2009

June-Dec 2009

Collating all the activities from May is going to be taxing to my brains but I am going to give it a shot (Resolution for the new year, update the blogs on a regular basis).

December – This was  short month at school.  We had our Christmas recital on December 8th.  All the kids parents where there with their cameras trying to capture a photo here, a photo there, then there were parents focusing their video camera including papa.  We kids felt like movie stars out there on the stage, then all the parents came over to our classroom for a pizza lunch.  My school was closed for the holidays from 21st, Papa’s office was closed from the 25th.  We went for the movies on the 25th – 3 idiots, wow that was some movie. On the 26th Papa took us to deYoung museum to see the King Tut exhibit, I still can’t figure out what was so great about that exhibit, the man has been dead for nearly 3500 years and still people are lining up to see what he was buried with, strange.  I then spent the whole of next week visiting Children’s Tech Museum every single day, it is fun playing at the pizza restaurant, doing the dragon art work and face painting before heading home.  On New years eve – we went out for dinner.  Overall 2009 was an interesting year, and hope 2010 is even better.

November – This is great month for me, first there is my birthday which we celebrated twice.  We celebrated at my school on November 12th when Amma and Papa got cake and pizza to school, then on November 19th we headed down to San Diego.  We went to LegoLand where we celebrated my birthday.  Papa and I spent lot of time in the building area where we built model cars and raced with others, our cars looked more like a narrow plane than a car, at least it worked.  We wrapped up with dinner at a Thai place.  Next day we went to the San Diego zoo, wow, it is different to look at the animals in the real world than in the pictures, there were Lions, Elephants, Gorillas, Giraffes, Rhinos, Hippos, Alligators, lots of Monkeys, Hyenas, and lots and lots of birds, we all were tired by the time we left the zoo.  Papa took us to a Moroccan place for dinner.  For Thanksgiving papa and I spent the thanksgiving day building ships, houses, truck, firefighters with all the legos we bought at legoland.

October – There was lot of activity in October, there was Diwali when Amma made lot of sweets and lighted up the house with diyas.  Papa took me to see Disney on Ice at HP Pavilion in San Jose on Oct 25th.  It was beautiful.  They show depicted the stories of Aladdin and Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora), Mermaid (Princess Ariel), Snow White, Hua Mulan, Beauty and the Beast (Princess Belle) and finally Cindrella.  It was beautiful, I had never seen a show on ice.  Halloween was fun, I attended party at my karate school, ended up with lots of candy, then on Halloween day I dressed up as Red Power Ranger.  We had a show at my school and then in the evening papa took me around the neighborhood, I got a scare of my life at one house when this man had dressed as death and really scared me.

September – The month started quietly but on the 11th, papa got a call from India and it was a sad news, papa brother-in-law, Krishita akka’s papa (Harish uncle) passed away of cardic arrest.  Both Papa and I left for India on Sept 18th to be with Vinutha mami and Krishita akka.  We reached there on the 19th, Pramod ajja was also on the flight with us as he was visiting India for his daughter’s first birthday.  I spent most of my time at Krishita akka’s home.  We went to Nasik to disperse Harish uncle’s ashes.  During the trip, I ended up taking papa almost everyday to the toy store to buy new toys eventually papa had to buy a new bag only for my toys, even though we made the trip for a sad occasion it was good for me as I got spend time with my cousin sisters, Krishita akka, Shreya akka, and Trisha akka, Babi akka was out of town for handball tournament.  We came back to US on the 2nd of October.

