Welcome back to the Motherland
Trip Start
Dec 24, 2011
1
Trip End
Jan 07, 2012
Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India
Monday, December 26, 2011
I left Chicago on Christmas Eve, flying American Airlines/Gulf Air via London-Heathrow, Bahrain and finally to Chennai as my final destination. En route, in the cloudy night sky, I saw a red beacon moving in the opposite direction and soon found it to be Rudolph leading Santa and all of the gifts to kids in North America. While the gifts, Santa and me all made it to our final destinations, my checked luggage did not (damn you American Airlines). Upon reaching Chennai at 3:30am, I waited for an hour and half with other passengers who came from the US to file a claim on my luggage.
My dad had arranged for the car service his usually uses to pick me up and I met Prabhu, an incredibly humble, friendly and trustworthy driver who takes all of us around Chennai and surroundings when we are in town. Despite waiting for 2.5 hours in the early morning, Prabhu greeted me with "hello, sir", a smile, grabbed my bags, loaded me up and we were off. The other great thing about Prabhu is he knows where all my family lives and how to get around.
The first stop was to Pallavarum and the Meru ashram where my dad's mother (Patti) and sister live. The ashram is laid out in the open, with plenty of mosquitos to accompany the beautiful tropical flowers, and the residential quarters surround the dining and prayer hall. Patti and my aunt live in a small one-room apartment with an attached kitchen (with propane-fueled burners) and a bathroom. Their beds also serve as couches and there is minimal accompanying furniture - a few plastic chairs, a table, several pictures of Hindu gods and a framed picture of the late, great Sundaragopalan (my grandfather, Thatha). Patti made me some coffee, we both took a rest (I landed at 3am), she made me far too many delicious dosas to eat with sambar (a hearty vegetable stew) and then I was off to my other Patti's place in the western Chennai neighborhood of West Mambalam.
Nearly three hours later, owing to protests, heinous Chennai congestion and a visit by the Prime Minister, I reached my Patti's place to greet her as well as my aunt and two cousins who were also visiting from the US. My mother's mom was fortunate enough to see six grandchildren who live in the US/UK in the span of a week. Still full from my dosa meal, I powered through some delicious eggplant, lentils and rice served up by Patti as I caught up with Kirthi aunty and Tapasya and Tarunya. Tarunya works in ed tech, and I use her company's technology in the classroom, so we enjoyed catching up. After lunch, we piled into the car to head to Ammanji and his wife's place, who is a relative of my Thatha. Recalling fond memories of visiting Ammanji's house as youngsters visiting India, helping milk the cow for the fresh milk that we drank, we enjoyed a coffee and heard stories of previous generations of our family. Adorning the walls were old pictures of all of my uncles, aunts and my family; all of gentlemen sporting significantly more hair atop their heads and some wearing mighty sideburns.
My bag wasn't going to arrive until the following day and I was leaving for Ahmedabad in the early morning, so I had to pick up some necessary supplies as I would travel the rest of my trip in India with my small carry-on daypack and a plastic bag. My last stop was to visit my dad's sister, Lakshmi Aunty and her family. I was in luck as I was able to see both my cousins Preet and Suneeta. The renaissance family amongst my relatives, all are equally interested in arts, music and culture as they are science, math and their professions, we had some great conversations about my new career as a teacher and other things. I always love spending time with this family. They took me to an incredible Rajasthani Thali restaurant and I stuffed myself to the absolute limit (suffering miserably the following day for all of the food I jammed down my throat my first day in India).
Preet dropped me off at my hotel and I caught a few hours of sleep before my early morning flight to Ahmedabad in Gujurat, home of Mahatma Gandhi.
