In the morning I woke up a bit early due to the time change,
I did a bit of exploring in the amazing apartment I got to stay in for the
night. There are gorgeous
paintings of the gods and a little prayer room for Shiva. I looked out onto the city and could
see everything across the bridge, even though there was a thick layer of smog,
I breathed in the morning air but all I could smell were car emissions. I went back to bed for a short while
after this until I heard noise around the apartment, then I took an amazing hot
shower and but my overalls on, my one and only traveling outfit for a car
ride. I stepped outside my room
and into the living room not to find Pranav but his grandfather. After we introduced ourselves we talked
about my trip and then Indian culture, of course I brought my dad up because
without him I wouldn’t be as interested in it. Pranav’s grandpa took an instant liking to my dad and I
showed him all the photos of him when he was in India. He was very impressed with the
knowledge that we had about the Indian culture. It was different when I was asked if I wanted toast (I said
yes) and the person that runs the house brought me out food. He isn’t a servant because he gets paid
but he does everything in the house for the family. I enjoyed my toast very much and Pranav’s grandmother came
out to join us and said I will eat the normal breakfast meal with them. Pranav was still asleep somehow so
first his grandmother went to wake him and then the grandfather and then all of
us. He honestly sleeps like a log,
he was getting his feet slapped, being yelled and I was even poking him with a
boomerang. Finally after hard work
of trying to wake him he rolled over and woke up, his grandfather scolded him
and told Pranav that I was already awake and dressed.
For breakfast I had egg whites with lots of pepper sprinkled
over top and a flat kind of potato bread.
I started eating it with a fork but grandpa told me to put it down and
eat with my fingers… made things much easier. After breakfast I packed my things, took advantage of the
Wi-Fi and then Pranav and I were off to Pune!
We hopped into the car and drove through the city. Everyone talked about how it would be
such a culture shock for me but I have yet to experience this said
“shock”. I loved seeing how
different everything was and kept my eyes fixed outside the window the whole
time. A trany came up to our
window asking for money and it is good luck if you give it to them but I
couldn’t stop laughing after he left… or she. When we got into really heavy traffic people would come up
to the car and try to sell us sunscreens, bobble heads and oranges, it was like
a market on the street. Oh my
goodness I almost forgot about the driving… there are no lines on the road so
people just drive where they want.
It is close to organized chaos except that even when the light is red
people will go through it and people honk to signal they are coming up behind
you or to move out of the way. Sometimes we would go so fast I would get white knuckles and
hold my breath, craziest driving in the world I think. The drive to Pune was 3 hours or so and
probably for the last hour Pranav and I fell asleep in the back seat. As we drove through the mountains it
reminded me a bit of the drive to Whistler, except that everything was a lot
dryer and that I was in India.
We finally arrived at his house in Pune, which is in a gated
community, and his mother Karuna greeted me right away. We were both very excited to meet each other! My room here is amazing and in my bathroom
they got everything I could possibly need; shampoo, conditioner, body wash,
loofas, perfume, lotion and powder that smells like roses. I unpacked a little bit and then we sat
down and had lunch with Karuna. She
showed me what to eat with what, she uses her fingers to eat everything and I
am just not use to eating that way yet but I will soon!
Pranav and I took his yellow lab Snow for a walk around the
neighborhood. His dog is so cute
but it makes me miss my babies at home.
Pranav tells me that Snow gets into trouble a lot; he goes for walks by
himself and then gets to tired to make it home and Pranav has to wait with him,
sometimes for hours.
Back at home Karuna decided to take us for a drive to the
University. It is on a huge campus
with tons of trees that are hundreds of years old. Karuna use to teach here as an astrophysics professor, how
cool is that!! When we got back
Pranav and I went for another walk to meet up with his friend and drive around
Pune. While we walked Pranav
taught me how so say thank you, lets go, lets go quickly, and how are you. He had a good laugh when I pronounced
Pune wrong, I was saying Pune-ee but it is pronounced Pune-ay… he harassed me
for the rest of the day for that.
Finally his friend showed up and we went for a bit of a drive
again. Pune has crazy drivers but
not as crazy as Mumbai.
When we got home Pranav and I watched 5 episodes of Pokémon…
he is also my new Pokémon buddy!
After this glorious use of time I had a shower, it was well needed
because my hair was starting to get greasy. I played my music and had an amazing shower in my new
home. I got myself ready for
dinner… I am being taken out tonight for food. I put on my white t-shirt and orange printed pants because I
wasn’t sure what else to wear. We
all sat down outside to eat some samosas and another thing I wasn’t sure of but
all was delicious. For dinner we went to a restaurant that has just about
everything on the menu, gnocchi to burgers, but all really nice food. I ordered the gnocchi vs. noodi,
absolutely amazing with so many spices on it! For dessert all four of us shared a tiramisu that was
divine, the cream was the best part.
During dinner I could barely keep myself awake, it was almost 11, and
the only thing that would do it was food.
When it was time to go I half fell asleep in the car and answered a
question wrong, didn’t even know what the question was actually.
I was so happy to get my jammies on and just collapse in my
bed and sleep till the sun is high in the sky.
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