It’s been a few months, my fault, I’ve been studying for finals which are now over! Recently, two days ago, I flew back from India and because of that I’m extremely jet lagged. I woke up at 6 am despite going to bed at 10:00 pm and am fully energized. This blog post has been more of a food blog for I’ve done nothing but eat my grandparents food and meet family.

December 22, Day 1: The Journey

The tiring adventure started with an easy 1 hour and 30 minute flight to Houston, Texas. Not knowing how long and extended the 9 hour flight to London and then the other 9 hour long flight to Mumbai was I decided to NOT sleep. Other then that everything else was nice, I had business class for every flight so it provided me a more comfortable journey. The only thing was I think a dog sat in my seat last cause there was a lot of dog hair, but no harm done. There was slight turbulence for some parts of the flight but I found out that singing in the plane helps keep me calm. Walking out of the Mumbai airport and out into the humid and polluted air was a huge wake up call. It was currently 3 am at this time and I was busy examining the crowd outside the airport for my grandparents (my moms parents) who will be taking me to Pune (the city where my dad grew up) to visit my other grandparents (dads parents). They didn’t tell me however that Pune was a 4 hour drive from Mumbai. Thanks for that. It was nice though, the drive, I got to see Mumbai during night time. The thing about Mumbai is it’s very densely populated and ok driving. Pune on the other hand is very dessert like with just straight up city but no grass. Seriously I looked everywhere and couldn’t find any grass. Also the driving is terrible, no one follows the street lights, to the point I question why are they even there.

Finally reaching at last I had some breakfast at my uncles house (shares the house with my grandparents). It’s been a while since I last saw my aunt, uncle, and little cousin. My uncle looks nothing like my dad he’s much taller which really made me think, why didn’t I get the tall genes? No one on my moms side is tall, and sadly my dad is quite short so I got the short genes. My aunt made some sheera which is like a sort of cake but made with semolina which is a different type of grain so it has a different texture. It’s really good when you pour some milk in it, or you can have it on the side.

I was going to go back to bed because I was EXTREMELY jet lagged, but my little cousin was persistent and wanted me to be there when she performed her Christmas play at school, so I gave in and went to see it. For kids, it was pretty good. Afterwards my aunt went to talk to the principal to let my little cousin get out early, so while my little cousin was in class and my aunt was in the office I was totally and completely lost. I decided to explore so I went down the stairs, one of the teachers stopped me and said “Do you want to go onto the elevator?” but I was like why not get my steps in so I said “no”. He kinda looked at me weird so I continued walking down the stairs finding out soon that it led to a wall. How convenient. Finding my aunt wasn’t too hard after that and we got out of the school, another thing about India is belts aren’t mandatory, I mean the police don’t care enough. I understand a little though, there are a lot of people in India and it can be hard to keep track. Little later after we reached my grandmas plural because both of my grandparents were there served me some cauliflower bhaji, Chapati (the bread), some dal (which is like a soup), and I actually forgot the name of the green things.

Afterwards I took a nice nap, but soon grew hungry. My aai (which means mom in Marathi is what I say to call my mom’s mom) said we were going to meet another uncle at MG Road, which is a famous marketplace. Unlike a mall, MG Road is a road full of shops and very crowded. At MG Road, my aai, baba ( father in Marathi but again what I address my mom’s dad), kaka (what you call the father’s brother), and cousin came with me to meet my other uncle ( who I call *insert his name* mama). So how I’m related to this uncle in other words (my mom has a brother, that brother is married making his wife my aunt, my aunt’s brother is who we’re meeting), and of course my parents and sister were along. Together we explored the marketplace, we first went to a dessert place called Theobroma, a famous dessert shop. OMG those brownies there are so good, aka best decision I’ve ever made. Later we found a cafe called cafe peter and wow the first thing walking in I see BTS??? Cardboard cut outs but that was a little surprising. My cousin and sister as the designated BTS fans they are ran towards it to take pictures. Once I got the menu I scanned quickly and found RAMEN??? It was so weird, but I obviously chose that. It looked really good. Then I realized, I got to pee, but I dreaded what I knew I would have to face. For starters, Indians love to use water to wash instead of wipe with toilet paper so they don’t hurt the environment anymore with paper. I luckily had toilet paper on me that I had to use and then throw away (not flush because that can start plumbing issues) because I’m too American to use water.

Whilst eating an employee came over handing my little cousin and sister snowman headbands. Apparently they wanted a picture of my cousin, sister, and I for their Instagram and my little cousin was thrilled at that idea. Later afterwards we went to Biba which is an Indian dress store and I’ve been dying to go to one for my closet is dry of Indian clothing. I later found the perfect one, Indian dresses may be super hard to put on but once it is you feel on top of the world or like a princess.

So far the first day was pretty fun, it’s nice to rekindle my Indian side and it was nice for my dad to be happy and feeling nostalgia.