I thought I would introduce you to my wonderful extended family here. You cannot imagine how warm, generous and thoughtful they are. They aren't just hospitable, they are completely selfless when it comes to making sure we are comfortable and happy. Its very heart warming.
Everyday Roy's dad walks down the street to get new bottled water for me and baby- the best brand here, to make sure we stay safe. He was buying big jugs but I guess we were going through it a little fast and the other day he came home with a giant water bottle you put upside down on a dispenser. How he hauled this up 4 floors- don't know.
As some of you may know, we found out he had periampulary cancer (of the connection points of the liver,pancreas,stomach, and intestine) earlier this year. As you can imagine, the family was devastated. He spent 4 months in Mumbai and had surgery and is now having chemo here in Bangalore. He seems to be doing quite well so far. He went for a ultrasound a few days back and everything looked good (btw- people here don't typically have insurance here, so pay for services as they are rendered. The ultrasound cost 800 rupees, which is around $15, which Roy happily paid)
Here he is with Shivali:
Roy's mom works all day- cleaning, cooking, taking care of everyone. Most of her work she does by hand, which she seems to prefer. She is very religious so follows all these Hindu and regional religious customs of not eating certain foods on certain days, doing prayers in the house (they have a closet sized room devoted to worship), and other customs like not eating until all the housework is done, prayers are finished and cooked for everyone and they are done eating. She is a very mild mannered traditional woman. She finds me entertaining I think. She doesn't know much English, so we can't talk much but we find a way to communicate or someone translates which works ok.
Here she is giving the baby a massage before her bath, which apparently is a main grandma job.
Roy is the oldest child, and has 2 sisters. His oldest is named Debika. She is short and tiny with long curly hair to her waist. She is the more traditional sister and is very easy going. She works in a call center for JP Morgan doing HR support. I laugh at the way she talks sometimes because she has been given vocal training to lesson her accent and sometimes I feel she sounds Amish (which I had to explain the concept to her). She is currently engaged- we sorta. She worked with a guy named Shubro. He is super nice. The last time I was here, I could tell he liked her but nobody would ever admit this. Apparently at some point her parents thought it might be good for them to get married. So they talked to her and I think she thought of him just as a friend but once they suggested marrying him I guess she was ok. So they approached him and I think he was more than happy about this idea. So I would call this a semi-arranged marriage. They seem happy, and because he is also Bengali and from the highest caste (their social structure here), he is a good catch.
Roy's youngest sister is named Dipika (you can look back at the older ones name now- Debika, yes they are closely named after their father) She goes to college- fashion design school. She is very un-Indian if you ask me. She doesn't eat much Indian food, hates spicy things and doesn't seem to want to do any of the prayers or traditional things important to most people. I like her, we spend a lot of time talking and she seems very American-ish to me. She is a little more spunky, which I think is cute, but the family seems to get a little irritated with her.
Here are a couple of house pictures-
Here is their apartment from the outside (most people rent here vs own)
Here is a cool panoramic of the view from the balcony (very Agriba looking, from the Aladdin movie if you ask me)
Here is the prayer room I mentioned earlier:
Here it is typically to take and 'Indian Bath' which consists of dumping cups of water over your head from a large bucket. I didn't understand this concept but have a little better understanding now. Water is released from the city only once per day- a kind of 'crowd control' for water. So everyone has these big storage tanks on the roof. Water is not typically heated (although we do have a small solar powered water heater here). So people fill these big buckets in the bathroom and let the water sit to heat it otherwise its too cold to shower in. The other strange thing to me is that the shower area is right in the bathroom so the whole room gets wet. This is a European concept, which I don't personally like but nobody seems to mind.
And by popular demand- here is the famous Indian toilet (which I refer to as the hole in the ground) but apparently this one has a flush. For obvious reasons, I stick to the Western bathroom. There is a bucket and mug that also goes along with this- for what; I'll let you figure that out. (hint: there is no TP here
Everyday Roy's dad walks down the street to get new bottled water for me and baby- the best brand here, to make sure we stay safe. He was buying big jugs but I guess we were going through it a little fast and the other day he came home with a giant water bottle you put upside down on a dispenser. How he hauled this up 4 floors- don't know.
As some of you may know, we found out he had periampulary cancer (of the connection points of the liver,pancreas,stomach, and intestine) earlier this year. As you can imagine, the family was devastated. He spent 4 months in Mumbai and had surgery and is now having chemo here in Bangalore. He seems to be doing quite well so far. He went for a ultrasound a few days back and everything looked good (btw- people here don't typically have insurance here, so pay for services as they are rendered. The ultrasound cost 800 rupees, which is around $15, which Roy happily paid)
Here he is with Shivali:
Roy's mom works all day- cleaning, cooking, taking care of everyone. Most of her work she does by hand, which she seems to prefer. She is very religious so follows all these Hindu and regional religious customs of not eating certain foods on certain days, doing prayers in the house (they have a closet sized room devoted to worship), and other customs like not eating until all the housework is done, prayers are finished and cooked for everyone and they are done eating. She is a very mild mannered traditional woman. She finds me entertaining I think. She doesn't know much English, so we can't talk much but we find a way to communicate or someone translates which works ok.
Here she is giving the baby a massage before her bath, which apparently is a main grandma job.
Roy is the oldest child, and has 2 sisters. His oldest is named Debika. She is short and tiny with long curly hair to her waist. She is the more traditional sister and is very easy going. She works in a call center for JP Morgan doing HR support. I laugh at the way she talks sometimes because she has been given vocal training to lesson her accent and sometimes I feel she sounds Amish (which I had to explain the concept to her). She is currently engaged- we sorta. She worked with a guy named Shubro. He is super nice. The last time I was here, I could tell he liked her but nobody would ever admit this. Apparently at some point her parents thought it might be good for them to get married. So they talked to her and I think she thought of him just as a friend but once they suggested marrying him I guess she was ok. So they approached him and I think he was more than happy about this idea. So I would call this a semi-arranged marriage. They seem happy, and because he is also Bengali and from the highest caste (their social structure here), he is a good catch.
Roy's youngest sister is named Dipika (you can look back at the older ones name now- Debika, yes they are closely named after their father) She goes to college- fashion design school. She is very un-Indian if you ask me. She doesn't eat much Indian food, hates spicy things and doesn't seem to want to do any of the prayers or traditional things important to most people. I like her, we spend a lot of time talking and she seems very American-ish to me. She is a little more spunky, which I think is cute, but the family seems to get a little irritated with her.
Here are a couple of house pictures-
Here is their apartment from the outside (most people rent here vs own)
Here is the prayer room I mentioned earlier:
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