If you haven’t eaten this best variety of banana you are missing out on one of the most amazing varieties. Luckily I have started seeing them in Indian stores in USA now, especially South Indian focused stores. We call it yellaki banana.
Macro
The conveniences of modern parenting in India aside (namely, nanny and house help galore), it’s actually shocking (and upsetting) how little quality time parents spend with their kids. The parents who can afford this luxury lifestyle are almost guaranteed to be working with overseas clients and companies which basically means their work life starts mid day and goes late into the night. That means most parents delegate almost all daily quality bonding opportunities with their kids to the help around them. Go to the community park or clubhouse in the evening and it’s just kids and their nannies, or old people on their strolls. Seeing a parent spending time with their kid is an anomaly. Heck my own nieces probably wouldn’t function without their nanny and if she isn’t around it’s all hell for them. It’s a sad reality of modern India that gets lost in glitter of luxury, but I truly do wonder about the kind of adults these kids will grow up to be and the kind of relationships they will develop with their parents and families. I guess time will tell in about a decade.
Tomorrow I am going to meet a roommate from my masters days who stuck to his word that he would return back to India after 2 years of experience in USA. We were shocked he followed through. Came back, got married, had kids and then again moved to the USA with his family for another 5 years on h1b. This time we assumed he had moved back for good, only for him to pack bags and move back….. again! He would be pulled back to USA in a heartbeat if he really wants it, but now it’s been almost 6-7 years since he has been back second time and I don’t get the feeling he will move. Which means I am pretty sure he will tell me something opposite tomorrow 😆. Updates tomorrow!
My dad is driving me around and I admit I am finding it super odd right now to sit beside a 70 year old man driving me around. I mean it’s not like he was not driving us around when I was younger but it just feels different now and I feel like I should be the one driving him around but then I don’t drive in India coz I have never driven a car in India. He refused uber mostly because I think he wanted to show off that he got the chops.
Yesterday visited my elder mausi for an amazing lunch. The area around the house has changed so much but the house right in front of her house has remained exactly the same as ever. That’s the house my grandpa rented for a decade. All my India vacay I used to stay with him and eat at mausi’s house daily. It’s the house everyone stayed over but just jumped over toy mausi’s house for lunch. It’s also the house my mom breathed her last – and incidentally yesterday was the 14th anniversary of the same. Me and mausi took a few minutes to simply look at the house and reminiscence the old times. She was awfully close to my mom and she still feels it.
I love the early morning feels out here in India – the birds chirping, the oddly earthy smells, a temple bell ringing in distance, and invariably someone has MS Subhalaxmi’s suprabhatam on just loud enough that you know it’s that. A few moments of relative peace and nice before general mayhem of day starts. Of course I am also waking up early coz of jet lag.
Yesterday my nieces went for a birthday party. The parents don’t know each other but the nannies of the kids do. So the entire thing was planned through nannies meeting up in evening in park with their individual kids they look after. Invitations exchanges, gifts thought off and all. Not a single parent at the party – just kids and their nannies! This is sad and hilarious at the same time. I mean if I can get out of a toddle birthday party I absolutely would 😆
The amount of urgent and frantic background music that accompanies every Indian news channel is hilarious. It’s like without the music Indians won’t really get the gravity of the news – more panicky and faster the music is bigger the crisis is. For example women in UP are fighting over clothes drying rack and now it’s national news! This is 100x better than CNN crap! I am here for this!
My god the modern conveniences of Blinkit / Zepto apps. Everything delivered in 10 mins or less. No planning by anyone – it’s like you think of it and it’s home, so no qn of making a “list”. People keep delivering things through the day! Like how do they even get this to work is beyond amazing – scale efficiencies at work!
🍿 The Social Network (2010) – ★★★★★
Rewatched it again on flight and man this movie holds up. We need a sequel to show us how much more of a pathetic asshole Mark became. The dude truly is a third rate human.