August – The first week of August was my last week at Achiever Christian School.  The school was closed for summer for three weeks and during that time I went to Stratford Summer School.  It was far from home but the best part of it was that papa used to drop me off and pick me up.  The first day of summer school was interesting to say the least, they did not have my name on the list, actually the did not have lot of kids name on the list so it took a while to get me settled down but once that was resolved it was all fun.  On August 22nd I went to Estevan’s birthday, that was lot of fun. They had wading pool, water slide, and the best part was that they had an off-road vehicle which I got to ride, boy it was lots of fun.  I started my new school year at Startford on 24th August, it was bit strange as I did not know anyone over there, I had to make new friends which as I found out was not that hard but I missed my old school as I had lots of friends over there and I also liked the teachers.  I have two new teachers – Ms. Erin and Ms. Shannon, they are nice but Ms. Erin is strict too, need to be careful with her.  I have new best friend – Bilal, he and I have lots of fun at school.

Jun-July:  Nothing much happened during this time as it was summer time, I spent my time doing various activities at my school (Achiever Christian School).  We had lot of fun activities – there was art work, pool activities and lot of time spent outdoors enjoying the sun.  I was supposed to be doing swimming but for some reason I was scared of jumping into the big pool, hopefully I will get over that fear soon.

May 30 – It has been a while since I have updated my blog.  I have been very busy with school (loving it …..) and papa has been busy with work to download the videos and pictures.  Well finally we both have time to sit down and put together what we have been upto in the last three months.

Well March was a pretty quite month, not much activity going on.  Papa had signed me up for Easter Egg hunt at Camden Community center.  It was at the same place where I go to play soccer.  Other than that March was pretty boring.

April there were lot of activities.  On April 4th, I went to another egg hunt, this one was organized by my school Achiever Christian School.  I met my friend Jacob and collected a few eggs (they told us not to collect more than 5, phew..) but wait, there was surprise inside each egg and not just candies.  They had various prizes, I ended up getting two medium and one small prize, that was a nice surprise.  They had nice snacks too.  The best part of April was the Recital at my school.  I have been working hard with my dance teacher and attending wiggles class every Tuesday.  The big day was on April 24th.  I had a holiday so that was extra fun though I missed Ms. Carmen and Ms. Caroline but I got to wear new dress (the T-shirt was done by me, specially for the recital).  Amma and Papa dropped me at the Fellowship hall and went to sit in the audience.   The theme of the recital was “The Wonderful world of Weather”.  Our song was “Walkin’ on Sunshine”.  It was so much fun to sing and dance in front of the school.  After that each class sang their songs based on a theme.  Our class’s (C-1) theme was “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and we sang “I’m a little snowflake” and “Let it snow”.  At the end we had a group songs with the theme “God made all Weather” .  I had a blast, oh, it was so much fun.

May was even better – first there was Mother’s day on May 10th.  I got Amma bouquet of roses, a “Happy Mother’s day” ballon, though I would have liked to have a ballon myself (I will ask for one on my birthday).  Then there was Amma’s birthday on May 16th, we went out for dinner, next day was Papa’s birthday.  We didn’t go out for dinner as we had to attend another baby’s birthday.  Her name was Nalina and she was turning one (she is a cute baby).  She is my Papa’s friend’s daughter.  We went to Alum rock park, there I had lots of fun, first there was lot of food then I got to play with the sprinklers.  I was all wet but neither papa or amma were mad (Surprise), by the time we got back home, I was very tired.  On May 22nd – I had my PTA meeting with Ms.Carmen.  I was worried there as to what Ms.Carmen will tell amma and papa about me but I was worried for no reason as I got good remarks though I need to polish my social skills.  They tell me I hug to tightly, what am I supposed to do if there is girl involved.  I know most of my alphabets but I don’t want to write them especially baby alphabets (papa doesn’t like to it when I always tell him that I will write it tomorrow).  In the evening we went to the Childrens Discovery Museum, they had Curious George pre-exhibit but we did not get to go in as Papa had forgotten to RSVP.  I was crying as I wanted to meet Curious George but papa promised to take me to the Museum next day to see the exhibit as it was going to be there for 3 months.  Papa and I went to the tech Museum three days in a row as Papa had holiday on Monday too.  It was so much fun, they had built George’s building with doorman uniform, then they had the library, golf course, wind tunnel, shapes, post office, block slides.  I spent all my time at the block slides, it was fun placing the blocks on the belt and have to turn the wheel to see the blocks go up and come down from the other side.  Only on the third day did I go to rest of the museum.  I played at the pizza parlour making pizzas for everybody.  I took a ride on the “Honda Truck” and took a little girl to Costco to do some shopping.  It was so much fun but now I was even more excited when papa told me tomorrow was school day as I get to go to school and play with my Monster Motorcyle and Red Bike.  Now it is summer and they have BBQ at school on June 9th, will keep everyone posted.

