India Day 13 Photos!

      The following photos were those taken during six hours that I will never forget. Most of the lasting  memories that I had collected during this trip originated from these moments. To give you some background information, six hours refers to the duration of a cruise. We traveled to, bear with me here, "Kumarakom Lake Resort", where we rented out a houseboat. There are no limits in this houseboat. One is able to do anything. You want to cool off and take a dive in a pool? You can...into the lake, but the driver's not going to wait for you though. So bad idea. But that aside, you could do anything else. I loved spending these next couple of moments with those that were dear to me.

 This was, undoubtedly, my favorite shot of this whole trip. After taking this, I wasn't able to feel anything else but accomplished. It's no likely that I'll be able to another one that has such aesthetic attraction. 

This is a derivative of a houseboat that we found ourselves cruising in. Who else but me will use the word "derivative" when talking about a "hugeish" transport vehicle? Looks like the studying is paying off.

At this point, I was sitting on the back of a moving "golf-cart" like automobile, taking a tour of the resort. It was difficult to take a good photo due to the cart's choppy movement. But this one seems passable.

All of the houses built within the resort all are of the same imperial structure. Surely, there wasn't any shortage of the land's natural beauty residing here. Actually, if you think about it, the whole resort was flooded with it. Harharhar.

Anyone up for a dive? That the water may seem inviting enough but I'm also positive that there are  probably seventy four different undiscovered species of man-eating aquatic vertebrates down there waiting for you.

The bow of the houseboat. I hope I have the terminology right. What are the car tires for, you may ask? If they're used for emergency extractions, I'll be a little concerned. But I forgot to ask so the answer to your question is strictly up to the whims of your creative mind.

Unfortunately, I wasn't the original creator of this shot. It was my fifteen year old cousin, who was playing around with my cameras, taking pictures of anything that had color to them. The little boy struck gold with this one. The hours flew past us while we sat down and played a few lively games of cards.

To finish off the day, we submerged our feet into the cool sand overlooking the sunset. Such natural beauty will elude my eyes for the next couple of days because I found myself in bed dealing with a nasty cold. 

India Trip Days 12-13: Bathroom Issues

      "I have a bit of an issue. Actually, I'm using the wrong word. Because there is a negative connotation attached to the word "issue", I'm going to say that it's more like a tic. If given a choice, I just can't use any bathroom I set my eyes on. It has to be one that I am comfortable using. The toilet must flush properly, the faucet shouldn't have dirty water coming out of it, and there shouldn't be spiders the size of Crocosaurus chilling in the corners. Diverging from the subject for a brief moment... Eight years ago, due to the scarcity of Western toilets, I have been forced to use the likes of "Eastern Latrines". Don't be fooled by the exotic vibes that that name gives away. It was one of the grossest experiences I had to deal with during my childhood trips here and it still succeeds in haunting me today. In order to for you to understand how bad it was you need to see it for yourself. I will not be putting up a picture of it because it will ruin this entry. So you can look up the words "Indian Toilet" yourself on Google images when you decide to knowingly compromise your day.

      The bathrooms here have evolved significantly since then, however; there was one thing I observed. Most of these houses don't have a separate bathtub in their bathrooms. Imagine yourself taking a shower where you regularly brush your teeth. That's just the way it is here. Fading back to my original thought...I'm comfortable with the bathroom in Papachen uncle's house. Here, instead of crawly spiders, we have sneaky lizards hiding within the cracks of the room and behind the light fixtures. Nice right? Furthermore, I could actually use toilet paper here, while I can't in the houses I visit. In these places, the only cleaning utensil that is used is a flexible pipe attached to a water source that works somewhat like a faucet. It's not easy to use this thing. There is some secret technique that my parents failed to teach me when I was in my younger years. There is no choice in bathrooms here. This is what I have to deal with and I end up leaving the bathroom, half soaked in water, with my hands covering my face in shame.

      Now, add spicy Indian food, as the little hot pepper on top, and you end up with a nightmarish battle between your digestive system and your self respect. I'm going stop all this toilet talk with that thought. Every time I say the word toilet, I feel dirtier. Right now, I'm back at Shwetha Bhavan. I feel great, clean, and full of energy. It's been two days since I left Papachen uncle's house to visit some distant relatives. We stayed overnight at Annie's house. Annie is my mom's niece and she had two amazing little boys: Jerry, the ecstatically playful one, and Jibin, the fun yet mature teen. 

      One of my favorite memories of this trip will be of the time I spent with these two boys. I almost didn't have the heart to leave. Early the next day, as we were leaving, Jerry understandingly said, "Ok, see you next year." When we replied that we wouldn't be coming back for another four to five years, you should have seen his face. It was one of disappointment and sadness. It's obvious, it's rude to think of leaving when you have only just said hello. It was a reality that I, unfortunately, had to face. But add children into the picture and it's borderline criminal."  

