Six Weeks in India

This is a summary of my crazy summer. My last post was about a week-long work trip to Brazil. I landed in Atlanta from Brazil and then, just 24 hours later, left on a 6 week trip to India, this time with the whole family. 

This unusually long trip came about because we accompanied V who was working on a project in IIT Madras, a storied engineering and tech school in Southern India. We planned to live/work on campus for a month, and then we tacked on additional days for visiting family elsewhere and for transcontinental travel. We visited two states on this trip- Tamil Nadu (TN) in Southern India and Maharashtra (MAH) in Western India. 

I wrote this stream-of-consciousness processing of my long India trip as a brain dump as we prepare to fly back tonight. Read on if you have a lot of time on your hands! 

The Travels

• Landed in Chennai and stayed at the Taj Wellington Mews to get our bearings (2 nights)
• Moved into our temporary accommodation- a furnished bungalow on the IIT Madras campus (8 nights). V's mom came down from Mumbai and stayed with us in Chennai for the remainder of our trip, so we were a family of 5 much of our time there
• Vellore overnight work trip for me, sans family; a 3 hour drive each way from Chennai (1 night)
• Pondicherry- family holiday; also a 3 hour drive each way from Chennai (3 nights) 
• Back on campus (2 nights)
• Panvel, Navi Mumbai for a family wedding (2 nights)
• Kolhapur to visit my parents (2 nights air bnb + 5 nights at home)
• Back to IIT campus in Chennai (9 nights), including a day trip to Mahabalipuram
• Navi Mumbai (3 nights), then fly back home tonight

