a magic rickshaw ride

this has been the week o'indian weddings for us!

i must say i've enjoyed it greatly.
indian weddings are kind of like bollywood movies.... colorful, exciting, extravagant, dramatic, and crazy long! haha.

but i've loved being pampered with mehendi, eating an insance amount of amazing food, dressing in sparkly clothes, and dancing like a crazy firangi!

good times!

05 December 2010

land of contradictions

by mandyandshomik

greetings from india.

this is my third trip to india, so you'd think i'd be a pro by now, right?
hehe, ok, maybe not.

even if i'm mentally prepared, india is always a slight shock to the system.

i once heard rick steeves, the famous travel guide, say that india is his favorite place to tour...
because it's the most of opposite of any other place he's visited.
and that man has visited a lot of places!

but to me that's a good way to describe india. opposite world.

i've been to my fair share of places as well...i'm no rick steeves, but i've seen a bit in europe, south america, and even africa...and i must say that india is still strangely unique.

i think it would be fair to call it a land of contradictions.

there are many things about india that are very beautiful, and there are many things that are very ugly...and these things strangely often go hand in hand.

i'll tell you what i mean...

the sense of community is amazing...the extreme over population and lack of privacy is not.

the importance of respect is beautiful...the disrespect towards the lower classes is sad.

the strength of family is powerful...the family drama and politics would rival a soap opera.

the way people here are in tune with more nature and natural health is fantastic...the extreme pollution and environmental stress is a major problem.

so you never really know for sure how you feel about something here. everything is a double sided coin it seems. though maybe it's like that a bit everywhere?

anyways, that's my perspective...at least from the big city of mumbai. i know things have varied a bit in other parts of the country that i've visited.

i've had the fun this visit so far of meeting up with some friends that we know from the US here. we've gotten to be tourists together, so that's always fun. the other day we actually did sort of a 26/11 terrorism tour...inadvertently. haha. we pretty much visited all the sites that were targeted by terrorists a couple years ago.

the gateway to india/taj hotel (they're right by each other)...

there were some cute little girls dancing with the navy band in front of the taj on the day we went...i think it might have been for some kind of 26/11 week memorial.

this is in front of the leopold cafe...one of the spots that got shot up. on our other camera we got some pics of some of the bullet holes that are still inside...kind of eerie... good food though. :)

we also went by the oberoi, though i forgot to get a pic of it.

anyways, i shall leave you with this typical indian street scene.

crossing the street here is an art. :)

30 November 2010

tig coili

by mandyandshomik

ok, so before i move on to talking about india, i just want to say how much i love love irish music!

you can definitely hear how the american bluegrass and other things derived from it.

we visited a couple pubs while we were in ireland. there pubs don't have the same connotation that they do in the US...it's more of a family friendly hang out there.

it made me feel like i was in lord of the rings at the prancing pony or something that some hobbits and a tall dark stranger should pop out at any time....or maybe i just have a big imagination. :)

our favorite one that we visited was in galway, on the west coast.

this place was called tig coili, which meant 'the music' or something like that in gaelic.
it was so cute.

but the music there was my fav. i took a video, though my phone recorder couldn't pic up much of the imagery inside since it was a little dark, but you can still here the music and kind of catch the vibe of the pub.

inside they collected currency from different countries and tacked them to the ceiling with messages. apparently a lot of their foreign visitors are american, so we decided to leave them some rupees to diversify their collection. :)

28 November 2010

the emerald isle

by mandyandshomik

so a whole lot has happened since i was last here.
my mom got married, then we went to ireland, and now we're in india! is this some kind of eat pray love tour? hmmm. i just need a 3rd country i guess, and i'll be set.

actually india is the main trip...but it's such a long flight that most airlines make you stop somewhere in europe on the way...so we figured, why not take an extended layover for a couple days since we have to pass through anyhow? :)

that's something i've actually been wanting to do every time we've gone to india. it feels like you're getting more value out of the ticket that way. haha. but this time i think my husband realized especially that it might do me some good to have a few days buffer between the craziness of the wedding, and the craziness that is india.

but anyways, one country at a time...so today i shall share on our trip to ireland!

it's seriously a place i've always wanted to go. and like many americans, i have some irish lineage mixed in there, so it was a bit like a trip to the motherland...to rediscover my lost heritage!

shomik and i had such a great trip there...it was super quick, but we still loved it. first of all, it was such a steal. the price of our airline ticket was the same as it would have been without stopping, and shomik had all these hotel points from work travel, so we got to stay in the hotel for free. all this made it even more enjoyable i think. haha.

but it was totally unlike any other place in europe i've ever been to.

first of all, these people loved americans. or at least they acted like it.
country western music was playing everywhere! and they were over the top friendly. a lot of times when i'm traveling internationally, i get nervous about asking people questions, because it seems like i'm irritating them...
but there when we would ask some one a question, they seemed so excited and enthusiastic about it! it was almost like we were doing them some small honor. haha.
when we stopped to ask one little old man for directions, he ended the conversation by 'oh, i do wish i could have gone with you myself!' so. cute. just imagine it with a cute lucky charms kind of voice. :)

another thing i loved was that everything was freaking old there.
like even older than the rest of europe. this pic is of us at a place called newgrange, which is a huge structure built around 4000 BC...dude, that's like 6000 years old!! older than the pyramids or stonehenge!
i get nerded out by stuff like that.

we went in side it and was all like crazy indiana jones type stuff... it has a light window that illuminates the whole inside only once a year at the winter solstice and everything.

here we are at a place called trim castle...which happens to be one of the castles used in the filming of braveheart. but one thing you've gotta understand, ireland has mad castles all over the place! most of them are medieval. it's crazy to drive down the road and just see random castle ruins just like in someone's field. i mean, the bigger ones are more of tourist sites, but there's so many that some are just randomly sitting there deteriorating. you can totally tell that the middle ages must have really been ireland's hayday.

the cliffs of moher! this place was crazy beautiful, and also happened to be the location of the cliffs of insanity...in the princess bride. my fave. :)

i just love old cobble streets...and christmas lights! seriously, what could be better?

so ireland was totally worth it. we both felt some kind of special homey connection with the place. it may not be as polished as some other places in europe, but it had plenty of charm to make up for it.

if i get a chance i might try to post a video later of us checking out the cultural center of ireland...also known as the public house music scene! loved it! we heard some seriously awesome music.

but anyways...its now midnight in india, like 7pm in ireland, and around noon in the US. my body is officially confused, but i think it's telling me that wherever i'm at, it's high time for bed. :)

good night!

15 November 2010

it's red

by mandyandshomik

have you ever noticed how women tend to cope with emotional life changes by doing something drastic to their hair?

guilty.

10 November 2010

haul out the holly

by mandyandshomik

so our tree went up this week. some bing crosby got busted out too.

yes, i agree. as much as i adore christmas, it's unseasonably early. i usually like to give thanksgiving its props.
however, this year the holiday season will be total craziness, so we're doing things a bit differently.

close to thanksgiving my mom is getting married, and then shortly after that we're skipping town for a few weeks. it's high time for a diversion...
and it's definitely high time to make another trip to india and see my husband's family.
it's hard to believe it almost been two years already since we last saw them.
i love having a cross cultural marriage. but i must tell you, the only thing that really sucks about it is having family literally on opposite sides of the planet...you're always missing someone.

but anyways, it will be close to christmas before we get back in the country, and i need more than just a few days to savor my love affair with christmas time...so i'm starting early. don't judge.

30 October 2010

i heart engineers

by mandyandshomik

have i mentioned that i live with a telecom engineer?

that sometimes makes life interesting.
in some ways it almost feels like it makes me and my husband as different as being from opposite sides of the world does.
one of us has a masters in theology, the other in telecommunications...we're just wired different.

though usually i genuinely appreciate his engineeriness (new word of the day).
it totally balances me out. i tend toward the creative and abstract (ok, so the non-practical), and he can solve the problems of the world with excel sheets.

he also keeps me up to date with the latest technology, and this week he got me a new phone.

i say he got a phone for me, but if you live with a telecom engineer then you know that any telecommunications device that enters the house goes through an elaborate series of tests and evaluations (aka engineer playtime) before it is fully passed on to the spouse.
so yeah, basically my husband got a new phone this week. haha.

