God forbid that we go in comfort

 Welcome to the second edition of the Mishra travel blog recording our adventures and travels throughout India in 2014. This is Rishabh. 

At the end of the last blog post Dad, Aadya and Aarushi were still in Melbourne and Mum and I were in Bangkok. We have done so much since then.

Tuk-Tuk in Bangkok

Motorbike Taxi in Bangkok

Klong Boat in Bangkok

In Bangkok we set ourselves a goal to go on all available modes of public transport. We went on the motor bike taxi, a tuk-tuk, The BRT (sky train), MRT (underground train), a metered taxi and my favourite - the Klong, the complex boat system that runs on the storm water canals of Bangkok . We enjoyed our stay in Bangkok with Juhi Bua (please see endnote #1 for the meaning of Bua and sundry other postnominals that you will find throughout this and I am sure subsequent blogs). Thanks Juhi Bua! We also enjoyed our tour of the streets of Bangkok with Mrinal Fufaji and thank him for his insight and his excellent choice of food.

Pinku Mama During his
"ragging" session

From Bangkok we set off to Kolkata, the capital of British India. Mum and I got there before the rest of the family so that we could attend Bir mama and Lia Mami’s wedding reception. The whole ‘Mehta’ Family (Mum’s Dad’s family) had all come together after many years. 

Mum's Paternal Family

It was great fun. We sang songs, had great food, and enjoyed ourselves very much throughout. We had wonderful hospitality from Aditi Nani and Gholle Nana. There were the obligatory ragging sessions of Pinku mama to persuade him to get married soon, and a memorable trip to the smelly parts of town led of course by Sushim mama.

On the Salt Lake stadium pitch

Once the family had packed up and left to their respective home cities, we started to do more sightseeing. We went to the Salt Lake stadium which is the world’s second biggest stadium. It was built for soccer and much to our surprise the front gate was open and we were able to walk right into the ground and onto the field, and no one batted an eye. We even ran around on the field!

We drove around Kolkata quite a bit to see mum's old house, her high school, and also the Mehta family's ancestral house on Rajabasanta Roy Road. After a couple of days of being tourists we made an overnight trip to Haldia which is where mum and dad both lived and met in 1983. It is a small industrial town where both of my grandpas worked for Hindustan Unilever. It was an interesting experience to see where mum and dad had both lived and also the school at which they met. 

We had booked a train for our journey from Kokata to Delhi. In his trademark fashion, Gholle Nana urged us out of the house a solid two hours too early on account of Kolkata’s notorious traffic (of which there was none on the day!). So we made it to Howrah station far earlier then we needed to. To while away our time we went hunting for a pack of playing cards. After some searching we found a platform vendor who was probably the only guy in all of Howrah station with cards. He showed us a pack of cards that were “100% plastic and washable(!)” for only Rs.75, ($1.20). We thought that the price was pretty reasonable, and so we bought the cards. Our car driver asked us how much the cards cost and we proudly said “only Rs. 75”. He started laughing hysterically, saying, “those cards aren’t even worth Rs. 40”. He then pointed out that on the box the MRP (maximum retail price) was listed at Rs. 60. So we went back to the vendor to ask if he could explain himself, and he simply came out with “the rules are different at train stations”. When finally on the train, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see that it was doing a good 130km/h. No sooner had the train come to a halt at New Delhi station the following morning, the porters were already on the train pushing for our fare. But my adamant mother was hell bent on not engaging any porters (in her defence, their opening gambit was Rs. 1,200 just to push some bags along the platform!), and so we had to carry all the luggage by ourselves. Luckily we were on the first platform, so we didn’t have to climb any stairs, but the porters continued to hassle us all the way to the car (lowering the price to Rs. 400 as the exit loomed near).

A few things stand out from our stay in New Delhi– lots of classical music concerts (free yes, good, I guess, but one too many thanks mum and dad), fireworks (probably illegal), food, history and Cricket Rishabh (the stronger version of me.. see below if you’re scratching your head).

Fireworks on NYE

Spinning Top

Fire Wands

On New Years Eve, Nana walked in with a big bag brimming with fire crackers and emptied it on the table, , At about 9pm on NYE the family gathered on the terrace and we lit spinning tops, fire fountains and fire wands, and set off amazing rockets. The climax of the evening was when our BIG rocket went up but didn’t go off, then came alarmingly down, and exploded in a magical sparkling blue in someone’s balcony three streets down! We briskly packed up and hoped that no one had noticed.