The Good

• Novel experiences- Like most parents, we hope to give our kids novel experiences and introduce them to ways of living that are different from our own. We got that on this trip in a big way. In the old and bustling city of Chennai (formerly called Madras), the IIT Madras campus is an oasis at the edge of Guindy National Park. We were put up in a comfortable three-bedroom bungalow. The kitchen was basic- we could make tea/coffee on a hot plate, and there was a fridge to store fruit and milk. We walked to the guest house a block away for meals three times a day. What makes this campus unique is the wildlife living freely in it- more on that below. 
• People- Throughout this trip, I was blown away by the friendliness, generosity, and kindness of everyone we encountered. 
• Family- Both V and I have one sibling each, but we both have large extended families with masses of aunts, uncles, cousins...
• Pondicherry- We hosted a get-together for V's mom's side of the family, 14 people in all. We went to the beach and to the French quarter in Pondicherry.  But the star of the spacious and beautiful rental house was a pool and the kids spent hours every day splashing with their 10 year old cousin from Coimbatore. The property also was home to a little stray dog (dubbed "Karen" by the kids) and her two half-grown pups. These dogs instantly became part of the family for the weekend.
• Wedding- We were able to attend the traditional Maharashtrian wedding of one of my sweet nieces, the daughter of one of my favorite cousins. The kids had a blast with their cousins, staying up until 4 am chatting and playing the night before the wedding! They all held a fabric canopy over the bride as she walked in for the "muhurta" which was a special way to include them in the big moment. For the first time in over 30 years, all seven cousins on my dad's side were together in one room- we lined up oldest and youngest and took a photo- one of my favorite moments of this trip. 
• Birthday lunch- My sister and nephew also flew over for a couple of weeks, and she and I hosted a milestone birthday lunch for my parents. I got to see other cousins (from Pune, Belgaum, Bangalore) who I haven't met in years. My only regret was that events like these are hectic when hosting and you get very little time for 1:1 meaningful conversation. But it was great seeing so many friends and relatives, some after several decades.
• Kids met a new aunty- In Chennai, it was a special pleasure to get to know V's paternal cousin who is one of the kindest and most generous souls ever, and to meet her large multi-generational household. She took time out to spoil our kids silly, taking them to the movies, to arcades and escape rooms and ice cream shops and even went go-karting with them. 
• Friends- 
• My friend VK from IITB who hadn't seen me in 25 years (but looks exactly the same) bravely invited me and the whole fam to dinner at her place. It was awesome to meet her 2 kids and 2 dog-kids.
• Sweet blog friend H arranged a memorable trip to Dakshin Chitra, a wonderful open air museum in Chennai- the two of us and our collection of four kids had a great day together. Predictably, what the kids enjoyed most was playing on the playground with a plastic water bottle that they found somewhere! They also loved the hands-on pottery and mehendi. 
• I slipped away with my high school bestie M for iced tea- it was great to have a heart to heart with her and to applaud her successful business. 
• We encountered so many wonderful people outside our immediate circle of family and friends, including-
• The students at IITM who were sweet and hospitable and helped us in so many ways, including finding a bicycle for V to get around campus.
• The professional drivers who we relied upon to take us around in the chaotic traffic- so grateful to them. Every last one of them was kind and patient and made the trip so much smoother, literally and figuratively.
• Animal encounters- For my kids, this was undoubtedly the best thing about our trip. 
• Wildlife on campus- The IIT Madras campus is a unique place where people and a few species of wild animals peacefully coexist. There are strict regulations in place to protect the animals, notably the fact that when you enter campus, you have to drive very slowly to avoid hitting them. We spotted and admired-
• Spotted deer called chital (axis axis). We have a whole herd of deer living in our backyard in Georgia, and we loved meeting their cousins- these gorgeous spotted deer. Our American deer are silent but the spotted male deer make calls that sound like a person screaming! That was something new to us. Over days, the deer became very familiar and the kids gave them names. 
• Indian antelope or black buck (Antilope cervicapra). They are so beautiful. It is surreal to have animals from an endangered species walking casually beside you as you run errands. 
• A rare white blackbuck (displaying albinism) was living in the stadium across from our bungalow- we actually saw two white blackbucks while we were there.
• Once on a walk, a tiny blackbuck baby tottered up and entertained us for a solid 15 minutes as it jumped around, smacked up against a gate (facepalm), got back up, did antelope things, then found its mom and started nursing. Simply magical to see this in person with a free-living animal. 
• Interestingly, their faces reminded me of camels.
• Monkeys- There were troops of bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata). They are cheeky and audacious. 
• On our very first day there, my daughter had her drink snatched by a tiny baby monkey! But we enjoyed their monkey antics very much. 
• One afternoon, we sat safely inside the coffee shop and observed a trio of monkey moms and their babies. They are SO much like toddlers. One wandered off and started falling off the ledge, causing the weary monkey mommy to reach out and grab it by its tail. The look she gave him was so relatable. 
• There were many other creatures, including parrots, mongoose, fruit bats, giant snails, strange/ pretty bugs called "push me pull you". Less fascinating were the creatures we spotted in our bungalow- lots of ants, the occasional roach, spider, many geckos. 
• Stray animals
• Stray cats- We saw dozens of these on campus, particularly in the hostel areas where they seem to be fed and cared for by students and other campus community members. Some had their ears tipped, which indicates that there must be a trap-neuter-release program in place.
• Stray dogs- Stray dogs are absolutely not allowed on campus, to keep wildlife safe. We did see them outside, of course, but fewer than I've seen in the past. Many dogs seem to be community dogs, some wearing collars, many looking quite healthy and well-fed. The kids would go around handing out food to stray dogs whenever they could, and complaining that we forbid them to pet the dogs.
• Pet dogs
• The kids did get to pet dogs at homes of our family and friends, of course. 
• Over the travels, they enjoyed meeting new doggy friends Coffee, Toffee, Abby, Snoopy and I'm sure I am forgetting some.
• At the wedding, my cousin's dog Winnie was part of the festivities, dressed in a gold and red outfit!  
• Cow sanctuary- The kids were fascinated by the stray cattle dotting the streets, especially the nonchalance of cows who relax wherever they please (read: in the middle of thoroughfares) knowing that folks will move around them. So they loved their visit to a cattle sanctuary "panjarpol" in Kolhapur where they saw hundreds of cows and a few buffaloes. 
• They petted a ~4 month old buffalo calf for several minutes- an adorable thing with scruffy, coarse hair. After a while, the calf decided it had made new friends and started playfully head-butting my daughter! A caretaker shooed it away to play with more suitable bovine friends. 
• Madras crocodile bank trust- We stopped here on the way to Mahabalipuram. This place has been operational for 50 years and V remembers coming here as a child, and possibly seeing some of the same crocodiles! (They live for a long time.) This was a unique and fascinating experience for the kids.  
• Food: Food is always a highlight on any trip to India, and both TN and MAH have wonderful food available everywhere. 
• Shout out to the friends and family who took the time to gift us special treats from their kitchen (you know how I love food gifts)- masala puris and chivda made by R tai, Tamil treat suyyam/seeyam (stuffed dumplings) made by V's cousin, chirote (flaky pastries) made by my 80+ year old aunt from Pune, to name a few.
• My kids became obsessed with a food store named Milk Corner in Kolhapur- an emporium of snacks and treats- all impeccably made. They wanted to visit daily. 
• My daughter is a foodie and loved trying the iconic cocktail ice cream in Kolhapur (a colorful sundae), roasted corn with chili lime from a stall when out on a picnic, fresh mangoes in both states, and much more.
• Other things I'm grateful for
• Health- Other than a few days when I had a sore throat and a minor cold, we stayed healthy on this trip. That's not something I take for granted when we moved around so much in hot/ monsoon weather, and consuming food and drink from so many places.
• Related to the above, filtered water is something I was very grateful for. Everywhere we stayed, there were water filters or filtered water bubblers, so we did not have to rely on bottled water. 
• Travel between cities was surprisingly smooth given the weather. One flight from Chennai to Mumbai was diverted to Hyderabad due to exceptionally heavy monsoon rain that morning, but otherwise, all travel was on time and all baggage arrived safely. (so far- hoping the trip home goes just as well.)

