Home again, home again… we’re currently somewhere over the north Atlantic en route between Frankfort and Washington Dulles.. I think we’re only 9 hours from home.. which makes it three quarters of the way.
What a trip.. ! 5 countries, at least 27,000 miles, 10 airplanes, 10 airports, two boats, 7 cars, 6 hotels. One houseboat and at least 30 cups of cooked spicy lentils. We won’t soon forget this trip.
We left the hotel in Kovalum yesterday at about 7AM.. It wasn’t easy to pry me or Gabe out of bed at that time of the night.. ugh.
We took a last look around our hotel …
The headed up for a quick breakfast before our plane. There was something new that morning on the juice bar. ‘Sour Goard Juice’. Sounds yummy, no Diane got me a big cup
Does Gabe like it …. ?
Does Diane like it …. ?
Truth be told it was the most unimaginably vile stuff I’ve ever put in my mouth.. and that’s saying something.. but I drank most of it anyway.. We finished up and left the rest of our meal to the aggressive crows and checked out of the hotel…
The ride to the Trivandrum airport was less than a half of an hour. We spent the time getting ready to say good bye to Manooj. It was hard for us to say goodbye to him.. We’d spent so much time together for the past week.. I told him we’d try to find him a good wife somewhere (any takers ladies ? he’s a real nice guy !!!!) Seriously.. We would highly recommend going to Kerala.. if you do go.. we would very highly recommend you use the Travel Planners agency (ask for Santhosh).. and if you do that.. we would highly, highly, highly recommend that you ask specifically for Manooj ! He really made the trip special for us… Anyway.. we had to leave and so did he..
It was cute.. he hung around and watchied us from outside making sure we knew where we were going.. Goodbye Manooj.. Namaste !
The Trivandrum airport was nice and modern.. we had no trouble getting to our plane. This is the second time we’ve flown Kingfisher air.. I swear.. it’s been the best service and best airplane food of any airline I’ve ever flown.. 
The flight to Bangalore was a short hour and twenty minutes.. Soon we were back in the packed, noisy chaotic Bangalore airport.
We collected our bags and wandered out to the road.. I hadn’t gone 10 feet when someone yelled John.. it was Gajendra, the driver that our good friend Chandu had hired to pick us up. He said he had no problem picking us out from the crowd.. Chandu had said look for the guys with crazy hair.
Gajendra drove us about 40 minutes through a section of Bangalore I’d never seen out to an area that was a little less packed. As we drove we saw many of the cars decorated for the Hindu Pooja festival.
We got to Chandu’s sister Sushi’s house at around 11:30 . Chandu and I have known each other for 19 years.. He and I went to graduate school together at CMU.. in fact.. he helped me get through my first linear systems/simulation class…He now works at IBM research. He’s a great, great guy funny, interesting and absolutely brilliant. He’s basically created an entirely new field in my industry and is know around the world for that. I’d told him that we were going to be in Bangalore and it just worked out that he was going to be here at the same time.. Even better, his sister Sushi and brother in law Tilak were holding a house blessing ceremony for their new house the very day we were coming through. Chandu invited us to come over and watch.. What a pleasure and an honor !
When we got there, the Pooja’s for the house were just about to begin. We were interoduced to many members of Chandu’s family.. Here’s Chandu and his father.. Chandu’s father is a retired contractor and is a Sanskrit scholar and author. He’s an amazing guy.
In fact all of Chandu’s family is very technical (and accomplished !) . His sister Sushi’s a professor at IISc, His sister Lakshmi’s a Pathologist, His Uncle’s a mechanical engineer. His niece is an aero/astro major at MIT, His other niece will begin studying engineering when she enters university in two years.. It was nice to be among nerds like me ! As soon as the nuclear family was there, the blessing (pooja) service began. The priest offered flowers, incense and coconut mil to a statue of Ganesh and asked him in Sanskrit chant to banish any evil spirits that might be lurking on the site of the new house..
The priest lit an oil lamp and each of us wafted the smoke into our eyes ad onto our heads.
The priest then walked all the rooms of the house chanting and sprinkling coconut water using a bunch of leaves.
When the pooja service was over, the family climbed up to the third floor roof of the new building for a traditional feast.. Many more relatives (about 100 !) showed up at that point.
The cooks had been working outside since the day before..
The view rom the roof was really nice.. you could see the center of Bangalore in the distance (and Chandu’s niece in the foreground)
A giant colorful tent had been set up on the rrof to house the guests.
You can see the houses solar water heater here.. it provides all the service hot water for the building. Most homes here have them.
The tent had been set up with many tables.. set with banana leaf ‘plates’ . The food was all lined up on one end.. We all sat down and the cooks spooned ut a beautiful array of foods I’d never seen.