Week of Feb 23rd – I had my second karate class this week, it was lot of fun.  I was having fun doing side kicks, ground hog and throwing punches.  They were asking me to do push-ups, I had no clue what was a push-up so all I did was throw punches.  Papa promised me to pick up on Thursday but got tied up in some meeting on reorg, I was disappointed and I called papa and told him too but on Friday, papa, as promised not only came to pick me up but took me to Pizza hut for dinner and then we went to the movies, my first Hindi movie Rab ne bana di jodi in the theater.  I was all excited.  After an hour I was getting bored, these movies go on forever, papa was looking at his watch only amma was watching the movie, finally after 3 hrs the movie was over, I was really sleepy and ended up sleeping on my the way home, after all it was past 11:30.

Feb 16th – It is President’s day holiday and my school is closed.  I am kind of bored today but papa promised me that he will take me to Aastha’s house as she has a new brother.  Papa first took me to karate class, i was more interested in running around but papa was giving me a stern starte for not listening to the teacher.  I managed to learn side kicks, ground hog kick and puching the bag, papa told me that I will be going to karate every Monday now. Papa drove us to Dharmesh uncle’s house in the evening.  I am excited to see the new baby.  We reached Dharmesh uncle’s house in the evening and they prepared excellent dinner but I was more interested with playing with the toys especially the toy we got for the baby.  I had fun but we had to leave for home as next day was work day for papa though I had a holiday.

Feb 2nd – Papa leaves me at school around 8 AM.  Miss Jessica my morning teacher is nice to me, sometimes I forget to say good morning but papa reminds me.  Amma picks me everyday in the evening though sometimes I don’t want to go home as I am busy playing with my toys and enjoying Miss Rachel’s class.

Jan 31st – I started learning soccer at Camden Community Center.  I am trying to get control over the ball as you can see in the photos but I am enjoying myself, though papa has to get up early on Saturday morning to take me to soccer but it will do him lot of good to get up early on Saturday morning

Jan 5th – This was my first day at the new school – Achiever Christian School.  I had great day with my new friends.  My class teachers are Miss Caroline and Miss Carmen who are very nice to me. I like it because I get to play with some of my favorite toys like cars and trucks.

Jan 1st – The new year is here.  On Dec 31st I went with Papa to his office, I was busy scribbling on paper while papa worked.  On Jan 1st, Tanvi and her parents Nisha aunty and Giri uncle visited us.  Tanvi and I had loads of fun and our share of fights, we are kids so we fight (at least that is what papa and uncle kept saying).  We were fighting over who will ride the bike, who will take photos with the camera but we also played together with cars and other toys.  It was lots of fun.  I did not want Tanvi to go to her place but it was late.  It was a nice way to start the new year.

San Jose Dec 7 – 25 2008

After coming back from India, I started school on Dec 8th.  I was a very good boy at school (this is according to my teachers – not me) .  Papa and amma were also busy looking for a new school for the next semester and finally settled down on Achiever Christian School though it sounds like Achiever “christmas” school.  Talking about christmas – I now have two weeks winter break.  Papa bought me toys, though he keeps buying it so I don’t know if it for Christmas but I will take it.  He also bought some toys for him too as he seems excited setting it up and all of sudden the picture on the TV looks bigger and sound seems to be coming from all corner of the house.  It makes Bernstein bears sound stronger and louder.  Papa has been busy with his computer doing things with the pictures and video from India.  I will keep you folks posted as how my New year’s eve went.

