Dinner Party

Grandma Kathi and Grandpa Bob has invited some friends over for dinner. So we went to find a couple of chickens. Grocery markets here don't have a meat market because they are all vegetarians, they don't eat meat or any animal products. So you have to go out to the streets to find some meat. As we pull up I didn't think I wanted to get out of the car.

Raju means chicken. Grandma Kathi had our driver Gorark get us 2 chickens.

The blue van had fish, so we had Gorard get us 2 fish.

Grandma Kathi had Gorark drive us to a floral shop and Grandma Kathi got out and went into the flower shop and bought the coolest center piece for her table. It cost her 320 rupees, $6.93468 USD. 1 dozen red roses and 1 dozen peach roses.

Holli, also called the Festival of Colours

Tomorrow is Holi Festival!
The main day, Holi is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other.

The festival of colour is celebrated with great festivity and joy. On this day, people come out wearing pure white clothes and gather together in a common place where they play and throw the colors on each other. People walk down their neighborhoods to celebrate Holi by exchanging colours and spraying coloured water on one another. A popular activity is the throwing of water balloons at one another,


Bonfires are lit the day before. Grandma Kathi and I got to attend one of these bonfires. The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion.
Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), which usually falls in the later part of February or March. In 2009, Holi (Dhulandi) was on March 11 and Holika Dahan was on March 10. In 2010, Holi is on March 1 and Holika Dahan was on February 28.

Eating In India

Most of the food here is way to spicy, but Grandma Kathi takes me to McDonald's every once in a while so I can have Chicken McNuggets.

The chocolate milk shake was 24.00 rupees / $.52 USD
2 - 9 piece Chicken McNuggets were 328.00 rupees / $7.13 USD
Total bill was 352.00 rupees / $7.65 USD

They don't eat beef here so there are not any hamburgers, they eat veggie burgers. The French Fries taste the same, it was just a little like being home again.

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All the dessert are different here, too. They are vegetarian's and they don't eat eggs, Grandma Kathi just doesn't know how they can bake a cake without eggs.
Grandma Kathi treated me to a "Chocolate Fondue". That was really good!

Staying with Grandma

The best part of this trip is sleeping in Grandma's BIG BED


She has people that cleans her apartment and washes her floor everyday.


People that driver her car.

Grandpa Bob's Office

I was at the SearchKing Techno Labs of India office today.

Grandma and I in the employees work room of India

Grandpa Bob has finally got his office decorated,

so he was proud to take a picture with me.

Pharmacy

This is for Aunt Kimi:
This is like a Walgreen's in the USA. Everything is behind the counter. Dove lotion, soap, tissues. You have to ask for everything. Not much theft here. There are "Chemists" almost on every street. They are not hard to find.

All pharmacy's are open with no store front. You don't have to have a prescription, just know the name of the drug you want and they will sell it to you. The cost is very low. You can see the plastic containers in the background.

Each one of the plastic containers has 100's of pills in them.

Pharmacies that speak English are few so this is our favorite pharmacist that speaks English. There are not very many that have computers, everything is written down in a ledger book.

Incredible India

Jenni I am so glad that you sent me to India to visit Grandma Kathi. I have experienced some of the most amazing things in this world. It's hard to describe how I feel so far away from you, halfway around the world. As far away as I can get without starting back around the other side of the world, but it is an experience that I have really enjoyed. It really makes me appreciate home.

It's hard to believe that people in this world still live on so little. Most people earn only 10 rupees as day. That's 0.215958 USD. These are where most of them live in these 1 room huts along the streets. They cook on fires outside their huts.

There are children that beg on the street.