Let me see what I can remember.. Right to left.. Pasam (sweet rice porridge) on the right.. to be eaten first, curried yams. Chopped green beans with chilies.. rice, raita (yoghurt) rice and pomegranate salad, rice and corn salad, curried grapes, mango pickle, fried noodle balls, roasted chilies, papadom, pekora, potato chips, dhal, rice, ghee. what did I miss ? It was all wonderful.
And… you eat it with your hands.. actually.. your hand.. righthand only… left hand is a big no-no..
Man.. we were stuffed !. They even had something for that.. ‘pan’.. I’ve shown it before. It’s beetle tree nut, with a little slaked lime wrapped in a beetle leaf.. These had silver foil on them that you ate ! Pan is supposed to stimulate digestion.. It’s weird but I like it.
As we were sitting around down stairs tow different people with Oxen came by. You’re supposed to give them a little money for luck then they go to the next house. Seems a little like Mariachis .
We then had some time talking to uncle Chandra and his daughter Poppi and her husband Pravinder (I’m sure I’m butchering all their names) We really enjoyed getting to know them. I’ll be sure to look them up next time I’m in town…
As we chatted, our hosts finally had a chance to eat up stairs.. They’d been on their feet the entire afternoon !
Here’s Chandu’s nephew.. he was the official photographer for the day.. He’s about a half year older than Gabe.
At that point the party was winding down. We helped carry the gifts that Shushi and Tilak had received into Gajendra’s van and we drove off to Chandu’s parents. They live in an apartment building that stands on the sight of the house that Chandu and his sister’s grew up in.
The relatives showed up there and everyone stood around trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers… That’s Tilak, Sushi, Regina, and Chandu’s mom in the photo.
Around 6:30 we headed back out to get one of the bags we’d checked at the Bangalore Leela before we went to Kerala.. Traffic was fierce even on a Sunday night. Everything was jumping because of the Hindu holiday. Many doors had smashed pumpkins on them as signs of good luck..
Even the busses had been adorned with Vermillion for luck
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We came across a parade of kids in trucks dancing and chanting along with blaring loudspeakers. It was wild !
We eventually made it to the Leela.. Diane and Gabe went out to the fountain to see if the SamStone was still there. It was .. but it had been moved.. a bit.. someone had picked it up. That’s the idea after all.
As I walked through the foyer of the hotel someone yelled out ‘hey john’ it was my good friends Guru from Poughkeepsie and Mohan. Mohan lives here, but I had no idea Guru was coming to Bangalore . In fact.. I’d sent him and email yesterday morning to ask him something. As if that weren’t enough a few minutes later I was walking out of the hotel and my friend Rahul A and his wife walked in. This is the third random meeting I’ve had on this trip.. no wait.. forth. The world is truly flat..
As we left the hotel we notice a Lamborghini parked out front. Now there’s a practical car for a town with round the clock bumper to buper traffic !.
We headed through that traffic down to Brigade street.
We were all Jones-ing pretty hard for Pizza.. Don’t know why.. but it’s become a minor family tradition to end a family vacation with Pizza.. We inched our way to the restaurant past all sorts of western icons. Note: They have many vegetarian items on the menu at McDonalds here.
At last we got to the gourmet restaurant we’d been seeking.. Pizza Hut ! My buddy Geetha A. had agreed to meet us there. Geetha was one of the rotational assignees in the IBM Academy. It was so good seeing herhere. She’s now working on a big deal for IBM that has here commuting every week back and forth to Delhi.. yuck.
Pizza was good, but they kept screwing up our order.. Overall it was a bunch of fun.
From there. We drove back to Chandu’s folks house., grabbed a quick shower , said good bye to them and headed to the airport.
We breezed through check-in and baggage screening then had 2 hours to wait in the Bangalore airport.. one of my least favorite places.. the new airport is due to open next spring.. and boy is it needed.. We sat on the floor and played cards until our plane was called..
The flight to Frankfort was pretty uneventful.. The most noteworthy part was probably my last Indian meal for at least a week or two
Gabe slept the entire way.. he’s a real contortionist on planes.
We had about a 5 hour layover in Frankfort.. We ate a bit.. ahhh sandwiches.. now that’s new !
Gabe noticed that their Red Bull pull tabs were different.. He’s kept the can
One more SamStone in the Frankfort airport before boarding..
OK. That’s it for the trip back…. And that’s all my batteries. I hope to post when we arrive in DC.. This has been a wonderful, memorable trip.
I look forward to seeing everyone.. Love you Sam..
-us (from somewhere over the North Atlantic)