India Trip Days 8-11: I miss my couch

      "Tonight, I'm writing for multiple entry dates because I had no freaking time to write anything. For the last three days, we were out visiting relatives and friends of family. If I wasn't doing that then I was shopping for clothes for the people we were going to visit. My family has this complex of not entering a household without bearing gifts like fruits and clothes. Meeting familiar faces is great but it gets old very fast. My legs hurt from the walking and all I want to do is fall into my couch which I, unfortunately, left back in the States. That couch always succeeded in making me feel better. There is some good news though. Not everything about this trip is boring and tiring.
       I always wanted a motorcycle. When I think of motorcycles, I think classy, powerful, fearless, style, and freedom. Now I can drive one! Well, not exactly a motorcycle but his nerdy sister, the scooter. My older cousin, Binu, took me out around the block and taught me how to drive it. I'm a fast learner and driving a scooter was actually very easy. It didn't take long for him to ride in the passenger seat behind me. We did get into a little trouble though.
       We passed by a cop's house and watching us closely, the officer could tell that I had no license. He walked toward us on his porch and told us to stop fooling around. My cousin ended up sweet talking the policeman into letting us continue. His exact words were, "Look at him....he's innocent. Let's just have him learn. We'll drive somewhere else where we won't bother you. Please." Man, I missed Binu. Guess what? He's going to be handing out with us for the next couple of days, which is exciting. He's funny, witty, and a blatant liar. He doesn't lie about serious things just the little things. He mainly does it to make us laugh and does it in full consciousness that we know he is lying.
       Sadly, two days ago Shwetha had to leave to go back to her hostel. I couldn't even say bye, she left when I was asleep. She did, however, tell her dad that she didn't want to leave because we were all here. Cute huh? But I just got news that she will be returning for the cruise on Saturday. Yes, cruise. Stay tuned. I'm thinking about buying Shwetha something before I leave for good. Nothing too big but it has to be something that she'll be happy with. Maybe a couple of DVDs starring her favorite actors and some chocolates to boot. I have to figure out how to do that with this packed schedule.
       Tomorrow is pretty much our biggest shopping day. We will be shopping for ourselves and for the people at home. I help out with the selection process. I'm here, I can't really go anywhere else so why not? My sister always looks at me before making her final decision on whether or not she wants a particular piece of clothing. If I say no then its no. I must have said "no" a thousand times. The way you buy clothing here is much different than buying clothes off a rack in the US. You go to a particular counter that has the type of clothing you are interested in buying and then the store worker will show them to you. They will then leave that piece of clothing in front of you and go back an select another piece of clothing on the shelf and show that one to you as well. This cycle keeps repeating itself until you find something that you will buy or if you want to leave to look elsewhere. I could tell my parents were getting a little annoyed at the stacks of clothing we refused. What do you want me to do? I like what I like.
        The one thing good about this shopping trip is the nice sized van we will be taking to get there. For the past few days, I have been dealing with unbearable physical pain but I just don't show it. We are doing all our visiting with my uncle Papachen's car. The popular car to have here is the Maruti Suzuki which is a compact car that is small enough to fit in your pocket. So this car to fit all seven of us? You must be joking. There was no other choice but to have my sixteen year old sister sit on my lap for hours on end. I mean, I'm in pretty good shape and have developed a substantial amount of padding over the last two weeks but this is bringing me to my limits. I feel like a dog who was just given a nice delicious T-bone when my uncle puts the car in park.
       During the car ride back home from a relative's house my goal was to keep my Aunt Suja, musically entertained. She loves Hindi music and I had my Ipod filled with them. I believe I did a good job at being a music jockey for her for the night. Early on, I found out that she likes the songs I like so it was easy for me to keep her fingers tapping. I am running out of new songs to play and tomorrow we're headed on a three hour car ride to a shopping complex. Yep yep. This is going to be fun to watch.
       I feel as if I'm cutting out so much from this trip but three days worth of stuff is a lot. Right now, I'm stuffing my face with food and trying to take photos of my Aunt Suja, who hates being in pictures by  herself. Not at the same time, mind you."