The Bad

This was a fantastic and memorable trip overall, but there were many moments when my patience was seriously tested. There were days when I was willing to undergo the expense and headache of changing my flights in order to go home earlier than planned. (In the end, we just stuck it out.) I'm going to record my litany of complaints here because venting feels quite therapeutic sometimes. In time, I hope the stressful moments will be forgotten while the happy memories stay alive. 

• Too much travel, too many flights. We booked our international flights so that we would fly into Chennai, spend a month in Tamil Nadu for V's project, then spend 10 days in Maharashtra to visit family, flying out of Mumbai (TN- MAH). This fairly sensible plan got upended when my cousin dropped the news of her daughter's wedding in Maharashtra in the middle of our trip. This resulted in more domestic travel than we had initially planned (TN- MAH- TN- MAH.) 
• Unpacking and packing 10 times (yes, I counted) felt like a lot. And when travel includes events involving festive attire and gifts, you simply can't pack as light as you would like to. 
• On the plus side, I feel like I've been through a travel boot camp and am now a much more efficient and confident packer than ever before. For one thing, I have discovered packing cubes and love them for how well you can organize your stuff. 
• Bored and bickering kids- Campus is where we spent most of our days, but as visitors, we did not have ID cards and were not allowed to borrow books from the library or use the campus pool. Those two things- books and swimming- would have been a game-changer for the kids. Bored, lacking adequate physical activity, and thrown together without other activities and friends to distract them, my son and daughter bickered and fought way more than usual. 
• An unwilling traveler- My son did not want to go on this trip at all- he was completely opposed to being away from home for 6 weeks. We talked/cajoled/forced him into it, and while he enjoyed SO many things, he made his displeasure apparent. He's not a good eater at the best of times, but in India, he took it to the next level. He almost seemed to lose his appetite, and definitely did not want to eat Indian food. 
• The mood changes were dramatic. He would be a hangry little gremlin, and just getting him to eat even something small like an idli or buttered toast would be like flipping a switch and turn him instantly into a sweet and reasonable child. But it was exhausting to manage his meals and moods all day every day. Seeing my frustration and dismay, friends and relatives kept reassuring me that this is an age thing, that I shouldn't take it so seriously, and it won't be like this forever. I can only hope.
• Weather- We could only make this trip at this time of year when our kids have 10 weeks off from school for summer break. Unfortunately, it coincides with difficult weather in India- heat and humidity in TN and monsoons in MAH, making it challenging to be out and about. 
• Other challenges
• Transportation and traffic- Getting anywhere can be difficult in big Indian cities with chaotic and heavy traffic all times of day. It was particularly bad in Chennai with half the roads being disrupted for metro construction and autos/uber and equivalents being either unreliable or unwilling to go into campus. With the added language barrier, I felt a bit trapped. 
• Caregiving- This was no vacation as V and I juggled work and social commitments while taking care of the kids. Every day seemed to be full of making and executing plans, for meet-ups, for meals, for transportation, for keeping everyone comfortable and fed and entertained. I've had almost no downtime during the last two months.
• You live and learn. If this trip had been 10-14 days shorter, it would have been a whole lot sweeter. Also, I will not take an unwilling child on a trip ever again if I can help it. 

