Picnic in Cubbon Park

On Sunday morning we left the house early enough to beat the crazy Bangalore traffic. While our driver was a highly skilled pediatric heart surgeon, we didn't trust her driving and she didn't trust her knowledge of how to get there. After a few u-turns and several phone calls we arrived at our destination, Cubbon Park - a hundred and fifty year old massive park in the heart of Bangalore.

Suki's friend said he was bringing a picnic. I expected coffee in a thermos. He had five types of food and sandwiches and fruits, blankets, pillows, and the thermos of coffee. Evan and I threw a frisbee and kicked a soccer ball around. Vivian and Mayura took short naps. We walked around the park and up to the High Court and the History Museum and then went off on a short exploration of the city around Church Street. I bought several books at Goobe's - a tiny used book store that specializes in science fiction. We browsed around Blossoms - Bangalore's famed independent book store. And then walked back through the park after a late lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.

A wonderful way to spend a day.

Chess

It all started with Jo taking us to see the Queen of Katwe - a feel good Mira Niar biographic movie about Phiona - a child from the slums of Uganda who can't read but can kick some serious ass on the chess board. By the end of the movie, both Evan and Vivian were eager to learn the game.

At JFK airport, to keep them distracted during a particularly long check-in process at the Emirates counter, I got Vivian and Evan to start practicing basic moves using themselves as chess pieces and floor tiles for a chess board. There, are then again in Dubai airport, they learned how to hop like the knight over and around others, and slice in sharp diagonals like the bishop and lumber in straight lines like the castle. And the power of the queen and the delicate weakness of the king. By the time we landed at Suki's in Bangalore, they were thrilled to play on Adil's chess board.

Vivian likes to play chess. Evan obsesses about it. He bugged any waking and walking person at Suki's to play chess with him. Then we drive up to the resort at the coffee plantation in Coorg and right there in front is a beautiful black and white marble board with life size pieces.

On the first day at the resort Vivian and Evan had fun moving the pieces around. They settled down and started playing on Day Two. On Day Three it was mostly mayhem - killing anything at any cost. By Day Four, they were beginning to think about tactics. When I played Evan at San Francisco airport on the way back, he was using strategy.  

I remember playing chess with my parents when I was Vivian's age. And many a happy hour growing up with Alu with the board between us. I'm not expecting Grandmasters here - just a lot of fun playing a great game. Thanks, Phiona.

Oh, and Adil - if this lovely wooden board looks familiar, it's because Evan forgot to take it out of his backpack when we got back to Bangalore from Coorg. We'll ship one off to Majorca and Bangalore for you. Sorry.

Climbing in Bangalore

Between the wedding related events, one morning we snuck into a mall across the street from Suki's home and the kids climbed. The gym was empty when we were there - it was mid morning on a school day. But they've been open since April and have even given away free memberships for a month. I will be pleasantly surprised if the business makes it. The kids enjoyed themselves on the almost brand new equipment.

Afterwards we met Suki and Mayura at a restaurant for a lovely vegetarian Rajasthani meal and then everyone went down for a five hour nap.

Jet lag, the lack of any schedule, and badly times naps continued to wreck havoc. It was not unusual for the kids to wander into our bedroom at three in the morning and for us to read and chat and shower and snack on enormous bars of Toblerone I had bought at Dubai duty free, and to await daylight so we could attack Suki's kitchen and her cook Latifa's omelettes and dosas and cereal served with fresh buffalo milk.

"I Want an Indian Wedding"

We went to Bangalore for a wedding - my friend's daughter's. The festivities started the evening we arrived but were jet lagged and tired out of our gourds due to a long layover/delay at lovely JFK airport and the kids having engaged in marathon movie watching on the flights over. So we skipped the engagement ceremony, the turmeric ceremony, and a few others and made it to the three main events: the Sangeet - an evening of music and dance, the wedding, and the reception - spread over four days. Each involved a few hundred to a few thousand guests, drinking, eating, friends and fun.

An hour or two into the Sangeet, Jo yelled over the music into my ear "I want an Indian wedding for Vivian!". Check this blog in a couple of decades.

