Day 4 - Great Grandparents

The trip to Ramappa temple started off with breakfast at home. Then a visit to N's paternal great grandparents. In spite of her being in her early 80s and frail health, N's thathamma (తాతమ్మ) , great grandma, Raamalakshmamma gaaru, made some "pindi vantalu" for him. Raamlakshmamma Gaaru describing her health to us.

After I talked to N's thathamma wanted to get some pics of muthathayya, Turlapati Basaveswara Rao gaaru as well. N's Muthathayya gaaru (ముత్తాతయ్య గారు ) at the age of 86, after morning pooja, is relaxing at the front door reading news paper. At his age it is difficult for us to keep a conversation with him due to his hearing ailment but he is very self sufficient and doesn't depend on any one for his day to day activities. He is one of the most learned person I've known. Even at that age, he is constantly taking notes from the news papers ((note the pen in his hand) or books or something or the other into his diary. I wish I could've conversed with him to learn what he learns/writes.

After the visit and spending a couple of hours at N's great grandparents, we headed out to Laknavaram Lake and Ramappa Temple...

Day 3 - Omlette and Ketchup

After a good night's sleep, waking up in the train was as eventful as the night. N was excited to have breakfast in the train and the video does little justification but I tried...

Omlette and Ketchup just like at home :)

For VillaNova fans there is a Nova dairy creamer. Looks like the popularity of Nova extends way beyond US...go Nova!

Day 2 - Train Ride from Bengaluru to Warangal

Day 2 was fun...and is continuing to be one. While I type this we are in the train to Warangal, my home town. Although we were lagging a bit from the jet, Nikhil was all exited about going on the train ride and was preparing for it since morning. After a long wait for the taxi that never arrived and booking another taxi to get us to N's another cousin, Arush's, house we finally made it there.  To our dismay, Arush was asleep and N wasn't able to play with him. After a late lunch and a few conversations we headed back to the "mother ship", or  central hub, or our "adda" in Bangalore.

After much traffic delays and skillfully weaving through the Bangaluru peak time evening traffic we reached Majestic, the very majestic B'lore city station. Like we always do, not travel light, we had a "few" suitcases. The sheer number of suitcases attracted a couple of porters/coolies. We were told that the train, Rajdhani Express, was supposed to depart from platform #8. Distance wise I'd say about two city blocks far from where we parked our car. The porter quoted Rs. 400 to lug the suitcases to the train and we paid him Rs. 100. No, this time the negotiation skills were not mine.

As soon as we got on the crossing bridge to get to the platform that we longfully waiting to get to, #8, first thing N said was, "PAPA, TRAAAAAAAAAAAAIN"...yup, at the top of his voice. Only folks who heard his scream were his people...and then the scream vanished into the oblivion of loud city and train station noises. But, it seemed like N's pent up emotion to scream at the top of his voice "papa, traaaaaain" was released. He never seized to contain his excitement even after that. He started walking fast, as fast as he could and at times his walk would transform into a trot but much to his dislike, he would slow down when he hears his dad, say "Nikhiiiiiil, slow down". He did that a few times and then finally said, "papa, i am walking fast so that the train doesn't leave without us"...for reference purposes we were there 40 minutes before the actual departure time.

Coach A1, berth #29, #30 and Coach A3 berth #37 were alloted to us. A nice gentleman, Mr. Ashok Kumar, no not the actor (if it were the actor old man Ashok Kumar, I'd have started running away from the train), up on request agreed to exchange his berth, #25 in A1 with our alienated berth in a far off coach A3. While this exchange was taking place, N was so thrilled, he already climbed up to the top berth and back down probably about 20 times...and this time I am not exaggerating.
Said good bye to the family that came to see us off and settled down to take on the journey. N's excitement flatlined at the top and stayed there, till the food was served, and he has his dinner. He settled for the top berth and he too retired for the day.....

