Outsourcing?!!

Do you think India does not outsource anything, wait and think again. We know where we can get best of cheer leaders. Check it out
http://sports.in.msn.com/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=1333433&imageindex=2
And you think you are going to miss those NBA cheerleaders, you are wrong.
Welcome to 21 century Indian Cricket with cheer leaders. Gone are the days when there used be Donald Duck cartoon icon carrying a bat on the screen when the batsman was run out. Now let's dance in Skimpy skirts! I mean it is hot in India so why wear more clothes?

Who do you think I am?

Someone at the farm invited us for a party at their house. She informed me that it is going to be an early dinner since it is Sunday night. So I thought party was going to be at 6:00 pm. She corrected me and said it is going to be at 7:30 pm(yeah, that is early dinner in India) so we can break by 10:30 or 11:00 since people have to go to work tomorrow!
She also said "I know you guys are Coconut so come between 7:30 and 8:00 pm!"
Now I was confused at this statement. So she explained me that I am brown outside and white inside. Did you get it yet?
We are Indian looking Americans. So she meant to say that don't be so punctual and come according to Indian time.
I guess I like being a coconut than a white flour pancake or a whole wheat brown bread(100%stone ground!). Let's take that comment very positively and think "We have in us, best of both worlds!!"
Good Night and let me dream a nice Pecan pancake breakfast at Cracker Barrel with friends.

Happy Birthday Manna!

So Monday 28th is Manna's birthday. Me and Dada surprised him on Friday night (25th) by a surprise visit from Mummy Ma(Manna's mom). He was throughtly surprised to see her walk into the house. He says he got the best b'day gift ever! Kids have been very happy to see her as well. Another score for relocating to India since family can travel anytime they want to.
We made his favorite meal this(sunday) evening. Tomorrow on the actual b'day I think we are going to go out to eat. I think cholcolate b'day cake is a must since Chiku loves the whole process of cutting the cake!

Daddy's day out

This morning (Saturday, 26th April) we had kid's PT conferences at school. Sunny and Chiku's teachers think that they are doing great in school. It was a well organized meeting where we met with the teacher where we talked about the kids and their progress in academics and in other activities. We also received the computerized ID cards in school where every time the child leaves the school gate a parent would receive SMS via a chip that is hidden in their bag. Pretty nifty! In the end there was an online survey about the school. Couple of Sunny's teachers came to tell me that he is a very sharp boy. We spent approximately 2 hours there.
Later daddy and kids went to watch "Horton hears the Who" at the mall. They loved the movie and the animation. I think we are huge fans of Dr. Sues. Of course it had to end with nice pizza lunch at the HUT (the world's greatest greasy pizzas at Pizza Hut). I think the trio had nice time together.

If you were to move to India - episode 1

I am starting this series 'If you were to move to India'. In these posts I will keep on making a checklist about what I feel someone should bring or buy(mindset, belongings etc.) when they move back to India. It has been only a month and a half since we moved back so I will keep on correcting myself if my assumptions prove out to be wrong. I will also keep on adding to the list as I experience Indian life. Please post your opinions as well to make the posts interactive. Girls you got to read this series, of course it is in your favor!
If I have to summarize everything that I am going to write in this series I would say
"Bring everything you have, can have or want to have". One thing you do not want to do in India is to compromise. Yes you do not want to compromise in setting up your house or making personal choices that are in your control. Day in day out you would compromise on lot of things in your surroundings that are not in your control like pollution, civic sense of our Indian brothers and sisters, population and heat. So you so do not want to add another item to the list that you could have brought from US or bought top of the line in India.
Item No. 1 - Move back when the weather is India is better than where you are moving from. Makes a big difference in your attitude.
Item No. 2 - Remember you would definitely be a upper middle class or above in India. You need a nice accommodation(rental or your own) with a guaranteed power back up within 30 seconds of blackout. A gated community with activities for kids like play structure, gym or pool.
You want your kids and yourself to be happy from day one so the R2I blues do not set in.
Remember you are not compromising by moving to India in fact you want best of both worlds!

Limited Too

Since I still do not have broadband connection at home my connectivity to VW(virtual world) is going to be limited. Here the broadband installation experience is very COMCASTIC as well. So let's not hope anything too fast. Also my domestic help is going away for a week. Yes I am talking about the man who just arrived few days ago. He needs to go back to sign his land paperwork. I am going to be a mess into a new house with no help. Which makes my VW visits even more limited hence the title Limited Too. Also next week there is going to be a home visit from kids school.(I will explain that later). These are the reasons one can get R2I blues! I wish I had my upright hoover WindTunnel and whirlpool dishwasher. Taco Bell would have been helpful with the emotional imbalance. C'mon tasty and cheap lard laden food with preservatives can help you deal with anything. What do you think, think outside the Bun

Did you miss me?

