Chappals Anyone?

Today, I went to breakfast at German Bakery with some friends. We decided to walk around the lanes of Koreagaon Park after we were done eating. It is truly beautiful to see the canopy of these huge trees covering the lanes. My favorite trees are the banyans. Along Lane 1 we encountered this huge sign for a chappal and kurta shop. Since the shoes in India are too small for Paul and my feet, perhaps we can trim this one down to size.

Later on North Main Road we begin to see the procession for the 14 day pilgrimage in honor of Lord Vitthal. The roads are getting a little precarious to travel on due to all the foot traffic. First the men . . .
And then the women . . .

Shopping on Laxmi Road

Today, my Michigan friends (J and Cindy) and I went shopping on Laxmi Road. It was so beautiful to see all the steel and copper vessels nestled among the colorful sarees and bangle bracelets. We also hit up Mandai Market for lemons, and I finally found my auto-rickshaw toy!

We enter a narrow passageway off Laxmi Road to wander through the maze of shops . . .

Above the doorway, you can see some wildflowers growing . . .

We stop to snap some quick photos of me and Lord Ganesha.

J and I stop to pose on the busy road as we hunt for a toy shop.

We pass some flower stalls on the way. I wanted to take some photos of the beautiful flowers, but the women are very shy and ask me not to take any photos. However, I did snap a quick photo of these garlands that were recently strung.

Some other flower stalls . . . And busy Laxmi Road.

Yea, we finally find the toy shop! (You can also tell from my hair that it is extremely humid and sticky outside today.)

And, I purchase these awesome toy auto-rickshaws! They even have little drivers inside that can raise their arms up and down.

We cross the street to Mandai Market in search of lemons.

I inquire about the price for artichokes . . .

People are starting to walk into Pune this week for a 14 day celebration/pilgrimage for Lord Vitthal.

Outside Mandai Market, a man sees my camera and coerces me to come over and look at his party hats. He is also selling those multicolored piles of chalk dusk to make Rangoli, or the Indian welcome sign you will see outside the doors of many homes.

And here I am in the party hat . . .

A woman showed us how to make a Rangoli using multicolored chalk and a template. I think Paul and I will get one for Diwali.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Per Paul's request, I have posted today's newspaper so that everyone could see the headlines. Yes, "Pilots sleep, let plane fly past destination" was one of them today. Apparently the flight from Jaipur to Mumbai went to Goa before they woke up to realize that they were in fact past Mumbai!

Me Want Cookie

Paul finally returned from his 2 week business trip only 3 days after he was supposed to arrive home. Yea, Delta! Nothing like having your trip cancelled and rescheduled 3 times. He finally arrived in Pune on Wednesday morning around 4 am.

I was very excited for his arrival, and of course, to receive my package of chocolate chip cookies from my mother-in-law. She seriously makes the best cookies in the world, and no matter what I do, mine never taste as good.

Unfortunately, the excessive baggage handling (3+ times) resulted in the cookies arriving as shown below.

Don't worry Mom B. we still enjoyed a plate of them! Aside from being crumbled . . . they still tasted really good!

I thought I would also say thanks to Dad B. for the Starbucks, Alina for the awesome bridal shower party favors (Sorry I missed it! =( I love the nail polish, soap, and lip gloss!), Mark and Jill for the Scharffenberger chocolate (now I can make brownies!), and my wonderful husband for smuggling in Madagascar vanilla and two huge jars of Jif peanut butter! Thanks!

The Milk Maid

Paul and I had to move to India to realize that we are in fact "Foodies." We never really considered ourselves "into" food, of course we appreciate good food and a nice restaurant. However, after moving your family to a developing country you begin to realize all the different ways you are in fact a food snob. For instance, we are "coffee, peanut butter, chocolate, wine, beer, cheese, meat, and now . . . milk snobs. "

Back home in Michigan, we enjoyed drinking Horizon Organic milk. The taste is in fact much better than the local dairies, and with the ultra-pasteurization we were able to keep milk longer in the house.

Milk is a tricky commodity here in India. One can buy boxed milk. It is packaged like soy milk located in the regular aisle of any store. This boxed milk scares us as we do not understand how it can sit out unrefrigerated. So we decided to brave our stomachs against parasites, and buy our milk from the local Indian dairies.

Here is how to make milk in India --

1. Purchase fresh milk from your local store or have the milkman deliver it to your house. We prefer Amul brand milk for its taste. Taaza just means fresh.

