Nov. 19 - 24 Back to Gurgaon

After a French toast breakfast (seem to prefer honey over syrup here) in Jaipur, we made good time back to Gurgaon and spent the remainder of the week getting settled back in, running errands. We found it easy enough to open a bank account here (yes, ironic, isn’t it, that Joe works for a bank – in fact is working for said bank here…).

Anyway, the challenge now lies in getting funds into the bank. Really only due to inept wire transfer instructions/expertise and probably too many people trying to help. (Seems like many hands like to get involved in all kinds of things here, big and small, which muddies the waters more often than not.)

I do believe we now have a handle on the banking situation. (While we’d love to visa it up, cash cash cash is king here, thus access to rupees proves helpful.)

Wed. we caught the tail end of coffee with the Gurgaon group as Citibank absorbed the morning, but a few women had lingered so we were soon off to coffee at a lovely New York woman’s home. She’s an Indian American lawyer building a home/office with her dad here in Gurgaon. We got a tour of her ecofriendly home (in an incredibly un-environmentally sensitive area). She showed us around a nearby market and left us to check out a lethally smelly pet store. 30+ bunnies, ½ dozen birds, one puppy and some ripe fish. Another blessing of hotel living: no pets allowed.

Thurs.

I had big plans to jet off into Delhi and join the British Council library today, as I’d been told it’s the best resource in the area for English books, and because I needed a good library fix. We did eventually find the place (Roop asked policemen, rickshaw drivers, auto drivers, turbaned men standing on corners, you name it, for directions).

As it turns out the library is adequate, membership is $70 for a handful of books and required documentation upon documentation. After learning the process, assessing the value and commute (it would be like going from Davidson into Charlotte during rush hour for a few books), I passed. We instead read half the kids section in our 2 hours there and stopped at the American Embassy to see what they offer.
Apparently their selection is less, just as much a process and only available a few hours a week. Hello bookstore, here we come.

Fri.

Our friend Margie whisked us off to the Delhi connection’s bread/chocolate tasting at a new restaurant in Kahn Market (highly recommend it – called Chocolat). We met the owner, visited with the chef while he sliced bread and made acquaintance with several ladies from Europe/the U.S. Then we did some shopping, stopped at a theatre/arts place in Gurgaon for a look around and a walk through their art exhibit (met the chef at the restaurant there, too).

In the evening we met up w/ two Americans Joe had visited with when he was house hunting (make that hotel shopping) in September. We enjoyed Italian food and story swapping.


Sat.

Our 11th anniversary! Who knew we’d be here when we started our life together 11 years ago?

We had a fun day – went to a bookstore (obviously I was obsessed with books this week), right prices, decent selection! And we checked out a grocery store (love grocery stores). Spencers caters to affluent Indians and foreigners, is most akin to the grocery store concept we know and had glass windows in front of the bakery. Kids parked there to watch the bakers churn out all kinds of fancy pastries, Joe ended up conversing w/ the store manager. And I checked out every aisle.

We also stopped at Cottage Industries, a store that sells handcrafted items at good prices. Nice gift items. TGIF’s for lunch (I know, not exactly anniversary material, but it sounded good!) And not bad vegetarian fajitas.

On that topic (vegetarianism), I have no plans to become one anytime soon, but I’m discovering it would be quite easy and satisfying here, given the wide array of DELICIOUS and satisfying vegetarian items. Must be all the wonderful lentils, yogurt, cheese, flavorful herbs, nuts, etc. I particularly like the cottage cheese that is used in so many different ways.

Now if only I could stop thinking about the millk – after seeing what seems like most of the Indian cow population grazing on trash (plastic bags have been a problem for them in particular) and undesirable plant material, I’d hoped to learn that their milk isn’t finding its way onto my breakfast table. Jai tells me there aren’t dairies here, just small producers…let’s hope he’s wrong or that the milk import business is strong. BST hsa become the least of my concerns.

So now we’ve been here 4 weeks, hard to believe. It’s been quite enjoyable! Some recent observations: men are everywhere, they clean our rooms, are chefs/waitstaff, drivers, business people, hoteliers, etc etc. Women are sprinkled throughout in the workforce but fewer (or at least from what I've seen). (Well, plenty are in the fields and at construction sites, carrying rocks regally on their heads, dressed in brightly colored saris).

In today’s paper was an article listing percentages of male births over female births, still occurring today, just as big a bias toward males than females in today’s more affluent areas (attributed to greater access to ultrasound technology, alternative procedures).

How strange to consider as we raise daughters in what we hope is the most egalitarian culture/fashion as is possible. Gender bias seems so pointless to me; I guess some things I’ll never understand and frankly why try.

On a lighter note, off to Goa this week and so looking forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving!