Christmas Eve:
I was welcomed into the home of Mary’s parents.
I was welcomed into the home of Mary’s parents.
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There road we needed was unexpectedly closed on the way to Mary’s parents house. While driving on the bumpy dirt road detour, our car got stuck on a massive rut in the road. David found this very frustrating but I secretly thought it was just grand! It reminded me of getting stuck in a snow drift at home but it is much more comfortable because the air does not sting your nostrils and your fingers and toes don’t turn into ice cubes when you step out of the car. I quickly volunteered to get out and help push the car from the rut. With the help of Viletrout (a German woman who was welcomed to the Selvaraj household for Christmas as well) and David we successfully freed the car and were on our rocky way again. Luckily, despite the delay that stretched the car ride time to 1 hour and 15 min, we were still the first to arrive at Mary’s parents home. Apparently Mary’s sister hit the same detour and had not arrived yet either.
(Notice the widow decor. I put this up the day before when we came to decorate Mary's parents home for Christmas. One of my first comments after entering the house to Mary's Mother was an unashamed compliment of the beautiful widow decoration. : ) I pride myself in my humble spirit. ; ) )
With in 15min of being in the house I sat down to a game of chess with Mary’s father. I play chess with him every time I visit. The first time I played he check mated me in 3 moves, the second time the game was over in 7, this time the game lasted about 10 min. He chuckled when I told him, “all I want for Christmas is to win a game of chess.”
We had a grand feast of fresh tandori (similar to bbq) chicken, mashed potatoes, fried beef patties, coconut rice, lamb curry, and a delicious cheese cake made by Mary to top it off. Mary also made one of her specialty drinks, Irish Cream liquor. Although 9 times out of 10 I will decline alcoholic beverages, this one I accepted. Sure enough, it was a fantastic addition to the dinner.
After dinner I was nominated as elf and distributed gifts. I was astonished and embarrassed to realize that Vileclout and I had received more gifts than anyone else in the room.
(my beutiful and zainy new Christmas sari)
(Vileclout also tried on my sari with Mary's help)
Christmas Day:
Woke up alone. Felt good. First things first. Opened the gift that a dear friend and fellow student on the trip for the past semester, had left me to open on Christmas since she knew I would be alone. It was a cd with my favorite bollywood song on it. There were also lots of chocolate éclairs as well. With a big grin and mouth full of candy, I poped the c.d. in my player and spent the next hour listening to Indian bollywood music and reading.
Later…
Feeling a little glum I decided to call the fam. They are all at my Gramma’s celebrating Christmas Eve. I talk with my Dad and cousin a bit then get cut off before I can wish my brother happy Christmas. This call has succeeded in making me feel worse. Enough to make a tear fall down my cheek.
I realize that I am just being foolish and decide that I better do something to keep my mind off of what ever I am thinking about that has made me so sad. I Decide to go visit the girls. I bring my stitching. The afternoon is spent stitching, dancing, and eating with the girls. Why had I not thought to do this before? They have completely brightened my day.
Vileclout and I have decide to go out for dinner. We both need food. We walk to the bus stop and wait for 30 min. At that point bus 295 (the one we’ve been waiting for) speeds by with out stopping. We stare at each other dumb founded and realize we better start walking…
We arrive at the store. A Chinese woman suggests we take a rickshaw to a place she goes to get food.
We pay the driver 40 ruppee after he drops us at the spot and proceed to walk around looking for a restaurant. We encouter an ATM, a place for me to fill up min on my phone and a place to buy whisky before settling at a restaurant for our Christmas dinner. They have my favorite Chow chow bath! Vileclout orders cheese dosa. After our enjoyable meal and tea, we set off for home.
Getting home is a bit more of a challenge. After 5 rickshaw drivers turn us down. We start walking toward a busier road to try and catch a bus.
It is dark.
We get there just in time to see our bus (295) pull away from the stop.
We are still in good spirits though, it is Christmas after all. We catch a rickshaw instead. The ride home is one of the smelliest, bumpiest, dustiest, rides I have experienced in my entire stay in India. We both find this hilarious and laugh most of the way home.
On our walk back to Vhistar we our called by Liola (a Vhistar staff member who lives just up the road from the Vhistar campus) to watch Christmas Crackers with her sons. As we sit down, her Mom insists we have some Christmas plum cake which we happily eat. After Christmas Crackers, cake and the preformance of a christmas song from Liola’s son Jayden, we take off and reach our rooms full, content, and happy we had each other for a wonderfully memorable and unique Christmas in Bangalore.
