CHAKA jam

The first time I was on my way to see the Pratham schools, I got stuck in this 1:30 min traffic jam, right under Mulchand Flyover. Protesters *mostly women i think* had blocked our route, by sitting in the middle of the road and marching, we couldn't go backwards nor forwards.

the picture on the top left is the view of the road behind our car and the picture on right is the view in front.

TRAAFFFFIC

a rickshaw or threewheeler
Chaka Jam (3 photos)

delhi street at night

Man walking on highway divider

Two wheeler rickshaw.

My first batch of delhi traffic...more to come!

I'm home

Hey guys!
i'm finally home from india, and man it's so bright and quiet out here! I can't write much, but I have a lot of pictures to post, so just keep on checking back this week for a new set.
(once i find the camera.....)

LAST DAY

Hey guys! 

Today is my last day in India, and there are so many things I'm going to miss...  now that I have India fresh in my mind.  I'm going to miss watching indian television *there's something about watching MTV in your mother tongue* The radio especially... i can't explain why but the same thing as mtv. :D 

Yesterday was Rakhi, ( the brother sister festival... go search it up on google), and for the first time ever I tied a rakhi (ribbon/string) on my youngest cousins hands... now i suck at rakhi tieing so my mom had to redo it for them.  Anyway, after we tie the rakhi on our brother's hands, we get a small present for them.  My oldest cousin  Jeevoo gave me this beautiful silver bracelet with red stones; My youngest cousins, Vibhu and Varun gave me the whole Asterix and Oblix series and the whole Tintin series!  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH I'm so happy , yet i'm so sad...and as you see I'm having trouble writing.

THIS BLOG IS NOT FINISHED YET! == pictures are to come! 

have fun

Kuhoo

PRATHAM

Hi guys,
So today is like one of my last days in India, and I hope you guys did enjoy reading this blog...when I come home, i'll being posting all the pictures that I think are suitable on here. Anyway, yesterday was a very intersting day, as I went to this NGO (non govermental organization) called Pratham. Pratham started of in Mumbai, nine years ago and is now in Delhi. We went to the Naveed Sharada area, to visit the schools. Pratham basically sets up a school in the slum area, they figure out how many children are in the community and how many of them do have an education and how many don't.
The little kids (3-5) went to the balwari classes, which was taught usually in the teachers home only...in the one we visited they were playing a game, which is Pratham's way of teaching. Pratham also has library -which is basically set up in the librarian's house. They play games and activities to help the children read books. Some kids are 0 level so they recieve picture books, others only can read a few words - so they get those short stories and then there's the kids who can read paragraphs and recieve stories. The one we visited the kids were playing a memory game. They had to write down their favorite color, food or dress on a piece of paper, and then put in the bucket. One person would pick up a piece of paper and would read out the word on the paper such as
GREEN and then they would try to find the person who wrote that word. If they were correct everyone would clap and the person whose word it was, would go up to have their turn. If the person was wrong, they were hit on the arm and had to change places with the person who they wrongly called out, the word was then repeated until the owner was found. The third and actually first place we visited was the school; now Pratham only educates kids from grades 1 to 5, and then they help the grade 5 students get admission into sixth standard (sixth grade). The class we visited was a mix of third and fourth students, because today is Independence day for India( happy independence day btw) the children had no class, yet they still had to be in school (their school is only half day) The girls were wearing colorful bangles and three of them were not wearing the school uniform. My mom who accompanied me ( actually it's the other way around) asked the girl why she wasn't wearing a school uniform and the girl said that she had a dance earlier (they had this function earlier that day). We got to see her do a few steps of this very intersting dance, it wasn't bollywood if you're wondering. Then some other children (mostly girls) recited poems and one even recited a whole story. When we started to take pictures, the kids kept on saying ' didi , meri bhi!' (sister, mine too!). My mom asked me to take a picture of this little girl with an umbrella, but as I got closer to her, I was surrounded by the rest of the school...it was quite funny. The one thing I noticed about the classrooms was that they had no chairs or tables and the children sat on mats, yet they were so comfertable. I mean, we (american students) would be complaining on the floor, don't you agree? They were also very welled mannered and would get up as soon as some teacher or other adminstrator entered the classroom and they would say ' Good Morning Maam' and they wouldn't sit down until they were told to.
I wish could post the pictures today only of the children, but I don't have any way to get them of my memory stick, so please be patient, and please do check the blog when I post the pics.

BYE - and happy independence day!
JAI HIND

Kuhoo

HOLY DAY

Hey guys!

I only have around 3 days left in India and basically my dad is here right now.

