The adventures of a zany mom

So Appa wanted to throw a party so that he could celebrate 50 years of getting married. He had invitations printed out and sent, and d-day arrived. We all get ourselves ready in various assorments of podavais, gaghras etc. It turned out that Akshay didn't have long pants, and Prakash had to make a last minute run to FM Silks and buy a pair for him. After all the excitement, we were ready by 6. There were 2 Qwalis' that were supposed to pick us up. Well, what had shown up was a Sumo and a "T"avera. The guys came up to the gate and called Appa (who was already at DROMI). He told them what he needed were 2 Qwalis'. The guys driving the cars just returned back to their shops without sending replacement cars. We, in the house, were unaware of this whole transaction. Of course, this got sorted out in its own fashion, and we all folded ourselves into the original Sumo and Tavera that had landed back up with us. Now Bangalore traffic requires a whole wikipedia-

The Madhurai to Bangalore "Mysore express" was supposed to arrive at the platform 2 at 7:40. We got to the Madhurai station, wherein there started the customary "price haggling" with the porters. They thrive on quoting a price, and bargaining. You have to have the stomach for it, or you get "fleeced". Now, to fleece or to be fleeced is a matter of perspective. To think of it, Rs.200 which is what they wanted to charge is roughly $4.50 (depending on the current exhange rate). Would we balk at giving $5 to a porter in the US for similar services? We would probably not even bat an eye-lid if we were charged $15. We give $5 tips to hotel porters who cart our bags on wheeled stands and use elevators to move bags from a hotel lobby to our checked in room. We even gush our Thank-yous effusively. So then why would we want to haggle with porters who, although weak looking, are extremely strong and hand carry our bags and walk the length of a train without

Compared to Munnar, Kodai was a HUGE disappointment when we first reached. Srikanth, especially, had wanted the kids to experience what he went through in his childhood. That wasn't quite to be. Where Munnar was relatively untouched, Kodai was now extremely commercialized, dirty, and just a madhouse full of construction and people. Never go to Kodai on a weekend! The day after we reached Kodai was Monday, and luckily the place quietened down considerably. Kodai lake, where you used to be able to row, has apprently shrunk quite a bit. Also you sit on a boat while someone else rows for you - unlike days of yore... all these facts led Srikanth to be quite disappointed in his childhood haunt. The waterfalls were also quite barren. Fairy falls and Bear Shola (where Srikanth and his cousins used to bathe in the falls etc.) were non-existent. Even if there was any rain water that COULD have contributed to falls, there was so much housong around the area that water was being siphone

...Once in Trivandrum, there was a loud cacophony of meeting everyone and exclaiming at the growth of each kid. Hugs were exchanged profusely. We met Thangachchan (the poor driver who was stuck with this loud and raucuous group) and went to the hotel to get checked in. We freshened up, went to have breakfast, and then embarked on a "discover Trivandrum" trip. We hit 2nd Puthen Street - all 17 of us! It was a sight. I'm not sure if we were the sight see"ers" or see"ees"! I think the amusement and "gawk" factor was mutual amongst the residents of 2nd Puthen St and us. Especially 2 little boys who were amused to no end while we stood at the doorsteps of the house Amma was born and brought up in, while posing for a myriad of pictures. We then went to Veli beach, and did the touristy thing including a lunch at a floating restaurant. Once we got back, it was time to beautify ourselves and head off to the Padmanabhaswamy temple. Another picture ses

The Monday of the trip is when I started to stress out. Suvedh was running a temperature. We had had a full weekend - meeting around 30 families in the space of 3 days. Foolish perhaps in the light of an impending trip. However, we can't resist the pull of friends. So all the socializing combined with a shared bug or two resulted in a feverish Suvedh. Tuesday brought even worse news. This time Srikanth also came down with a bug. I rushed Suvedh to the Dr. while Srikanth rushed himself to the Dr. As usual, Bucher's office was unresponsive, and so Srikanth had to pick another Dr. willing to give him an early appointment. Suvedh's issue turned out to be viral... type-A - yup the panic making variety. He was immediately put on tamiflu - JIC. Srikanth's turned out to be bacterial, and so he went on antibiotics. Just when I thought we had it under control, Sanjana got sick on Wednesday. We were leaving Thursday. Luckily, my wonderful pediatrician saw her immediately, and got

The trip was coming up, and there was excitement in the air for weeks, nay months before! Questions as to what to do and how to do them were up in the air. Rajesh had come up with the idea of everybody writing annecdotes and memoirs, and loading pics. He was going to make a memory book for us to present to Appa and Amma. As we started writing, the stories were so good, that it seemed like a good idea to make several copies. Prakash was going to bein India a week ahead of the rest of us, and so volunteered to take on that immense task. In the meantime, Jayanthi started working on a newsletter, Sanjana started working on T-shirts for everyone, and also started working on writing a skit so that the kids could perform it out there in Munnar, and I started working on some Jeopardy games. The excitement building up to the trip was palpable. Then we had a huge bonus to this already wonderful trip in the making. Sundar and Manka worked out their scheduled visit so that our stays would overlap