but i must say, i'm really pleased with his choice (which came after months of research of course).

i'm a loyal tmobile gal, and also a mac person, which it turns out don't mix when it comes to the iphone. so i've been waiting for another smart phone that thinks like a normal person and not an engineer. thank you husband.

i love you babe. so you keep picking out the electronics...and i'll keep picking out your clothes.
i think that's only fair. :)

28 October 2010

galveston

by mandyandshomik

4 Comments

shomik and i recently had to make a little day trip to houston for some visa business, and while we were down that far anyways, and since we had a bit of time to kill once we got down there, we decided to take a little side trip to galveston.

ok, so people will complain about the beaches in texas...
yeah, sure, it may not be florida or whatever, but it's still a beach, and i still love it!

in fact, shomik and i got engaged in galveston. so getting to take a trip back there was a little romantic for us. we hadn't been back since because the island had been pretty damaged by hurricane ike a couple years ago. but it looked like the city had really rebuilt, and it was great to see that place again!

but first on the way there, shomik had to take me to his favorite indian restaurant...where he stocked up on one of his all time favorite indian foods. puranpuri.

not really sure how to describe what that is, except for that its like a tortilla stuffed with sweet goodness.

we did get a little surprise once we got our bill though...
hey, wait a sec...that last thing isn't what we ordered! hehe. worst typo ever.
lesson: don't try to spell out english words phonetically if you have an indian accent! :)

but anyways, on to galveston!

we happened to have the dogs with us, because we didn't want them stuck in the house for 16+ hours, and they like road trips, so they got to enjoy the beach with us too!

so pardon the cheesiness and the crappy phone video quality, but i compiled a quick video of our time at the beach with the doggies....combined with my favorite glen campbell song! once again. i apologize! haha.

anytime i go to galveston i always have this song stuck in my head!
you're welcome. :)

if you noticed that numa isn't a part of the seaside fun, it's because she's a big party pooper when it comes to water. this was about as close as we could get her to the action.

and lets just say that on the way home, us and the dogs pretty much had sand in every corner and crevice. bindi went a little sand crrrrazy.

but all in all our little detour to galveston gave us an awesome and unexpected little break that i think we were both seriously needing.

and it's crazy hard to believe that it's been almost exactly 4 years since our last trip there when we got engaged! it seems like yesterday, and yet also so many things have happened and changed in that time.

but i think galveston will always hold a special place in my heart now, since i made the best decision of my life there...i promised to marry shomik!

yes, it turned out to be a wonderful decision indeed. :)

19 October 2010

the head bobble

by mandyandshomik

the notorious indian head bobble.
this is another funny cross cultural thing that i encounter constantly in india, and even in my own house. hehe.

does it mean yes? does it mean no? what on earth...

if you don't know what i'm talking about, here's a quick video explanation.

when my husband gives me the head bobble, it's often partnered with a 'hmmmm.'

to an american, 'hmmm' kind of translates as 'what?'
but to an indian, 'hmmm' is pretty much the vocal equivalent of the head bobble...
like the head bobble, more often than not it means 'yes'.

that's the thing with the head bobble. it can kind of mean what you want it to. but it seems most often to me to be a kind of reluctant yes.

in indian culture, if someone asks you to do a favor or something, it's impolite to say no...even if you can't do it. so my guess is that the head bobble evolved out of thousands of years of the reluctant yes, and the yes that is really a no. it's kind of inbetween.

you all know what i'm talking about. saying yes to be polite, but you know deep down that you're not going to do whatever you just said yes to. :P

anyways, i may have just made this thing even more confusing...
but i'm kind of starting to think that's the point of it. ambiguity.
you asked me a question? the answer is whatever you decide you want it to mean!
brilliant.