India Trip Day 7: Memories

       "Here I am, in the land where my true roots are and always have been. I don't know what it was but once I stepped into the car heading for my dad's younger brother's house, good feelings flooded my system. I was happy with the thought of seeing familiar faces again. These faces have slowly faded during the eight years I spent away from India. My dad's brother, Shaji, and nephew, Binu, both came to pick us from the airport. It was one dingy airport. When my dad and his brother locked eyes, I knew they were truly excited to see each other. They both looked at each other with grins on their faces, then for a split second looked away to their left, and then locked eyes again. It might seem weird but to me, it's common. I even do it sometimes without thinking. It's a "I can't believe you are here" look. In the split second they spent looking away from each other, they decided to cast that extra happiness into the air so that they don't make a scene. Or maybe they just had something in their eye.
        The car ride, which was supposed to take four hours, ended up just being two. Recently, there was a more direct road specifically made for people to travel to and from the airport with ease. This turned out to be very convenient for most of us. Unfortunately, these 2 hours were worse than the 13 hours I spent sitting nonstop on the airplane. The odor that my sister was giving off was gross and she's the type that uses it to her own advantage. "Move a little that way if you don't want to smell it." It was her way of getting a little more leg room. My mom on the other hand was happily sleeping and drooling on my right leg. The one thing that was in my favor is my dad's arm that he spread behind my head so I could use it as a head rest. At least, I think he did that to help me out after seeing my ill-fated situation, right? Well maybe not. Anyway, it was great fun talking and cracking jokes with my uncle and cousin. We hit it off just in a couple of minutes. Can't wait for what's going to happen tomorrow.
        We arrived at Papachen uncle's house, Shwetha Bhavan. Shwetha Bhavan is the name of the house which my uncle named after his daughter. Bhavan is the malayalam word for refuge. Cool stuff ain't it? What would you name your house? I have to think about mine, I'll get back to you on that. Eight years since I've been here last, eight years, and everything is pretty much the same. My dad's two brothers, Papachen and Shaji, are neighbors. Each of them own dogs which both my dad and my sister are afraid of. Losers. They don't seem to mind the six rabbits in the house. All three of Shaji Uncle's sons are all grown up and in school. I think the only real difference about this house is that they moved the glass table from the center of the room to the wall. The house is still the warm welcoming house its always been and Papachen uncle's wife, Suja, is still beautiful like the last time I saw her.
      You know one thing that surprised me ever since I set foot on Indian soil? My Malayalam speaking skills have sky rocketed. My mother's really happy about that. Things were a little quiet between my dad and his brother but they are the closest of brothers. I think everyone just needs to get sleep, it's 2:50 in the morning. Shwetha, their daughter, is coming back home tomorrow from school. She's all grown up and I just got word that she is going to become a chartered accountant. I wonder what her personality is like...My mom has been nonstop reminding me about her good grades so I can't wait to meet her. I'm having so many flashbacks, too many for a full nights time of typing. My battery is going to run out so hopefully I could find a computer that allows me to charge it. Night!
       Wait up, I found a computer right here in the house. What you know about keeping up with technology?
(The following entry was written the same day but in the afternoon)
        We just picked up Shwetha from her hostel and she is so funny. I thought our meeting was going to be a little different but this will have to do. She just ran right past us, crying?! Sadly, she got a third place award in a dance competition today. She kept saying that she wanted to kill the judges and that she was rightfully supposed to get the first place medal. Of course the killing part was a joke. She's very fun loving and witty. The way she talks to her friends is like the way a heroine talks to her best friend in movies. She totally forgets that I'm in here too. At least introduce me? I see a little bit of myself in her. It's fun to listen to her.
        Guess what? Shwetha is turning out to be my younger girl clone. She likes everything I like and hates everything I don't like. For example, she loves the actors I like to watch in cinema and she hates the food I can't stand to even look at. Good stuff, eh? I think, we're off to a little slow start though but I think we'll do just fine, we got 2 weeks!"

India Trip Day 4: To the pool!

