October 2012

Robert's colleague Suresh and his wife Revathy invited us over for dinner at their house. They prepared a wonderful meal and Mikey had a great time with their daughter Aditi and their son Ashwin.

Revathy's father taught Robert and Steve to play the original Indian game Carrom. You can describe Carrom as 'finger pool'. On a 29" x 29" wooden board, players flick a large weighted disc (the striker) at smaller wooden discs (the carrom-men). The goal is to sink your 9 carrom-men (black or white), as well as the red Queen, in the four corner pockets.

Both Robert and Steve picked up the game really well and enjoyed playing it!!!

On Oct 16, 2012 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came for a visit to Hyderabad for the United Nations Conference of Parties (CoP). It was unbelievable how many improvements the city made for this short visit and conference. It was called the beatification project and all of a sudden our regular pile of dirt that we used as a point of reference throughout the city was gone. We lost all sense of direction!!! Haha!! They painted the walls of the overpass roads, they planted trees in the medians; they actually improved the roads!!! Hyderabad never looked so good :)

Also, the police presence was enormous!! I have never seen so many police men in my life. They had set up a mobile station near my home at the Gachibowli Stadium. There was also a team of RAF (Rapid Action Force) near Robert's office. The RAF were the teams that helped out during the notorious Mumbai bombings. 

On our way home, Mikey saw an Indian Fire Engine and of course we had to stop. 

 Mikey was invited to sit inside the fire engine and they loved showing him around.

My driver said that if Mikey was an Indian kid, he would have never been asked to come inside the fire engine, he would have been 'shoo'ed' away. That made me a little sad that just because of his skin color, Mikey was treated like a king. But on the other hand it made our experience in India so much more amazing!!!!

Mid October, Mikey and his class mates started rehearsing for the Annual Concert. Here they are waiting for the school bus and decided to wait on top of a motor bike. How much fun is that :)

October 13 was finally the day of the annual concert. Mikey's class (PP2) was scheduled to do a Bhangra dance; which is a Punjabi-style dance. 

 Mikey did great and had so much fun doing it!!!!

Another night at The Westin, Mikey was wearing his Kurta (a traditional Indian shirt) and all the Indians loved it of course :)

Mikey loved the Westin; the manager called him the 'King of the Westin' :)

September 2012

The weekend of September 15, 2012 we tried another staycation at the ITC Hyderabad since the last one at the Westin didn't work out so well because Mikey was sick. This staycation was very nice and relaxing, but the ITC is an older hotel and it wasn't as nearly as nice as the Westin. I know, I am getting spoiled. Once night Steve joined us for dinner and the same night Manjusha's son Jai stayed with us at the hotel. Mikey loved it!!!!

The next day we drove back into town because one of the women on the Hyderabad mums page invited all Jewish families to come to her house to celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. We met Julie and her children and her mom who was visiting from the US (unfortunately her husband was out of town). And we met Laura and Phil and their 3 wonderful children. It was such a fun afternoon, we didn't want to go back to the hotel for the rest of our staycation. 

One of the places we would eat regularly was Chili's at Inorbit Mall. Mikey and I would come into town often to meet Robert and Steve (you can see them in the picture in the background) for lunch. I tried to take the picture with the sign in Hindu in the background, guess I'm not a great photographer :)
The running joke at Chili's was that the entire time we were in Hyderabad, Chili's was out of chips for the salsa because apparently their shipment was stuck at customs in Mumbai..... for months!!! I hope when they showed up eventually that they were discarded. I cannot imagine customs at mumbai being very sanitary for food :)


On September 28, WaveCrest had their annual party at The Regenta Hotel. A new hotel where Steve had been staying for weeks. Since Robert had a free night at the hotel, we decided to stay overnight as well. I know, it seems that we stayed in more hotels than in our condo. We just love hotels :)

Since we stayed at the hotel, Mikey and I kind of crashed the party. Mikey hung out with Robert and Steve and I took pictures of the party. Mikey had the BEST time!!!

The common photo opp: Robert with Mikey on his shoulders :)

Naveen (who had stayed with us in the US in July) was having a great time

Even Robert joined in on the dancing :)

Steve had a great time too. Mikey wouldn't leave him alone!!! Mikey loved it when Steve would make him jump real high!!!

 Steve jumped him up so much that Mikey was upside down!!!!! HE LOVED IT!!!!

It was a fun party and another fun staycation at The Regenta.

On September 29 we decided (like many other weekends) to take a little driving trip. Robert would drive and we would just end up where we end up. We saw some really interesting places by our little outings :)

During this outing we sprung upon a place called 'Songs of Earth'. It was very interesting. They had several different apartments and this apparently was a team building place. We got a tour and couldn't believe we found this in the middle of nowhere!!!!

I had to go to the bathroom for a minute and in the meantime Robert and Steve were 'playing' with my new camera :) This is what you get guys: I post the pics!!!! ha ha!!!!

Later that day we kept driving and all over town there were the celebrations of the Ganesha festival. Ganesha is widely worshipped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune.

The festival lasts for 10 days. On the 11th day (the day we took our driving trip) the clay statue is taken through the streets in a procession accompanied with dancing, singing and fanfare to be immersed in a river or sea. Hindus worship idols, or statues, of their gods because it gives them a visible form to pray to. They also recognize that the universe is in a constant state of change. Form eventually gives away to formlessness. However, the energy still remains. The immersion of the Ganesha statue in a body of water, and subsequent destruction of them serves as a reminder of this belief.

We saw some happy people and parties on the way!!!! 

Another fun day in Hyderabad!!!

August 2012

August 1, 2012 we flew back to Hyderabad. 30 hours is such a long trip, even in Business Class!!!!
We were very happy to be back home.
Life in Hyderabad is just so different than back in the US. I missed my maid Laxmi and my driver Venkat :)

Of course Mikey's favorite thing in Hyderabad is driving with Venkat; whether it's on his motor cycle or in the car!!!

After being home for a few weeks, we decided to plan a weekend staycation in Hyderabad at our favorite hotel The Westin.

The water was a bit chilly but Mikey loves the pool!!!

Of course the next day he was sick and it got worse during the day so we had the Westin doctor come in. I wasn't very impressed with the doctor, but he put him on albuterol treatments. Mikey was miserable and throwing up constantly. But if you want to be sick somewhere in Hyderabad, the Westin is the most comfortable place! 

The next day we went back home but Mikey was so sick still, that on the way home I decided to stop by another doctor. Of course my driver had taken a day off and I had to drive myself in this crazy town with a sick kid in the backseat. This doctor decided to diagnose Mikey with Typhoid!!! I was freaking out!!!!
Luckily I was part of an amazing Facebook group of Hyderabad moms and one of the moms said that she and her kids were diagnosed with thypoid many times and the diagnosis was never right.
So I went to a third doctor and then finally a fourth at a pediatric hospital where they did blood work and ruled out typhoid...

Mikey was finally feeling better and was able to go back to school. I filled my days with going to the mall and trying to learn new things about India. My husband's colleague Satish asked his wife Lakshmi to go to the local vegetable market. She was so sweet and helped me figure out which of the very foreign looking vegetables I should get. (except of course for the tomatoes, cucumbers etc)

She also brought her sister; they were so nice and helpful!!!

August 26, 2012 we celebrated Robert's birthday at our favorite restaurant La Cantina at the Novotel. Manjusha brought an amazing cake for his birthday!! It didn't just look good, it tasted good too!!!!! 

Robert, me and Steve at La Cantina :)