We're meeting every family member now ( okay so i spent time at some people's houses) and it seems like my Mom is actually noticing the outside world, because my aunt has been moved to a new hospital where she get's 24/7 care and my mom is now free to explore delhi. I've haven't been home (bua's house) in four days, so I returned on Sunday night, after watching Dark Knight ( OMG IT WAS SOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!!! EEEEEEEKKKK) with my cousins Jeevo and Kanupriya. We got up really early, and went visited bua, well actually only dad went up to her room, mom and I stayed in this big restaurant (yes the hospital lobby had a restaurant..so what? :-p). We tehn went to the Hanuman Mandir, which was really nice, and before leaving I got some mehndi *henna* applied to my right hand, I basically picked on it soon as it started to dry and we reached the hospital...because i'm not a very patient person. I got to see my aunt too with my Uncle. She looked so much better!!! After that we went to my Tai's house (another aunt..dad's cousin sister in law) and basically all of my dad's cousins turned up (well not all) and we ahd this big family gathering...it was nice.

random

Hey guys,

thank you for all the comments i'm getting.  Today I've done nothing so exciting to tell you about, but my dad is here, he wasn't supposed to come, but he did. So that's really sweet, I just haven't met him yet because he's at the hosptial and i stayed over last night at deepak chacha's house.

Yesterday, Daksh and I went to this NGO's office, a NGO is a non govermental organization that works in the villages and slums.  The one we went to was called Partham, which works with illiterate and uneducated poor children, next week we will be going to some of the communities to see exactly how Partham works and I may decide to return next summer and help them out, so that sounds exciting.

Anne, this is for you, if you're reading this then, I'm still looking for your perfect present, but hopefully i'll get it next week, because then my mother is free to come around with me. 

SAi baba

Hey guys!

I'm so happy, that my august third post turned up, i thought I would have to come back from my pune trip and rewrite everything! Well I've just returned from Pune, where my mom's school friend lives (sadhana mausi). The whole reason for our little trip to pune was to visit the Sai Baba temple. Sai baba was a fakiri or a holy man that travelled around India with a begging bowl and stick, asking for food and singing songs to praise god and then meditating ( i'll have to check if that is what they did fully) and Sai Baba was known to have healing powers..so everyday 1000,0000 of people come to sHridi to visit his temple and get his blessings. Ironically, the first rain showers hit Shridi as soon as we reached and i ended up getting a cold. Grrr!!! i was sick before I came here, what's wrong with me! well back to the trip. We got to travel in an army car (just a normal jeep, but with special priveliges!) because Sadhana Mausi's husband is in the army, he's actually the principle of some private boys school at the moment, that is I think funded or something by the army . We stayed at Ahmednagar on fourth night before proceeding to Shridi on the fifth....man we drove so much! at Ahmednagar we stayed at an army contement camp, it was so nice and quiet after the delhi hungama! and we attended some army cocktail party..which of course was not the highlight of my trip.

NEW: hey guys, blogger wouldn't let me post this for some time, but here it is. 

The last few days

Hey guys!
sorry for not writing in a few days..i've been so busy, going here or there. And i decided before my trip to Pune to visit the shri baba temple I should update this blog! Mostly because most of you have just realized I have one. I'll try to buy something for you guys on my trip to Pune, no promises....for my own mother, not me. So basically over the weekend I went to stay with my Mama (mom's youngest brother) who lives in Noida. They picked me up saturday afternoon and dropped me back on Sunday morning. They took me to Nirula's which was India's first fast food restaurant, it's really famous and now has franchises open everywhere in Delhi. My parents have always talked about going there as teenagers (the orignal). I got to read alot of Tintin comics at their house, if you've never read tintin, you're missing out on alot...but then again, you won't find many in America. Sunday afternoon, we went to visit, my dad's mami ( mama's wife) or chaiji ( there's two!). She's very sick and frail...it's sad. She's Gauri *my second cousin* dadi or dad's mom. I went to see Ugli aur Pagli a new Hindi Movie with KanuPriya (Gauri's younger sis). The movie was okay, a little weird, especially because the pagli characters name was Kuhu! it was soo weird when they were like I was missing Kuhu...or I love you Kuhu...so weeeird and I didn't even like the actress who was bearing my name, she puts my name in shame! ugh MAlika SHrawet or whaterver her name is.
Anyways
I should go now, mom wants her email
bye
Kuhoo

DAY 2: Party Time

Hey guys,

It's day two today in India and I'm over my jet lag.  I'm at Deepak Chacha's house again, hanging out with Daksh (his son) who is playing his guitar (check him out on youtube, i'll post a link soon) and their dog Tozo. 