2. Buy a good steel vessel to boil your milk.
3. Add heat from your gas cooking range to heat the milk inside the vessel.
4. Bring the milk to a gentle boil, as shown below.

5. Remove the vessel from the heat. Then, gently skim the top cream layer from the milk.
6. Wait a few minutes and repeat the process to remove more cream.
7. Cool the milk completely and cover the vessel with the lid. Then refrigerate and enjoy for 3 days.

It's really quite tastier than Horizon Organic. Now, if we could only find that Jif Peanut Butter!

Home Sweet Home . . . Finally!

I have finally posted some photos of the flat on the blog. I have taken them throughout the day. . . . and used different flash/shutter speeds, however the fact is that some of the photos look odd due to the sheer amount of light that we receive in the flat. We have done the best we can! I also was going to de-clutter the house a bit, but then I realized I was acting like a real estate agent, so you get to see the house as we live it day-to-day! I did wind up buying some fresh jasmine for the vases--it makes the house smell so good! Here are the photos of our little "Home Sweet Home."

The foyer --

The living room/dining room with doors to the terrace (Paul and I furnished the entire foyer, living and dining rooms from FabIndia (Fab, Indeed!). It's very Asian, but we like it! Everything is made out of solid mango and sheesham wood.) --

The living room up-close --

Another angle of the living room --

The dining room --

The kitchen (If you look closely you will see the 2 dozen mangoes--a friend of mine and I bought 4 dozen and split the bundle in half--I bought them at Gultekadi Market earlier in the day, along with a pumpkin and mango!) --

Another view of kitchen (with better view of the mangoes!) --

Terrace from dining room (I had fun getting all the plants for the terraces. I bought palm trees, green trees, rose bushes, dahlias, and other green plants to fill it in.) --

Another view of the terrace --

A view to the 8th floor where the pool is located --
The guest room (the bedspread is really a lovely sage green, not the pea soup green you see here!) --

Another view of the guest room --

The family and television room (This one photo turned out a little dark, but there are cranberry colored curtains . . . and the green stuff in the corner is some yarrow I bought earlier in the day for a vase.) --

Going upstairs . . . Here is a little reading nook with doors to another terrace --

The other garden on another terrace . . . along with our bicycles! --

The office --

Our bedroom (Yes, yes. Everyone that sees the furniture makes fun of our oversized American bed! And it's only a Queen...not a King!) --

Another view of our bedroom --
It's our little oasis inside the city. I just realized that there are no photos of the 4th wall in any of the rooms! The photos do not give the place justice, but at least now you kind of know where we are living.

Hash @ Mulshi Lake

I went to my first Hash at Mulshi Lake today. It was a combination of a two hour hike with a scavenger race--a bit like "Lost" meets "Survivor." I went with some new American friends and wound up making friends with some nice people from France and Belgium.

Here we are descending down the steps to try and collect our first "token" in the race.

Not the Great Wall, but there was some type of barrier that divided the area along the hike.It was misting a bit today, so there were beautiful clouds touching the mountains.
Finally, we get to the bottom of the valley and see Mulshi Lake. Team Cobra's first objective was to peel and core four apples. We then tied them to these pieces of string, coverd them with Indian mixed fruit jam, and had to eat the entire apple from the string. As you can see below, our new French friends worked on this diligently.
We walk along to our next task.
At the next station half of the group needed to "bob" for chocolates (you know . . . instead of "bobbing" for apples). Once in water, and then once in whole wheat atta (flour). Below is a photo depicting the result of this activity.
Yes, it appears that there is naan all over my face . . . and up my nostrils! Here Beau and I pose with our "wheat" faces.

We walk through the beautiful woods to our next station . . .
Marsha is braver than the rest of us . . . She takes on this activity. She has to walk 100 meters blindfolded on rocky terrain using her husband's voice as her guide.

Team Cobra decides to take a photo in front of a Goods Carrier we see walking to our last station. I'm trying to kneel to get everyone's face in the photo . . . but it winds up looking like I am doing some strange American-esque pose! Oh well!

We finish our last token and walk back up to the pavilion for the potluck. They was a wide array of multinational cuisine. Sandwiches, brownies, tatins, samosas, quiche, potato salad, stollen . . . My apple cake and roasted shrimp pasta salad were a success, because they were no left overs to bring back home.

Filthy (I fell in the mud a few times while hiking up the slippery hills) and tired from all the fresh air, I pose for a photo in front of Mulshi Lake before we head back to the car for our two hour journey back to Kalyani Nagar.