On Dec 20th I attended Sahil’s 2nd birthday at Fremont, I had lots of fun with Anika, Amog, Rohan and others.  Sahil cut the birthday cake and Winnie the Pooh was there to entertain us, we also played with ballons.

Bombay Nov 22 – Dec 6

Nov 22 – After several delays our flight finally took off at 5 PM instead of 2:20 PM.  We finally arrived in Bombay from Udaipur around 6 PM.  We had a wonderful ride in traffic from Santacruz to Mulund (Papa was wondering how come there is so much traffic even on Saturday).

Nov 23 – It was my ajja’s fifth anniversary.  Vinutha Mami had prepared my ajja’s favorite food.  Papa along with Vinutha mami took the food and placed it for the crows.  Within a few minutes a crow came and started eating after which we all went back to Bombay place (according to papa – papa’s house is my Bombay place) and had our lunch.  Nikita aunty and Nikhil uncle were visiting us.  I am a bit confused as to how can a 15 year old girl and 10 year old boy can be aunty and uncle but I will humor papa for now.  Again in the evening we had dinner together with the extended family.  Mallika mami and her family and Harish mama’s papa were also with us.

Nov 24 – 29:  Papa as usual during his vacation he went to Yahoo office to work.  Amma and I went to visit amma’s house in Vashi.  We were going to stay at amma’s place for a week.  I had already started missing papa but amma was there.  I met Harsha mama, ajja, ajji, dodha amma and my oldest cousin sister Anuskha akka.  I overheard my amma talking to papa about some firings in Bombay and papa telling her that he was visiting his friends in Bandra went it happened.  He was ok and he was going to work again on Friday (three days of working during vacation – can’t figure that one out).  We came back on Saturday.  After coming home and we freshened up and left for Mallika mami’s house.  I had lots of fun playing with Krishita akka, Babi akka and Trisha akka, come to think of it I was the only boy.  After a nice dinner we headed back home as we had another day of relative dinner rounds.

Nov 30 – We went to Vinutha Mami’s house for lunch, I again got to play with all my cousins and papa was busy with Harish mama and barley water.  After a nice stomach filling lunch we headed back home to relax before we went to Shashi Ajjiamma’s house.  I met my uncle Nanit (now Navneet) and grand uncle Narayan ajja.  Navneet uncle got me toys to play with, I loved the big car and the boat house, that kept me busy while everyone chatted and had their food.  We finally left for home at around 9:30 PM.

Dec 1 – 5: We were supposed to go to Mahalaxmi temple on Dec 1st but papa and amma had lot of chores to complete so we ended up staying at home. On Tuesday we went to Mahalaxmi temple and made our offerings, after the visit we went to Haji Ali too and laid chaddar and attar.  It was a nice walk from the shore to the dargh on the stone pathway.  We then went to town (aka Churchgate) as papa needed make some sports equipment purchase and of course get couple of bottles of his favorite OLD MONK rum.  We were back before we hit the peak traffic.  On Dec 3rd we went to visit amma’s uncle (Shankar ajja), we also met Reshma aunty and my cousin sister rishma (one more girl though this one is younger than me).  They had lots of toys so I was busy with it.  I am happy I got to see Shankar ajja as he passed away on Dec 14th.  After visiting Shankar ajja’s house we went to see Rakesh uncle’s (Nami aunty’s husband) parents.  On Dec 4th papa had to go to work to tie up some loose ends, amma and I went to visit her parents.  On Dec 5th, amma and papa were busy packing and getting last minute stuff.  It took them less than an hour to pack, seems like they have been doing this quite a lot.  Amma’s cousins – Reshma Aunty, Seema Aunty, her husband Sudhesh uncle and my cousins – Rishma, Tanisha (one more girl and she is younger than me too) and Rohit anna (Finally a boy) came to see us.  Papa’s friend Vardha uncle also came to see us.