The kids made friends. Evan learned the Indian name for tag - "catch-catch". Vivian and Riya exchanged their parents' phone numbers and vowed to keep in touch. Jo rocked a saree and ate a traditional lunch served on a banana leaf in style. And we kept running into the same other white guests hours before everyone else because of a poor understanding of local customs.

Time to Leave

Last Monday morning, we shopped, packed, and even had some time left over to decorate sugar skulls. But by 11:30am, we had been deposited at Bergstrom by our very favorite neighbor, Karen. Next stop - Bangalore. Jo and the kids' first trip to India in almost two years, and my second one of the year.  Yay! But what's more exciting? Completely ignoring US political news for the next 10 days.

Beer / Choir

Not two words you tend to see together. But on Sunday evening, soon after Evan and my return from the boy scouts camping trip, we left Evan, Ava and Zizi with the sitter and Jo, Karen, Vivian and I went Strangeland Brewery for an evening of beer and choir. We drank beer, ate amazing dinners cooked by Austin's leading women chefs, and watched the ladies from Danger Cakes play a few of their songs. But the main event was a performance by the Austin Girls Choir - this was their fundraiser.

The adults had a wonderful evening, girls were terrific and at the silent auction Jo and I acquired a huge new blue cruiser with whitewalls for cycling to Central Market to buy that half a gallon of milk.

Now to pack so we can head off to India tomorrow morning.

Camping II

Next weekend Evan and I went camping again. This time it was of the car variety instead of backpacking to a primitive site, it was with a bunch of boy scouts and Evan wasn't sick. We arrived on Friday evening. After dinner we took a fun moonlight hike (it was the night before the super moon). Next morning the kids played football, we went on another great hike, and Evan hung out with the fourth graders.

That's till the only girl, Suzy, arrived. She was from Evan's class and had an older brother who was a boy scout. Suzy wanted Evan to play with her and was rather strong willed. Evan, with the air or one not wanting to hurt her feelings, gave in rather easily. Later when I asked on the drive back home, he protested that at school Suzy and he aren't really friends and she doesn't "ask me to play with her in her tent".

Back in Austin during the boys' absence, Jo and Vivian whiled away the time buying dresses for the upcoming wedding trip to India.

Camping I

On a Thursday a few weeks ago Jo drove off in the rain towards Houston and eventually New Orleans for a weekend with her girlfriends. On Friday at noon I got a call from the school nurse saying that Evan wasn't well (he wasn't talking non-stop, and he had a mild fever). I picked him up and put him down for a nap. At three-thirty, I carried a sleeping Evan to the car and he, Vivian and I headed out of town for a two night camping trip. We had to get there  because we were meeting Nina and her family and we were carrying a non-trivial portion of the food.

It took Evan a while to hike the two miles with a backpack from the parking lot to the Walnut Creek primitive area at Enchanted Rock but we eventually made it. Felix and Nora ran down the trail and greeted us very enthusiastically. We set up our tent at a lovely campsite that Chris had selected. Then I left for a second trip to bring up the sleeping bags and thermarests - and I returned well after dark.

We had a great dinner. The kids went off to bed while Nina, Chris and I sampled some Garrison Brothers. In the morning I tried to convince Evan to stay back in the tent and rest with me while Vivian and the others went off exploring but though he was still droopy he wasn't having any of that. So we hiked up the Rock, walked over to the ranger station to get our permits, played in the kid's play area, and hiked back up to our campsite in time for dinner.

On Sunday morning, with the threat of approaching rain, we broke camp after breakfast and packed and headed back down to our cars. We made it back fifteen minutes before the rain.

Vivian and Felix played the whole weekend. Poor Evan kept saying "I love camping but I'm not enjoying all this hiking". But he managed to keep it together and was a trooper.

Halloween

Halloween was on a Monday. Not a problem. Evan was his perennial Harry Potter with new robe (he finally outgrew Vivian's black dress with a frilly collar that looked like a robe). Zizi was the cutest ice cream cone. Vivian, Ava and Eleanor were rock star princesses (an abbreviation for: "dress up in fancy clothes, do your hair up and put make-up on". The neighborhood came out in droves to celebrate. I wore a costume Vivian made for me: somewhere between Frankenstein's Monster and a ship wrecked zombie.

Vivian, Ava and Eleanor ran from door to door, too busy to grab candy. Evan chatted away with the candy givers, other children (including two other Harry Potters he met) and adult strangers (Jacques Cousteau and his wife, a jelly fish) enjoying and savoring the evening.

