Tag: india

India p.5

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Yes, it’s been awhile again. It is the ending of a school year therefore final exams, ap exams, ACT/SAT, a lot has been going on. However, I found some time to just write the last part of my India trip before I go to Japan.

December 29, 2023 Mumbai Madness part 1:

It was 4:00 am, my suitcase was in the back of the car and with a teary goodbye I was saying a farewell to my aaji, aajoba, kaki, kaka, and my little cousin. We were heading towards Mumbai where my mom’s brother lived. There we would meet my mama (mom’s brother aka my uncle), mami (my aunt), and my cousin. The 2 hour drive was pleasant, because I didn’t have to use the bathroom that time, and the sights I saw were incredible. I’m not used to the “city” life, so seeing all of these tall buildings were intriguing. Since I didn’t have time to eat breakfast before we left I drank some chai my mami made and some cookies I found in their pantry.

Given gifts is an understatement, I was lavished in gifts, my cousin gave me Sony noise cancelling headphones and he said even though I’m an Iphone user and maybe a hater towards Andriod things, I should give them a try. No joke, the noise cancellation on those things are SO good. For lunch we headed to an Indo-Chinese (Chinese food with an Indian twist) restaurant called Mainland China. The food there was no joke and it was an amazing time to catch up with every one, my aai and baba traveled with us to Mumbai. The thing I love about this particular cousin is that we’re the same and when we’re together we laugh about everything and everyone, even if it’s not funny. For example, my cousin and I were just eating some food and my grandma made a remark that we were growing tall, so we engaged in conversation about height. When we told her how tall we were she replied with she was a 1 and a half. I don’t know why that made us laugh but it did and I started choking on the miso soup that was served to us. Which brings us to discuss the food, which was spectacular. First off were appetizers, we had vegetarian dumplings, spicy miso soup and non spice, crispy corn chili, mountain chili sauce chicken, Japchae (which is Korean so I was confused), Hakka rice (super indo-chinese), Veg Manchurian, and some chicken (super good), as well as honey noodles and ice cream for dessert.

After lunch, we went to sea link, which is this huge bridge over the sea and is supposedly supposed to have a lot of beautiful views. Even though it was very sunny and humid, I couldn’t see the view at all because of the all the pollution. The bridge lead us to the other side and the building my Mama works in (which has a beautiful view).

Later as the sun began to set I was getting restless, all this sight seeing was nice but I felt like having a drink #coffeebreak. So we stopped at Marina International Hotel to get some tea and coffee, the top of the hotel is called the dome, because there’s no ceiling. However, it was reserved for 21 and up because they turned it into a night club with alcohol so we had to relocate and found a cafe in the same hotel. My sister ordered some hot chocolate, my cousin ordered a peach tea, and I got myself a Frappuccino. My other family members who were also there got some chai and other things and my mom’s cosuin (my maushi) who we met up for coffee ordered a cafe mocha.

Cafe frappe

After a coffee break we went out for dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant. We had hummus and pita, chicken kebabs, I forgot the name of the next three dishes next to the kebab, and baklava.

December 30, 2023 Mumbai Madness part 2:

I had an amazing night and so waking up early was super easy. I did go to bed pretty late because I was extremely caffeinated thanks to the huge glass if Frappuccino I drank. For breakfast we had vada pav, if you recall from my other post on the India journey it’s bread with a potato filling. After eating we played a game of charades and rapid ramble.

Afterwards, we went on a walk on the side of the beach, and not like a sandy peach, but a rocky beach. As we were walking on the side of the beach we saw this HUGE crowd outside of this house, I soon find out that is the house of THE Shah Rukh Khan. I was screaming I was fangirling, SHAH RUKH KHAN??? I was breathing the same air as Shah Rukh Khan. I was surprised, I thought the apartments in the back was his house, but his house is the marble, which looks so cool. Also the beach looked very nice too.

I started growing hungry but my Mami told me that we had a reservation at a very famous seafood restaurant in Mumbai. I forgot the name. Sorry, it’s been four months since I was in India. The thing I loved about this restaurant though is that they showed you the food you were going to order WHILE IT WAS STILL LIVE. The shrimp below weren’t live, but the crab that I thought was adorable and adopted as my pet was soon consumed by my family and I.