The Photo Dump

The entertaining baby buck

Black buck

"Enchanted" the stag

Visitor to the bungalow yard

Snacks by the guest house kitchen

Auroville- Karen and one of her pups

Winnie in her festive attire

My daughter's cartoon of Winnie

A bask of crocodiles

The wee hairy baby buffalo

My daughter's cartoon of the baby buffalo

Gorgeous Bagayam campus of
CMC, Vellore

Frangipane/ plumeria flowers

Stately banyan trees on campus

The pool at Auroville where the kids splashed for
hours and hours

The waterfall near Ratnagiri, Kolhapur

So much strong, milky filter coffee in TN

Breakfast in Vellore- idlis and coffee

Breakfast in Chennai- uttapam and papaya

A typical lunch of chapati, subzi, dal

Another typical meal- yogurt rice, rasam, poriyals

"Upvas patties" from Milk Corner, Kolhapur

Chirote (pastries) made by my Pune aunt P

Pasta made for my son by his doting
Chennai auntie P

Sev puri- one of many meals in
mall food courts

A display of block printing in Dakshin Chitra

Pipli work from Orissa- animal art

Mehendi at Dakshin Chitra

The preciousss- water cooler

More than anything, travel makes me utterly grateful for my home and my routines, my simple, small-town life. I look forward to spending the rest of this year focusing on staying active, eating a modest and nutritious diet, resting more than I've been able to, and getting some solitude. 

Tell me about your June and July! Got any travel stories of your own? :)

Postcard from Brazil

I just got back from a week-long work trip to Búzios, Brazil, my first trip to South America. While the majority of time was spent working, it did give me a flavor of this wonderful country. 

Sunset

Travel time was quite lengthy. Rio de Janeiro is a 10 hour (overnight) flight from Atlanta, and Buzios is about a 4 hour drive from Rio. (On the way back I flew Rio- Sao Paulo- Atlanta. Sao Paulo is probably the glitziest airport I've ever seen, like a high-end mall with some departure gates thrown in.) I can't sleep on planes at all, so if this post sounds loopy, it is because I am quite sleep-deprived.

Buzios is an upscale coastal resort town, apparently made famous by the French actress Brigette Bardot. She is credited with transforming this sleepy fishing village into an internationally renowned vacation destination.

I stayed at the Hotel Atlantico, where you can walk down the steps directly onto the beachfront, dotted with restaurants and boutique shops. It is off-season there now (being winter in the Southern hemisphere), which just meant it was less crowded with absolutely perfect temperatures- in the late 60s to early 70s (F) the whole time.

More sunset

Photo taken by one of my colleagues

A memorable part of this trip was a morning spent hiking. We walked along the beach (orla Bardot), then scrambled on the cliff, walked up trails and down on the other side to Praia Tartaruga (turtle beach). The hike was led by a local marine biologist who specializes in species that live in the intertidal zones. He showed us several creatures that I would have totally overlooked if not for his expert eye. 

On the hike

Most coastal cacti

I was fascinated by the native cacti in the coastal cliffs. Apparently the cacti flourish here because it is quite a dry climate.

There are a few stray dogs in town, but better described as "community dogs" because it seems locals take care of them, local businesses feed them and let them sleep indoors. They look healthy and well-fed. Two dogs accompanied us throughout our hike, delighting the group. They are clever and know how to find fresh water collected in some of the bowl-like cacti. 