Tughlaqabad Fort in Delhi

I liked the 700 year old Tughlaqabad fort ruins (pretty much in the heart of Delhi) mainly because it was spacious, empty, and quiet, unlike anywhere else in India.

It’s now time to introduce you to Cricket Rishabh (the stronger version of me). At ‘Don Bosco Cricket Academy’ (into which Dad has pushed me for four lessons per week, thanks Dad..) I met an older kid also named Rishabh. After my net batting session he came up to me and said, “Oh, my name is also Rishabh, haha, I am like the stronger version of you”. Some claim indeed given how fat and unfit he was! He proceeded to give me some “expert” tips about how I wasn’t driving the ball when I was actually practicing defense, and how not to bend my arm when bowling when I was actually doing throw-downs.

While in Delhi we also met Sister Anita, Dad’s school principal and teacher from Holy Cross High School, Ballia. Dad had told us before we got there, that she was the coolest Nun you’ll ever meet. I must say she certainly lived up to that moniker. She entertained us very well and we had a wonderful time at the Korean BBQ lunch with her.

On our last day in Delhi we managed to get tickets to the World Hockey League, which is close to a

Indian fans frantically waving their flags

world cup in hockey. We got four 4-match passes for only Rs. 200 ($4)! We gave England vs NZ a miss, saw Australia smash Argentina (yay!), and then came to the relatively meaningless game between Netherlands and Belgium ("meanginless" for the crowd which was clearly only there for the 8pm India-Germany match. The single Dutch supporter and handful of Belgians from the embassy who were at the stadium would disagree ofcourse). It got to a point where the crowd was chanting “Sachiiiin, Sachin”, “Kejriwaaaaaal, Kejriwal (see endnote #2)” and “Vote for Modi (see endnote #3)”. The climax of the night was of course India vs the #1 ranked Germany when India quite unexpectedly led 3-2 into the last minute but unfortunately Germany then equaled the score in the dying seconds of the match.

And finally in case you are wondering about the title of my blog. I chose 'God forbid that we go in comfort' in honour of our many car travels (credit where it's due - the words were in fact uttered by Aadya in a rare moment of exasperation). We have mostly had 5 seater cars (except for the Haldia trip), but never less than 6 people in the car, sometimes even 8, so each of us is pretty much in a fixed Yoga position throughout the ride. Then there is the constant swerving to avoid motor bikes and cars that are always trying to turn right from our left, and of course the cows and dogs randomly meandering along the road. Add to that the incessantly blaring horns, people merrily driving on the wrong side of the road, and well you get the picture...

Aadya took over the mantle of the "chronicler" from me a couple of days ago on the train from Delhi to Jabalpur (where we are at the moment). So I hope you can tune in again to hear her impressions of our adventures in the next edition of this blog in a month's time.

Endnotes:

1. Here is a quick guide to Hindi postnominals:

• ·      Nana – maternal grandpa, and similarly, Nani - maternal grandma (but what is confusing is that your Nana’s brother is also a nana and your nana’s brother’s wife is also Nani)
• ·      The same thing for your paternal side except Nana is replaced with Dada (or Baba) and Dadi replaces Nani
• ·      Bua – Father’s sister/female cousin/sister-like friend
• ·      Fufa – Bua’s husband
• ·      Mama –mother’s brother/male cousin/brother-like friend
• ·      Mami (Maa-Me)- Mama’s wife
• ·      Masi- mother’s sister/female cousin/sister-like friend
• ·      Mousa - Masi’s husband                 

2.  Arvind Kejriwal is Delhi’s sensational new Chief Minister, having setup a political party just over a year ago called the Aam Aadmi Party, i.e. the mango people’s party.. no I am kidding “Aam” does mean mango but also means “ordinary”.  The party is on a single point agenda to eliminate corruption from the country and has clearly struck a major chord amongst Indians.

3. Narenda Modi is the Prime Minister aspirant from the present opposition BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, i.e. Indian people’s party) in India’s forthcoming general elections expected in April-May when 800 million, yes 800 million people will go to vote!