Album 2: India Diary

We took the kids to India (almost) every winter. Apart from the photos which serve as good memories, there were their diaries, which were fun to read and gave us a good perspective of our desh from their ABCD point of view.

Here are excerpts from my son’s album from a trip he made when he was nine.

It was fun staying with family. The kids got a lot of attention. A lot of love. And a lot of gifts. Well, my daughter did. She got gold necklaces and diamond earrings. My son got ganjis. Not just any ganjis. Rupa ganjis.

It was fun eating out. “We ate lunch at The China Garden. The food was excellent! Better than any Chinese restaurant in the States!”

Well, I guess not all the time. “We went out to dinner with my cousins to the New Yorker. The pizza was De gou tant - which means disgusting in French. It had one speck of sauce and 20 pounds of cheese.”

It was fun eating at home. Well, again, not all the time. “Today’s Christmas! Also my cousin’s birthday! Today we celebrated my cousin’s birthday by having the biggest turkey ever. It was made so beautifully, it looked as if a gourmet cook prepared it. There was just one problem - I hate turkey. Call me crazy if you will, but I think it just doesn’t have any taste. So I ate Indian food. After dinner, we all had cake and chocolates. I wish my birthday was on the 25th too.”

It wasn’t always fun. “A bad thing is the pollution - it is awful. It’s the pollution that makes me wheeze. They call me Wheezer William. There is dust, bugs, trash and dirt flying everywhere you go. My mom, sister and my aunt go shopping. I watch TV, play basketball and golf and then start wheezing.”

That year, we also did the Golden Triangle. We went to the Amber Fort on an elephant.

Who would’ve thought that my daughter would be making the same trip almost exactly fourteen years later and come back with a ring on her finger?








We went to Jaipur. At the museum, we saw the Bhagvad Gita “handwritten in about number 5 font size”. On the way to Fathhepur Sikri, we got a flat tire. While the driver was fixing it, the kids looked around for entertainment on the side of the road.  “It was kind of fun, because there was a pond and we threw rocks in it. There was an old lady, who yelled at us for throwing the rocks. We gave her thirty cents to shut up. My mom called her my mother-in-law.”

The old lady was not the only one who yelled at him on the trip. On our return to Bombay, we attended my nephew’s wedding. “We were hungry, so my mom ordered french fries. She got mad because I put the ketchup bottle in my turban.” I realize Indian weddings are boring, but sitting patiently with the guests is the least he could have done. “Pahiniben and I were sitting behind them. She said that what happens if I pinched a guy’s butt? She tried it and he screamed! It was funny.”

Nope, it wasn't funny.