       "What'd I tell you? Bright and early, I'm heading poolside.
         That was so fun. My legs are tired out and I'm really hungry. I'm cold, my sister is taking way too long in the bathroom and I'm getting the floor wet. I just learned something though. You shouldn't really talk to strangers especially when in a different country. Some guy at the pool asks me if I come from India and I said, "No, America." After saying this my heart started beating rapidly. My mind kept on telling me that I shouldn't have done that. You could say that I was scared. Scared for him if he decides to do something stupid. I think I learned enough from Liam Neeson's Taken! Paranoid anyone? But that's the last time I'm going to tell someone that I come from America. Sure that may not even be in his mind but it just didn't feel right. I didn't want to talk to him anymore. So I did a couple of laps around the pool and got out. I thought I spent a good 45 minutes swimming but when I looked at my watch it was just 20. Does time slow down when you're in water, or something? This whole paragraph is stupid. Haha. Time for some more sightseeing baby! But I'm going to pass out in the car.
          So we didn't go to the Sikander Fort today but we did go to the Purana Qila Fort. Here, Agra Fort is also called the Old Fort.  On the way there, I learned a lot of Hindi from my cousin Glency. She's got an amazing voice and is a very talented dancer. She sang two songs for us on our way to the sites, which was pretty brave. I love it when I have talented cousins. It makes me want to be better. She sang Amy Winehouse's Rehab and A.R. Rahman's Dil Se. Awesomeness!
          Man what a day? I finally got a chance to charge both my touch and my camera. Chyea! But man what  day. We went to so many epic places and met up with great architecture and styles. But I got annoyed by the hundreds of people that wanted to be our tour guides. My dad was this close to killing one of them  because his guy wouldn't stop asking us if he can. This guide was very determined. We were driving in the car and he spotted us in his motorcycle. He then sped after us and asked us to stop, which we didn't. We hit traffic and then he got his chance. We should have just let him be our guide after that but sorry buddy we have our own plans. These guys mean business. The only thing they did not do to this one poor foreign tourist is eat him. They were grabbing at the poor guy from all over, there must have been a good seven of them.
          It's a really bad situation here. There are kids on the streets with deep wanting in their eyes, who have no clothes, and here I am taking everything I have for granted. I am a piece of work.
          After a long day of seeing the beautiful creations of Shah Jahan and Akbar we set back for Delhi. Agra is not in Delhi by the way, it's a four hour drive from it. I wasn't wearing anything in my back pockets but this seat is killing me. I think I've been writing about my butt pain way too much, no more.
          We're back in our hotel. I'm getting the cameras fully charged right now and sending some long awaited emails to friends and family back home. After this, I'm going up to my room to enjoy awesome fruits we just bought; apples, pineapples, mangoes! Maybe I should take a shower first. I sweated like a monkey today. Tomorrow, I'm waking up bright and early to pick up my dad's brother and his son, Glaison, from the train station. I wonder what Glaison's all about. Tomorrow, though it's going to be another long day of sightseeing, I'll have these fully charged cameras to take as many photos as my heart desires.
          On another note, I've been on edge today when we went out to get fruits from the street markets. I've been putting out my chest and pulsing my arms, getting ready to pounce any person who dares to be stupid enough to touch my girls. I'm pretty sure they could handle themselves but I've just been harboring this raw anger for anyone who tries to hurt my family or even give them the wrong look. Woe to he who decides that he should put my family in harm's way. Especially, here in India where anyone would do anything to get his or her break. Sorry bud, it's not going to happen at the cost of my family. Tomorrow...Real Delhi, baby! Revamped...enter Monachen uncle and Glaison." 

India Trip Day 1: En Route

       "I'm on my way to New Delhi and it's almost as if I never left home. You remember how I always watch something while I eat? Well it looks like that hasn't changed just yet...Movies, Movies, Movies! I'm surprised though, I heard Air India has improved but it's something else to actually experience it. The one bad thing was that I asked one of the attendants for a tissue and she said that she'll be right back with it. She never came...Hmph. I really like the magazine they have here. In her letter, the Editor of Namaskaar quotes from W.C. Bryant; "The summer morn is bright and fresh, the birds are darting by, as if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool clear sky." She was referring to New Delhi when she quoted this. Hopefully, I'll be able to feel as she feels about Delhi but for now I think I'm going to watch Inception again. I've been putting it off for a while, it takes my brain a little time to recover from epic awesomeness.
       So I ended up saving Inception for later. I thought it would be a better idea to watch a native movie so I could get myself in the mood for India. Plus, I realized that the more I watch these movies the more I learn the language. Since my mother tongue speaking skills are way under par, this will just have to make due. I'm running out of time!
       I can't help what I do in my unconscious. I mean if I accidentally end up sleeping on a grandmother next to me, is that such a crime? But my parents can't stop laughing about it and bringing it up. In my favor though, the grandma loved sitting next to me. I don't even think she minded if I did use her shoulder as a pillow. Or was it her head? I don't remember. I did everything for her. If she wanted to watch something, all me. If she wanted a tissue, all me. If she accidentally turned on the very annoying personal light five times, and she didn't know how to turn it off, all me. I think I saw tears of sadness as we parted ways."
       This was my first entry that I wrote on the way to India. It might seem broken off and not together but that's because I wrote throughout the day. A new paragraph means a new time of day. One thing I left out is that before I got on the plane, I touched the outside of the plane for good luck. I don't know who else does that but it couldn't hurt.

Time to Head out

     So I just woke up and in a couple of hours I'm going to be heading out to India. I think I packed enough for the trip. I'm kind of banking on the hope of being able to do laundry somewhere there. If not..then all I'll be hearing will be; "See I told you! If you started packing earlier you would have had time to buy more clothes. Why don't you never listen?" I don't want that happening so please let there be a place I could wash my clothes.
    I'll be gone for three weeks so I'll be back on August 6th with a lot of pictures and videos. You know what sucks though? I can't take a camera into historical places like the Agra temples and Mahal which would have been awesome for my other site. I'm just going to have to visually memorize everything. That's going to be fun. See you guys when I get back!