Vivian had a Halloween themed choir and music evening the week before Halloween when the Austin Girls Choir turned into the Austin Ghouls Choir. Then, the Friday evening of Halloween weekend, Jo and I went to a "wig & stache" party and we dressed for it. Last year on Halloween I was stuck trying to get back to Austin from Hyderabad (after Fall break in London, the kids and Jo returned to Austin while I detoured via Hyderabad. Then it rained 17 inches at Bergstrom airport knocking it out of service for days. Eventually I took the opportunity to visit Alu instead of hanging around in a hotel near JFK). So this year I was glad to celebrate.

The kids played around with masks and wigs all week. Vivian made a bunch of sugar skulls but decorating them has been a slower process. We missed not celebrating with Simran this year but she dropped off some Halloween cookies that the kids quickly polished off.

On Tuesday I went to Central Market and saw that pumpkins had given way to Christmas things already. It's going to be a long couple of months ahead.

Trump Loves Trump

After last night's "historic" election here in the US (rich old Harvard educated Christian white male beats rich old Wellesley/Yale educated Christian white woman - poor underducated white people rejoice), this morning I asked Vivian how she was feeling.

"Okay"
"Mommy seems to be taking it badly", I said.
"I think ladies are taking it more badly" she replied astutely.
"So why aren't you taking it badly?" I countered.
"I have a few more years before I worry about it. You guys made the bad choice. Not our fault."

Amen.

A Little Election Day Racism

Here's a story from the news:

NEW YORK—With just days remaining before the nation heads to the polls, Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly crisscrossed the country this weekend in a frenzied last-minute push to appeal to black voters. “Black outreach is going to be at the center of our campaign during these final few days of the election—we really want black audiences to know they have a friend and advocate in Hillary Clinton,” said Clinton's communications director, Hope Hicks, explaining that the campaign was spending $7 million on advertising targeted at black households in addition to scheduling a whirlwind series of campaign stops in predominantly black cities and neighborhoods as part of their eleventh-hour effort to engage the voting bloc. “Hillary will visit white churches and businesses in several states, conveying a hopeful message to the nation’s African Americans that tomorrow will be brighter. We want black people, and in particular, black women, to recognize that they have a voice in this campaign, and we want to assure them that Hillary Clinton understands the black community’s concerns and will never stop fighting for them as president.” Hicks said she expected the nominee’s message of compassion to resonate deeply with black Americans, stating that it comes from a real place in Clinton's heart.

Now read this link: http://www.theonion.com/article/trump-makes-last-minute-push-appeal-whites-54601

Vivian and Evan - after you read them, did you have different reactions to the two stories? Were they both equally abhorrent or humanistic? No? Does that make you a racist?

Diwali

The weekend before Diwali, the South Asian Mom's hosted a Diwali mela at the same place we had gone for the Holi mela.

The inside was over-crowded. There were activities for kids - but they seemed to have run out of supplies by the time we got there. And a greater part of the room was taken up by the variety program - which was mostly kids doing Bollywood routines (our family has been guilty of this ourselves - of reducing all Indian culture to Bollywood though I've probably seen less that six Bollywood movies in the last 30 years).

We stepped outside for some fresh air and desi food. But the line for the Swad truck was too long so it didn't take much to persuade the kids to go to Tarka for dinner instead. Happy Diwali, y'all.

Goofy

One Saturday morning we walked over to Pacha for a very slow breakfast. On our way back we ran into Jeanne and Simran near Bark and Purr. The kids got pretty goofy for Simran. Jeanne took some photos. In the first Evan is pretending to be pregnant. That's my head under his hoodie - he's sitting on my shoulders.

In this second one, Evan decided he'd try to look like he was just a head growing out of Vivian's chest. I think he managed pretty well.

Weaponized

There was some discussion that other Sunday around the grill that perhaps it's time for a liberal militia (why should only the crazies get to form militia?). But while we putter around in our Priuses and decide if the pen is in fact mightier than the semi automatic, our kids are getting weaponized. Here you can see Evan - the smallest person in the class - practicing with his jong bong. Don't fuck with him - he can poke that pointy end through your pants.