Dec 6th – Our flight to California home was at 11:20 AM so we left home at around 7:45 AM, because of extensive security Ajji amma, Vinutha mamai, Krishi akka and Harish mama dropped us off but they had to leave as they could not stop the car for long.  Papa’s friends Sudh uncle and his brothers Sanat and Sujyan came to meet us at the airport.  We finally checked in.  Our flight back was extremely fast (according to papa – I have no clue).  We we landed 1/2 early and were at home by 6 PM.

Vacation is over, now it is back to school.

Jaisalmer-Udaipur Nov 20-22

Jaisalmer-Udaipur

I was up bright and early today.  I AM FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY!!!!!  We had a nice breakfast and left at 7 AM for Jaisalmer.  Jaisalmer lies in the heart of Thar desert and is always the first place that our enemies from the west like to take over.  As usual we reached Jaisalmer around noon but this time we decided to first visit the lake and the adjoining temple.  After lunch we visited Patwa haveli. It is the largest and most elaborate haveli in Jaisalmer.  Known locally as the Patwon-ki-haveli, the first one was constructed in 1805 by a merchant called Guman Chand Patwa and is the biggest and the most ostentatious. There are two entrances managed by different groups – one a private entrance, the second by the archaelogical society of India (no reward for guessing which part is better managed).  The private entrance showing of the haveli showed the beautiful ornate glass decorations inside the haveli (check the pics).  The whole section of the haveli had artifacts used by the merchants from days gone by, their desk, ink stands, notebooks, clothing but the impressive piece was the glass decorations on the wall – immensely beautiful.  We then decided to explore the archaelogical side of the haveli and it was scary, I was clinging to papa as we were the only ones inside the haveli and papa kept reminding amma that it feels like being in a horror movie.  The place was taken over by pigeons and of course hidden behind the walls – mice.  We were out of there in 10 mins.  From Patwa Haveli we left for Sam sand dunes which is very close to India Pak border.  We took a camel ride to watch the sunset over the dunes, papa and I were on one camel and amma rode the second.  From the look on amma’s face, I don’t think she enjoyed the ride but I was in seventh heaven, waving my hands freely I was truly enjoying hte ride.  We stopped to take photographs of the sunset before climbing back on the camel to finish our ride.  After finishing our tour we headed back to the hotel but we were not done, amma and papa where insistent on having me cut a birthday cake so off we went in search of cake in the desert town of Jaisalmer.  Surprise, Surprise – they did find the only bakery shop in town.  We came back to the hotel, had a nice dinner then headed back to our room to cut my birthday cake – THERE CELEBRATED MY BIRTHDAY AT JAISALMER.  I was really tired and wanted to go to bed so was in no mood to have any cake plus Vinod (our driver) told us that we have a full day’s drive to Udaipur (little over 600 Kms).

As usual we were up and early and left for Udaipur at 7:30 AM.  It was a long ride to Udaipur, we had reached the outskirts of the city by 4:30 PM and thanks for the great signs or lack thereof it took as another hour and half to reach the city.  They are building new wide roads by cutting through the mountains, unfortunately the semi completed roads are not marked as under construction and we ended up at the edge of incomplete roads.  Fortunately we had a great driver and it was still daytime.  After reaching the hotel, we just relaxed by having a nice dinner and then finally started packing as we were leaving the next day after visiting the sites at Udaipur.  For the first time during our trip we left the hotel at 8 AM – first stop Saheliyon-ki-bari a major garden with beautiful fountains, being early has its advantage as we could enjoy the garden without lot of tourists.  Next stop – Jagdish temple, this temple is right next to the City Palace of Udaipur.  Since we there early and City Palace didn’t open until 9:30 AM we stopped at Krishna temple after visiting Jagdish temple.  Finally we entered the City Palace which is built on the banks of Lake Pichola, you can see the Lake Palace or should I say Lake Palaces from the City Palace.  After taking a nice easy stroll through the palace we took a boat ride on the lake.  We stopped at the original lake palace also known as the Jag Mandir (the other lake palace is a hotel now).  We quickly walked through Jag Mandir as we needed to head back to the airport.  We finished our tour around noon and headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Bombay.