Day 1 - The Cousins

After long travel hours, and telling a few folks on the way that he is going to meet his cousins in India (and that it was his 5th time traveling to India, not sure where that came from), he finally met his cousins...his little cousin Vignesh and N enjoying a cup of milk in da morning...

(I apologize for the N's Curious George hair cut that N's hair dresser did) 

Now wanted to join the fun was Vignesh's elder brother Aditya...these three are meeting for the first time, technically meeting Aditya the second time but first time N was 10 months old and probably doesn't remember him much, and look like BFFs.

then The Cousins were off to school and N to bed...more to come...

T-Day - Travel Day

Although travel is part of my weekly life, no not for pleasure but for work, going from east coast to west coast of the US, travel to the south east Asian continent sounds tiring, yet exciting, even before we started the journey. The journey began...

Packed and loaded we reached the airport and to my surprise there was no line at the check-in counters. Nikhil, as usual, had about 1001 questions just at the check-in counter and he kept the folks at the counter busy, thinking about the answers to his questions and answering them. One thing never left his mind and I could see it in his eyes is the excitement about watching planes, land and take off and flying to India in a Jumbo Jet. Like the attention span of a 5 year old, he got quickly distracted by many things he saw at the airport, the shops, the walkway, the huge international gates at PHL and floor to ceiling glass walls through which he could see "his" plane that is he going to board and he planted himself right behind the glass watching the plane. He didn't want to move from there coz he is a professional vacationer and professionals don't take their eyes away from the airplane they are going to board to avoid issues in case the plane takes off without us boarding.



Had to persuade him with a bucket of Chickie's and Pete's Fries to go to on a Duty-free spending rampage. Bought a couple of bottles of McCallen's 15 yr olds and got a free flask and couple of shot glasses. Yes, the only reason I spent $100 is to get the free flask. Temptations, temptations with these free stuffs that they give out....

It was boarding time and Nikhil already decided what he was going to do, put his belt on, take his shoes off, monkey neck roll around his neck and McQueen blanket covering him....and he did exactly that within 2 minutes of finding his seat. I noticed the twinkle in his eyes waiting for the plane to take off and the journey was worth it...



Frankfurt, Germany airport had to take a bus from the plane to the terminal and the thrill that N experienced had no bounds.



The three hour wait at Frankfurt felt like it was 10 minutes, read Nikhil a couple of books, got food at McDonald's (yeah, sorry I know), looked for Imodium (TMI) and all set for the next leg.

Landed at Blore airport and was amazed at the new airport. I guess not visiting my country for 4 years does that to you...keeps you amazed...in a good way this time. Drive from the airport to home was amazing as well...and the amazement lasted for about 30 minutes when we started arriving at the locality that we live. That place didn't change much...and that was amazing as well.

All in all, the journey was good, although I was a little skeptical on how N would do especially being sick just the day before the journey. More...tomorrow.

Day -3

lets start with 'aaaal izzz welll...aaaaal izzzzz welll'. yeah a good start to the day. Never thought I'd be thrilled to see the mail man deliver the mail that i almost hugged him. yeah, the documents needed for the travel have finally arrived.

now that portion of the debacle is over i went to get some souvenirs from villanova for the folks back home. It is time to pack now for the travel. oh wait, i have my camera bag packed already, so i am done packing, technically. :)

Day -4

Never thought traveling to India will be so exciting that I don't want to do this again. So, here we are day -4 of our travels, and not all the travel documents are in place. I will blame no one but me to have brought this on myself. Knowing the efficiency of the govt agencies, I should've acted sooner to send the paper work in to acquire necessary permission. I sent it early July after reading their website stating that it takes only 4 days to get the document. I slap myself for doing that...and if u readers hear me do that again, plz slap me on my face. i'll owe you one... :)

any way after no notification from the agency, after numerous futile attempts to contact them via email, phone, which i think are pretty basic forms of communication these days, i gave up and executed Plan B.

But now, I don't want to jinx it but 'aaaal izzzz well'!

Day -3 in NYC... watch for my updates.