautiful sari i bought has a purpose more immediate and specific than my mere wanting one. supersatiated on that front.
four. arun is a champion. that man exercised levels of patience and determination with the customer service reps at the airlines that i cannot even wrap my head around. supergrateful on that front.
five. more more more india. <3 just plain super for this one.

day twelve & thirteen: real life.

on monday, i opted to stay home. i worked out with rheea and then spent most of the rest of the day taking care of things. i had a long phone call with my mommy and set up a skype session with my little sister in hawaii. our cousin and auntie ended up joining in and the morning ended up full of catching up with my ohana in the bay area and in hawaii.

i worked on blogging, job searching, and doing my laundry.

tuesday, we picked up pishi and went to koramangla. we looked at a boutique for a dress for the second day of pd's wedding for rheea. after considering some dress options, we went to lunch at kobe sizzlers. i had beef for the first time since being here! the cow is a sacred animal here so beef is not too common. you know, to be honest, i haven't missed it really. i think i'm just always so excited when i can eat an entire meal here. it is a bit of a rarity.

after lunch, we went to commercial street so rheea and i could change out our sarees and get our blouses tailored. so, here's the sad truth: it is more or less official [although, i think i'm still in denial, which is ridiculous] but there seems to be no way to move my ticket so i can stay for the wedding. this is tragic news. i adore pd and carlos and would love to stay for their wedding. plus, pushing back the inevitable time of leaving my yobo, rheea, is always better. and, practical-wise, how often am i going to have the opportunity in life to go to an indian wedding of someone i know IN INDIA. sadface. plus... i have a pretty sari. like a really pretty sari. the one i had before was pretty but in a different way. now, i've changed it to this shocking pink georgette with black and gold detailing. it's kind of gorg. sigh. so yes, that's the good and bad news. good news: beautiful sari is in hand [because the consensus is that i should own at least one pretty sari from india, regardless of whether or not i'll be attending the wedding]. bad news: it seems to be 99.9999% fact that i will not be attending the wedding. in fact, my stupid flight happens to be like 10-12 hours before the ceremony begins. ironic, right? sigh. i am super blessed to be in india at all and i am reminding myself that i have no right to be sad about such business but it would be a lie if i didn't admit to slightly going through the stages of grief. currently, i am in denial.

nonetheless, we had a lovely afternoon out and about. the sun was draining and rheea was nursing quite the headache by the time we came home. we came home to find a feverish arun curled up on the couch. he rested and we all played some scrabble before then heading to bhumika's house for dinner.

this was really very very lovely, truly. like maybe one of my favorite nights in india so far. which may sound funny because we just went for dinner BUT bhumika's family is sweet, her home is warm and inviting, the authentic down home delicious karnataka food her mom made was a meal i could sit and eat for forever, the conversations were fluid and lively and everyone was on the same page, and we simply sat around eating, talking, and sharing lots of good words with bhumika's family and her quite charming best friend, manasee, and her best friend's equally charming husband, jitesh.

it was just a very sweet time. at my best, i am a simple girl; lovely people, good food, energized conversation everyone can participate in, and the warmth of a heart-filled home: this is stuff my dreams are made of.

day eleven: the artistic banglorean

well, i mean, i am trying to be one at least. the title, that is.

on sunday, arun, rheea and i went for brunch with rohit, molly, auntie (rheea's mom) and uncle (arun's dad) to this place called barbecue nation. it was really delicious. seriously, brunch in bangalore is a strange thing because they really pile on the service of the starters SO MUCH that by main meal time, you're full and it's near impossible to fit anything else in. the food here was very tasty and it was nice to spend sunday morning post-bachelorette brunching with the family.

after we were finished, auntie treated the girls to some waxing and nail care at the salon. my arms were covered in welts afterwards. super hot. lol. no but really sensitive skin sucks.

we met up with rohit and arun at this hookah cafe called mocha for tea and coffee and hookah. the spot was very nice aside from the slow, somewhat inept service.

a good family friend of theirs was having his first play produced at this local theater that's quite famous in the local theater scene so we went and met up with more of the family to watch the play. i finally got to see disha, who is rheea's cousin/babysister type. she has visited the states before and i rather adore her. right now, she's in tenth standard here in bangalore so her free time is nil. she is studying more often than not so it is a treat to get to spend some time with her. the play was okay. it was interesting and scraped the surface of loads of potential but i think there was room for growth and pushing. to be honest, it was just nice to be in a theater and see the creative efforts and struggles of some banglorean artists.

by the end of the night, my contacts were parched. we all went to dinner at chung wah. i actually much more preferred this chinese food than mainland china. something about thi felt closer to how i expect chinese food to taste. not entirely so but closer, definitely.

it was a really lovely day/night and by the time we got home, after a bit of conversation on the terrace, we all passed out. the weekend had been great fun but not exactly heavy on the sleep.