July 10, 2012 - Food and Family

We awoke at 8:15am, and hurriedly engaged in morning rituals in preparation for the day. The family had been invited to breakfast and lunch at a close family member’s house – Saji Chettan. He has been amazing to Vinay’s family.

Due to Mom’s poor health, she has often needed someone to take care of her. It is a constant source of stress to Vinay. There are no “nursing homes” or equivalent in Chandrapur. Not many visiting nurses or home health care options. But, she needs someone with her 24 hours a day. There have been times in the past where she has fallen and, for several hours, not been able to move until someone found her. Right now, she does have a maid that is living with her to assist with cleaning, making food, and there in case she falls.

Several times she has been in the hospital and Saji Chettan and his family have been there to take care of her. They are such a warm hearted, good natured, generous, and happy family. Due to their closeness to the Thottunkal family (they are family – in fact, adding Chettan as a part of his name means brother – brother Saji, to explain his closeness to the family) Saji and his wife Usha invited us over to eat both breakfast and lunch with them. They have three children – Sneha, (the girl that went with shopping for salwars yesterday), and older daughter (whom we would meet a week later) and a 10 year boy.

On the way to their house, I was struck by all the amazing colors and vibrant fabrics flowing around every Indian woman’s body. The streets might be dingy and dirty, but the Indians and their clothing, most certainly are not. Indians usually smile and wave at us, greeting us with beaming faces. They always seem so happy. Vibrant fuchsias, lush lime greens, florescent yellows, marvelous magentas, bold turquoises, OSU oranges, sparkling golds,  reflective ocean blues, lipstick pinks, shimmering periwinkles, violets, and purples – each shade of color, all the intrigue patterns and textures, all bringing a taste and life to India that is difficult to describe in words.

We arrived at Saji Chettan’s house, kicked off our shoes (shoes are not worn inside homes as a sign of respect - feet are unclean) and greeted our hosts. Immediately I am in awe of the vivacious pink walls texturized with droplets of colors.

Here are some pictures of the afore mentioned wall:

Other pictures of their house - love the vivid colors!

Our breakfast was delicious.  See pictures below.

Because of our closeness with the family, we stayed for both breakfast and lunch. In between meals, we sat and visited with the family.

Sneha picked some flowers for us, and we pinned them in our hair.

Sneha also gave me a few lessons in Malayalam - the language Vinay and his family speaks at home. I can say "I love you," "I like ice cream," "see you again," and "I'm going to kick your butt." I'm surprised sometimes by how much I'm picking up - just from listening to Vinay and his family speak it over the phone and Skype and for the few weeks I'm ever in India. I'm not really focusing on learning Malyalam though - I'd rather learn Hindi as it is easier and more of India speaks it. Vinay assures me that if I speak Hindi - he and his mother will speak it more often than Malayalam. There is no Rosetta stone for Malayalam as only a small percentage of the world speaks it (33 million people), and only those Indians born or have descendents from the state of Kerela, India - where we are flying tomorrow.

This is Sneha teaching me while I take a few notes on my phone:

After my Malaylam lessons, the young 10 year old asked me if I wanted to see a garden. I said “YES!” very enthusiastically, because there is little flora and fauna in Chandrapur and I would love to see some flowers. Imagine my surprise when he led me down the cobble dirt street and into a overgrown park/playground. Oh! This is a playground! The boy nodded his head enthusiastically – a garden! So, apparently a garden in India is really a playground. Due to the British influence of India, much of the English spoke is British English – not American English. Often these two use very different words for the same thing. I unfortunately, did not get any pictures of the "garden."

The young boy and I swung for a bit and then headed back inside for lunch. I can’t even remember what we had now – but it was delicious J. 

We were pretty tired after the long day and we were taking a plane in the morning to Kerela – so we just relaxed at the house and retired early after returning from Saji Chettan’s house.