Today is my phoopha's birthday so all of us are going to the hospital to cut cake, mom has planned everything, it should be very interesting. My aunt is doing much better, especially because my mom is planning to spend everyday with her.

It was raining today, and my god the traffic here is remarkable.  People are always finding nooks and crannies to put their car in. You have to be really patient and fearless to drive on Delhi streets.

Apart from cars there's people, auto-rickshaws or three wheelers, and even dogs and cows. I haven't seen any cats yet... they must be sleeping. 

O and over here, most of the houses do not have showers or baths, the most common way to take a 'shower' here is to use buckets. One big bucket is filled with water, while you use a smaller bucket to pour water over your body. 

Well Peace out

Kuhoo

I'm Here

Hey guys,

I'm here...gaaah I'm really tired, but I'm not allowed to sleep until 8 p.m. New Delhi time.  We had a seventeen and a half hour flight ( I was wrong in my last post).  We had this 2 or 3 hour hold in London, which just added on for hours. The time from New York to London is like 10 or 12 hours (or at least it felt like that) and then it was like a six or seven hour flight.  I ended up watching two movies, Om shanti Om which was okay, not the greatest movie ( it really reminded me of a movie from the seventies!) and then Hey Baby which is basically three men and a baby. The baby was so cute and the movie was hilarious, nearly half the plane was sleeping and my mom and I  were cracking up!  We reached Delhi around 12:30 am and it took us one hour to come out from Baggage claim.  We were picked up by Deepak Chacha ( chacha means father's younger brother, in reality Deepak chacha is actually a really good friend of my dad's.) and dropped us off to my Bua's house, where we met my cousins Sonu and Chinki ( i'll post some pics of them, maybe later..no promises).  In the morning today, I met Chaiji my phoopha ( bua's husband) mom.  I helped her 'peel' peas...well we didn't really peel them. But we basically took them out of the peapods...it's a really cool thing!  you squesse one end of the peapod so it opens up and then you take them out! 

Right now its 5:00pm and I'm at Deepak Chacha's house...with his son Daksh who is coming to America in September to study in Drexel. 

Right I'm out

BYE YA 

ONEDAY LFT

Hey guys,
So no comments huh, did you even get my email, well anyway. My cousin - Gauri and my grandmother had been staying with us, and now they have both left to their 'respective' houses. My aunt or Mausi (my mom's sister) lives in Texas and thus my Grandmother or Nani has gone there. My cousin (actual second cousin once removed) has gone to stay with her 'mausi' in chestersprings. So our house is really quiet. Dad's going to be going back to D.C this afternoon, and then it will only be mom and I. I don't think I've told anyone the real reason of the trip, the thing is my Aunt or my bua ( dad's sister) is very sick and my mother wanted to spend some time with her.
hopefully, she'll get better, but please keep her in your prayers

INTRODUCTION

Hi guys,
first of all I want to say, I'm not stealing Victoria's idea about this trip blog, i just thought it would be better for me to blog about my experience instead. Now I'm leaving this monday, the 28th and I'll be on a plane for 12 to 13 hours (less than going to china of course).
and from there, I'm going to my aunt's house.
and to start of this blog, here's some random facts about your blogger...enjoy them.

1. i hate milk...except if its teamilk

2. I'm very curious...don't ask me why, I just am

3. I eat chicken bones, but only of the chicken my mom has cooked. ----> i could have been a dog in my past life... I like the taste of bone marrow.

4. I can rant and feel better, and then feel worse again because no one is reading this!

5. I sometimes say stupid things or say things i don't mean and then feel horrible about it

6. I'm very emotional, I'm more likely to cry before I get mad

7. I hate scary movies, trust me...I have an overactive imagination

8. I love my friends, all of them (online or reallife or indian or not), but sometimes I want to be left alone

9. I first got lost at the age of two ( it wasn't fun!)

10. I talk to myself in my sleep and laugh and giggle...i'm my own scary movie...

11. I'm a big Harry potter fan, and yes I loved the seventh book epilogue!

12. I'm working on my own book

13. Coffee makes me really tired, or gives me a headache...yet i'll still drink it

14. I'm in day dream mode 24/7

15. I've only driven once and that was two weekends ago....it was a terrifying and nervous experience (then again it was my first time)

16. I don't stalk...it's a lose - lose situation.

17. I do wear makeup, but not everyday...not it's not because I don't have time, It's my mothers nagging!

18. I love chocolate, total chocoholic

19. i'm more likely to read a book, than watch a movie based on the book

20. I've moved too many times, and i don't want to move again....unless its for college


ENJOY YOUR STAY!
bye
Kuhoo