It was beautiful one week and really enjoyed every single place, my favorite was the Taj Mahal and the camel ride.

Jaipur and Jodhpur Nov 18 – 19

Jaipur-Jodhpur

After a good nights rest, we left at 7 AM to Jaipur but we first needed to stop at Fatehpur and Sikri Fatehpur was the capital of the Mughal Empire until Akbar moved it to Agra Fort. At Fatephur we saw the residence of Akbar’s three queens – Jodhabhai, Turkish Sultana and Miriam.  Jodhabhai was a rajput princess, Turkish sultana was a muslim from Turkey and Miriam was a christian from Goa, so there we have a muslim emperor who took wives from all three religions.  Incidentally each was allowed to practice their respective religion at Fatehpur.  At Sikri (right next to the Fatehpur fort) we visited Salim Chisti’s tomb.  It is a beautiful place but spoilt by the swindlers who try to sell the chaddhar for Rs. 1500 which normally costs like Rs 100 – 200. After wrapping up the tour at Fatehpur and Sikri in an hour we left for Jaipur which is approximately 250 Kms away.

We arrived at Jaipur at noon before we started the tour we decided to satisfy our hunger.  Our first stop was Amer aka Amber fort, this was the capital of Kachhawa’s before it was moved to present day Jaipur.  It has a beautiful panaromic view of its surronding.  There is another fort (Jaigarh fort) which sits on top of the hill, both these forts are connected via hidden passages.  The incredible part of these structures is how the kings managed to use nature and gravity to provide natural air conditioning and water inside the fort.  After a nice trek up and down the fort we left for the city palace, on the way stopped to view the lake palace (not the famous one at Udaipur).  Incidentally the kings all over Rajasthan built lake palace’s to escape the heat.  Before visiting the city palace we stopped at Jantar Mantar which is right next to the city palace.   The instruments at the Jantar Mantar are still working and what is more interesting is that the king Jai Singh II was the one who designed most of the instruments, talk about having a brainiac for a king (where are these guys now, it would be nice to have them run the country).  We visited the City Palace next.  It is truly a palace who have come to imagine reading our history books, with gold plated walls, a crown, baitak’s, the whole enchilada.  We were told that the royal family still resides at the city palace.  The last official stop of our tour was the Hawa Mahal, this was kind of anti-climax, may be because we saw it at night or may be because it is right in the center of the busy street.  We cannot enter the Mahal so we only saw the facade for which it is known, incidentally it is not supposed to have a very strong foundation but fortunately it was able to withstand the bomb blasts earlier in the year (during diwali time).  Before we headed to our hotel we decided to go to Chokhi Dhani – this is an ethnic village which shows how life existed in the past.  I enjoyed a nice camel ride with papa, watched a puppet show and enjoyed a traditional dance before we went to have a traditional Rajasthani food.  As good as the place was, we were not a big fan of the food, I don’t think papa enjoyed having sugar and ghee put on his food, though he enjoyed having a traditional paghdi placed on his head.  It was late when we got back to our hotel and we were very tired, we had another long day ahead of us.