Well I missed you all a lot... I have been away from my virtual world for last few days so I could not send you my updates when there was so much happening in my life. Tonight I am borrowing Manna's work computer so I can put out a post or two. So let me write before the owner takes away my privilege.
We have been unpacking for a while but since Manna was out for a business trip until last Friday(18th) we had not moved into the house. Anyway we were happy to be in the guest house with limited luggage. We finally moved in on Sunday(2oth) night. The house looks good now. It is not decorated completely but bare minimum things are there. My curtains are beautiful and coordinated (and Super Expensive). I haven't spent this much money on anything in India. I will upload those pictures. The American(I mean Chinese) furniture look VERY nice. I think IKEA island in the kitchen is my personal favorite and most used item. Now I feel that I should I have brought bar stools to go with it. I have(rather my brother) also purchased lot of appliances. We have a Refrigerator, Washer, Dryer, Grinder and food processor combo, Microwave, Over the Counter Grill(Bigger version of toaster oven), Stove etc. Kitchen is almost all set with necessities. It was a good thing that I had packed all my lentils, pulses and spices with it's containers. Of course my mom has sent me lot of must have spices too. Thanks ma!
Kids have their bunk beds in the basement. Chiku and Sunny love their set up. Their rooms are 99% set. We still have to buy them work desks for their homework. Of course they are the coolest kids on the block with so many toys and nice room in the basement. But I could see it turning into a headache since they want to play in our basement all the time. Sunny has a boy of his age to play with and Chiku is every body's friend since she plays and communicates well with everyone. I think I underestimated how advanced she is in US since there were no kids of her age to play with. She plays with 6-10 year olds very easily and the two 4 year old kids seem too little with everything she does. They both go for horse riding with some what regularity. They both have also started swimming(rather splashing) in school from today (22nd April).
I have been providing the support structure at home for everyone. In plain words I have been a home maker! Well not entirely.. I have an assistant now. Again my bro made arrangements to bring someone to stay with us and help us with cooking and cleaning. This man cooks decent Maharashtrian food and helps me with cleaning. He stays in the helper's room that we have in the basement. He has grand daughters of Sunny and Chiku's age and can be trusted in the house. He again comes with a price tag but so is everything else in India.
Manna is busy with 6 days a week but he has 2nd and 4th Saturday off as well(along with all sunday's off!). So I think once the life is somewhat normal we can enjoy our time with kids.
I want to write so much but I need to stop since the post is getting too long. Thanks for staying with me!

you got a friend in me!

My Indian By Nature friend is inspired to blog about her life as well so we can keep in touch via our blogs. Hey that is a new cool way to keep in touch with your friends that are 7 seas away! Do you feel inspired yet, C'mon write!

The joys of being in India

Brother comes from Mumbai via Kingfisher('khandani' Airline as we call it, since their service is good). I go to pick him up at the Delhi Airport. When I see him, I see an Alphanso Mango peti on his cart.
So let the Mango eating season begin. I should take my picture before starting to eat the mangoes and one after the end of the season. The result should be interesting!!
I really miss some of friends right now and I wish they could be here to eat 24 mangoes in 15 minutes.

I don't want to move for a long time!

So our belongings finally reached us on 10th April at 3:00 pm. We shipped the belongings on Feb 15th from our door and reached on 10 th April to the new door. 3 days(8th , 9th and 10 th of April) of waiting at customs office and offering 5,000 Rs. for 'Chai Pani'(for non-indians I am sorry I can't explain this!) is what it took to get our belongings cleared.
The stuff was loaded from the container to the wearhouse on 9th for the inspection and after inspection it was loaded onto two trucks. People who were loading and unloading the trucks were extremely unprofessional. We could not believe that these people do international freights day in day out. They did not even have the ramp on the truck to load or unload the truck. But the truck was unloaded pretty fast because there were so many of them(may be 5 or so).
We did not have any breakage at all. I can pat myself on the back for this one but let's include Manna in getting patted as well.
So we have been trying to unload the boxes from Thursday evening, whole day Friday and Saturday. We are not alone here like US. We have been given carpenter, a sweeper and two people from my brother's(Dada) office.
Things really picked up when Dada came here from Mumbai. So by this evening the progress has been amazing. we have emptied all the boxes and set up the living room. All the other rooms have been semi set up.
Manna conveniently goes on a business trip on Sunday afternoon and does not come back till end of next week. Life is going to suck a little bit but I guess with Dada around it should ease up a bit the burden. Long live big bro!
I will send you pictures of the house once it is set up, until then please check out the empty house pictures on my public album.

