Dharma & Nita travel blog

Today was local shopping for Navsari home, Nita needed to buy essentials to setup the kitchen. Pushpa kaki was a massive massive help in this. She took Nita to a grocer near our place where the essentials were easily picked up – kataur, oil, etc….. (I cannot remember what else was bought there).

All along kids were home with Megha (house maid) and they also had mastered using Nita’s phone, whenever we left them home, the phone was always with them. They were having a great time staying home, less walking, we called each other every 20 – 30 minutes.

(Neha & Pooja, relaxing at home)

 
(Nita with Pushpa kaki and Arvind kaka)

Next I wanted Nita to view Arvind kaka’s new flat – it was brilliantly furnished/finished!
Rather than describe the flat, I shall let the pictures do the talking – once you are inside the flat, it really does not feel like India.

Simply an amazing effort by Arvind kaka, very impressed.

Arvind kaka then took us on a tour of the essentials we needed to know in Navsari for cooking, goat, chicken and fish markets, also I needed to find a foreign exchange, he knew of a Khatri who had a business in that.
On the way there, we passed a famous Lassi place, kaka is very fond of – had to have a pit stop there and try one of those famous lassi’s

(Nita and Arvind kaka enjoying the Lassi)

Lunch was at Arvind kaka’s place. This was the first home cooked meal since we started our holidays – it tasted so nice and a big plus, It was the kids favourite (“ghos’t”), they really enjoyed it.

Afternoon was again more home shopping – this time kitchen utensils “Barrtan”.

(heading to the bazaar)

Pushpa kaki took us to a great place, which did not look like much, however had the best stuff. The place really looked like a crap store with piles of kitchen utensils in no order, however there was some order to it which they understood and were quickly able to pull out things Nita and kaki asked for.

(shopping for kitchen pots and utensils!!)

(An interesting sign right across the kitchen store we were in, I like how they have spelt Lingerie, but the best is instead of “Readymade Blouse”, they have “Redmaid Blows”!! what sort of blows are we talking about!!!! May need to visit them)

We were at the kitchen store for over an hour. Finally finished off and headed to have a snack – mama ni patties @ a store called Bhikabhai (i think), great patties they had there. 

More hunting at other stores in the bazaar for a couple of remaining utensils.

(Navsari bazaar)

(a wooden kitchenware store, even had wooden tongs!)

(Another interesting sign/name)

Finally back at home for me atleast, Nita was off again with Pushpa kaki to get the veges to make masalo, to make it easy, the people selling the stuff were more than happy to do the peeling etc for an additional 10/rs!! Made Nita’s life a whole lot easier.

For dinner we headed to Zaika restaurant, one of a handful of restaurants specialising in NON Veg cuisine. Food was excellent. Ordered Lollypop Chicken again – Pooja loved that, Tikka kebabs, and for mains I took the waiters advise and settled on Chicken Chingari, which was really good.

What a day of running around it was , really owe it to Pushpa Kaki and Arvind kaka for all the time they spent showing us around and assisting us. Big thanks to them! And a big thanks for the home cooked lunch.

Another lazy morning in Navsari, Nita joined me for the morning bakery run – the normal fresh buns.

Nothing much was done during the day, after all Navsari is all about taking it easy, especially on Sundays – nothing is open.

Today was also Navsari Mohatsav – Nita headed there with Neha around 2pm – myself and Pooja stayed home, a good move indeed! Nita was back after the interval, apparently it was a very very boring mohatsav – Brisbane mohatsav are sooooooooo much better.

(Neha and Nita ready to head off to Mohatsav)

(Sunday @ Navsari bazaar – more cows then people, me and Pooja on the way home after dropping off Neha and Nita @ Mohatsav)

That evening we wanted to eat some NON-VEG, headed to Sheetal restaurant, on the outskirts of Navsari, Pooja must have been over VEG, she really got into the lollypop chicken. Was a good meal overall.

Got back home and had the best ice-cream we have ever had (had earlier bought 2 packs of AMUL Cookies & Cream and a Butterscotch near our home), it really is the best ice-cream I have ever tasted. Definitely recommend this to everyone.

Neha and I then headed off to watch Mission Impossible 4 @ Laxmi theatres. What an experience it was. Sundays must be the busiest day for being @ the movies. It was packed and lots of action – lots of noise in the lower level of the cinema, must have been filled with crazy idiots, who kept cheering and whistling at every scene. Soon lots of yelling started, other people had complained and now a colourful verbal fight had erupted, took a couple of attendants with lots of whistle blowing to get this under control. All along Neha could not understand what the yelling was all about – to a point I also did not understand! Another surprise was the movie was dubbed in HINDI, really a different experience, the effect is soooooo watered down, may need to see this again in its original form.
Every scene with sexy girls – generated more whistles and horrays from the crowd!! The biggest cheers were however reserved for when Anil Kapoor appeared on the screen, whole crowd went crazy – totally a different experience.
Show finished around midnight, took us a while to find an Auto – was lucky to find and one this late.

Night was a bit sleepless, Nita was vomiting, with lots of stomach cramps.

