Hanging in A'bad

Greetings from Ahemdabad!! Tarak and I have been here for the last week, and will be leaving for Mumbai (another wedding) in a few days. We’ve been staying with my parents, relaxing, and trying to limit our shopping that had been getting out of control. We also contacted our friend Ami’s sister, Anjali who has been here for the past couple of years through Indicorps and got us in touch with an organization called Manav Sadhna. It’s a great foundation-its’ basic mission through the Gandhian philosophy is that of serving the underprivileged through creating and promoting educational and career opportunities for children, women and communities. Their office is in the Mahatma Gandhi Ashram and they have over 38 projects throughout the slum areas, which help over 4,500 children!! The best part of these groups are the simple things they do that have a huge impact. For example, a well known problem is the lack of water sanitation and cleanliness. Well instead of simply preaching it, they put it into action by taking kids off the street, bathing them, dressing them, and letting the kids see themselves in clean new clothes. These habits they take back to their families and communities. Some of kids who have grown up around this center, are now volunteers working to spread the same message of the importance of education.
Anyway, we were lucky enough to set up a few health camps, to perform medical exams on the children in the "anganvadis" (kind of like preschools) and then work in their evening clinic. It was crazy to see these poor kids, who for the most part, were malnourished, anemic and as a result were always victim to chronic skin infections, parasites, poor physical and mental growth and developmental delay. You’d never guess from their smiles, their love and their constant running around that these medical problems affect them.
On a random note, it is NRI season here!! (non resident Indians) (like us). It’s so funny because apparently, the locals make fun of NRI’s…there are even articles in the paper on "how to spot an NRI"..(things like..wearing tacky shorts in the Indian winter, shielding themselves from the sun, carrying around water bottles everywhere they go, packed cereal boxes, etc etc). All of the store owners are ecstatic (it’s their big season)..it’s pretty funny to see the influx of Indian parents and teenagers from the U.S and U.K coming in and just shopping like mad. Man, but I get so mad because I proclaim always to be super FOBy and yet still they spot ME out…I will even have Indian clothes on, hair pulled back, shawl on even though it’s 55°, and NOT shielding myself in the sun, and STILL they say "it’s they way you stand, or the way you carry yourself, or you’re just too tall"…anyway, Tarak keeps telling me to give up..but I will NEVER…

Family Bonding

It has been another long stretch since our last entry. Earlier in November, my (Tarak’s) family visited us for a few weeks. It was a whirlwind of a trip. We had been so looking forward to their arrival, and after they left, we missed them a lot. After getting settled in (that’s jetlag for 10 adults, 4 kids) for a few days and some preliminary (or should I say excessive) shopping, we headed out to Goa. For those of you who don’t know, Goa used to be a Portuguese colony. What remains can be seen in the white cathedrals, Goan cuisine, especially the curries and last but not least, the festive atmosphere. We stayed at a place on Baja beach called the Villa Goeasa. The accommodations were awesome. It was a nice blend of big clean rooms on the beachfront without the big resort prices. For most of the days, we would hang out on the beach and enjoy the nice cool breeze; people watch, eat panner tikka with some cocktails, watch the sunset and most importantly, play with the kids (best part!!). Our nieces and nephew (Shivani, Dhruv, Anjali and Maia Karina) were ecstatic playing on the beach and in the water. We couldn’t get enough of them. Having our nieces and nephews, and being called “mama” and “mami” (Gujarati term for maternal uncle and aunt) is the best deal…you get to have all the fun without any of the responsibilities!! During the evenings, my sisters would frequent (or more like attack) the roadside stalls looking for deals on Indian handicrafts and designer clothes.
After Goa, we went to back to Baroda and hung out with our own “mama” and “mami”. We even had the chance to visit my mother and father’s villages and meet some of our distant relatives. The entire last week of their stay was filled with shopping, shopping and more shopping. I usually have a high threshold for shopping but by the end of the week, I was exhausted. At end of this week, I went with Alpa (my youngest sister) to Hyderabad to visit her in-laws relatives. You know it was crazy, since the start of our trip 5 months ago, these 3 days were the first time, Sharvari and I had been apart…going from spending 24-7 together, it was hard (a little cheesy, I know). Of course, once the kids left, we totally went into niece/nephew withdrawal...it just wasn’t the same without them!!
We also went back to my dad’s village, Vasad, and spent 3 days at the local school, grades kindergarten through 10th, doing school physicals on over 700 kids. It was a blast! All of the boys would only stand in line to be seen by me, and the girls went to Sharvari. Anytime, I had to examine a girl, she, along with the entire line of girls, would go pink in the face and erupt into giggles in the middle of my exam. It was neat being like pseudo-celebrities…everyone knew about the “doctors” in town..Oh ya, we've added some more photos to Our Trip Photos link.