After the hike, the rest of the group stayed to enjoy the beach, but I was tired and walked back to the hotel with the guide to rest and prepare for a workshop I was teaching later in the day. I was rewarded by a sighting of cute little (and they are truly tiny) capuchin monkeys who, far from being afraid, scampered out of the trees to stare curiously at me. 

Can you spot two capuchin monkeys?

Our "guide dog" cleverly finding
fresh drinking water

Black vultures were everywhere

Buffet plate

Brazilian food is meat and seafood-heavy, and vegetarian food was not always easy to find. One good option was the "por quilo" buffets where a wide variety of food is set out, and you fill a plate and pay by weight. There was one such buffet in Buzios, and another at the rest stop between Buzios and Rio, and I was grateful for these. Although the majority of buffet dishes were off limits for me, I could fill a plate with brown rice, black beans, fresh and cooked veggies, and sometimes extras like cassava fries (aipim frito) and garlic bread, like in the pic here. I would always get a limonada (lemonade) with the meal, and it was always excellent and somehow better than any lemonade I've had before.

The hotel served a breakfast buffet every morning. I enjoyed good coffee, fresh fruit (amazing pineapple and mango), oatmeal with toppings like cinnamon and chia seeds, scrambled eggs. There were a variety of breads set out, and loads of desserts- imagine whole cakes and puddings for breakfast. The one snack available everywhere are pao de quiejo, small bread bites baked from dough of cassava flour with egg and cheese.

Pao de quiejo

[This is a snack that I get to eat often at home in Georgia, because one of my best friends is Brazilian and she will often bring some over when we get together for a meal. A lady from Atlanta makes and sells these frozen (ready to bake). My friend orders it via text and the lady sells them out of her car trunk in a Target parking lot ha ha!]

There was one other person in our group who was vegan, and she and I exchanged notes on the veg-friendly options we found. On the very last night, we fortuitously found that a restaurant right next to our hotel served vegan versions of a couple of Brazilian dishes- and we got to enjoy vegan ceviche and vegan moqueca, traditionally a coconut-based seafood stew.

Vegan moqueca

Vegan ceviche

Other times, I managed to find that one veg option in restaurants. Once it was a spaghetti with plenty of vegetables. It hit the spot on a rainy evening. 

Can never go wrong with pasta and veg

Oh too cheesy vegetarian risotto

Another time it was this vegetarian risotto- but it was super cheesy. I do eat a bit of cheese but don't like strong, funky cheeses and this definitely had aged parmesan or something- this was a meal I did not enjoy. I should really look for vegan options rather than vegetarian to avoid cheese altogether. 

Below is what I ate at the opening reception- it was a pretty fancy restaurant with a couple of vegan options- I had the sweet potato puree served with an eggplant cutlet topped with sauteed veg. It was delicious, and someone else at the table got a bowl of black beans with their meal that they didn't care for, so I got to eat that for some added hearty protein. 

Eggplant cutlet with veg and sweet potato puree

I looked for a vegetarian restaurant in Buzios and found one named Samsara- the first floor was a hippie store selling incense and idols and tie-dye...and the second floor was a tiny restaurant with just one employee- a sweet young woman. I got a lunch called "basic vegan" and it was anything but basic. It came with two platters- one with lentils, brown rice and two types of hummus. The other with a chickpea patty surrounded by roasted potatoes, steamed sweet potatoes, salad and cabbage. As with most food I encountered in Brazil, it is not spiced, and was seasoned only with a little salt. This meal was so satisfying with the plethora of veggies, and I had enough leftovers to eat for dinner.

"Basic vegan" plate(s)

The coffee breaks at the conference had lots of wonderful cookies, many different varieties, often typical Brazilian ones with a filling of jam or guava paste or chocolate. And those wonderful elephant ears made of puff pastry. 

Cookies

Brazil is, of course, a Portuguese speaking country, and I got by with a translation app, lots of smiles and gestures, a heartfelt "obrigada", and the occasional colleague who could translate for me. People were kind and friendly and quite patient with me. If you can speak Spanish, you can get by; they are similar enough languages. 

