Summer, with various bugs

It's summer here in south India. And yes, it is hot! Temps are hovering around 100 most days, and lows are only in the high 70s at night.

A few nights ago we had a huge thunderstorm. That was pretty cool (except that the thunder kept me from sleeping. In part it was just the noise, and in part I was worried that the kids would wake up scared, even though they've never done so in a storm before. But this one was really loud! Eventually I got up to check on on them. They were both sound asleep, sprawled across their beds. In the morning they expressed surprise upon learning there had been a storm at all), but we've had bit of rain each of the next two days, and now there is standing water all over campus. In addition to my general hatred of mosquitoes, I now have the additional concern of diseases they carry. So I'm really, really hoping that things dry out again soon.

And then tonight Robert came home from some interviews he'd been doing in the city and announced that the termites were swarming outside. Which was, in fact, somewhat obvious at that point as the 10 seconds the front door was open allowed about a dozen flying termites into the apartment. This is my first encounter with flying termites; I'm hoping they don't swarm for long!

Finally, there are the ants, who for some unknown reason are swarming the kitchen with extra vigor, and paying particular attention to the faucet on the sink. I gotta admit, that's a new one for me. Luckily the resident geckos are also paying extra attention to the kitchen, or at least hanging out there more, so I hope to see a decrease in the ant population soon. We see one tiny gecko pretty often. He had an accident to his tail, making him easy to identify, and leading the kids to name him "Stumpy". The adult gecko they spotted in the hall tonight (no doubt gorging on termites) has been christened "Fatty". 

Kerala, part 3

Now as I might've mentioned, we didn't spend all of our time in Kerala lounging and stuffing ourselves. Oh no. We were proper travelers and went out and saw things! And I must say, the things to see in Kerala are mighty fine.

One morning we got up at the crack of dawn (seriously, it was 6am! Even the kids were disappointed by the hour) and met our wonderful guide, Sunil, outside the hotel. He drove us to the Konadad Elephant Training Center, where orphaned elephants are raised and trained to do forestry and temple work (aka, earn their keep).  At the moment most of the elephants there are adults, but there was one baby. Furthermore, we were promised an elephant ride!

The drive out was somewhat long and windy, and Liel got a bit carsick. Sunil pulled over, gave everyone mango juice and water, and showed us a cinnamon tree and a touch-me-not plant. When Liel was recovered we went on.

The reason for the early departure was that first thing in the morning, around 8am, the elephants get bathed. We watched the mahouts unchain their elephants (each elephant has two mahouts, and all of the elephants are kept chained to trees when they are not training, bathing, etc. It was sad to see, but I'm not sure what, if any, alternatives exist. Obviously loose elephants roaming around wouldn't do at all, either at the center or at their future places of employment). Then the elephant would hold out one of its front legs, and one mahout would use that as a stair and climb onto the elephants back. Then away they'd go to the river. The baby elephant (who is kept in a cage, not chained) was very naughty and kept swerving on her way down to grab a snack from the side of the road.

When the big elephants got to the river they'd lay down on one side and get a thorough scrubbing from their mahouts.

The baby elephant was so small that she didn't need to lie down yet- she just stood there and enjoyed the attention.

The kids really enjoyed this!

Here's a lovely, clean adult elephant.

When the baby was clean we were allowed to pat her and have our picture taken with her. She was quite interested in Zion's shoulder, as you can see. Robert pushed her trunk away, and she wrapped it around his hand and pulled it toward her mouth! The kids didn't notice at the time, but the story of the naughty baby elephant who tried to taste daddy's hand has since become a favorite. She didn't actually taste his hand though, one of her mahouts noticed and intervened.

After that we got a lesson on some of the local flora, which included rubber trees, nutmeg trees, mango trees and betel nut trees while the elephants had their breakfast.

Here Liel and I try some fresh nutmeg. It was pretty cool! Tasted like...sour nutmeg.

We also saw the baby elephant coming back from the temple. Apparently she goes there each morning after her bath to be blessed. You can see the marks on her forehead and flowers in her hair.

Then the moment the kids were waiting for most of all: our elephant ride. We were instructed to leave our shoes at the top of the stairs.

Then it was time to leave the elephant center and head back to town. On the way Sunil stopped a couple of times to buy us different bananas to try, including one that he said was known as the "king of bananas". I thought it was good banana, but Robert declared it the best banana he'd ever eaten! I can't say enough good things about Sunil- he was a truly fantastic guide, and if you're ever in Kerala you should look him up. You won't regret it!

The last place he took us was a spice market. It was fantastic, and smelled amazing. I wasn't really prepared though (even though I'd asked to visit such a place- silly me!), so I just bought some different curry blends for a friend.

But that wasn't the end of our sightseeing, oh no! There is more to come. 