14 October 2010

arranged marriage

by mandyandshomik

ok, so one of the major cultural things americans get freaked out about in indian culture is arranged marriage... i used to initially as well.

but after being surrounded by indian culture for a few years, i am starting to understand some of the benefits.

first of all, arranged marriage these days isn't really how people might imagine it.
basically family introduces people to each other, and if they find someone they like then they commit to the match and spend the next few months getting to know each other before they tie the knot.

rarely are there cases anymore of meeting someone the day of your wedding or something...and people usually have a say in who they will marry.

american parents try to match their kids up too...just in a less formal way, and with less authority.

as a girl in the usa though, dating can be a stressful way to find a husband. american men often don't know where they're going in a relationship. in some ways the indian method gives a lot more security. you're only meeting people with the intention of marriage...plus you have a little help.

deep down i think many americans want that...a less haphazard way of finding a spouse.
that's why we've come up with eharmoney and all those other matching sites, right?

to me the biggest difference between that and arranged marriage is the role that family plays. and that's a whole other issue.

i'm about to have to help arrange my sis in law, which is definitely a role i never in my wildest dreams would have imagined taking on! when it comes down to it like that, it still feels pretty foreign to me...

and of course i love a good love marriage! ;) and so do indians...just look at all the bollywood movies!

10 October 2010

outsourced

by mandyandshomik

when indian and american cultures meet, the result can be often very amusing.
just ask us...we're always finding funny little things to laugh about.

so one of the new sitcoms this season has us cracking up. it's a show called 'outsourced', and it's based loosely on the movie by the same name that came out a few years ago. basically, american called center manager gets sent to india where his office has been outsourced to, and hilarity ensues.

the food. the traffic. the head bobble. the cow.
it brings up a lot of the cultural things that make us laugh.
so stay tuned on future posts featured my take on the crazy cross cultural stuff! :)

02 October 2010

sabbath

by mandyandshomik

i looove days like today.
today felt like how saturdays should be.
was i super productive? not really.
but i think that's what made it great...that and the gorgeous weather.

days like this come too few and far between. it seems like there's always something that needs done or something going on. of course there were things i could have been doing today, but that's always the case, isn't it?

today felt like a real sabbath. i need to make time for more of those somehow. i always think it, but rarely do it.

started off the day by walking 3 miles with my hubby. there's this cute little path that goes by a park with waterfalls, so it almost feels more like you're going on a hike.

on our walk we discovered a farmer's market that's opened up in our neighborhood on saturdays now! so we showed a bit of support by buying some apples, and eating lunch on the patio of a restaurant a few yards away.

the rest of the day was spent grocery shopping, doing a few necessary chores, and then buying lemonade from some kids at a lemonade stand down the street.
did i really want lemonade? not really. but the kids were super cute, and it was only .50, so i couldn't say no.

now i'm finishing the day by delving into an awesome book i borrowed from a friend called "The Girl from Foreign", while i sit in my indian swing. ahhh! i love a good book. more on the book later.

but anyways, awesome day. who knows what the rest of the evening will hold. i'm trying hard to stay away from any real work if i can though. :) these kinds of days just don't come often enough.

i guess there's a reason God told us to take a sabbath. my mental health feels improved already.

27 September 2010

sukkah

by mandyandshomik

fall is in the air at last!

it's amazing how waking up to a crisp 55 degree morning puts me in such a better mood than walking outside and instantly starting to sweat.

fall makes me want to buy mums and pumpkins and drink hot tea!

and today i found yet another awesome thing about autumn...sukkot!

as in the jewish feast of tabernacles.
this is when jews live in tents (sukkah) for a week each year at the beginning of fall to remember the 40 years they were lost in the wilderness, and thank God for all his provision.

for lunch today one of my friends who is a rabbi invited me to dine with her in their family sukkah...and it was a super fun experience.

it got me to thinking though...why don't christians celebrate more jewish holidays?
so many of them have such special and messianic meaning behind them to a christian...especially passover. seriously.

in fact, when jesus had the last supper with his disciples and said 'do this in rememberance of me', i think he was especially referring to the passover seder, and the symbolism behind it.
he was saying, now when you come together to remember how God spared you from death by providing the sacrificial lamb, realize that the lamb was only a foreshadowing of my sacrifice for you.

i don't really think he was talking about taking shots of grape juice with crackers...don't get me wrong...i think doing communion is good...but maybe we miss part of the deep impact of it when we don't really think about the original context.

anyways...rabbit trail. just my two cents.

but seriously, maybe i can start a trend of my own.
weather this nice makes me want to build a sukkah in the backyard for sure...
or maybe i'll just go camping. :)

