Chinglish: January 2013

india may be where the heart is, but it is also where the food is, the family is and the cows are. my extremely short stint was just enough time to party it up with my dad for his 60th bday, play party games with my 80+ yr old grandmoms and eat a lot of my favorite indian foods (and equal times using the bathroom).

my trip this time took me to the small city of nagpur where my dad's mom and two brothers live, smack dab in the middle of india. not much has changed since my last trip there over 6-7 years ago. the city has some significant significance for my family; my grandparents used to own a property right on the main street of nagpur as a summer house where my dad and his 3 brothers and 1 sister used to vacation growing up. it is also the house my grandmother lived in as she got older, and my immediately family used to visit as my sister and i grew up. not only was it centrally located, it had magical mazes of rooms and closets and rooftops for awesome games of hide and seek. it was also across the street from our fave "cream corner" where my cousins and i used to get a daily (if not doubly) mango ice cream treat. and as our reunions grew bigger, it was conveniently down the street from a host of nagpur's only hotels. several years ago, my grandmother sold the property to a big contractor who built a large complex on the land. and now there is coincidentally a family owned restaurant right where our living room used to be.

this trip, we stayed at my uncle's place, a few minutes outside the city proper. i got in super early on sunday morning, just in time to take a quick bucket bath and get ready for my dad's big birthday bash. aside from my one younger cousin studying in nagpur, i was the youngest attendee by about 30 years. which made it that much more fun and i got a lot of attention and love and first dibs on all buffet items :) one of the highlights was the pani puri and chaat stand which quickly became the crowd fave.

here's a pic of my parents having a special birthday dance and of course...the chaat corner

the coolest parents in the world doing a little dance

the chaat station - nom nom nom

after the party, we basically had a lot of time to hang out, walk around, eat, shop, eat, eat, eat, nap, have chai, etc. here are some snaps of the streets of nagpur

a cow

main street

here's also some pics of us shopping and my magnificent new year's eve with my grandmoms :)

the beautiful salesman modeling this beautiful sari that we did not purchase

the hats came out and bottles (of juice) were poppin! best new year's ever!

last but certainly not least, ended the trip with a spicy mcpaneer sammie. success!

overall a very short but heart-filled family reunion, from which i came back with mango candy, coconut biscuits, two rotis for the road and a load of mithai!

this place is like no other. i mean, all of my favorites in one - cinnabon, pf changs, red lobster, cold stone, dean & deluca, magnolia's. haha ON TOP of that, there's clear blue sparkling waters, warm weather and middle eastern food. and a load of indian people. what is not to like...

hao and i went to dubai for his good college friend mahdi's wedding. we, along with a dozen other penn alum, attended their reception which boasted lots of rhythmic dancing, radiant faces and some sharply dressed sudanese men. aww yeah.

also two of my cousins and their wives happen to live in dubai so we had some built in tour guides. they graciously took hao, art and i around and showed us the must-sees of the city. most happened to be in or around a mall which pleased me for some reason. below is a snapshot of my short but sweet stay in dubai! will share hao's blog post when he's done to give you the full rundown!

ps. there are not many pics of food here because i was very ill the first two days in dubai and didnt eat much. but rest assured there was incredible food and it shall be captured by the wonders of hao's blog.