Mon-Tue, Aug. 8-9, 2011

I was really tired when I got back from Bangalore and decided to stay home for the rest of the day instead of going to Bandarkar Institute. Part of the day was spent packing up my clothes for the trip to Varanasi on Wednesday. Aradhana also arranged home-made dinner at her apartment with her mother, sister-in-law, and children. Her husband is usually away for work in and around Maharastra. My housemates also arranged a chicken dinner at our flat on Tuesday and I had to decide whether I was going to take the bus on Tuesday evening and stay at a hotel in Mumbai or pay for a cab and leave Pune at 5 in the morning for my 11:20 am flight from Mumbai. I decided to leave early Wednesday morning because I wanted to hang out with the guys some more.

This was Tuesday night. Some memorable pictures of Aradhana and husband, Vinay.

Tanu, Aradhana's daughter.

On Tuesday, I had lunch with Neel Kulkarn, a yoga teacher who Aradhana introduced me to. He’s a really a good guy and has some pretty interesting perspectives on Indian culture and American culture since he lived in Virginia for over 20 years and 30 something odd years in India. He’s a great guy and very funny.

My buddy Neel Kulkarn...a really good dude...we had some nice dosas at this wonderful restaurant in Pune...probably the best dosas in Pune. It's always packed with college students and workers.

I’m a little unhappy to inform you guys that things between me and Avanti didn’t really work out...and I didn’t really expect it to. I told Vaibhav what happened between us and he gave me a lot of insights into the psyche of Indian girls and I have to say that it is dramatically different from western girls. Neel also gave me a lot of information as well. Here is what Neel had to say about Hindu girls: In general, Indian girls are very conservative....meaning if you are interested in the girl: you need to seek the parent’s permission. He gave me an example of a french guy who was in his mid ‘50s studying classical music with a single Hindu woman who was also in her ‘50s and was never married (a woman who is not married by the time she’s in her mid ‘30s will almost never get married). They probably had studied together for a period of 6 months. One day after they finished the lesson, the man asked the woman that in this period of their lives, he wanted to know if she wanted to marry him and live with him. She kept a perfect silence, and then the next day, her dad called the french guy and told him that he was not welcomed to take lessons under his daughter again.

Neel also suggested that I looked into Indian girls who are Buddhist because there is no caste problem...he said it would improve my chances than going for Hindus, because believe it or not caste is extremely important when it comes to marriage. I guess from the orthodox tradition, buddhists are considered from low-caste who converted so as to side-stepped all caste impediments. Personally, I think the caste system is one of the drawbacks that keep India from realizing its great potential. Gandhi was very much against the caste system as well as Buddha. Furthermore in most cases, Indian girls are not all that independent than I thought they were. According to Neel, if relatives say that they don’t like the boy the girl wants to see, she will usually follow her relatives preference.

Anyways, Neel and I had a good chat about a lot of things. He reminded me of a graduate student instructor, Timothy Doran, I once had when I was still at Berkeley. He was a really nice, open, and honest dude who loves to share whatever he knows with you.

These are some last pictures that I took of some of the guys on my last day.

Me and Renjeet.

 

Bhavesh studying for his MBA exams. He works really hard....and he's getting married in November. His wife is from Punjab...and the wedding is going to be hella fun. Lots of drinking, dancing, and merriment.

After lunch with Neel, I went to Bhandarkar to say goodbye to the folks there, and then decided to walk from Bhandarkar to my apartment flat which is almost a 7 km walk. It was a nice stroll since I knew that I probably won’t have that chance again when I come back to India. I don’t think I will spend my summer again in Pune but will opt for Varanasi which I will be heading to this Wednesday. However, a lot of ppl have warned me that Varanasi is one of the hottest place on earth...I don’t doubt them.

Vaibhav lying around watching TV.

That night, I also went to Aradhana’s house to say my last goodbyes..she, her husband, and I had a good chat for about an hour and I headed back to the flat at 9 pm to have dinner with Bhavesh, Vaibhav, Sunil (a new resident of the flat who moved from Delhi). Vikas came in about half an hour later.

This trip has been an incredible journey for me. I have learned something about myself and I have met some really cool ppl who really made this trip so much more enjoyable. Had I live by myself, I wouldn’t have met Vaibhav, whom I consider now as a really good friend, and the rest of the gang. Hopefully, some of the guys will be able to come to America later in the spring. If they do, I told them that I would be more than honored to show them around the states.