19 September 2010

love notes

by mandyandshomik

it's the free little thoughtful things that will make a girl's day.
am i right ladies?

my husband definitely impressed me with some cute romance today. :)

04 September 2010

purple monster

by mandyandshomik

it's actually starting to feel a little bit like fall in texas!
you have no idea how happy that makes me.

a few days of rain brought in this nice little cool front, and all my plants are surely happy.
like me.

in fact...it looks like my sweet potato vine is sneaking across the deck now...hoping that i won't notice.

but it doesn't have to worry. i kinda of like it when beautiful things grow a little out of control. i think i'll allow it until he starts sitting in our patio furniture and not sharing with us.

there he goes! (yup. it's a boy.)

it's hard to believe that the mass of vines trying to take over our yard was just a couple little scrawny plants a few months ago.

i hate it that they're just annual and i can't keep them around all year...but i guess if they were allowed to grow like that all year then they'd just take over the world!

i've spent almost the entire day outside. there aren't many days in texas that you can do that without wanting to die. i welcome this weather to stick around.

01 September 2010

liked 27 dresses? yes, i'm that girl.

by mandyandshomik

ok, so it's safe to say i've been in my fair share of weddings.

i'm up again to be a bridesmaid this fall...
for my mother.

that's one i never saw coming.

so she's letting us pick our own bridesmaids dresses, but they have to be in a specific matching color...

and she's already changed that color. twice.

fortunately, since i have a billion dresses, i've been able to exactly match her color with existing bridesmaids dresses from my closet. twice.

yes, you never know when those dresses might come in handy again i suppose.

maybe it's high time i make a lil' trip to a consignment shop...
or open a consignment shop!

sad but true.

29 August 2010

keane

by mandyandshomik

i tend to get on music kicks.
i'll listen to something i like over and over again for awhile until i get it out of my system. it might make some people crazy though! haha.

but lately i've been on a keane kick. a few weeks ago it was brandi carlile, but this week it's keane. they kind of remind me of a mix between U2 and coldplay. so i'll just leave you with that today because my brain is feeling a little frazzled to process a full length blog!

15 August 2010

recipe: mishti doi

by mandyandshomik

ok so right now in texas it is hot.
like melt your face off hot.

it's funny, but since my husband and i have been together, indian food as really become a daily part of my life...to the point where at some times i even find certain things to be comfort foods.

one of these things is mishti doi.
my husband's family is from west bengal...a place in india known for it's sweets.

the first time i ever had this dish, we were visiting my husband's aunt and uncle in new delhi.
there was some kind of power outage in the city...so for one day we didn't have power or water, and the temp outside was about 110.

then shomik's aunt comes out to save the day with this dessert she had made earlier.
it was soooo yummy, and a seriously satisfying relief from the heat.

that was a recipe i had to have for future reference...and fortunately for me, it was super easy!
of course there's a more authentic and complicated way of going about it, but for me, easy works just fine. :)

mishti doi (sweet yogurt)

1 32oz plain yogurt
1 can of sweetened condensed milk

mix the two ingredients together in a bowl, and then put them in a microwave safe container.
cook in the microwave for 2-5 minutes...until it starts to develop a custard like consistency.
then chill in the fridge and serve cold!
yum!!

in the winter i love to bake...
but in the summer, this is my kind of cooking!

ps- happy independence day to india!

14 August 2010

life in america blog

by mandyandshomik

so i just started an additional blog.

yeah, like i keep up with this one so well that i need another one too, right? :)

but anyways, i'm pretty excited about it because this new blog is mostly for international friends and students that i work with.

it's called 'life in america', and i'm wanting to make it a survival guide of sorts on how to manage living in the US.

and i'm hoping not to be the only author of this blog. if friends want to contribute in their areas of expertise, i think this might be even more beneficial than if it's just my knowledge. :P

so here it is! the official launch!

http://xainternationals.blogspot.com/

07 August 2010

where the sun don't shine

by mandyandshomik

3 Comments

ok, so a few weeks ago i shared the progress we've made in our backyard since we moved into our house a year ago...
but sadly i can't share the same kind of results for our front yard.

it's been a problem area from the start.

