Bangalore...resting up

Had a pretty enjoyable day today....everyday is an adventure....as I find things just move at their own pace around here. My aunt had some business at the bank...so I thought I would go along and help her. She just wanted to open another account. So far we have made three trips and on each one we have been told a different story....the person you need to open this account is not in today, come back tomorrow. Or ""oops sorry that was not the person you needed...the other person you need is not in either. "Oh and you need two photos to open this kind of an account"..........Good lord...has anyone experienced that kind of trouble in a bank in Canada?......Then they gave her a form/booklet (it's written in three languages...English, Hindi and Kannada...the official language of Karnatica, the Province Bangalore happens to be in. It's a mini book!! We are going to ask cousin Daya's husband Arul to help us fill it in. These banks are a nightmare. She'll be dead by the time we get this work done.....only kidding.

Okay....you've noticed this lovely photo I uploaded....it was purely random that I discovered how to do this....but I also have more time to play around on the computer here. This is from Lucknow. The driver Devi took me for a ride to the Immambara (tombs of a couple of important people)The grounds there are lovely and frequented often by people. The driver told me he had never been inside...so I paid for him and we wandered around and took photos. It was a pleasant evening and I was looking for postcards....they produced some ancient relics of postcards and had me convinced postcards were no longer available. I did find some good ones later in a book store.....never believe a vendor when he doesn't have the item you want...and he tries to tell you no one else has it either.

Pearl of wisdom: Banks in India are the Mother of all Bureaucracies

Lucknow UP...what a trip!!

Well, my loyal readers...here I am again....I know some of you have been asking. Well, there was just no easy internet access ...just the opposite to what I thought would happen in Lucknow. Afterall, my cousins there run a business in the adjoining house. ....Nooooo, the computer in the house was in Aunty Gypsie's bedroom, so naturally I didn't want to be using it all the time, hence I got very little writing done on my blog.

I will have to write up on the visit a little later. Suffice to say it was a wonderful trip...this is where I was doing the interviewing etc. Did that, in spite of the fact I fell sick had a fever, and tummy problems and am still not fully ok. Then my partner Zarina had her brother-in-law die in Goa. ..so she took off for a few days...and I bravely carried on. My relatives provided a car a driver for most of the trip there....really kind of them and we got tea and snacks and lunches and dinners where ever we went....Got some great stories....and met some really neat folks. There were some glitches as well.......Zarina set her micro cassette and started the interview...and made the mistake of handing the device to the guy we were talking to.......He must have been nervous, he held it so tight that he pressed the stop button.......so guess what ....he talked for nothing....we got nothing....and then the micro cassette, fell and broke a piece ....kind of a comedy of errors....

My family of Aunty Gypsie, the two daughters, Amrita and Kavita and Aunty Barri (meaning the older one......real name is Mohini...she is my Dad's cousin ..and was a OB/GYN...did a stint at Johns Hopkin at one time) were regaled daily with our goings on....and they always looked forward to the anecdotes about our interviews. I think pretty soon we had found out lots of interesting facts about people's families. Zarina and I giggled about how, if we were not careful, we could become the town gossips!! However, that was not our intent of course. We felt very priviledged to have so many people open their hearts and share their stories with us.

Incidentally, my family in Lucknow have become my best relatives ever.....all of them. It is really ironic that I had never met them before. All these people I met, including the son Ajit( and his lovely daughter Rohina) who occupy the large apartment upstairs and another cousin Inderjit who lives in another house behind them....were absolutely so welcoming and loving and great.....I am without words to describe. Oh and did I mention the absolutely beautiful and well kept and really professional lawn and garden they have......a full time Mali (gardener) with an assistant or two to help him. ....what more could one want....just a peacock or two to add to the ambiance..and they come around as well!!!...Actually they sat around squawking on the tree in the mornings outside my window...and that I could have done without.

I had a lovely large bedroom and bathroom to myself. Glad I didn't offer to share with Zarina...she was invited everyday for lunch though to our place...which she accepted happily......her accommodations are another story.....The way she described it sounded like a comedy show!!

Tomorrow I leave for Hyderabad. So off to bed.