I've never been to Brazil before, but something about the locale and people feels familiar. For instance, driving through Rio reminded me very much of Mumbai.

Rio on a rainy afternoon

Art in Atlanta airport

Not counting India (which is amazing for vegetarians and also pretty great for vegans), I found England to be surprisingly veg friendly. The Czech republic was the hardest for me. I think I lived on beer and fries for a couple weeks there.

If you're vegetarian or vegan, what have been the most and least veg-friendly travel locales you've been in?

Upma Just The Way I Like It, and Refrigerator Pickles

June is here and it has been oddly cool. Summer will heat up for sure, but for now, we are enjoying the temperate weather and the bluest of skies. Backyard gardens (of folks who garden, that is) are flourishing thanks to the recent rains. 

Running buddy K has a glut of cucumbers from her veg patch and is handing them out to all and sundry, and I was the grateful recipient of several homegrown pickling cucumbers. My kids love snacking on pickles, so I gathered up a bunch of jars and made some quick refrigerator pickles. 

I wrote a post 4 summers ago about making easy pickles at home. At that time, I used this recipe. This time, I used a similar recipe. The kids barely had the patience to let the cukes pickle overnight and polished them off in a day or two. If you're a fan of American-style pickles, I highly recommend giving this a try! 

* * *

It is Saturday here, and we were at a friend's place for brunch this morning. I took some freshly-made upma. I struggle to explain upma to my friends- it is something of a savory porridge, a spicy semolina pudding, grits- adjacent...they love eating it, that's for sure.

I have a long-standing love for this humble breakfast dish. Back in 2008, I wrote a long post about it, comparing and contrasting the Southern Indian upma with the Maharashtrian version. A couple years later, I wrote a post about making it in the rice cooker. (The rice cooker is still going strong 16 years later!)

These days, I make upma, like I make most things, in the Instant Pot. When I started, I used this recipe as a reference for cooking times. When you eat upma in the home of a friend or relative, or in canteens and eateries, you notice the variations in seasoning and texture- it is definitely one of those dishes that is very easy to make but kind of hard to really nail and perfect. 

My favorite kind of upma is soft and porridge-like and buttery, where they serve it in mounds/scoops and it just melts in the mouth. The first thing that results in this texture is the high ratio of water to rava. And the other secret is the liberal use of butter or ghee! 👀

This morning, I managed to get the upma tasting just the way I like it, and wanted to note the recipe here for future reference. 

The recipe makes 6-8 servings, enough for a nice brunch with friends. The important thing is doing the set up, the mise en place, so that everything is ready to go. It sounds like a long recipe with many ingredients, but they are ingredients that are very standard in an Indian kitchen, and it all comes together very quickly.

Upma

• Set up the following
• "Onion and stuff" in one bowl
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1-2 tbsp. minced fresh ginger (or frozen, thawed)
• 1-2 sprigs curry leaves (I chop these up)
• 10-12 cashews, chopped (1/4 cup peanuts will also work)
• Veggies in another bowl
• I use about 2 cups total of any combo of chopped green beans, carrot, green peas, red peppers, etc.
• 1/4 cup tomato puree or a chopped fresh tomato
• 1.5 cups upma rava
• 4.5 to 5 cups water, on the stove top, heating to near-boiling point
• Heat 1 tsp. oil + 1 tbsp. ghee in the instant pot on saute mode
• Temper with 1 tsp. mustard seeds, when they pop, add 
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. urad dal
• 1 tsp. chana dal
• hefty pinch of asafoetida
• Add the "onions and stuff" and salt to taste, and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the veggies and 1 tsp. rasam powder, and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the upma rava and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the nearly-boiling water, stir and pressure cook on HIGH for 2 minutes (the valve may not even come up- that is OK)
• Release pressure, and cover the instant pot for 5 minutes. This allows water to absorb.
• Add minced fresh cilantro and lemon juice and stir. Stir in a bit (or lots) of extra butter or ghee if you are feeling decadent. 
• Serve by itself, or with some crunchy sev/ chivda/ mixture!