we have 3 ginormous trees in the front.
which i love.
but with that much shade happening, and with tree roots all over the place, it's not the ideal situation for gardening.

when we moved in, there were only some squared off boxwoods and a few little dianthus sprinkled around there.

so i don't really have a before and after yet for you...that might take awhile...but there are a few small achievements in the yard that make me happy.

one of them is the coleus.
mostly because i grew them from seeds this spring!

they actually seem to do pretty well in the deep shade, and they add a bit of color in an area where it's hard to get much out of flowers or anything.
notice the ferns behind them...i've been hoping to get those to take off in the shade too.

another one of my favorites are the cast iron plants. not much can survive in the shade and bad soil, but someone told me to try some cast iron plants. their toughness is true to the name. they were a beast to find, but then one day they randomly showed up at home depot for super cheap. gotta love it.

in the fall i ripped out a couple of the boxwoods and replaced them with something a little more exotic looking...fatsia and aurelia. they're still pretty tiny, but they should grow into some decent sized shrubs.

then i added a couple of giant stain glass hostas just today. i have a few little dwarf ones in the yard that i grew from root balls, but i've had my eye out for some of these guys ever since i ran across some bush sized ones on a trip to missouri a few months ago. i didn't even know hostas could get so big.

but anyways, these guys were on super duper clearance, thanks to this awful heat. i guess no one wants to plant anything when its 106 outside.
but i figured for a couple bucks i could take the risk, and just make sure they get plenty of water and love the next few weeks.

plus they're kind of bright and cheery in such a dark shaded area.
and those flowers? i think i'm in love.

so anyways, there's a peek at our little garden where the sun doesn't shine.
hopefully it will have a lot more to show for itself by next summer.
perhaps this post should have been called 'plants i haven't been able to kill yet.' :P

ok so this is embarrassing, and it may be many many years down the road...once i'm an old retired grandma...but i have a secret aspiration of winning yard of the month in our neighborhood.

i think i have a lot to learn, and that my plants have a whole lot of growing to do before that happens too. but who knows?!

speaking of, either my neighborhood association has a sense of humor, or some teenage kids do, because i saw the much coveted 'yard of the month' since sitting proudly in the lot of a house that was being leveled down the road. haha.

gotta love it.

04 August 2010

peach thief

by mandyandshomik

we weren't the only ones excited about our peaches.
someone else discovered them too.

it took us a couple days to discover the culprit...
until he came back to prowl around at the scene of the crime.

i caught our little squirrel friend on camera as he was running away.
but he's too cute for me to be angry.
i guess case closed.

03 August 2010

after shocks

by mandyandshomik

4 Comments

i didn't really want to blog much about grief here. i had another blog that i used around the time that i lost my dad and all, which i have since retired because it became too engulfed in that sadness.

but grief has been tearing at me again a lot the past few months, and i feel the need to get it out. somehow writing it always helps me a bit to work through it.

my mom is getting remarried.

she's with a great guy, and i think this will be a good thing...for her.
i'm happy that she's happy.

but as for me, it's been ripping me apart. like ripping the scabs off of a wound that was starting to heal.

the grief of first losing my dad was the worst...but this may be the most difficult.

difficult because it's not simple. when he was suddenly taken from us we grieved hard and the world grieved with us. pain was the only thing we could feel.

but now i grieve alone. and my grief is one that most people don't understand...it's a grief that people might even judge me for...it's a grief that i feel the need to hide because it might hurt others.

but like the previous grief, it's a thing i can't control.
i wish i could.

this grief is like another reality of my dad being gone. it's also a grief for the only family i ever knew.
some pieces of that family may still exist, but they're all fragmented and scattered about now...and this is like the final nail in the coffin.

i know that time will heal...and eventually these new changes will give me joy.
but for now it hurts. i hate being thrown back into grief again.

31 July 2010

moving to the country. going to eat a lot of peaches.

by mandyandshomik

does anyone else remember that crazy song?

anyways, we're now enjoying the first peaches from our tree!

despite the late snow we had this year, it still looks like our little tree has put out about 20 peaches in it's first summer...this could be promising!

yummm!

25 July 2010

dreams

by mandyandshomik