Cass, glad you're here and mostly okay!

Off to Mother/Son Sports Night at the elementary school. Oh, the joy.

It is funny, though, when my sister (mother to a 3-month old infant and a 2.5 year old hellion) asks me how I'm doing, I very carefully do not mention being tired in any way. Because of the 10 minutes of laughing that will come from the other end of the line.

The sense of humor is what gets us through, Nora. Hee.

Cindy, backflung!

{{{{Cass}}}} Hiya!

Off to make dinner--now that we have ACTUAL food in the house.

t runs to Cassiepants in slow-mo, arms open wide, dress flowing, sunlight glinting on the dew of the daisy laden meadow...

{{{Susan}}} Everyone has good advice.

Continued ~ma for Cash's mom.

Cass!

I have a new great-nephew named "William (middle name to be named later)." I have no pictures yet. He was 9 pounds, 3 ounces. His mother was, I'm sure, very glad to be not pregnant, since she broke her leg badly about half the way through the pregnancy.

Nova has a new tag.

(Aren't they family?)

Yep, it's an uncle and an uncle-in-law (and the colleague of the uncle for dinner, but I adore him too) so I'm good I think.

Hil! Tell me you've kept yourself safe and have no amusing but yikesy stories of pain.

What's a Mother/Son Sports Night? I'm only an aunt and if I keep him out of the emergency room and there is no need for stiches, I think I've done well. Which reminds me, must call and get rights to nephew for trip to the Wild Animal Park.

You doing at all okay right now, Cash? I've been lurky on Beep Me so I have been flinging the ~ma wildly your way.

P-C!

t bats violet eyes at Trudy

Damn, I have missed you guys too. I really have. It's good to be back home.

Hil! Tell me you've kept yourself safe and have no amusing but yikesy stories of pain.

Heh. Nope, no injuries of any sort lately.

12/18/04

12/23/04

12/26/04

12/28/04

1/1/05

1/1/05

1/4/05

1/7/05

And now for the final installment of Sunil's Tales of India, to be followed by the 411 on that thing I've avoided writing about till now.

I did say Toli was a village where everyone left their doors open, but that was only when you were home. Even then, you had to watch out for Sukhoofoi, who was liable to walk away with something, oblivious to her own actions since she's a few chana dal short of a samosa. To get rid of her, you tell her to go fetch you a certain fruit. At night and when we leave, we do lock up tight like normal people, and these thick doors have metal bolts and padlocks.

People say the British have bad teeth, but they must not have been to India. Pretty much everyone's teeth are brown from never brushing, chewing tobacco, and/or chewing pan masala, a concoction of betel nut and various other nuts, herbs, and spices. Overbites are often horrendous. The teeth in India, they are bad.

Something a little weird is that so many people have cell phones. They're behind on many other technological advancements, but they've caught the cell phone bug. They're pretty cheap, too, only one or two rupees a minute.

Shivam was being a bad puppy in recent days. We think he learned from Vidhi. He was crying excessive amounts for stupid things, really wanting things his way. He wasn't giving us random hugs, opting instead to hit us. But then, in the last couple days or so before he left, he became a good puppy again. The kind of puppy who, after we had been gone for the day, would run to the door of the van and say, "Pup-py!" He actually talked a lot more than he did that first day, so he wasn't really puppy-like, but he was still cute. His last feat was boasting about the giant bottles of Limca the convenience store near his house sold.

I've been congested for over a week. Every morning I blow a gall--excuse me, a liter of snot out of my nose. I hope it goes away when I hit American air.

Pay phones are pretty cool. There are these little ones scattered all over the town, and they only cost one rupee! That gets you three minutes to start.

Schoolchildren wear uniforms, and schoolgirls all seem to have the same odd hairstyle: two braided pigtails tied back into loops. So it's like they're all walking around with handles on their heads just waiting to be pulled on.

Another new character is Rekha Auntie, a local cook. She's fun and makes me chaa every morning. Not that bloody chai business or whatever it is, but actual chaa. She has a daughter, Fanny (although it's probably spelled Fenny, since they spell things weird here), who's really cute. The kind of cute little girl that's missing a tooth and giggles a lot. She's actually pretty violent, and she likes hitting me, but we play around a lot. Though she runs away when she sees me so I have to chase her. She's six. I carried her on my shoulders out into the fields in the back, and she told me the names and behaviors of the buffalo and cows out there.

There's another little kid, Karan, who drops everything when he sees me and puts out both his hands with a big smile on his face so I can give him ten. That's what I teach all little kids, cause what kind of person can't give a five, or its doubled and high counterparts? There's also big-eyed Jay, who for some reason when asked to repeat the word "Yes" always replies "Yut!" And Kinjal, (continued...)

( continues...) whom the little gang calls Kinimini. And the various babies. Cute little babies!

Whenever we come to India, we come bearing gifts. And it's not like we bring gifts tailored to people or anything, my mom doesn't care about that sort of thing. Indian culture is all about appearance; it's better to give something than nothing. So we have nuts, toys, and clothing to distribute to the people of the village. Nishaben, Puppy, my mom and I hurried around Thursday morning like a Santa Claus brigade. I carried a large sack full of shirts and pistachios. I suppose they were happy to receive our American goods, as they couldn't get them.

That day, Ashabhabi's crew came and stole her away again, so we went to get her back. I had fun playing with Shivani, Ashabhabi's seven-year-old niece. Like Fanny, she was missing a tooth. We made faces at each other, and I chased her around and held her upside-down, which is another thing I do with little kids.

At night, we packed eight suitcases full of all the stuff we'd bought to take home. Ashabhabi had bought me and Kiran a little metal Buddha "for good luck." Aw.

Then, Friday morning, "this" morning, we were off to Mumbai. Which meant I got to see Vibutibhabi again. Last night, she'd called and asked me what saag I wanted to eat, and I named a few, including one, lal chori, that I hadn't had in a long time. I didn't expect her to make it, but she did! She made them all. We'd eaten on the way, but I had to have some lal chori.

This also meant I had to see fucking Vidhi again. The kid just looks evil. This is a five-year-old who tells her mom if she does that one more time, she's going to kill her. Who uses the familiar "you" with her elders. Who, when Jigna came back with a Cadbury bar for her, snatched the bag away without even knowing it was for her. It was a good thing Jigna had given Ashabhabi her chocolate-covered almonds outside. And finally, when I wanted to take a picture with just my three bhabis, she stepped in and would. Not. Leave. She got all pouty and crying, despite everyone in the room telling her to move. Mehulbhai understood that I have specific pictures in mine when I construct the photo album in my mind, so he made Dipakbhai understand. He did, and he moved in close, so the picture was only of our tops, leaving the little whiny brat out of it. Our Bitch List currently reads: 1. Mischa Barton. 2. The Fox executives who cancelled Firefly and Wonderfalls. 3. Hitler. 4. Vidhi.

We had a stupid driver, and we hit major traffic, so we were nearly an hour late getting to the airport. This led to a lot of rushed goodbyes, but Ashabhabi did sneak in (with Bhago and frickin' Vidhi) to make sure our luggage had gone through all right (as it turned out, our lateness led to less hassle about the weights of our luggage). So we got to give her a proper hug and goodbye.

And now we're about to land in Frankfurt. The India trip was pretty good. I got to know some family members better, both old and new. There's something about going to your homeland and reconnecting with your cultural roots. Wonder what things will be like next time.