Got awakened around 7:30 am by some guy beeping his horn continuously, luckily got up too see what the fuss was all about from the upper balcony – it was the garbage truck making the rounds. Had to run down quickly and get the garbage from the prior day to the “Kachra wala”.

Nita was now feeling like sh*t, she was also having the runs – was feeling very weak. Took her to the local GP (Sanjay Bodalia), got a shot, and tablets, GPs here are so well stocked with medications – this guy had all the stuff right there, no need to go the pharmacy with prescriptions!

Back home, it was a day of mainly resting – kids were watching TV, Nita was sleeping, and I was updating my blog…. there was nothing else to do. Pooja was still having the runs, no improvement yet.

Nothing fancy that evening – a couple of Pizza’s from US Pizza, one was a Paneer Masala Pizza, the other the standard kids simply cheese.

All had an early night, 50% of the family were sick! Hopefully tomorrow is better.

First morning in Navsari, in the new Kalyan Bhuvan, felt good. Nita wanted to eat some desi biscuits – walked down to local shops, literally down the street and picked up some “Parya Biscuits” and my favourite – Parle G.

Around 9 am, the maid organised by our driver arrived – Mehga. Got her starting in removing all the dust from around the house – lots of dust in Navsari and regular cleaning is definitely required. Also found out that we were missing a few of the essential cleaning materials, had a list ready for afternoon shopping.

Nickesh (my cousin from US) visited later on – the last time we met was in 1985. He was here with his family and today was his last day. Really good to catch up with him.

Arvind kaka and Vinod kaka were also in town – they gave me some great pointers on where too buy everyday stuff from. Apparently fresh Paturi, Kahman and Jalebi were available every morning near our place – also a bakery around the corner had fresh soft bread rolls.

Lunch tiffen arrived – it was Binda, Rice & Dahl today, girls had no problems with the rice.

Pooja was still a bit sick – loose motion continued. We decided to leave the kids home with Megha who was home till 4 pm. Allowed us to quickly cover mota bazaar.

Later on that evening Nickesh and family did visit us. Finally met his family! Little Sanya is soo cute, she had a great time with Pooja’s Mickey toys.
Hopefully would be seeing them soon in Australia for Nick Morris’s wedding!

 
(Cousins, Neha with Heneal kaki and cousin Sanya)

After dinner, decided to head to the movies – saw Ladies vs Ricky Bahl @ the Jahinger theatre – it was recently renovated and did look like it. Movie was good – more of a timepass. Finished close to midnight, had to wait around 5 – 10 before we got an auto.

Still had NOT worked out how the rubbish was disposed off here, all the rubbish from the day had been stacked in an empty carton, tomorrows mission – find out where to dispose of home garbage.

Still in the train this morning – sleeping in the train was different – continuous rocking motion did feel good . Neha and Pooja were still sleeping @ 8am. Our omelette breakfast was provided around 8:30, was not too bad at all.

Around 10:45 train was at Surat – last stop before Navsari, called Manga (private taxi dude) to let him know of our location. At 11:15 train was @ Navsari, had  to prepared with all our luggage near the train exit – train was only stopping at this stop for 2 minutes – had thought that it would be a struggle, however had no issues at all getting all of us and luggage out on time.

Manga was waiting across the rail tracks – walkway to get over the platform was quite a distance, Coolie just got the luggage and walked across the tracks – soon we all followed one at a time, jumping off the platform and slowly making our way across 4 tracks! Felt weird doing that, but it was an achievement – crossing the tracks India style!!

Picked up a carton of of Bisleri water and Milk – the essentials. Arrived at our new home – felt good – home looked sooo much better than previously, what a change it was.

(view of home from outside)

(first looks – livingarea and kitchen)

We all went through the house, kids were excitedly saying – “dada’s new house is soo nice”, coming from the Delhi hotel – this was 5 star!!

Soon after our lunch “tiffen” arrived – Aloo fry  & Kitchree – both were very tasty. How good was home delivery tiffen!! Only 120/rs for veg & 180/rs for non veg – and thats for 2!!

(our first lunch tiffen)

All had a shower – felt soo much better after a nice hot shower. Time to visit some of Nita’s family – however had no idea where they lived,- took an Auto to the Bazaar, looking for Sai Pharmacy (Nita’s masi), I roughly knew where they were and managed to find them easily. It was good to catch up again with Tinu and Nita’s masa. Tinu also organised one of his staff to guide us to the other two relatives we wanted to go to.
Nita’s aji was not home, got lucky at Vinod kaka’s (Nita’s dad’s cousin). They were all there and all got a surprise see us. Seeing them again after 5 years – brought back memories of the prior trip.

(Neha and Pooja with Vinod kaka)

Headed back to the bazaar, Navsari bazaar is very narrow and sometimes crowded. Did buy some cleaning stuff for the new house, Nita also picked up some BHUJA. Were back home around 5:30 pm, Pooja was not feeling too well, she had vomited twice. Took her to the local doctor (Sanjay) – more medication for her.

Back home, our evening tiffen arrived, it was chicken curry, rice and roti – home delivered! It was very nice. By 9 pm, most of us had nodded off on the sofas – we were really tired from the train travel – (could be train-leg, as opposed to jetlag)