This was a melancholy lunch however because it was our last day in India. That night we were packing up our stuff, and I didn’t want to sleep. I knew if I woke up in the morning it would be time to leave. So I stayed up as long as I could (bad because we had an early morning) and hung out with my cousin outside of his apartment before heading to bed. The next morning after waking up we got ready and then we headed back to the states.

That was the Indian blog! It took a while to finish, I apologize but with juggling school time, extracurriculars, and others, I’ve been a little busy. I hope you enjoyed and the Japan blog will come out after Spring Break.

India pt. 3

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December 25, Day 4: The Proposal

Now the title for this section might surprise a few, as if who would be proposing, well….you’ll see. That morning when I was devouring that poor omelette on my plate my mother came along and mentioned something about visiting the place where my dad proposed to my mom. See the meaning of the title now? Apparently, my dad proposed in a parking lot (so romantic) and on April fools day (to which my dad says he did that in case he was turned down). So now we were all going into the car, not the same one there’s a lot of people, but divided I tuned out the world and looked at my surroundings. We were traveling to FC Road, remember the first blog post for the Indian trip I went to MC road? My kaki was giving me a little tour whilst in the car. While driving I saw a college COEP (College of Engineering), that my mother said is where she went to college. Supposedly the school’s 100 years old, to be completely honest, it looked like it. We also drove past Sancheti hospital, the hospital where my kaki’s dad (my grandfather, which for some people is crazy because they don’t address their aunt’s family as anything since the aunt married into the family, THAT’S NOT HOW INDIAN FAMILIES WORK) lost his leg in a medical accident. I’ve always held a grudge for the hospital since.

We went to a really popular South Indian restaurant, I ordered idli which is like this savory rice cake that literally melts in the mouth, and shared a dosa with my kaka. Dosa is like this nice, fluffy, savory pancake. Idli normally comes along side chutney which is a sauce and sambar which is almost like a soup you eat it with (or typically poured on). I also had this amazing coffee with it, I have no idea what the coffee is but it was amazing. We were at the restaurant to meet my mom’s college friend, and it was really cool because he works in Cybersecurity and I absolutely adore Cybersecurity.

After eating lunch we did go back to the mall from the previous blog which why not? After that though it was a pretty chill day, but I was getting restless. I always get bored if I’m doing nothing, I have to be doing something. Especially because I’m back to a country I haven’t been to in a long time. I always have to try something new. So I went with my kaki and mom to go vegetable shopping. It wasn’t bad, only bad reason was there’s no grass so a lot of dust was going into my nose and I was sneezing non stop. Even though Pune is a city, my family lives in the more “town” side. I say town in quotations because it’s so big with skyscrapers and everything but it’s not the main city part.

Then for dinner we had another very very famous and typical Marathi street food, that again we didn’t get from the streets but a restaurant. We got pav bhaji. Pav bhaji is a sweet bread roll coming along with a nice vegetable curry that you eat together with. I didn’t take a picture because my family did absolutely devour that meal, and by the time I was eating everything was almost gone. Then before going to bed I talked with my sister and cousin and laughed at my sister who was panicking because she put hand cream on her feet.

December 26, Day 5: Travel Day

No I’m not traveling back to the USA, this is the day were we started the trek towards my aai and baba’s house in a city called Satara. Now Satara compared to Pune, it’s not a busy city with skyscrapers, see Satara is more of a scenic and historically rich area. See this is the area where Shivaji Maharaj, the king Maratha Empire, had his forts. Maratha Empire are people of Maharastra. We are also referred to as Marathas or Marathis.

Waking up at 5:30 is not desirable. However traffic in India is BAD, and we needed to beat the traffic. So for breakfast I just had some milk (which is weird because it’s sweeter then American milk) and Ladoos (which is like a sweet ball, like grits but roasted in ghee and then coated in a sugary syrup and then shaped into a ball). We did beat the traffic which is good! So we got to Satara at 8:00 because it’s about a 2 hour drive from Pune. The car ride wasn’t bad and then it took a twist. I forgot I drank milk and didn’t use the bathroom before we left so the last 30 minutes of the drive I HAD TO PEE. We found a really clean bathroom but you guys, I’m AMERICAN and I CAN NOT squat and pee. It’s not POSSIBLE FOR ME! So I held it in. After using the bathroom I ate some breakfast over there and then headed out with my dad and my grandparent’s driver to explore a fort owned my Shivaji Maharaj. Breakfast was Sabudana Khichdi, which is tapioca pearls, and sheera which is like an Indian pudding.

To be continued