Day 7
The morning was special, because I finally got to talk to
you, Mom! Our internet is fixed, or
fixed enough to support (sort of) a Skype call.
How wonderful to talk to you!
We picked up the laundry we sent out with the dhobi-wallah,
and discovered he is charging us the foreign rates! He wanted more than Rs.300 for 22
pieces! I know everything has gone up in
price, but this is crazy!
We played at the playground for a bit, and debated if it was
always set up that way, or if it had changed since we had left.
After lunch, it was another visit to the big city, but this
time with a taxi! I thought it might be
a little easier on us as a family to travel this way, rather than auto
rickshaw. The traffic was horrendous,
both ways, much worse than I remember.
We went to Hum, on Church
St. , an old favourite of ours for clothes. Unfortunately, their prices have skyrocketed,
selection was not so good, and they no longer carry kids clothing. So, off we went to the Mota Arcade Mall, at
the end of Brigade Rd. We tried to get some sweet lime soda on the
way from Nilgiri’s upstairs restaurant, but it has changed to some upscale
café, and at Rs.150 for a coffee, we more or less walked in and walked out
(well, as soon as I visited the ladies room).
Mota Arcade Mall was still the same as it was 5 years ago, still 3 floors
of export surplus, and still good bargoons to be found. I got some Adidas hiking shoes for 60% off
MRP – about Rs.1300 or $24! [In my
insistence that we pack light (btw, we packed a family of 5 in two suitcases!), I
limited our footware, and now I need something a bit more robust for the Hampi
ruins.] Everyone got something and I
may need to go back again before we go home!
Kids were hungry and tired, so we got them some Subway to
eat on the way home. Gagan didn’t want
to spend the Rs.120 on us, so we needed to wait until we got to closer to home
to eat. We stopped at a chaat place for
some ridiculously hot aloo paratha and chole thali.
I promised the kids they could watch a movie on TV tonight, and that I would get some popcorn for them to go with their candies from Canada . I couldn’t get the stuff I wanted, so I got some Lay’s chips instead. So, I’m going to get back to “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” and write again tomorrow. Good night!