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/pritiarwade/EmptyHouse

Being a responsible citizen of India!

So when we go to pick up kids up the afternoon we go by an intersection in sector 17-18 by Pasco manufacturing facility. There has been sewer leakage at that intersection for almost a week. The nasty water has been flowing on the streets and it is causing major obstruction for traffic. The traffic police are there in that area. I was under the impression that it would be fixed pretty soon. So everyday I would just express my frustration and go my own way. But today that leakage actually flooded the streets. So I decided to take matters in my own hands.
I asked the driver to take me to HUDA office (Haryana Urban Development Administration).
Of course the office was no different than any government office. I was misguided at couple of counters(also called as information window, which would be a very sophisticated word for bunch of people sitting on the chairs doing nothing!). Finally after 15 minutes of going around in the building I met a person who would register a complaint . After giving him the details about the intersection where the problem is occurring he informed me that no one had complaint about this leakage in last 7 days. I find it really annoying that there are at least 50,000 or more people who passed by that intersection yet no one had taken few minutes to complaint about this. I threatened the clerk that I would send those leaky sewer pictures to the newspaper if it is not fixed today. He gave a complaint number and said he would call me back to update with the status.
I just got a call back(12:30 pm) from him that it would be fixed by 2:00 pm.
So I am very happy that once you report the problem the system downwards is working is alright. But I guess I should check that it is really fixed before being to happy!

CUSTOMS!

No I am not shouting yet.
Yesterday Manna spent whole afternoon at the dock where they unloaded the container into a warehouse. Today(April 9th) he has left for Delhi again in the hopes of getting it custom cleared. At noon the officer is supposed to come to inspect our belongings. After the len-den it will be loaded onto a truck and sent to Gurgaon. But the trucks can not reach Grugaon after 5:00 pm(Don't think logical! it is beyond that). so I think it would be Thursday April 10 th when the belongings would reach us. Let's hope for the best.
I will have Manna write about the whole experience and post some pictures since I have not physically visited the facility. I have to be home when the kids come home from school. I feel like I missed the excitement of unloading. More to come, stay tuned......

It's a Morning Report

The Rumor is, our belongings have reached Delhi and would be custom cleared today, April 8th. Which means we might get things in our hands as early as Tomorrow afternoon. It is a good news, but it also means that our life of luxury has come to an end. Now I might start getting the R2I(return to India) blues with lot of work in the house. Until then let's savor these last few days at the guest house.
Hold on let me place my order for breakfast.... Paratha with achaar, dahi and Chai!
Our house is almost ready. The kitchen is being worked on, so hopefully it should be all done by this evening. We have team of people of who would initially clean the house so hopefully my days of scrubbing the toilets and vacuuming the floors are over. Let's pray and keep our fingers crossed.
Don't forget to check the empty house pictures on Picasa. It is a public album.
Have a Great Day.

How are we doing?

It has been more than 3 weeks since we are in India now.
Kids are doing fine in school. Sunny is learning Hindi really fast. He can read all the alphabets and speak few sentences. Chiku loves to do her homework and is teacher's favorite because she is very well behaved (funny huh!).
Manna also likes work and is busy in meetings with big-wigs. He sometimes does not like the fact that the information is not centralized and computerized so it is harder to access. His uniform (light blue color shirt and dark blue trouser) is all ready and he now wears it to office. In fact the first day he wore the uniform to office, it was a casual day at office and he was the only one to wear his uniform. So everyone knows that he has a uniform now!
For me, I have finished the driving class and I drive our Innova in the neighborhood with our driver sitting next to me. I have also attended a party(a very formal but a classy one) and 'Akhand Path' (very lavish and well decorated). I am also getting dental work done since I had an infection under the crown and the whole crown procedure needs to be redone. Fun Fun!
Our belongings have not arrived yet. They are in Delhi and would be possibly custom cleared on 8th of April. Our house will be also ready to move in couple of days. Today(6th April) we will be doing the 'Gruhapravesh' (formally entering the house with a idol of a god) since it is a new year in Hindu calendar.
We are also going to a Horse Show in the evening (Sponsored by Umesh's company) followed by a meeting Umesh's extended family for dinner.
I also picked up curtains for the whole house this week and they are beautiful but expensive. I am very excited to see them hung in our house.
So things are coming together slowly but surely. We are still enjoying the hospitality of Guest House and have bonded very well with the people working for us. So now they actually go out of their way to make our stay pleasant.
I am going to end this post by making you girls jealous, I found a place that makes best Samosas! They are out of this world. So far I have had Kulfi, Alu tikki and Gogappa.
I miss my friends in US! I hope you enjoyed the easter break and are getting ready for beautiful weather coming ahead. I miss my morning spring runs already!