Little things

Sometimes it's the little things that make you happy. Like the other day when we came out of our apartment building and saw a monkey with a pink sheet on the wall across the street. I have no idea where the monkey found the sheet, but  it was sure having a good time with it.

First it examined its prize a bit.

Then it tried it on.

And finally, it tasted it to see if the sheet was good to eat.

The monkey was still chewing on the sheet when we left, but has since abandoned it, so I'm guessing that it did not find the sheet to be particularly delicious.

Another thing that makes us all happy is seeing our favorite stray campus dog. We've named him Prakruthi, because, as I've mentioned, he hangs out at our favorite restaurant of the same name. Zion is particularly fond of him, and asked us to take some pictures of him and Prakruthi when we saw him relaxing in the shade a few days ago.

Robert was taking pictures of them too, which is why Zion is looking in the other direction with particularly wide eyes. Trying not to blink and all. And as you can see, the dog is looking in that direction too-- clearly boy and dog have bonded ;)

Actually, last night Zion suggested that it would be really nice if we could take Prakruthi home with us when we go back to New York. Sigh!

And finally, no post about the happiness of little things would be complete without a picture of our local Happiness Station!

Oh Coke, bringing happiness wherever you go!

(The white sign with a Coke bottle on it is advertising a 200ml bottle of Coke for Rs 8-- about 15 cents.  The green sign above it says that Prakruthi will accept all outdoor catering jobs at reasonable rates. I can barely express how much I wish we could bring them back with us!)

Wild campus in the big city

Before we moved to Bangalore, people who had been here said, upon learning that we'd be living on the IISc campus, "Oh, it's a lovely campus! Very green and wild". That sounded pretty nice to me, but I wasn't really sure how wild a college campus in a city of nearly 7 million could be.

The answer, it turns out, is surprisingly so! First of all, the IISc campus actually has woods on it- green space accessible only by foot. These areas are truly lovely, and often remote enough from the world outside the walls that even the constant honking of car horns can't be heard, which makes them very peaceful as well.

The campus is also home to a huge number of different plants and animals. Since nearly all of them are unfamiliar to us, we bought two gorgeous books at the campus bookstore so that we could learn about the organisms that share this space with us.

The first book, Secret Lives, is about the animals on campus. If you've ever met my children or read my blog you'll know why we bought that one first! It was written by a woman who did her PhD here at IISc, and she took all the pictures (which are spectacular) as well. We learned that the birds we'd been seeing everywhere were black-tailed kites, that the monkeys on our road were bonneted macaques, that there were mongooses living at the air field, and many other things besides. We've been using Secret Lives as a kind of field guide to the campus as we tromp around looking for different animals.

The second book we just bought yesterday. We'd have bought it sooner, but as these books are so huge and full of amazing photographs they're a bit pricey, and we kept forgetting to bring enough cash when we were over by the bookstore. It's called Indian Institute of Science Campus: A Botanist's Delight, and I can tell it's going to be great for helping us learn to identify plants around here! We've already figured out what some of the ones we were most curious about are, and the kids love flipping through it and telling me where different plants are found, what family they belong to, when they flower, and if we'll be here when they do. They are going to be the backbone of our homeschooling science curriculum for the rest of the time we're here in India!

In addition to being fantastic science resources for us, the books have sparked the kids' imaginations as well.

For instance, there are some really beautiful flowers in the botany book called blood flowers. They're pretty cool looking-- like big pink puffballs-- and Zion was quite taken with them. The information section on them said that they grow at the Director's Bungalow.

We pass by the Director's Bungalow nearly every day. It is the only building we see regularly that is totally gated and has a guard to determine who is allowed entry. It also has has a "No horns" sign right outside it, which the kids approve of. In short, the Director's Bungalow is rather mysterious and interesting to them, and now they know it to be the one place on campus where blood flowers grow, which upped its cool factor even further. They wondered how the photographer got access to this gated fortress. Did he have permission to come on any time and take pictures? Or did he see the blood flowers, and ask to come in for that one event?

A little while after reading about the blood flowers Zion told me a story about a second, largely unseen, IISc that co-exists in the same space as the one that we live in. This other IISc is for animals. He tells me that the director of the animal IISc is barred forest owl, and lives in a bungalow in the best tree in the forst at Jubliee Park. All of the animals have jobs, and the animals with the most education, who are also  kind and hardworking, have the highest positions, such as director and registrar. There was a brief sibling squabble about bats, because Zion assigned them to be night path finders, which Liel felt was not a very important job. But she cheered up when the director invited a short nosed fruit bat and a yellow wattled lap wing to tea at his bungalow, which goes to show how much good will you can buy with some chai and a snack.