We got up and early and left for Jodhpur at 7:30 AM, all the places were approximately 250 Kms apart so by the time we reached Jodhpur it was close to noon, we stopped for lunch before we started our tour.  First stop was Mehrangarh fort, as with most forts this too had a panoramic view of the city though in this case the houses are right next to the hill on which the fort stands.  This fort is not in as good a state as the Amer fort though it still reflects the beautiful artistery of the time.  From the fort we went to Jaswant Thada which is located very close to the fort.  Here you saw the memorials for the kings of the Rathore clan.  Our last stop was Umaid Bhavan, the tour was not extensive as the City Palace in Jaipur but it did reflect the glorious days of the Rathore clan and as the city palace it is an active residence too.  We finally headed to our hotel, though our driver had some problems finding the hotel, papa was surprised he actually found the place as the place did not have any street signs or for that matter those paths can even be called streets as you could barely take a car, but the residence converted into a hotel was actually good.  It was right at the foothill of Mehrangarh fort.  We enjoyed a light dinner before hitting the sack.  I was excited about tomorrow as I will be 4 years old – whoopee!!!!

Delhi and Agra Nov 16 – 17

Delhi-Agra trip

After a relaxing day at Bombay on Nov 15th, we flew to Delhi early on Nov 16th via Kingfisher airlines.  We reached Delhi at 10 AM and our tour driver Vinod was there to greet us.  We immediately left for Qutub Minar one of the ancient tower which was built in the 12th century by Qutb-ud-din Aibak.

From Qutub Minar we went to have lunch as I was very hungry (we had left early in the morning and it was dinner time in California!!!)  After a nice lunch we went to see the Lotus Temple, it was beautiful.  We had to be very quiet as it was the temple and papa had shush me every time.  After the lotus temple we went to Rajghat, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s final resting place.  We then drove to Red Fort , unfortunately we could go inside as it was getting late and our tour driver Vinod promised us that Agra fort is even more impressive.  On our way to India gate I got sick and finally the jet lag caught up with me and I fell asleep.  Papa tells me that we saw the Indian parliament, hyderbad house and other offical buildings.  We reached India gate and saw the amar jawan light and saluted the soldiers who have sacrificed their life to protect our borders, we finally ended our day outside the President’s house with North and South block on either side of the house.  We got dropped at our hotel and hit the sack really early.

I got up very early on Nov 17th as I had slept from 3 the previous evening.  We had our breakfast and Vinod drove us to Agra.  On the way to Agra we stopped at Sikandara to see Akbar’s tomb, the greatest Mughal emperor who ever lived(Akbar).  We then went to have our lunch we went to see one of man made wonders of the world – Taj Mahal. One has to see this monument to really appreciate its beauty, no picture, no description, no word of mouth does justice to this beautiful marble monument.  The elegance, the skill and sheer architectural genius is beyond compare.  From the Taj we went to Agra Fort the seat of Mughal empire rule.    80% of the fort is occupied by the India army, viewing the remaining 20% took us nearly 2 hrs, I wonder how much fun the kids must have had playing hide and seek in this huge house.  Papa placed me on “Takthe Jehangir” where Jehangir was crowned and renamed it “Takthe Nihal”.  We saw the Diwan-i-Khaas and Diwan-i-Am. It must have been one wonderful time in India’s golden history, the wealth that floated around which enabled these emperors to build the Taj and other monuments speaks volumes of our rich history.  It was interesting to see the statue of Shivaji in a war charging posture on his horse facing the Agra fort, the oddity of it wont be lost on someone who remembers the history between Aurangzeb and Sivaji.

After a long tiring day, we finally called it a day and were dropped off at our hotel by Vinod to rest before our trip to Fathepur and Jaipur.

Trip to India – Nov 13 – Nov 15th

I was very excited about my trip to India. This would be my second trip but I do not remember anything about the first trip, I was a small boy then.
I would be meeting krishita akka, so I was very excited. Papa also told me that we will be going on a trip to North India and see the Taj Mahal, whatever that meant.
We left California on Nov 13th.  For the first time we flew on Jet airways, it was a great flight, I got to watch Mickey Mouse on TV while amma and papa where watching their movies, with a short stop at Shanghai we finally reached Bombay early in the morning of Nov 15th.

Grandma, Harishmama, Krishita akka, Vinutha Mami where there to meet us. We were only in Bombay for one day and then we left for Delhi on Nov 16th.