Shopping and wildlife

 Shopping, at least for groceries, is not so much fun in India. The stores are tiny and crowded, aisles are so narrow that if someone is in the aisle, she has to turn sideways in order for someone else to pass, and for us at least, the selection leaves something to be desired. It's not that we're totally picky-pants, it's just that our multiple food allergies, our need to only consume produce that has been peeled or cooked, and our inability to cook anything = slim pickins.

We started out at the Kwality Big Bazaar. I had a longish list of things I hoped to purchase, both food and household items. I couldn't get everything on either list, but we made a start. I bought a broom (but no dustpan), paper towels, sponges (but no dish soap), toilet paper, soap, trash bags and corn flakes. I really wanted to buy other foods, but honestly couldn't find anything that fit the Big 3 criteria above! The broom, at  Rs 200 (about $4) was our most expensive item, followed by the toilet paper. I'd been warned that TP in India is quite spendy, and can now report this to be absolutely true. A package of 4 rolls set us back Rs 180. What I didn't find at Kwality Big Bazaar was a clock, small towels, tape, paper plates (any kind of plates, really), plastic spoons (any kind of spoons), and a few other things I'm forgetting.

So yesterday, while Robert was out and about collecting some of the many items he needs to present to the FRRO (foreigner's regional registration office) the kids and I went shopping again. Eating cereal off of napkins while we wait for our kitchen gear to arrive had gotten pretty old already, plus they'd already consumed the box of corn flakes we bought at the Kwality Big Bazaar (turns out a box doesn't last very long if your kids have to eat it for breakfast and dinner!). Thanks to my newly operational internet connection I knew there was a big grocery store about .6 km away from us, so we set off for it.

To make a long story short, we passed right by it without knowing (spotted it on the way back) and ended up in another store that was a somewhat bigger, better stocked version of Kwality Big Bazaar, but without the excellent name. Sadly the aisles were just as narrow! We were able to buy a few extra things though, so I got bananas, more corn flakes (in some exciting, only in India flavors! though not the mango flavor that Zion really wants, as they didn't have it), water, almonds, cashews, and yogurt in the food section, plus 2 plastic mugs, 2 plastic bowls, dish soap, 5 spoons and 5 forks. I'm hoping I won't have to buy more bowls etc, but we shall see. The original ETA for our kitchen stuff was "soon", followed by "Friday", followed by "in 3-4 days" (which would be Saturday or Sunday).

As we headed home the kids were hot, tired, and hungry. I wanted to get them food to eat right then, but all of the places I saw were filled with only men, no women or children, and had no menus, so we just walked home. Unsurprisingly, they became increasingly complaintful as we walked. Zion was particularly bothered by all the horns-- every vehicle seems to feel that the correct response to seeing another vehicle on the road is to honk at it. Since the roads are crammed with traffic, the result is near constant horn-honking. As we neared the Institute Liel announced that what Bangalore needed was, "less people, less cars, and less garbage!". There's some truth to that (especially the cars and garbage!), but I assured the kids they'd get used to the city in time. They're still pretty skeptical of this claim.

Luckily for me, we saw 4 cows wandering the streets on our way back, which cheered both kids enormously. Our favorite was a huge black and white one that stood literally in the middle of the road, adding her loud mooing to the honking and engines.

So, on the shopping front, I'm still in need of a clock, candles (Shabbos is tomorrow!), small towels, a mattress (though I have a lead on that), and tape.

Robert was pretty pleased by the cups when he got home, as it meant he was able to enjoy a little bit of the bourbon he'd brought from New York. After that we attempted to go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, but since it was closed we went to the Have More Family Restaurant instead-- another fantastic name, right?? Have More is a North Indian restaurant, and we had Afghani Chicken, dhal makhani, and chicken biryani. It was all delicious, but despite the fact that we'd asked for it to be un-spicy on account of the children, the only person who could eat lots of the dhal and biryani was Robert. Liel couldn't eat them at all, and Zion and I could only manage some. Luckily the Afghani Chicken was delicious and not spicy at all, so it was basically alright. The slices of pickled purple onion they served along with it made it even yummier! I expect we'll be back there, and ordering more of that chicken! The end of meal fennel seeds were particularly good as well, and the meal (which was more food than we actually ate), including bottled water, and a service charge, was Rs720 (about $15). Quite a bit more than the parota shop, but it was a sit down place, and we ate a lot of meat, and more food in general. So a good deal, I'd say. I think we got there just as they were opening, and there was still a lot of cleaning going on. The floor washer actually washed the floor under our table while we were sitting there!

The sun had just fully set as we were walking home, and there were thousands of bats streaming out of their sleeping places when we reached the Institute grounds. It was so amazing! There were big fruit bats and small insect eating bats, and we stood on the road and watched them soaring off in search of food. Some of the smaller bats swooped within a few feet of us, chasing insects. It was such a fabulous end to our day. 

This has gotten quite long so I'll end here...hopefully tomorrow I will have news on the mattress, camera, and laundry situations!